Board ElEction noticE N o t a r y P u b l i c We are seeking nominations for candidates for the Weavers Way Board of Directors. Notary services are available: Please call David Shechtman at Elections will be held at the 10 am - 2 pm 215-843-2350 x111 Weavers Way Co-op Spring to verify before coming. See page 24 Thursdays and Sundays General Membership Meeting for more Cost is $5 information. Located in the finance office, on the 2nd (for the usual service of verifying a signature), Sunday, May 23, 2010 floor of Carpenter Lane. with a discount for members. February 2010 Vol. 39 No. 2 The Shuttle Serving the Co-op and the Northwest Community since 1973 Expansion PA Fresh Food Financing Initiative Inspires Imitators Update Growing Pennsylvania’s Fresh Food Financing Initiative by Jacqueline Boulden by Kim Spelman Hall, Chestnut Hill Store Manager Lack Of access to healthy foods in low-income areas has long been one of our most important public health issues. While much work re- Things are moving along at our new lo- mains to be done, in recent years, substantial progress has been made cation in Chestnut Hill. You would be sur- on that front, and much of it is due to Pennsylvania’s Fresh Food prised at all the tasks that need to happen Financing Initiative (FFFI). The product of an effort led by State Rep. behind the scenes. Since I started I have Dwight Evans five years ago, FFFI has had significant success in mainly been focusing on the progress of Pennsylvania, and is now being held up as a model for other state construction and equipment selection. Af- programs across the country and also for a national initiative to com- ter addressing some structural issues we bat obesity and to create jobs. are now starting to see some significant Last December, New York State Governor David Paterson an- changes. nounced the administrators for his state’s Food Market Revolving Our projected opening has moved Loan Fund, based on the PA FFFI grant and loan program, and hear- photo courtesy of The Reinvestment Fund from last fall to late winter and now the ings were held in Congress to determine the need for establishing a spring. This has been disappointing, but Representative Dwight Evans, Donna Gambrell, Director of the US National Fresh Food Financing Initiative. The goal of all these ini- Department of Treasury’s CDFI Fund and Jeremy Nowak celebrate the opening of the Fresh Grocer at Progress Plaza, which was made (continued on page 8) (continued on page 6) possible in part by the Fresh Food financing Initiative. Art Installation Features The Future of WWEC’s #5 Hope Garden at Stenton Farm Plastics Collections by Rachel Milenback, WWCP Executive Director by Priscilla Becroft, Environment Committee On One of the coldest days in January, a group iT’s been almost a year since the of artists from Wash- Weavers Way Environment Com- ington D.C joined a few mittee (WWEC) began monthly hearty Philadelphian’s to collections of #5 plastics, and so work on the prototype for far we’ve boxed and mailed more a two-foot by two-foot than 1,000 lbs. of #5s to the Pre- raised bed on wheels. The serve Gimme 5 program’s collec- design is important as the tion site in Cortland, New York. 20 raised beds will serve Preserve will recycle these #5s double duty—as part of into new products, thereby keep- an installation in an art ing them out of dumps and land- exhibit at the Painted fills. Heartfelt thanks to all the Bride and for gardening volunteers who have come out to at the Hope Garden, a help with the collections and to the Gimme 5 Plastics Recycling, at 542 Carpenter Lane collaborative urban gar- Synda McCracken and Joe Hicks building prototype of raised more than 400 of you who have den tended by WWCP at garden beds for the Philadelphia Hunger Project installation participated, not only by bring- The Committee has also found a way Mt. Airy Stenton Family ing in your clean and dry #5s but also by to divert a large number of six-ounce and Manor. In-Residence at The Clay Studio in the making cash donations large and small 32-ounce yogurt containers to a closer The creative force behind The Hunger Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, to offset the mailing costs! (Thus far the destination—TerraCycle in Trenton. Com- Project is visual artist J.J. McCracken. J.J. laying the foundation for this upcoming Committee has spent just under $900 on spent the summer of 2009 as Guest Artist- active installation. During that time she mailing.) (continued on page 8) (continued on page 2) Weavers Way Cooperative Association Presorted Standard Ins Ide... 559 Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19119 U.S. Co-op News Community News www.weaversway.coop POSTAGE PAID CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED Philadelphia, PA Ogontz Food Fest 2 Sol Levy Photo Exhibit at Highpoint 13 Permit No. 2658 Product News 3 Volunteer for Chestnut Hill Book Fest 13 Manager’s Corner 4 Free Tax Help 18 What the Board is Thinking 5 Beer Class at Trolley Car Diner 18 Dinner and a Movie 9 Women’s Creativity Retreat 19 Simplicity Dividend 10 Peale Exhibit at LaSalle Museum 20 Suggestions 24 Mardi Gras at Geechee Girl 25 2 The ShuTTle February 2010 Editor’s Feeding Democracy While Serving Dinner Note by Gina Giazzoni, When grumblings of by Jonathan McGoran belly hunger become a WhiLe This month’s Shuttle is a trim 24 chronic roar, a hamburger pages, there’s still plenty of fodder for the and a milkshake satisfy type of snarky and puerile humor you’ve faster than a salad. Fast come to expect, if not actually enjoy, in food industrial profits this column. There is “Local Beer 101” mushroom by relieving (Following on last month’s Parchment chronic hunger pangs with 101. Local Beer 101 was hugely popu- cheap fat and sugar. But lar when I was in college and it’s great a couple of months ago, to see it available as continuing ed.); members and staff from expansion (According to Norman Weiss, Weavers Way and lead- the delay has something to do with being ers from Martin Luther stuck in “phase 2,” which I think is de- King High School’s Seeds nial, or maybe anger. Both probably. By for Learning Farm met at now, the building is so gutted it’s hard to Weavers Way Ogontz to photo by Jonathan McGoran imagine where any more surprises would form the Northwest Food come from, but if we saw them coming, Helping to plan the West Oak Lane Food Justice Food Fest are (from left to right, rear) Sara Popkin, Anaiis Salles, Justice Alliance and find they wouldn’t be surprises, would they?); Karl Ingraham, Armani Isaiah Gordon-Key, Albert Wheeler, Jared Shearer, Chris Bolden-Newsome. Front Row: ways to make wholesome Sharlene Waller, Hannah Flipakoff, David Haughton, Laron Thompkins, Rachel Milenbach, and Jason Price. and the future of our Gimme 5 program (You might assume the next step would be food more available as an Gimme 6, but you’d be wrong). alternative to fast food for hungry people. wholesome snacks and planting seedlings bling poor people worldwide—expand- for their homes. ing first to China and now to India. The But we did have to leave some stuff The group is partnering with West hidden health cost to chronically hungry out, like how the USDA is seeking com- Oak Lane Senior Center and Einstein When the group met, it identified people is more than $1 for a satisfying val- ments on deregulating a new strain of Healthcare Network to plan a West Oak chronic hunger as an injustice and looked ue meal. This is the food that eats people. genetically engineered (GE) corn from Lane Good Food Fest on February 20 (see to the burgeoning Food Justice Movement Syngenta. Deregulated GE crops can the ad on page 10). The event will feature for solutions. Food Justice recognizes that Low-income people disproportionately be planted anywhere, and once the pol- cooking demonstrations guided by senior hunger is profitable to those few who buy suffer from diet-related diseases such as len gets out, there is no getting it back, citizens, who will pass their skills and our politicians, but detrimental to the rest diabetes, resulting from obesity. meaning nearby farmers could no longer cooking expertise to community members of us. Yum Brands Inc., parent of the Taco Though income is the widely accept- say their product is GMO-free. Maybe seeking community-led alternatives to fast Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, predicts $1.54 ed source of this disparity, Food Justice as- more troublesome is the development of food. Recognizing the influence that teens billion dollars in profits this year. After serts that structural inequalities and power “Superweeds” (which might sound like have among youngsters in the community, saturating low-income neighborhoods (continued on page 8) a new Judd Apatow movie, but actually students who work at Seeds for Learning across this country, they have begun gob- refers to weeds that have incorporated the Farm will guide youngsters in preparing properties of the GE crops). There is also the attitude of Syngenta CEO Michael Mack, who recently said organic food is lation, the ideal of perfection, and decay. the “productive equivalent of driving an Art Installation Per installation, each project reflects ob- SUV.” I doubted he drove a hybrid (un- servations on the passage of time, mass less it was a genetic hybrid), but maybe he (continued from page 1 ) production, and consumption/consum- had some horrendous gas-guzzling mega- erism.