PSFC's New Expansion Committee Is Underway
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1 September 1, 2016 OFFICIAL NEWSLETTERPark Slope FoodOF Coop,THE Brooklyn,PARK SLOPE NY FOOD COOP Established 1973 Volume KK, Number 18 September 1, 2016 PSFC’s New Expansion Hungry for Change: How Food Issues Play into Committee is Underway the Presidential Election By Gayle Forman By Rene Brinkley into effect July 1 of this year. f you were to shop at the Park f you happen to believe There has been a huge effort ISlope Food Coop when it first Ithe saying, “you are what in Congress to stop it and pre- opened in 1973, it might’ve you eat,” then some might empt all state labeling efforts,” gone something like this: On a find it refreshing to think of he explained. On July 14 Con- Saturday, some time between themselves as a wholesome gress passed a GMO labeling 9 and 1, you would’ve gone to green apple ripe for the pick- bill by a vote of 306-117. Pres- the building that once was 782 ing or strangely exotic like ident Obama is expected to Union Street (an address that no a romanesco cauliflower or sign the bill into law. longer legally exists, since the strong as an ox after devour- PSFC took over buildings to the ing a piece of meat. But the We Want Answers! right and left of it but remains food we eat is not always While an overwhelming our official address anyhow) what it seems. Sometimes majority of the public is united and trudged up the stairs to the it’s created in labs, injected around GMO labeling, it’s just Mongoose Community Cen- with chemicals and genet- one of many food issues people ter. In the front, roughly where ically engineered. At times care about. In February, Food some of the Coop offices are PHOTO BY KEVIN RYAN we are left to guess what’s Tank, a global nonprofit orga- now, you’d enter a small storage Jonathan Farber pushes the Coop to consider its long- in our food despite a desire nization focused on changing room, stocked with bulk bins term future. and, what many of us feel is, the food system, sent a list of and refrigerators that had been our right to know. 10 food policy questions to the found on the street. as two adjacent buildings. As expanding the Coop to a sec- A recent survey by the Uni- 2016 presidential candidates. for eggs, the Coop now sells ond location will have to grap- versity of Wisconsin-Madison Here is a sampling: In the Beginning around 5,000 dozen per week. ple with. Approved at the July and the University of Penn- There Were Eggs There’s a temptation to see GM, the committee’s job is sylvania found that 88% of • How would you support It was a rocky start. At one this growth as, well, purely to look at the financial, social Americans support mandato- small and medium-sized point, the community cen- organic, a membership swell- and logistical ramifications of ry labeling of food with genet- organic farmers? ter lowered the struggling ing as the demand for afford- opening a second location. But ically modified organisms • What would you do to Coop’s rent from $10 a week to able sustainable food grew, a the committee may also find (GMO). The issue has been ensure that every American $25 a month. But after a few space expanding as the mem- itself wading into more phil- hotly debated at the local and has access to food that is months, things began to gel. A bership burst the seams of one osophical terrain. As member state level for several years sustainable, safe, healthy watershed moment, founding location, then the next. But Jonathan Farber, who submit- and recently landed on the and affordable? member and General Coordi- founders always had an eye on ted the proposal for the study national agenda. “This is at nator Joe Holtz remembers, is the future. Right from the start, committee puts it: “What is an urgent moment right now,” Food Tank has yet to receive when one Saturday the Coop Holtz says members asked the role of the Park Slope Food said Alex Beauchamp of Food a response from either can- sold 200 dozen eggs. “It was themselves the following ques- Coop beyond Union Street?” & Water Watch. “Vermont didate. Danielle Nierenberg, remarkable. We as a group tions: “‘Is this good or what? Since 2010, Farber, a land- passed a GMO labeling law president and founder of Food could buy two hundred dozen Do we want to make sure this scape architect who owns an several years ago and it went CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 eggs in four hours,” he says. survives? How do we go about upstate farm, has been having “We were getting there.” making sure it survives? What a series of conversations with Next General Meeting on September 27 The Coop now has around measures do we take to insure farmers, environmentalists, The General Meeting of the Park Slope Food Coop is held on 17,000 members who pur- the sustainability of the Coop?’” academics and the Coop’s the last Tuesday of each month. The September General Meet- chase about a million dollars coordinators, attempting ing will be on Tuesday, September 27, at 7:00 p.m. at St. Fran- of groceries a week. It has Beyond Union to do what Holtz and fellow cis Xavier School, 763 President St., between Sixth and bought, and fully paid for, the Forty years later, these founding members did from Seventh Aves. building the Mongoose Com- are the questions that a new the start: look to what’s next. For more information about the GM and about Coop munity once occupied, as well committee that will study CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 governance, please see the center of this issue. Fri, Sep 9 • Wordsprouts: Notorious R.B.G. 7:00 p.m. IN THIS ISSUE Puzzle...............................................2 Tue, Sep 13 • Plow-to-Plate Movie Series: A Garden of My Own...................................4 7:00 p.m. Coop All In This Tea Nina Frenkel, Obituary .................................5 Coop Calendar, Governance Information, Mission Statement ...7 Event Sat-Sun • Food Drive to Benefit CHIPS Soup Kitchen Calendar of Events . 8 Sep 24-25 9:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Letters to the Editor..................................10 Highlights Safe Food Committee Report...........................11 Look for additional information about these and other events in this issue. Classifieds .......................................... 11 International Squad Education Report................... 12 Read the Gazette while you’re standing on line OR online at www.foodcoop.com 2 September 1, 2016 Park Slope Food Coop, Brooklyn, NY Expansion Committee Underway ones. It will look at communi- recognize that. “In the end, the says Holtz. “There’s a big educa- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ty impact, and membership people who are going to make tion. We want our members to What he discovered was can’t open at a scale that’s big expansion and how a second the decision are the members,” be an informed electorate.” n that in the past four decades, enough to support a store.” location would work with our the Coop has come to have a So, the Park Slope Food existing IT systems that track huge, even outsized, influence Coop is at a crossroads. If everything from inventory on many different sectors. nothing changes, the Coop’s to attendance. It will look at Confounded Compounds “Everyone—farmers, activists, capacity to add members, sell demographics and logistics, Confounded Compounds land trusts—said the same more groceries and support such as proximity to the sub- If ants wore clothing, would they have ANTHEMS (ANT + HEMS)? thing,” Farber says. “We’re more local farms, will, more way and ease of parking. For each line below, a word could be broken up incorrectly, like ANT + HEMS, important. We have a big influ- or less, hit a wall. “It’s not the Additionally, the commit- and the clue for that is given under CONFOUNDED CLUES. To help you, the straight clues for the words are given underneath CLEAR CLUE ence. We sell a million dollars end of the world,” Holtz says. tee will look at what impact in no particular order. of groceries a week. We create “It’s okay for a place to be as a second, larger store would With ANTHEMS, the CONFOUNDED CLUE could be Insect’s clothing edge and a market.” The Coop’s relation- busy as it’s going to be.” have upon the food economy the CLEAR CLUE could be patriotic hymn. The circled letters going down will spell an food critic’s action when undecided ship with its suppliers makes it But the Coop has never the Park Slope Food Coop sup- – or very disappointed. To help you, some letters are already filled in. even more unique. The chain is been just about sales. It’s ports, and in many ways, creat- direct and immediate, allow- been about cooperation. A key ed. If the Coop bought a 40,000 ing the Coop to buy direct- principle of cooperatives is square foot space, that would CONFOUNDED CLUES ANSWERS ly—no middleman upping the supporting other coops, some- dramatically increase our stor- Pay off a loan W price—from farms like Haw- Experts at riding the waves A thorne Valley. And, the Coop Stars and Stripes diatribe N allows farmers like Amy Hep- worth to grow specifically for Devilish deed T the Coop. Many of the Coop’s Best jeerer I suppliers exist because of the Man with lots of sun N Coop, thrive because of it and Before it hurt G certainly depend on it.