Weavers Way Holiday Hours Closed: December 25 & January 1 Monday, December 24 Monday, December 31 Chestnut Hill: Chestnut Hill: 7 am - 6 pm 7 am - 7 pm Mt Airy: Mt Airy: JANUARY 13 - 19 9 am - 6 pm 9 am - 7 pm Members get an additional 5% off their purchases! The Shuttle December 2012 Vol. 41 No. 12 A Cooperative Grocer Serving the Northwest Community Since 1973 Fall Meeting Rebates Mean Real Money Weavers Way Cancelled Due Mt. Airy Now to Hurricane Open 8 to 8 by Jon McGoran, Shuttle Editor by Jon McGoran, Shuttle Editor WEAVERS WAY’S Fall General Member- IN RESPONSE to many requests over the ship Meeting, which had been scheduled years from members and other shoppers, to take place at Morris Arboretum on business hours at Weavers Way Mt. Airy Sunday, Oct. 28, was cancelled due to have been expanded to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Hurricane Sandy. The board of directors opening an hour earlier. voted at the November board meeting not The expanded hours took effect early to reschedule the meeting, but instead to in November and have already been popu- include in this issue of the Shuttle writ- lar with shoppers. Shoppers have been ar- ten versions of the main reports that would riving early to pick up groceries on their have been delivered at the meeting (see way to work, and also to buy lunches for pages 6 to 8). themselves or their kids. It remains to be decided whether Some people just like to shop earlier. other items from the agenda for the Fall photo by Jon McGoran “Saturdays in particular have been General Membership Meeting will be in- Penka Slavova, pictured here surrounded by her children, Lily, Graham, and Isabella, was one cooking, but we’ve seen a lot of traffic cluded in the Spring General Membership of the Co-op’s highest rebate recipients, with a cash rebate of $55.96 and a total rebate of the other mornings as well,” said Mt. Airy Meeting, which is scheduled to take place $279.80. “I think it’s important to shop at Weavers Way, and I try to do all my shopping there, because of the commitment to the environment and social justice, the investment in my Store Manager Rick Spalek. “The shop- in May (barring any untimely catastrophic community, and also my family’s health,” says Penka. “The Co-op isn’t always the cheapest, so it pers are telling us they love it.” superstorms). is great to get some of that money back in member rebates.” CreekSide Co-op Now Open! Weavers Way Members Support by Jon McGoran, Shuttle Editor WWCP in a Big Way CREEKSIDE CO-OP officially opened for by Mira Rabin, WWCP Board President business on Friday, November 9, after two trial days of slightly limited opera- Patronage rebate Annual Appeal tions, November 7 and 8. Offering sus- IN A strong show of support for the farm This is also the season when WWCP tainably raised produce, kosher meats, education and school marketplace pro- writes to Weavers Way members and asks organic bulk foods, a café and community grams of Weaver Way Community Pro- them to make a year-end gift to support meeting place, the new co-op has enjoyed grams (WWCP), members like you have our work. When you receive your letter, brisk sales and plenty of excitement, from donated over $8,000 of patronage rebates please give generously so that we can sup- members and nonmember shoppers alike. in the first nine days that the rebate was port and expand our programs to improve Housed in the former home of Ashbourne available. Our “rebate carrot” is almost healthy food access and choices for chil- Market, CreekSide has already brought a all filled in, but we still need your help to dren in Northwest Philadelphia. We are in- noticeable and much welcomed increase reach our goal of $10,000 in rebate dona- creasingly dependent on individual donor in foot traffic and activity to the Elkins tions. If you have not already done so, support as the foundation landscape shifts, photo by Jon McGoran Park commercial district. please donate your rebate to WWCP when and your support of WWCP allows you to CreekSide Co-op shoppers are thankful you check out. It might be a small amount, promote your values about food and com- for their new store as they shop for their Thanksgiving feasts. but it makes a big difference. Thank you. munity right where you live. Look for ex- citing news about our staff and programs (continued on page 16) in the weeks ahead, and thank you. Weavers Way Cooperative Association Presorted Standard INSIDE... 559 Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19119 U.S. www.weaversway.coop POSTAGE PAID Co-op News Community News CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED Philadelphia, PA Farm News . 2 Philly Needs a Land Bank . .10 Permit No. 2658 Product News . 3 . Morris Arboretum News . 16. Holiday Book Drive . 4 . FOW Sustainable Trails Initiative . .17 Education Committee Music Workshop . .4 Weird Waste Day, Nov. 10 . 19. Membership Meeting Reports . 6 -8 Grants for MA, CH Teachers . .21 Manager’s Corner . 10 Music at Woodmere . 23. Suggestions . 24 . RUST Comes to MAAG . .277 2 THE SHUTTLE December 2012 Editor’s Harvest on Henry a Huge Success! Note by Nina Berryman, Henry Got Crops Farm Manager by Jon McGoran, THE WEATHER was perfect and Henry Ave Shuttle Editor was lined with cars! Our second annual Harvest on Henry festival was a huge suc- SO THE first battle in the war for the Right cess. CSA members, Saul families and to Know goes to the forces of darkness. I neighbors all came together to enjoy the call them that because they want to keep farm. The hay ride was perhaps the most people in the dark about what they eat. popular event, and the sheep and baby And also because of the obvious ties be- goat stole everyone’s hearts. There was tween Monsanto and Satan. (Turns out always a line at the food trucks, The Spot, there was a merger in the eighties. It was and Birds of Paradise. Pumpkin painting originally planned as an acquisition, but was perhaps the busiest table of all the with such operational synergies and com- children’s activities. It was great to see plementary management cultures, they the farm full of so many people, listen- settled on a one-for-one stock swap.) ing to the live music, and enjoying good On November 6, California’s Propo- food and good company. Our goal was to sition 37, which would have mandated raise $2,000 for discounted shares and do- labeling of foods containing genetically nating food to the Saul cafeteria in 2013. modified organisms (GMOs), was de- We exceeded our goal, thanks to, literally, feated. This was despite polls just two the hundreds of people who showed up to photo by Larry Goldfarb months earlier showing that 65 percent of support the farm. The event was possible Saul students Rachel Lear (left) and Marissa Broady (center) share their Weavers Way pride Californians supported the measure, and only through the cooperation of many gen- with a member of the community at the Harvest on Henry Fair. surveys showing consistently that 90 per- (continued on page 8) cent of Americans believe GMOs should be labeled. (To put that in context, only 47 percent of Americans believe in evolu- tion—and that’s including the 32 percent who believe in evolution “guided” by God; survival of the fit-theist?) WWCP Urban So, what happened? Well, $48.7 mil- lion happened. That’s how much oppo- Farm Bike Tour nents—led by Monsanto—spent to get their message out. That much money buys by Clare Hyre, WWCP Henry Got a lot of message, but what message was it? Crops! CSA Farm Educator Partly it was, “You are getting sleepy,” but the rest focused on cataclys- ON SATURDAY, October 13, I was joined mic estimates of the cost to consumers if by three farm apprentices and an educa- manufacturers had to tell people what was tion intern for a bike tour of West Phila- in their food. (And to be fair, if Prop 37 delphia farm education programs. Our had passed, its opponents would have im- first stop was Mill Creek Farm at 49th and mediately started spending millions more Brown Streets, where we were greeted by to have it repealed.) A rigorous analysis a lively farm stand with samples of pasta of the initiative shows that the actual cost and squash, as well as delicious-looking, would have be somewhere between noth- just-harvested vegetables. Jo Rosen (the ing and about a buck and a quarter per farm manager) took us on a tour of the household. photo by Heather Zimmerman farm and told us the amazing history of But what if that analysis was wrong? Pictured here at the farewell tea party for departing WWCP Farm Ed Staffers Leor Winston and an unusual start—how the owners got a What if the cost of labeling all those Kestrel Plump, are (l to r) Rick Rigutto, Kateyln Melvin, Kestrel Plump (with Willow), Mira Rabin, storm water management grant and were GMOs turned out to be two or even three Shelley Hedlund (with Tucker), Leor Winston, Janet Boys, Jon McGoran, Nina Berryman, Carly able to start a farm with that funding. At Chelder (with Alexander), and Beth Miner. The event as held at Awbury Arboretum’s Cope times higher? With 13 million households House. the farm, we noticed their green roof, ac- in California, that could conceivably cost tive bee hives, cob house, and pizza oven.