Your Patronage REBATE Preorder your Thanksgiving dinner online! Delicious Esbenshade Farms turkeys from Paradise, PA, housemade This is your benefit as a prepared foods and My House pies. Pick up Tuesday, November 20 or member... And this is how Wednesday, November 21. See back page for our holiday menu! to redeem it. See page 7. www.weaversway.coop The Shuttle November 2012 Vol. 41 No. 11 A Cooperative Grocer Serving the Northwest Community Since 1973 WW Announces Weavers Way Celebrates Mt. Airy Renovation $200k Member by Jon McGoran, Shuttle Editor CONGRESSMAN CHAKA Fattah, State Representative Dwight Evans, and Philadelphia City Councilwoman Cindy Bass were Rebate among the VIPs in attendance Sat., Sept. 29 for the Grand Re- by Stuart Katz, Weavers Way opening Celebration marking the completion of renovations to Treasurer Weavers Way Co-op’s Mt. Airy store at 559 Carpenter Lane. The store reopened several weeks earlier after a summer-long renova- tion that added a fresh new look, energy-efficient fixtures, and the WE ARE tremendously pleased to an- largest bulk department in the city with over 440 bulk items. The nounce that Weavers Way will issue a Co-op also added ten new jobs and a brand new storefront: Weav- $200,000 patronage rebate to our mem- ers Way Across the Way, housing the expanded Wellness and Pet ber/owners based on the profits earned by Care departments at 610 Carpenter Lane. the Co-op for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2012. The amount each member After brief remarks from Weavers Way Chief Financial Offi- will receive is determined by rules set by cer and renovation project manager Michael McGeary and Board the IRS and is based upon the value of President Margaret Lenzi, Fattah and Bass congratulated the each member’s patronage during the last Co-op and spoke of the unique and important role Weavers Way fiscal year. photo by Ellie Seif Among the Mt. Airy Renovation Celebration guests of honor were (continued on page 21) (continued on page 15) founding members (l to r) Dorothy Guy, Vivan Schatz, and Sylvia Carter First Annual WWCP End 2 End: Creating a New Co-op Farm-to-Table Dinner Strategic Plan by Lindsay Bingamen THE MT. Airy reno- vation completed last month marked a significant ac- complishment in the history of Weav- ers Way Co-op. In the past five years, Weavers Way has chalked up many other substantial milestones. We have opened a sec- photo by Jon McGoran ond store in Chest- Members of the End 2 End Strategic Planning Committee (l to r) photos by John Barone nut Hill, doubled Glenn Bergman, Stacey Robinson, Beau Bibeau, Jean MacKenzie, Jon Thirty-two people dined under the stars at the Weavers Way Mort Brooks Farm at Awbury Co-op employment, Roesser, Annette Aloe, Stephanie Kane, and Lindsay Bingaman meet Arboretum on Thursday, October 11. Guests enjoyed tours of the farm and delicious food transferred from to envision Weavers Way’s future. prepared by Glenn Bergman and Bonnie Shuman, with help from cooperators and WWCP member cards to a we find it is time to pull back, reflect on board members. All vegetables and herbs used in the meal were grown at Awbury, Henry computer system, and much more. Got Crops and the Hope Garden at Stenton Family Manor. The event raised over $4,000 the many changes at the Co-op, and envi- to support WWCP’s farm education and school Marketplace programs. Many thanks to These are just a few examples of the sion where the next few years might take High Point Cafe, John and Kira’s Chocolate, Urban Apiaries and Sue Wasserkrug/Zea May’s many changes the Co-op has seen in the us. for their generous donations. See more photos on Facebook at http://s.coop/zlt7. last few years. Now, in the fall of 2012, (continued on page 4) 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. Dining for Women . .5 . FOW Sustainable Trails Initiative . .17 Managers Corner . .6 Weird Waste Day, Nov. 10 . 19 How to Claim Your Rebate . .7 Grants for MA, CH Teachers . .21 Weavers Way Financia Report . 7. Music at Woodmere . 23. Suggestions . 25 . RUST Comes to MAAG . 27. 2 THE SHUTTLE November 2012 Editor’s An Orchard Grows in Roxborough Note by Jacqueline Boulden by Jon McGoran, Shuttle Editor AS WE approach election day, the big biotech companies are spending mil- lions of dollars a day to defeat Prop 37, the California ballot initiative that would mandate labeling of genetically modified (GMO) foods. Ironically, these companies are already labeling their GMO’s, just not where California consumers would see it. Syngenta has launched a billboard cam- paign in the Midwest proudly advertising their new GMO corn with the slogan, “A bug zapper in every bite.” Now, even apart from the fact that photo by Jacqueline Boulden bug zappers usually have an inch or two of Ten volunteers and more than 100 Saul students shoveled compost, sprinkled peat, and planted the trees and bushes in the ground at the dead bugs at the bottom, that’s still wrong Henry Got Crops! Orchard Day on many levels. But the metaphor is more apt than they realized. In addition to in- ON A sunny September day, a-one-and- Ten volunteers and about 120 Saul Lisa Mosca, one of two volunteers discriminately killing beneficial insects a-half-acre field behind the baseball dia- students shoveled compost, sprinkled from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Soci- along with pests, electronic bug zappers mond at W.B. Saul High School of Ag- peat, planted the trees and bushes in the ety (PHS), co-wrote the grant that made have been proven to attract more bugs ricultural Sciences on Henry Avenue in ground, surrounded the plantings with the first plantings possible. “It’s wonder- than they incinerate. Apparently, GMOs Roxborough was transformed into an or- protective wire mesh, and poured bucket- ful to see this,” said Mosca. “We’ve been do, too. New research shows that those chard. It will produce healthy fruit for stu- fuls of water to give them a start. waiting for this day for ten months and I crazy, paranoid, natural food, hippy-types can’t wait to come back and see what it’s dents to eat with their lunch in the school “Helping plant these blueberry bush- were right; while originally hyped as a cafeteria and to sell to members of the like in ten years.” way to decrease the use of pesticides and es in the orchard gives me a better under- neighboring community. The orchard is Eight of the hard-working volun- herbicides, GMO crops have actually led standing of Saul, that it’s hands-on learn- the latest project of Henry Got Crops!, the teers were from the publishing company to an increase, as weeds and bugs develop ing,” said freshman Austin Dennison. “It’s successful Community Supported Agri- Elsevier, which gives each employee two resistance to the pesticides and herbicides a good achievement to help do this and get culture (CSA) farm partnership with Saul, days a year with pay to do volunteer work. the GMO crops have “baked right in.” paid back in berries.” Fellow freshman Weavers Way Co-op, and Weavers Way Lorenzo Velazquez agreed. “I love work- Amanda Minutola, a content specialist at The obvious response is to simply use Community Programs. ing with plants. That’s why I came here Elsevier, said her volunteer days used to more chemicals, and in places like India, Weavers Way Farm Manager Nina and I want to see the outcome of this.” be spent in soup kitchens, but this year she where GMO cotton has become the norm, wanted to do something with high school Berryman already oversees two and a half Senior Nathan Newman will not be an initial uptick in profits has been forgot- students and working outdoors. “Planting acres of vegetables at Henry Got Crops!, here to see the orchard fully mature be- ten as farmers are now going broke pay- the orchard is definitely more labor in- located on the campus of Saul, and she has cause he is graduating next year, but “four ing for all the added chemicals they must tensive than the soup kitchen,” she said. big plans for the new orchard. “We have to five years from now, I’ll be happy to spray on their once chemical-free GMO “It’s hard work and it’s just great to see 45 cherry, Asian pear, and plum trees,” come back and see the growth in the or- crops. Many spray one set of chemicals something that you do that will last sev- Berryman said. “They won’t produce chard.” for the resistant weeds, and other chemi- fruit for a few years, but we also have 100 eral years.” cals for the nonresistant weeds. The orchard planting is supported by blueberry and blackberry bushes, and the “This is a big deal,” said Jessica a grant from the Alliance for Community But where some see a problem, others blueberries will have fruit next year.” Ber- McAtamney as the planting neared Trees (ACTrees) People’s Garden Grant see opportunity. Dow AgroSciences’ new ryman’s three-year plan for the orchard completion late in the afternoon. Jessica GMO soy is specifically designed to resist includes a wish list of future plantings Program.