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Isuroon: Changing Food Shelf Culture

February 26, 2017

Taking its name from a Somali word meaning “woman who cares for herself,” Isuroon believes that empowering women is key to building a thriving community. Founded in 2010, the organization was launched to address unmet healthcare needs of Somali women with the goal of eventually opening an ethnic food shelf, providing healthful foods to any person in need. The nonprofit operates on the principle that Somali culture emphasizes different values about medicine, health and illness than Western medical traditions. Over the years, Isuroon has become a trusted place in the community because of its cultural insight and collaborative approach.

“SEED donations have a direct impact on food insecurity of immigrants who are elders and women with young children. We purchase culturally specific food and serve our community in a dignified way.”

—Fartun Weli, Isuroon Exective Director

Today, the organization has been able to expand the breadth of their services and open a culturally specific food shelf, thanks to the support of the community—including Seward Co-op. Without the generosity of our shoppers participating in SEED round-ups for Isuroon, other grants and funding they’ve received may not have been possible to secure. In the years leading up to opening the food shelf, Isuroon was a two-time SEED recipient. In December 2014, 39,702 Seward Co-op shoppers rounded-up a total of $18,558. Then in December 2015, an astounding 50,081 Seward Co-op shoppers rounded-up a whopping $24,099, in a single month. These donations showed that the community was behind this organization, and Isuroon was able to secure the necessary funding to open the food shelf on May 18, 2016.

Isuroon is our SEED recipient for March 2017. So far, Seward Co-op owners, shoppers, and diners have donated $65,410 (December 2014: $18,558, December 2015: $24,099, June 2016: $22,753) to the organization. Past funds raised by Seward Co-op have been used to launch the food shelf portion on the nonprofit and cover expenses related to operation, such as securing space, supplies and food. With the continued support of our shoppers and diners, Isuroon plans to increase community engagement surrounding the food shelf, raise awareness for the unmet nutritional needs of the Somali community, and educate and inform the Somali community about health and wellness.

Isuroon has been able to grow to where they are today because of their courageous and dedicated staff, and in part, because of Seward Co-op’s generous shoppers and owners. This story truly demonstrates how cooperative economics support the local economy.

Edna Lewis The Grand Dame of Farm-To-Table

February 1, 2017

The Farm-to-Table movement promotes the importance of producing food locally and delivering that food to local consumers. Linked to the local food movement, Farm-toTable is mainly promoted by the restaurant communities. Among the well-known patron saints of Farm-to-Table are Michael Pollan, Dan Barber and Alice Waters. There is one name that is just as important to the movement, albeit not as well known to those outside of the culinary world — Edna Lewis.

For centuries, blacks have cooked in Southern kitchens, on plantations, in mansions, in boarding houses and hotels, and on riverboats. This was affirming work that encouraged black women to embrace the myriad ways our foremothers used food for economic freedom and independence, community building, cultural work and to develop personal identity.

Long before it became a movement, Farm-to-Table was a way of life for many Americans in the South. This was true for Edna Lewis. Miss Lewis, as she was called, grew up in Freetown, Va. The name was adopted because the first residents had all been freed from chattel slavery and wanted to be known as a town of free people.

Miss Lewis had no formal culinary training. Her classical presentation of Southern food made you, as Chef Joe Randall says, want “to put the South in your mouth.” She went on to become a celebrated black chef in New York in the late 1940s and 1950s, when there were few, if any, other black or female chefs working in the city. Edna learned to cook alongside her family. They cooked food that was always fresh from the gardens, fields, woodlands, rivers and lakes nearby. The food was simply prepared but made with great care and devotion. Edna wove these lessons into the foundation of her cooking style.

“We lived by the seasons,” she wrote, in The Taste of Country Cooking. Two of the chapter headings read, “An Early Summer Dinner of Veal Scallions and the First Berries” and “Emancipation Day Dinner” in the fall, which she described in a 1993 NPR interview.

She explained, “the food that you would carry would be the food of fall, which included game, and a lot of people carry roast chicken, which was a chicken that had become of age and you no longer could fry. And of course, pork and fall greens like turnip greens or mustard greens. And sweet potatoes and pickles and preserves and yeast bread and some dessert like deep-dish apple pie or damson plum pie.”

Sometimes fried chicken is just about the chicken. In the South, where paradoxes live next door to each other and race, class, and gender clash with particular complexity, it can be about much more. Food can be about families broken and mended, unlikely friendships, and redemption. Examining the complex relationship between racist and realistic characterizations of our food traditions, we must acknowledge the destructive legacy associated with negative images of African American food choices. It is through remembering Miss Lewis’s contribution to the contemporary food movement that we are able to acknowledge and honor that legacy on our plates.

Spicy Collards in Tomato-Onion Sauce

“As a child in Virginia, Miss Lewis says, she didn’t even know there was such a thing as collard greens. And though we knew them in Alabama, we thought of them as crude and didn’t eat them. Now I love them, however, whether simply cooked in pork stock or finished, as here, in a spicy tomato sauce. (Miss Lewis will eat collards when I cook them but seems to have no interest in preparing them herself.) Other greens are also delicious served in this sauce — especially escarole — but most will need far less cooking time than collards.” — Jemimah Code

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds collard greens

6 cups vegetable or beef stock

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion, chopped (about 1 ¼ cups)

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

½ tsp. crushed red-pepper flakes (more or less, according to taste)

½ tsp. each salt and freshly ground black pepper

38 oz. canned whole, peeled tomatoes, drained

Method

Wash and drain the collards. Remove the stems and discard. Cut the collard leaves crosswise into 1-inch strips. Bring the stock to a rolling boil in a large Dutch oven, drop in the collard greens, and cook, uncovered, for 30–40 minutes, until tender. Drain the greens, and reserve the cooking liquid. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, over moderate heat for 10 minutes, until the pieces are translucent and tender. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper, ½ teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Stir well to distribute the seasonings, and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add the drained tomatoes and 1 ½ cups of the liquid reserved from cooking the greens. Simmer gently for 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as needed. Add the drained collard greens, and simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning again, and serve hot. Serves 6.

Adapted from The Jemimah Code

A Cooperative Legacy

February 1, 2017

Until recently, if you asked where cooperatives originated, many people would cite the Rochdale Pioneers. These were the 28 textile mill workers from the town of Rochdale, England, who formed the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society in 1844 in response to poor working conditions, low wages, adulterated food and exploitation. They created the first sustainable cooperative business and are credited with articulating the guiding principles that became what we know today as the International Cooperative Principles.

The story of cooperation, and furthermore cooperative economics, is not exclusive to Europeans; it has been adopted by countless cultures around the globe. This is particularly true in African American history. Cooperative Hall of Famer Jessica Gordon Nembhard opens the door to critical aspects of Black cooperative history in her book “Collective Courage.” Nembhard continues the research of W.E.B. Du Bois from the early 20th century to catalogue the extensive efforts of African American cooperatives. She places co-ops solidly as precursors to and tools used in the Civil Rights Movement. She clearly demonstrates that the co-op narrative belongs to everyone.

Tom Pierson, a local research assistant to Dr. Nembhard, shared in a recent interview with the filmmakers of Radical Roots that the Twin Cities was home to multiple “first wave” cooperative grocery stores — five of which were predominantly African American based. Many of these started in the early 1940s, more than three decades prior to the majority of “new wave” food co-ops that operate today. Pierson discovered many of these co-ops in his research of the Franklin Cooperative Creamery (FCC) for Seward Co-op. FCC built the Creamery building and supported these first wave co-ops. Of the five African American co-ops that existed, a few shared neighborhoods with the food co-ops today: the Sumner Cooperative operated in the Harrison neighborhood of North Minneapolis, near the site of the soon-to-open Wirth Co-op; the Co-ops, Inc. of Minneapolis that served the Bryant and Central neighborhoods with a store at 41st Street and Chicago Avenue, was near Seward’s current Friendship store; and the Credjafawn Co-op Store, a project of the Credjafawn Social Club, was located in St Paul’s Rondo neighborhood near Mississippi Market’s present-day Selby-Dale store.

African American co-ops also formed simultaneously with Seward Co-op and other new wave co-ops. As in the ’40s, these were located in North Minneapolis, Rondo and the Bryant-Central neighborhoods. The Bryant-Central Co-op opened in the mid-1970s and was started by Moe Burton, uncle of Gary Cunningham, the executive director of Metropolitan Economic Development Association and spouse of Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges.

Pierson notes that co-ops in this era were typically run by unpaid volunteers. However, the Bryant-Central Co-op was a pioneer when it came to paying staff and thinking big. They envisioned a store more than twice the size of most large co-ops today. Unable to raise the capital to build to scale, Bryant-Central Co-op closed in 1978. Burton and others in the community attempted to start a new co-op in the mid-1990s, but due to Burton’s untimely death, as well as a lack of resources, the store never materialized.

At Seward Co-op we are proud to honor and build on the legacies of past cooperators. People like W.E.B. Du Bois, Mo Burton and groups like the Credjafawn Sociai Club, not to mention, the countless unnamed individuals that did the physical work of starting first wave co-ops are critical in our understanding of the stories of those who came before us. Communities, like our own, have used cooperatives in order to end oppression and eradicate injustices, particularly in food justice.

Cooperatives Grow Communities: Riojana Olive Oil

January 31, 2017

In the town of Arauco in the La Rioja province of Argentina stands the oldest olive tree in the country, planted in the 1600s. Although not native to Argentina, the Arauco olive is highly prized for its buttery smoothness and meaty texture, and for the robust floral and fruity flavor notes it contributes to olive oil.

There, in the Antinaco-Los Colorados Valley, the cooperative producers of Riojana extra virgin, fair trade organic olive oil are cultivating much more than their 350 olive trees. Through cooperation, they are growing a healthy, vibrant and sustainable community.

When you purchase Riojana olive oil you are not just purchasing a delicious ingredient to enjoy, you are casting a vote in favor of cooperative, fair trade businesses—and helping more than 422 cooperative members continue to invest in a brighter future.

Reinvesting profits for health and education

La Riojana’s founders came from Italy to Argentina in the 1940s and began cultivating grapes for the production of wine, and planting olive trees as a natural companion plant. Certified fair trade by Fairtrade International in 2006, the members of the cooperative have invested more than $11 million Argentinian pesos (~ $730,000 US), primarily from the sale of their fair trade organic wines, in projects including a new drinking water supply for the village of Tilimuqui, where many of La Riojana’s workers and their families live. The fair trade premium has also been invested in production improvements, new community centers and medical equipment, but the most visible result of the cooperative’s reinvestment in its farmer members and their families can be seen in their commitment to education.

A new secondary school specializing in agriculture opened in Tilimuqui in 2010. Offering free education to children age 13-18, the school has had a profound impact on its community, providing a catalyst for local development, increasing employment by the creation of more than 50 new jobs at the school, and providing training in technical agronomy to help slow the migration of young people to larger cities. Since 2010, enrollment in the school has grown from 33 pupils to more than 300. With plans to build new classrooms, the cooperative hopes to expand the school’s capacity to 600 students in the next few years. The cooperative also provides kits of school supplies to children of its members, as well as free computer courses to adult community members.

Focusing on environment to ensure a bright future

Besides supporting health and education, the cooperative is invested in green initiatives and sustainability, so transitioning more of its growers to become equivalency USDA Certified Organic is another important goal. With a focus on becoming carbon neutral, La Riojana Cooperative is introducing improved water management techniques, the use of solar and bio energy and a reforestation project.

SunSpire Organic Recall

December 21, 2016

On Dec. 21, SunSpire Organic voluntarily recalled its 42% Cacao Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips and 65% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips because the products may contain undeclared milk ingredients. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products. Between Oct. 21 and Dec. 21, 2016 Seward Co-op may have sold affected products.

SunSpire Organic 42% Cacao Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (9 oz.)
UPC: 77241500750
Best By Dates: Feb. 24, 2017 through Sept. 19, 2018

SunSpire Organic 65% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (9 oz.)
UPC: 772415007607
Best By Dates: Apr. 17, 2017 through Sept. 10, 2018

If you purchased this product at Seward Co-op between Oct. 21 and Dec. 21, 2016, it will be fully refunded at either our Franklin or Friendship store Customer Service desk.

Seasonal Celebration Photo Contest

December 15, 2016

Seasonal celebrations are in full swing and in this spirit, we’re hosting a photo contest. To enter, send us a picture of your seasonal celebration with a brief description, however it is defined. Whether it’s events with family or friends, an activity that connects people to history or cultural heritage, or a prized possession, we’d love to see it.

How to enter:

Please include #SewardPhotoContest2016 in your social media post or send photographs to sewardfoodcoop@gmail.com with your contact information including: name, e-mail, and phone number. Photographs must be submitted in .jpeg, .jpg or .gif format, edited for web, at least 2,000 pixels wide and no larger than 10 MB. Please send separate e-mails for each photo submitted.

  • We do not accept photographs submitted through the mail.
  • High-quality scans of non-digital photographs are acceptable.
  • Digital photographs should be taken at the highest resolution possible.

You retain your rights to your photograph; however, by entering the contest, you grant the Seward Co-op (and those authorized by the Seward Co-op) a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive license to publicly display, distribute, reproduce and create derivative works of the entries for Seward Co-op publications and promotional materials. Any photograph reproduced will include a photographer credit as feasible. The Seward Co-op will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such uses.

Entry Deadline:

All entries must be received by 11:59 PM Central Standard Time on January 15, 2017

Judging:

Photo entries will be judged based on creativity, quality, originality, responsiveness to the prompt and overall impact. Judging will be conducted by the Seward Co-op Marketing Department. Seward Co-op will select a grand prize winner, as well as first and second runner-ups. Winners will be notified via the contact information provided with entry and will have five business days to claim their prize. Please do not contact us about the status of entries or judging.

Prizes:

Grand Prize: $100 Seward Co-op gift card
1st Runner-up: $50 Seward Co-op gift card
2nd Runner-up: $25 Seward Co-op gift card

Sow the Seeds Donation

November 30, 2016

This year’s heavy rains have significantly impacted many of the farms that supply natural foods cooperatives. Damage to crops is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and several farmers are facing the prospect of losing their farms. Impacted farms include such long-time Seward partners as Featherstone Farm, Heartbeet Farm, Hoch Orchard, Driftless Organics and more.

Co-ops around the Twin Cities and across the upper Midwest partnered to raise funds to assist these farms. Between Thursday, Nov. 17, and Wednesday, Nov. 23, Seward Co-op sold $452,249 in P6 sales, of which we committed to donate 1%, in the amount of $4,522. Additionally, generous owners and shoppers directly donated $268, bringing our combined total contribution to $4,790. Your help cultivates a stronger, healthier community; thanks to everyone who participated in this campaign to save our local farms!

Relief funds will be administered by the Cooperative Development Fund (CDS). CDS is a 501 (c) 3 charitable family of funds that advances economic development through cooperative enterprise. Their mission is to promote community, economic, and social development through cooperative enterprises.

If you wish to make a donation of your own, checks can be made out to:

Cooperative Development Fund of CDS
% Bob Olson
145 W. University Ave Suite 450
St. Paul MN 55103

Know Our Grower: Featherstone Farm

October 31, 2016

Our annual Know Our Grower series continues as our growing season thrives. Know Our Grower is an opportunity to connect shoppers with the talented group of local farmers producing our food and sample recipes that allow their flavors to shine. Come chat and sample with Featherstone Farm this December! They will be in the Franklin store on Saturday, Dec. 3 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and the Friendship store on Saturday, Dec. 10 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Featherstone Farm started in 1995 as Jack Hedin and Jenni McHugh’s five-acre garden at the Zephyr Valley Land Co-op near Winona, Minn. Since then, the farm has relocated to land near the town of Rushford, Minn., and now employs nearly 50 people working on over 250 acres of optimal vegetable-growing ground. Beginning in late May with leaf lettuce through a summer’s harvest of zucchini and cherry tomatoes into winter squash and carrots in the winter, there’s hardly a month that Featherstone isn’t represented in the co-op’s Produce department. The farm is certified organic and is dedicated to creating a truly sustainable agriculture system. That includes geothermal heating and cooling for the packing shed, as well as a solar array that generates about 60 percent of the farm’s energy.

Featherstone Needs Community Support to Save Their Farm

The 2016 season has proven to be the worst in Featherstone Farms’s 20 years in business. The fourth wettest year in Minnesota history has produced crop losses far in excess of anything they’ve ever experienced. Featherstone has lost 20% of their crop income and is facing a $350,000 loss. They are hoping to raise $150,000 by Thanksgiving. Folks can help by going to our website at featherstonefarm.com.

Seward Co-op Creamery Cafe Weekly Specials!

October 14, 2016

Thanks to all who joined us at the Seward Co-op Creamery Café on Sunday, Oct. 9, for the ice cream social with Sonny’s Ice Cream. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with this family-owned business that continues to churn small batches of ice cream made with fresh, whole ingredients the way it has been made since 1945. Now that the Creamery is open again, let us reintroduce ourselves with new weekly specials beginning Wednesday, Oct. 19.

Date Night

Saturday Nights

$50 per couple

Choose the perfect beverage to sip — beer, wine, coffee, tea or a bottled beverage from our drink cooler. For starters, share a small plate or one of our appetizer-size side dishes. Your choice of two entrees from the following for the main course: salmon, soba noodles, burger and fries, or our beet Reuben and fries. Save room for dessert! You can choose one of our daily scratch-made bakery items to split. If you have a hard time deciding, please don’t hesitate to ask one of our knowledgeable staff for a recommendation.

Happy Hour

End the week with happy hour at the Seward Co-op Creamery Café!

Wednesday–Saturday, 3–5 p.m.
Enjoy $1 off:

  • Side dishes
  • Small Plates
  • Pints of local craft beer
  • Glasses of wine

Owner Appreciation Day

As a token of our appreciation for our engaged ownership, all Seward Co-op owners receive 15% off their order every Thursday.

Live Music

Please join us for live music from 6­–9 p.m. beginning Saturday, Oct. 22. Here is the upcoming schedule:

  • Saturday Oct. 22 — Van Nixon, a talented vocalist and musician specializing in Reggae with years of experience performing solo and in multiple bands.
  • Saturday, Oct. 29 — Nicolas Garcia, a solo acoustic guitarist specializing in original instrumental cinematic folk songs.
  • Saturday, Nov. 5 — Will King is a Minneapolis-born classical and flamenco guitarist, composer and teacher with influences from Spain and Latin America.

Westby Recall

September 7, 2016

On September 7, Westby issued a voluntary recall of its 4% cottage cheese (16 oz. and 24 oz. containers) due to the possible presence of alkaline phosphatase, a naturally occurring enzyme in milk that is typically deactivated during pasteurization. Between August 17, 2016 and August 26, 2016, Seward Co-op may have sold products affected by this recall.

Westby 4% Cottage Cheese
16 oz ($2.99 retail)
UPC: 0075038800415
Lot Code: 10-6-16 cc
Plant: #55-372

24 oz ($3.99 retail) sizes
UPC:0075038800420
Lot Code: 10-6-16 cc
Plant: #55-372

If you purchased the above product between August 17, 2016 and August 26, 2016,recalled products will be fully refunded at Seward Co-op Customer Service. Consumers can find more information here.