P6 Breakfast Pizza, a Nourish recipe
Ingredients
1 ball (½ package) Sunrise Flour Mill frozen pizza dough, thawed
4 Schultz eggs
¼ cup Valley View milk
1 cup shredded Burnett Co-op mozzarella
3 slices Beeler’s bacon, lightly cooked and chopped
2 (approx. ½ lb.) Living Waters hydroponic vine-on tomatoes, chopped
Small handful parsley, chopped

Method
Preheat oven to 400 F and lightly grease a 13-inch pizza pan. Place thawed pizza dough in center of pan and carefully press dough around the pan, leaving a bit of extra dough around the edges to help hold in egg mixture. Whip the eggs with milk and add a dash of salt and pepper. Carefully pour mixture over crust. Top with shredded mozzarella and bacon. Place breakfast pizza in oven and bake 10–12 minutes, or until egg has set. Sprinkle with chopped tomatoes and parsley. Serve immediately. Yield: four servings

Feeds four people for under $15!

Seward Co-op’s Co-op Creamery Neighborhood Cafe opened Saturday, Aug. 15! Please stop by the corner of 26th and Franklin Avenues to enjoy a coffee, meal or beer. The Creamery Cafe’s hours can be found on the cafe’s Facebook page. Like us and stay up to date on Co-op Creamery Cafe news!

Find the menu on the Co-op Creamery Cafe website.

Chicken and kimchi rice bowl at the Co-op Creamery Cafe.

August is P6 Month, and P6 Month is very special to Seward Co-op.

During this time, we celebrate all our P6 producers and applaud their tremendous work in contributing to a more equitable and just food system!

You’ll only see the P6 label at co-ops because that’s what “P6” means – co-operation among co-ops, the sixth principle of cooperatives. Seward is proud to have been the first co-op grocery to carry this label and even prouder that there are now seven grocery co-ops in the national P6 program:

• Viroqua Food Co-op, Viroqua, WI
• Three Rivers Market, Knoxville, TN
• Seward Community Co-op, Minneapolis, MN
• Ozark Natural Foods, Fayetteville, AR
• Eastside Food Co-op, Minneapolis, MN
• Bloomingfoods, Bloomington, IN
• Menomonie Market Food Co-op, Menomonie, WI

For a product supplier to receive the P6 label, it must meet two of three criteria: It must be locally owned, small-scale, and/or cooperatively owned. So when you buy P6, you’re promoting small-scale farmers, local foods and goods, and cooperatives. Most of these producers are single-person operations or family-run farms with small stories that could get easily missed by busy shoppers.

Celebrate P6 producers with us all through August!

Saturday, Aug. 1, noon–4 p.m.
Kick off P6 Month with a celebration of your favorite local, small and/or cooperatively owned producers. We’ll have a store full of P6 samples to enjoy, an opportunity to talk with P6 representatives, and chances to win great P6 prizes. We’ll offer tasty samples and great deals on produce from Sin Fronteras Farm & Food as part of our Know Our Grower program. P6 producers will be sampling in the store every weekend in August, so stop by often!

Throughout the year we are able to offer a selection of hot peppers including Jalapenos, Poblanos, Serranoes, Anaheims, and Habaneros. Yet, the world of hot peppers is so much broader and diverse than these five standards. We frequently receive requests for chilies we cannot source until the summer months when our local growers bring in greater variety.

Hot pepper season has really just begun but we already have Green Cayenne peppers, Jalapenos, and Serranoes from Wisconsin Growers Cooperative (Mondavi, Wis.) and Hot Portugal and Numex Suave (a milder Habanero) from Pork and Plants (Altura, Minn.). More will come including the infamous Ghost pepper that we carefully place with gloved hands into plastic bags to protect both staff and customers from the burn.

This season we began working with Sin Fronteras Farm (Stillwater, Minn). Farmers Eduardo Rivera and Madeline Shaw are growing fresh, healthy Latino food including varieties of hot peppers that can be challenging to find fresh, tomatillos, and epazote along with familiar roots, greens, and herbs. Tomatillo and epazote have been available for a few weeks now and Sin Fronteras pepper crop is just starting to produce. Look for Green Habanero (Hot Lanterns) and Hatch chilies on the shelf this week and Padron and Shishito into August.

Tomatillos form the base and hot peppers the spice of an outrageously simple, smoky, and piquant salsa verde. Risk heating up the kitchen for a few minutes (or heat on a cast iron pan over a charcoal grill) to make this condiment that will liven up chips, beans and rice, or even a salad or sandwich.

Place 6-8 tomatillos, 1 hot pepper of choice (for a milder salsa, start with a Jalapeno, for a more assertive spice try a Habanero), 3 cloves of garlic, and 1 medium green-top red onion cut into wedges in in a dry pan over medium-high heat. Turn periodically until all sides are slightly charred and the garlic and tomatillo are soft – remove from the pan and let cool. In the same pan, heat the oregano until it is fragrant. Once cooled, remove skins from the tomatillo and garlic and the stem from the pepper. Combine all ingredients in a food processor along with the juice of one lime, a handful of chopped cilantro, and salt to taste. Pulse until all ingredients are combined but not until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning.

New potatoes are available now in steady supply – larger red and gold roots are offered in bulk and smaller sizes of both gold and red are available in pints.

Best to keep it simple here. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and add the potatoes skin-on and whole (for the small – halve or quarter larger potatoes). Cook until tender, drain and return to the pan. Season generously with butter, chopped fresh dill, salt and pepper.

One could also par-boil the potatoes, lay them out to cool and dry on a pan for a few minutes before smashing them gently and frying them up in duck fat or butter with rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. Either approach is equally easy and delicious.

Watermelons – 91% water – were born of the semi-arid Kalahari Desert which is said to derive its name from the Tswana word Kgala meaning “the great thirst.” Oddly, these fruits naturally grow best and heavy with water when there is little to no moisture outside – and they ripen quickly to refresh us when we need it most.

As we enter the hot, dry stretch of the summer, watermelons are hydrating and delicious on their own. But it doesn’t hurt to add a few cooling herbs and a splash of lime honey dressing for a little variety and flavor.

Using a melon baller scoop the flesh of the watermelon into a large bowl. Chiffonade leaves from a small bunch of mint and a few sprigs of basil to add to the watermelon. In a separate small bowl, combine lime juice and zest with a little honey and whisk until the honey and juice are combined. Pour over the melon and herb mixture and toss.

Photo courtesy woodleywonderworks from Wikimedia Commons

Seward Co-op today issued a voluntary recall of Bulk Commodity Peanut Butter (PLU 2301), located in the Bulk Aisle, due to a piece of plastic found in the peanut butter grinding machine. No illnesses or injury have been associated with this product.

All peanut butter was removed from the grinder on Saturday, July 25. This recalled product was on sale for $3.99 per pound, regular price $6.19 per pound. Affected product may have been purchased between Wednesday, July 15, 2015 (when the machine was last serviced) through Saturday, July 25, 2015.

If you purchased the above product during that time, do not consume. Recalled products will be fully refunded at our Customer Service desk.

The co-op is also sending an email to all members who have purchased this item alerting them of the situation. (Customers who wish to be contacted via email about recalls should make sure we have their up-to-date contact information. Sign up here, on the left under “e-newsletter.”)

This summer, Nourish celebrates its first anniversary. A year ago, Seward Co-op launched the Nourish program as a way to provide greater access to the products and services we offer. We recognize that shopping for healthful and affordable food can be challenging. This is why, in conjunction with the introduction of Nourish, we increased our needs-based discount last year from 5% to 10%.

We do not want financial need to be a barrier to shopping at Seward Co-op. At the same time, we have to be conscious of maintaining the co-op’s financial health. When deciding how much to increase the discount, we evaluated the impact that this change would have on our pre-distribution net income (PDNI). We have a goal of accomplishing at least 3% PDNI so that we have enough to issue a patronage refund to our owners. For every $100 of discount sales, we lost $2 when the needs-based discount was 5%. Moving it to 10% increased that loss to $7.

When the discount was 5%, we determined that for every $100 dollars of discounted sales, we needed $515 of regular priced sales to make up for these losses in order to maintain 3% PDNI; at 10%, it became $1,031. There are those who think we should raise our discount to 20%. If we were to do that, the co-op would lose $17 on every $100 of discount sales, which would require an additional $2,062 in sales. This table breaks down how this works.

Since the introduction of Nourish last year, the co-op has sold $1,582,854 in Nourish products and given $209,787 in needs-based discounts. We believe the current 10% discount rate strikes an appropriate balance between providing affordable options in the community, providing an appropriate patronage refund to owners, and maintaining the financial health of the co-op.

What Else Does Nourish Offer?

In addition to increasing our discount, we also used the Nourish program to more proactively promote the payment options we have for ownership. In addition to the one-time payment of $75, we offer a partial payment and a needs-based option. Shoppers who have financial need can become owners with an initial investment of $15 through the needs-based ownership option. (The remaining $60 of co-op stock is accrued through patronage refund earnings.) Needs-based ownerships were started in 2013 and are available to those enrolled in Minnesota Food Assistance/Support, WIC, MinnesotaCare and Minnesota Medical Assistance, Social Security Disability or other self-identified need. Since its inception, we have welcomed 695 owners to the co-op through the needs-based ownership program.

The Nourish program also focuses heavily on education. After all, it is the fifth cooperative principle. The program helps shoppers identify Nourish items — which include some of the co-op’s most popular foods and wellness products — by using our staples list (found at Customer Service and online) as a guide. Shelf signs throughout the store also designate Nourish items, and our staff are always happy to point out Nourish options.

Cooking at home is an important component to Nourish. The recipe rack next to the Customer Service desk contains many Nourish options. Nourish recipes are an affordable way to feed four people — often for $10 or less — using ingredients available at Seward Co-op. The co-op offers a series of free Nourish classes designed around shopping the co-op and making unique dishes using Nourish ingredients. Classes teach basic scratch-cooking techniques, how to prepare recipes that feed a family of four for under $10, and how to shop the co-op. Class topics have included Simple Thanksgiving Sides, Kwanzaa Table, Cooking with Bulk Grains, and an African Heritage Cooking series.

For more information on Nourish, visit our website or pick up a Nourish brochure in the store.

Dear Seward Co-op Owners,

Just months from now is the scheduled opening of the Friendship store, which is a realization of the co-op’s long-term vision of expanding our community-owned business. In October 2015, nearly 2,000 households that are current owners of Seward Co-op will have a store less than 1½ miles from their home. We are writing to address the conversations the board of directors has been having, and the questions and comments we have been hearing regarding the Friendship store.

We started this project over two years ago when The Carrot Initiative, a non-profit formed by residents of the four neighborhoods around 38th and Chicago to attract a grocer to the community, invited Seward Co-op to consider opening at the former site of the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. Their building had been on the market for a couple of years. It proved to be a good site. We decided to call it the Friendship store to honor this history. We believe it will be a place to bring neighbors, family and friends together.

Since our very first community meeting at Sabathani Community Center in July 2013, co-op board, management, and staff have been engaged in conversations and outreach with the neighborhoods surrounding the Friendship store. For example, members of the co-op management, staff, and board have attended and participated in the Future of East 38th Street community meetings; engaged in conversations and education with community members through door-to-door outreach; and attended many neighborhood events, fairs, and educational programs. The board is energized by the support and encouragement the co-op has received in our direct conversations with members of the community throughout the surrounding neighborhoods of Bryant and Central.

At our May meeting, the board welcomed owners who presented a petition and wished to discuss the decision to postpone the conversation regarding creating a Mutual Benefits Agreement (MBA). After that meeting the board expressed its continued agreement with the decision made by Bryant Neighborhood Organization (BNO) and co-op management that our focus needs to be on opening the Co-op Creamery Café and Friendship store. We responded to those owners who signed this petition to inform them of our continued support of that decision.

At the June board meeting, representatives of Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization (CANDO) were given time to state their reasons why Seward Co-op should accept the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) that they drafted as a starting point for negotiations. The board discussed their request and decided to continue, as planned, with the decision made by Seward Co-op and BNO to defer this conversation until after the Friendship store opens. You can find a letter to CANDO on our website.

The board agrees that management’s efforts to enter into an MBA is the correct approach. The proposed CBA is not congruent with co-op values. However, we want to be clear that this does not mean that the co-op’s board and management have ceased our conversations with the community or compromised our goals, aspirations, or ideals related to the Friendship store. To the contrary, many of the provisions that have been proposed in the CBA have already been addressed by the co-op, independent of the recent proposal by CANDO. For example:

• The co-op voluntarily set construction hiring goals that are used by the City of Minneapolis.
• The co-op has set hiring goals to be a more inclusive workplace.
• The Seward Co-op Nourish program offers both a needs-based ownership option and a discount.
• Seward Co-op has used the Minneapolis living wage model for more than eight years. Factoring in discounts, benefits and insurance, all vested co-op employees earn at least $15 per hour.
• Seward Co-op has engaged in outreach and partnerships throughout the neighborhoods surrounding the store. We have supported, and will continue to support, many Bryant-Central based organizations and nonprofits.

Our website has more information about the co-op’s efforts with respect to the Friendship store. In addition, we must note that the CBA proposed by CANDO has several provisions that could potentially put the co-op in fiscal jeopardy, including a stipulation that the co-op can be fined $1,000 a day (up to $100,000) if it does not operate in accordance with the CBA. We cannot accept these kinds of terms as a starting point for any conversation.

The board believes that management’s actions and decisions on these issues are entirely consistent with and further Seward Co-op’s Ends Statement and the International Cooperative Principles. The board supports management’s efforts to ensure that any agreement that the co-op enters into be consistent with the International Cooperative Principles. Finally, and fundamentally, the board believes that the co-op has had, and will continue to have, a positive effect on the communities within which the co-op operates.

From the beginning of this process, we heard concerns regarding racial equity and social justice. We invite owners to review our Scorecard to see our progress on our goals. Make no mistake, we still have work to do, and we look forward to doing that work in the months and years to come. We thank everyone who has been involved with the Friendship store to this point. Promoting healthy food, living wages, affordability, accessibility, and concern for community have long been a priority of the cooperative and we look forward to building trust and meeting the expectations that our shared values require.

In Cooperation,

Leah Janus – President, Board of Directors
Joe Riemann – Vice-President, Board of Directors

For a list of common questions we have received and how we are responding, follow this link.