“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” — African proverb

In December, many African American people in the United States will turn their attention to Kwanzaa, a cultural holiday that begins on Dec. 26 and goes through Jan. 1.

The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” which means “first fruits” in Swahili, a pan-African language which is the most widely spoken African language.

Developed by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce seven basic values of African people. Collectively these values are called the Nguzo Saba, which in Swahili means the Seven Principles. The Seven Principles are: Umoja (unity); Kujichagulia (self-determination); Ujima (collective work and responsibility); Ujamaa (cooperative economics); Nia (purpose); Kuumba (creativity); and Imani (faith). Everyday throughout Kwanzaa a different principle is honored.

The fifth day, Ujamaa, focuses on Cooperatives Economics, encouraging us to think about how we spend our time, talent and treasure in ways that up lift the African American community. Ujamaa reminds us that African American communities in the past have been forced by segregation to find ways to meet basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. In order to meet the needs of community, we must stand together; individual efforts are not enough.

On Saturday, Dec. 12, 1–2:30 p.m. WIN Institute and Seward Co-op are hosting a Kwanzaa Celebration at the Friendship store. We will eat a cultural stew called Pamoja Tutashinda, (Together We Shall Win) and WE WIN students will share the importance of Kwanzaa and how it helps build community. The event will be rounded out with African drums dance, and stories.

WE WIN Institute, Inc.
Friendship Store
FREE

Seward Co-op has your holiday shopping and dining needs covered! Here are our holiday hours of operation to bear in mind when planning gatherings with family and friends. Please note the hours of the Co-op Creamery Café differ from the Friendship and Franklin stores.

We’d also like to remind owners to redeem the 50% off postcard for the Co-op Creamery Café that you received in the mail. We will accept the coupon all day on Dec. 31 (the Creamery will close at 2 p.m. that day), and we have extended the offer through 10 p.m. on New Year’s Day.

Franklin and Friendship stores:
Christmas Eve: 8 a.m.–8 p.m.
Christmas Day: CLOSED
New Year’s Eve: 8 a.m.–8 p.m.
New Year’s Day: 10 a.m.–10 p.m. (Note: this was listed incorrectly in the Sprout! newsletter as open at 11 a.m.)

Co-op Creamery Café:
Christmas Eve: 8 a.m.–2 p.m.
Christmas Day: CLOSED
New Year’s Eve: 8 a.m.–2 p.m.
New Year’s Day: 8 a.m.–10 p.m.

Wondering what to get your favorite foodie? Seward Community Co-op offers gift cards that may be purchased and used at any of our three locations–Co-op Creamery Café, Franklin, or Friendship Store. Gifts cards can be purchased over the phone from our stores, and in-person at the Café.

If you would like the gift card mailed to you or the recipient, please call either of our stores and ask for Customer Service. The phone number to the Franklin store is 612.338.2465 or 612.230.5595 for Friendship store. All we need is, the desired amount on the gift card and the debit or credit card to which to charge the purchase in order to process payment. The card can then either be mailed to you or the recipient, or picked up at the store that was called.

Our Co-op Creamery Café offers in-person gift card sales. If you wish to purchase a Seward Co-op gift card at the café, please speak to someone at the register or to your server.

On Saturday, Aug. 15, Seward Co-op hosted its career fair in the Sabathani Community Center, across the street from the future Friendship store. The fair was an immense success, with nearly 400 people attending to participate in interviews with Seward Co-op managers and to learn about working at the co-op.

The co-op promoted the event through neighborhood outreach, which included weeks of canvassing; a postcard invitation to residents within 1.5 miles of the store; advertising in neighborhood publications; and announcements airing on KMOJ and La Raza 1400. In efforts to reduce as many barriers as possible for applicants, the co-op also provided Spanish- and Somali-speaking interpreters. Several community-based neighborhood groups distributed the career fair information to their respective constituencies, as well.

Hiring a staff that represents the diversity of the Bryant neighborhood in which the Friendship store is located is a priority for Seward. With approximately two-thirds of the hiring at the Friendship store complete, 62% of Friendship staff (38 employees) identify as People of Color. In the spring of 2014, the co-op set hiring goals to be a more inclusive workplace. Our organization-wide goal is a staff that is, at a minimum, comprised of 32 percent Persons of Color by 2019. As of August 2015, 113 of 363 Seward Co-op staff, or 31% of total staff, identify themselves as People of Color.

As we move closer to opening the Friendship store and beyond, we will continue our efforts to attract a diverse pool of applicants. Owners and customers will be able to meet the new staff when we open the doors of the store at our annual meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

When kids (and adults!) head back to school, the disposability of our world can feel on full display: Disposable sandwich bags, tin foil, cling wrap, lunch bags, and other needless packaging for single-serve foods. This year, commit to reducing waste and lessening the impact your lunches have on the environment.

Go on a family hike and pick up trash while the weather is still warm. Talk to younger generations about reducing waste. It’s more than just finding a recycling bin. Everyone can help out throughout the week.

Plan out meals for the week. Select meals that you know your children enjoy—even better if they’ll enjoy the leftovers. A whole chicken roasted with vegetables can be leftovers for a day, then sandwiches for a day or two after that (and/or made into chicken soup).

Monbento bento boxes and accessories are sleek, colorful and incredibly useful. Kids’ bento and snack boxes come in bright colors with easy-to-open latches and interchangeable design tokens kids can use to personalize the lid. Use the classic bento for high school kids as either a one- or two-tier lunch box and divide lunch dishes with the handy cup divider (included) or sauce dishes (sold separately). Also available: a petite utensil set that fits perfectly beneath the lid so that all your lunch needs are in a compact case. Easy to throw in a school bag or brief case, these are Bisphenol A (BPA)-free, freezer safe, microwaveable, and dishwasher safe.

Enter Seward Co-op’s #P6plate photo contest and you could win a terrific P6 prize for P6 Month.

All through the month of August (P6 Month) we are collecting #P6Plate pictures from Seward hot bar diners like you, selecting the best, and giving away LOTS of fabulous P6 items for your creations!

Here’s how you can enter and win!

1) Come to Seward Co-op for a Deli hot bar and/or salad bar meal.

2) Create an absolutely drop-dead beautiful plate of P6 Seward Co-op deli hot bar food. Yellow saffron rice with purple cabbage. Green peas popping against chicken mole. Get creative with what’s on hand! Make a face. A map. Seward Co-op’s logo. Starry Starry Night with Goddess Dressing. Express yourself.

3) Upload your finished photo to Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram — your choice! Use the hashtag #P6Plate so we’ll be sure to see your picture, and don’t forget to correctly tag Seward Co-op on your posting.

4) Members of Seward Co-op’s marketing department will choose winners based on artistic merit, color choice, originality, and creative expression. We will notify winners via social media.

If you don’t win, don’t worry. Just keep entering new #P6Plate photos (multiple entries are encouraged). We have a LOT of great P6 prizes to give away so there will be lots of winners. Prizes have been donated for the #P6Plate contest by of our favorite vendors and friends, like:

• Luci Daum
• Scent from Nature Beeswax Candles
• Wyndmere Essential Oils
• Global Mamas
• Badger Balm
• Four (4!) complimentary one-year memberships to Nice Ride MN!

We’ll pick winners every 3 or 4 days, so check in on Seward Co-op social media to see if you’ve won. Don’t forget to follow Seward Co-op on

• Twitter
• Facebook, or
• Instagram
  

if you want to enter the contest. Let’s get all of Minneapolis and St. Paul creating healthy dinners with beautiful P6 food!

* Photo is an example only. Your pictures will definitely be much better than this one. Chocolate courtesy P6 Company Equal Exchange Co-op.

The co-op welcomes Makeda Toure and Dave Harris. Both will be working with Diversity & Community Engagement Manager LaDonna Sanders-Redmond to help Seward Co-op in its outreach efforts over the summer and beyond.

Makeda is from Minneapolis and is a recent graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee. Makeda is also a vegetarian, and she and her family are owners of Seward Co-op. Makeda majored in public relations and marketing. She will assist with the outreach efforts in the Bryant neighborhood. Owners can also show their support for the co-op with an “I Support Seward Co-op Friendship Store” lawn sign. Signs are available at the Customer Service desk or by request (email LaDonna at lsandersredmond@seward.coop).

Dave is an undergraduate at Yale University, where he is a spoken word artist and theatre major. He will assist with selecting the artists who will design mural project for the Friendship store. Our goal with the mural is to honor the history of the site and its cultural impact. We want to celebrate the communities and events that have made the neighborhoods around Friendship home. Read more about the mural project and how to submit a proposal here.

Since starting the Friendship store project more than two years ago, we have learned a tremendous amount as an organization. We have had significant discussion about what we mean when we say that the co-op has “equitable economic relationships.” This discussion has led the co-op to strive for greater inclusivity. In May we decided to create a position to focus on this effort. We are happy to announce that in July, LaDonna Sanders-Redmond (formerly Education & Outreach Specialist for the Friendship store) accepted the position of Diversity & Community Engagement Manager. LaDonna will work with all stakeholders to focus on how we can accomplish our goal of being a more diverse and inclusive workplace and cooperative.

LaDonna’s new position will create a platform through which to share these insights with others outside of Seward Co-op. This will include the broader Twin Cities and cooperative communities and others interested in how cooperatives can be used to further racial and economic equity. The next few months will be a time of tremendous change for the co-op. The Creamery will open imminently and the Friendship store is around the corner. We will be welcoming nearly 100 new employees to help us operate these two businesses. If you know someone who is looking for a great place to work, check our job boards or website, or attend our job fair on Saturday, Aug. 15, at Sabathani Community Center (310 E. 38th St.). We will do on-the-spot interviews to help us reach our hiring goals.

LaDonna says she is excited about her new position. “In this new capacity, I can combine my skills of being an effective communicator with my passion for food and my commitment to racial and economic equity,” she said. “I hope to facilitate a deeper connection between co-ops and communities of color that enhances the resiliency of communities.”

This Monday, July 13! Join Seward Co-op and other Seward members at Fair State Brewing Cooperative for happy hour 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. Bring your Seward ownership card and enjoy a beer at half-price (one per person).

Did you know Fair State Brewing is a co-op just like Seward? They have membership, a board of directors, and an annual election, just like we do. The one big difference?

THEY HAVE BEER.

Case in point, we’re particularly excited to try Fair State’s Hefeweizen, if it’s still available. City Pages calls this beer “a great addition to the local scene!”

So join let’s get a mob of Seward owners over at Fair State and get some co-operating done.

WHERE: 2506 Central Avenue Nordeast Minneapolis
WHEN: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. Monday, July 13

WHY: Well. Co-operation among co-ops IS a key principle…

A letter from General Manager Sean Doyle: In June 2014 leadership at the co-op was approached by Bryant Neighborhood Organization (BNO) and Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization (CANDO) to consider a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). Over the course of the past year we have had a number of conversations about whether a CBA would be appropriate for the co-op.

A CBA is fairly new approach to work with large corporations that typically focuses on holding that corporate entity accountable to the community that it is entering into with a development. These are large-scale developments, such as sports arenas and mass-transit development, in which hundreds of millions of dollars and public subsidies are involved. CBAs are also perceived to be adversarial in tone, often requiring cash payment from the developer to the community if the agreement is not fulfilled. Many of the stipulations included in a CBA could potentially put the co-op in financial jeopardy were we to agree to them.

This tone is not consistent with cooperative principles or values in that a co-op is created to respond to community need. Seward is already owned by the community, with 14,000 households in Minneapolis being owners. Nearly 15% of these households reside within the immediate geography of the Friendship store. Finally, as a community-owned business we are already accountable to the community through our democratically elected board of directors.

Instead of a CBA, we agreed that we would work to create a Mutual Benefits Agreement (MBA). To our knowledge we would be breaking new ground with an MBA — none exist. The ideas behind the MBA is self-help. One of the values of cooperation builds upon the desire of community to determine what is best for the future of the community. Additionally, the value of mutuality and self-help builds upon resiliency and not upon deficits. At its fundamental level, the vision for an MBA would be to articulate a vision of how the co-op and neighborhood groups could work together to benefit the community around the Friendship store. There are many shared concerns about livability that we all have for the 38th Street corridor. These include employment, affordability and overall development in the neighborhood. The idea behind the MBA is to look at the assets that each of our organizations have and to find a way to build on them together to more positively impact the community.

In January BNO and Seward started working to create the framework for an MBA. We invited CANDO to join this conversation. We started the process of having a community conversation about this at BNO’s spring meeting on April 25. The conversation at this meeting ended up being disrupted by a group of individuals — most of whom weren’t residents of Bryant neighborhood, but instead came from all over the city. For more information about the meeting, please read the Daily Planet article:

Seward Co-op’s Friendship Store and “Community Benefits”

After this meeting BNO and the co-op decided to postpone the work of creating an MBA until after the Friendship store opens. BNO felt that they need to focus on regrouping as a neighborhood association. The leadership at the co-op decided we need to focus on ramping up operations. This includes getting the building built and equipped and ensuring we have the right product mix in the store. In coming months we have significant hiring and training of staff to do. Next spring we will reconvene to take up this conversation once again.