2011 Halloween Party

The epic early snow storm of 2011 kept a few people away, but we still had a rocking anual halloween party to benefit Oxfam’s Famine Relief in Somalia and East Africa.

 

 

 

Coop now powered by green wind energy

Massachusetts allows residents to do a cool thing–we can choose to purchase green wind power through NSTAR:

http://www.nstar.com/residential/customer_information/nstar_green/nstar_green.asp

It ends up costing about 30% more, but the true cost of coal, oil, gas, or nuclear is far more. At the end of the day, we each contribute about $2 more per month to support a brighter future.

Co-op Faire to Celebrate International Day for Cooperatives

Saturday, July 2, 10:00–2:00

Harvest Co-op Market, Essex Street parking lot, Cambridge

 

Local cooperative businesses will showcase their business model on Saturday, July 2, for the first time joining an international celebration of co-ops around the world.

 

The Mass. Bay Co-op Faire, set for Saturday, July 2, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., is sponsored by Harvest Co-op Markets and held in conjunction with the International Day for Cooperatives, co-sponsored annually by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in Geneva and the United Nations. The event will be held in the parking lot adjacent to Harvest Co-op Market in Cambridge, on Essex Street. This is the first year that a celebration of the International Day for Co-operatives is being held in the Boston area.

 

History shows that the periods of greatest growth for co-ops come when the economy is emerging from recession. As people get back on their feet, they work to organize different ways of building economic organizations that will not replicate previous mistakes. Among the cooperative businesses sponsoring the Faire are the Boston-Area Solidarity Economy Network, the Cooperative Fund of New England, BRANCHES housing co-ops, Equal Exchange, Beacon Hill Friends House, Boston Building Resources, and at least a dozen others.

 

In addition to learning about co-ops of all types (consumer, worker, agricultural, housing, etc.), participants can enjoy conversations with others interested in cooperative economics, sample food, and attend a screening of the film At Home in Utopia about housing co-ops in New York in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.

 

Background on the International Day for Cooperatives from

www.ica.coop

 

Online map of Co-op Faire at

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=harvest+co-op+market+cambridge&hl=en&ll=42.364989,-71.102743&spn=0.004201,0.008229&fb=1&gl=us&z=17

 

Sustainability Series: Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

What? Community Sustainability Lecture Series and Pot Luck

May 17th @ 6:30 pm

Presenter: Vanessa Green. Get the facts about toxic synthetic chemicals in your everyday personal care products.

Watch the 8-minute Story of Cosmetics video, learn about the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and its success with shifting towards a safer and affordable market. There’s more to do so come find out how to protect yourself and help spread the word!

http://www.safecosmetics.org/

Please contact Bridget at: cambridgecoop@gmail.com for details

2011 Retreat

Each year we try to set aside time for a community retreat, where we go somewhere else for a weekend. It is a chance to grow and deepen our connection as a community, away from our daily routines.

Celebrate the Coop’s 48th Birthday with Us!

You are cordially invited to:

Cambridge Cooperative Club’s 48th Birthday, Bike Fix-up, and Open House. Sunday, April 17th from 12-3 pm!

All are welcome.  Bring your best friends, your grandchildren, your sweethearts, your friends, your neighbors, your dogs, and your bicycles. There will be snacks, stories, and supplies for basic bike tune ups.

RSVP if you can, but feel free to just show up! And please spread the word to anyone who might be interested.

Hope to see you soon!

Cambridge Cooperative
64 Wendell Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617.876.1750
cambridgecoop@gmail.com

The Good Earth

We only know that this can happen on earth. It’s mighty fine.You take some good old turnips and rutabagas…You slice ‘em up and roast them with some rosemary and thyme…And you invite some people over with good wine and funny jokes to share dinner with you. A salad is nice too. I think there was a collard-green pad thai for this one (not featured in this montage). Mm Mm Good! Coop Dinners!

Sustainability in Community

I was rummaging around in the old electro-attic and found a cool site – the Eco-Village Network of the Americas. They have a very interesting project to help communities assess their “sustainability” in a somewhat quantitative way.

Here are their categories. Very interesting to explore. Have you ever considered doing an assessment of where you live?

This is the link: http://gen.ecovillage.org/activities/csa/English/toc.html

Introduction to the Ecological Checklist

1. Sense of Place – community location & scale; restoration & preservation of nature
2. Food Availability, Production & Distribution
3. Physical Infrastructure, Buildings & Transportation – materials, methods, designs
4. Consumption Patterns & Solid Waste Management
5. Water – sources, quality & use patterns
6. Waste Water & Water Pollution Management
7. Energy Sources & Uses

Introduction to the Social Checklist

1. Openness, Trust & Safety; Communal Space
2. Communication – the flow of ideas & information
3. Networking Outreach & Services – resource exchange internal/external)
4. Social Sustainability – diversity & tolerance; decision-making; conflict resolution
5. Education
6. Health Care
7. Sustainable Economics – healthy local economy

Introduction to the Spiritual Checklist

1. Cultural Sustainability
2. Arts and Leisure
3. Spiritual Sustainability
4. Community Glue
5. Community Resilience
6. A New Holographic, Circulatory World View
7. Peace and Global Consciousness

Crafternoon Encore

Every now and then someone calls for a “Crafternoon” – usually on a Sunday afternoon – where we gather at the big dining room table and work on little crafty projects, some art, stuff like that. Sometimes novel writing or poetry. Sometimes homework on computers. It’s fun.

Cambridge Cooperative Sustainability Lecture Series Presents:
“Keeping Our Water Systems
Public”
Denise Hart
Monday February 7th at 6:30

64 Wendell St., Cambridge, MA

Denise Hart is the New England Director, organizing, supervising staff and coordinating initiatives to protect our water and food resources inthe public interest. She joined Food & Water Watch in 2008 after spending eight years organizing in southern New Hampshire to stop a bottledwater company from setting up shop in her rural community (not one bottle sold yet!) and changing state laws to better protect groundwateras a public trust. This experience changed her into a passionate advocate for advancing policy to establish water as a human and ecological rightand keeping water accessible, clean, and managed sustainably in the public interest. Denise is a member of the board of directors of the NewEngland Grassroots Environment Fund and Save Our Groundwater, and serves on the New Hampshire Citizens Trade Policy Commission of thestate legislature that investigates and recommends policy changes about the impacts of international trade agreements. She previously workedfor many years as a writer and communications specialist producing many articles and two documentaries on topics such as sustainability, greenbuilding and the humanities for regional and national audiences.