Sustainable Gifts, The Swarthmore Co-op Way
Here are some options for sustainable gifts you can give. If you have questions, please contact us.
1. The Cost of Hunger
Hunger and the cycle of poverty extract a cost from all members of a community, not just from those who are direct victims. It is through awareness that we as a people and a region can pull together to become agents of change. Help us show how 40,000 seeds can touch the lives of diverse members of the Philadelphia region and succeed in helping to feed those who need most.
The Cost of Hunger can only be produced with your support. Please help us realize this critical project so we can serve to stem the growing tide of food insecurity. Thanks to the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, your donation is tax-deductible.
Donors: Thanks to John Skelly, Terri Decker, Laura Sibson, Meg Favreau, and Cubist Media Group for your generous contributions towards realizing this project.
http://thecostofhunger.com/donate.php
2. Heifer International:
Is an organization whose mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth. By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, they empower them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope.
With gifts of livestock and training, Heifer projects help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways. They refer to the animals as "living loans" because in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of its animal's offspring to another family in need. It's called Passing on the Gift – a cornerstone of their mission that creates an ever-expanding network of hope and peace.
Gift the gift of a monetary donation by visiting their website today. There are many options of giving such as a monthly donation, an express one time giving, or you can even start a gift registry for a birthday or wedding!
http://www.heifer.org/
3. Swarthmore Co-op Gift Baskets
Not sure what to give that special someone? Your local Co-op now provides the full service of gift baskets. We can create a themed gift basket for you or you can create your own custom gift basket which we can wrap and deliver (within the local area). Inquire within for details and pricing.
GIFT BASKET MENU (pdf)
4. CSAs
The Swarthmore Co-op has great options for 2013.
Greener Partners & Hillside Farm | 5 miles, Elwyn PA
(Swarthmore Co-op Pick-Up)
Hillside Farm is operated by Greener Partners, a non-profit organization that envisions a world where everyone has access to locally grown, organic food. In addition to our farms, we have developed youth programs to connect youth and teens with the foods we eat. These programs often use our farms as classrooms, or the food grown on the land as a teaching tool. Our interactive Workshop series for adults provides educational workshops to deliver knowledge about the many “lost arts” from our agricultural and cultural past, including cooking, cultivating, preserving and self-care. Read more...
Herrcastle Farms | 66 miles, Holtwood, PA
(Swarthmore Co-op Pick-Up)
We have been farming for the last 28-years, proudly producing and marketing our farm raised fruit and vegetables in the Southeastern Pennsylvania region. Our unparalleled commitment to high quality, customer service, and overall value are why our customers keep returning.
Our CSA is unique; we offer more than vegetables since we raise our own fruit on the farm. Herrcastle Farm provides a “subscription CSA service" where you subscribe for a season of high quality, safe, freshly picked fruit and vegetables. Your share is delivered weekly to one of our CSA drop sites for 22-weeks. Read more...
5. Philadelphia Cowshare
Philly CowShare selects cows from local farms near Philadelphia in Lancaster, Chester, Delaware, and Mercer counties. They personally visit each farm and talk with the farmer to guarantee the cows are grass-fed and free of growth hormones and antibiotics. They also require the farm to follow sustainable, organic farming practices, but do not require the USDA organic certification.
What are cowshares you might ask…
A Philadelphia CowShare is a way for individual customers to buy high quality, local, grass-fed beef in bulk by splitting the purchase of a cow with other people.
By buying a CowShare, you can:
• Receive High Quality Grass-fed Beef
• Simplify Meal Planning
• Support Local Farmers and Butchers
Ordering:
Choose from 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, or full CowShares and order online; CowShares are evenly distributed across the available cuts of meat.
Visit their website for more information on ordering or stop by the Swarthmore Co-op who is partnering with Philadelphia Cowshare and will now carry their high quality of grass-fed beef for sale at the Meat counter.
http://www.phillycowshare.com/
6. Trickle Up
Trickle Up is committed to rigorously measuring outcomes in their work to help the very poorest people take the first steps out of extreme poverty. They use specially designed monitoring and evaluation tools to assess changes in participants' households—for example, food security, education, and reduced vulnerability—and to understand how such change occurs. With results on how a Trickle Up-supported business affects participants’ lives, they adjust their program to best address the needs of participants and help them maximize positive outcomes for themselves and their families.
Trickle UP uses approaches such as grants, savings groups, skills training and partnerships to help those in extreme poverty in various parts of the world. Visit their website to see how you can help. Monetary donations are accepted but you could also give the gift of a water pump to a needy village or a weaving loom for a woman to provide for herself and her family or business training to train women on how to identify products, suppliers and wholesale markets, and on product display, pricing, stock maintenance, good business practices and selling.
http://www.trickleup.org/Giving-Catalog.cfm
7. Doctors without Borders
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. Today, MSF provides independent, impartial assistance in more than 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters.
For more information about Doctors without borders visit their website. You can donate a one-time payment, a monthly donation or a tribute donation (in someone else’s name).
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
8. Growing Power
Growing Power is a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.
To find out more about Growing Power and the gifts you can give check out their website:
http://www.growingpower.org/index.htm
9. Salad bars to schools
Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools is a comprehensive grassroots public health effort to mobilize and engage stakeholders at the local, state and national level to support salad bars in schools. Their vision is to significantly increase salad bars in schools across the country until every child has the choice of healthy fruits and vegetables every day at school.
Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools is an initiative of the Food Family Farming Foundation, National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, United Fresh Produce Association Foundation and Whole Foods Markets to support First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative. The goal of Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools is to fund and award 6000 salad bars by the end of 2013. Learn more about how to get support for bringing a salad bar to a school in your community at:
http://www.saladbars2schools.org
10. Slow Food USA
Slow Food USA is part of a global movement that believes everyone has the right to good, clean, and fair food. With over 250,000 supporters, 25,000 members and 225 chapters nationwide, the organization advocates for food and farming policy that is good for the public, good for the planet, and good for farmers and workers.
In the United States, members of Slow Food USA’s 225 chapters (as part of a global movement) celebrate the amazing bounty of food that is available, and work to strengthen the connection between the food on our plates and the health of our planet. Their members are involved in activities such as:
• Raising public awareness, improving access and encouraging the enjoyment of foods that are local, seasonal and sustainably grown
• Caring for the land and protecting biodiversity for today's communities and future generations
• Performing educational outreach within their communities and working with children in schools and through public programs
• Identifying, promoting and protecting fruits, vegetables, grains, animal breeds, wild foods and cooking traditions at risk of disappearance
• Advocating for farmers and artisans who grow, produce, market, prepare and serve wholesome food
• Promoting the celebration of food as a cornerstone of pleasure, culture and community
To learn more about how to become a Slow Foods Member and the benefits of membership or to learn more about the local events and fundraising initiatives they have in your area, go to their website:
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php
11. Swarthmore Co-op Membership
Visit our Membership Hub for more information
12. Three Springs Fruit Farm:
A sustainable, independent, family owned and operated American farm!
Three Springs fruit farm is located between Gettysburg and Carlisle in Northern Adams County (PA). Three Springs fruit farm is family owned and operated for over 100 years! Three Springs has a wide variety of apples, peaches, cherries, apricots, pears and small fruits. Farming on 350 acres, Three Springs is a diversified operation with an emphasis on sustainability - gaining their Food Alliance certification in 2010.
You can give the gift of Three Springs produce by visiting their website or by finding out when they’ll be in town at the Headhouse Farmers Market in Philadelphia.
http://www.threespringsfruitfarm.com/