Just over two years ago, fresh off my first summer working on a farm, Eliza Hetterly invited me to a small potluck gathering to talk about ways that we, as students and members of the Newark community, could improve our connections with our food, our farms, and each other. The pure electricity generated in the passion and excitement in that first potluck refused to fizzle, and has only grown bigger and brighter with each passing year since. We call it the Down To Earth Food Co-op. Once a small, ragged, rough-around-the-edges-in-a-good-way collective, now a large, ragged, rough-around-the-edges-in-a-good-way cooperative with 501(c)3 status to boot. Over 70 members, countless dinners held, monthly community dinners a regular hit, hundreds of hours spent on local farms. But for me, now watching the co-op thrive and grow from afar, it is above all else a reminder of what can happen when you bring together a few people who care about one another as much as they care about a cause, who are willing to sweat on a Saturday morning farm shift and cry sweet onion tears on a Saturday evening cooking shift, who know no other way to approach problems but together. The Co-Op just completed its third annual board elections, bringing in a mix of incredible veteran leadership and new, fresh minds. Maintaining a co-op requires remembrance of roots and principles, but a willingness to never take any structure for granted, and to keep yourself in a constant state of creative revolution. Congratulations Clarke Snell, Erica Elizabeth, Tanya Krapf, Madeleine Rouviere, Jake Kairis, Liz Racca, Nathan Harlan. Im proud of you all (even those of you I dont know well), thank you being a part of this.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 21:39:01 +0000
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