This ongoing volunteer campaign aimed at helping get more fresh food for sale in Delridge has sent a few updates this morning – including Delridge Produce Cooperative‘s upcoming participation in the next two weekend’s biggest West Seattle events, the Sustainable West Seattle Festival (Sunday 5/3) and West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (Saturday 5/9), as well as one more chance to enter a contest — read on!

We have elected Galena White for board president and solidified our board as consisting of Heidi Suarez, Jennifer Grant, Jackie Gruenwald, Lashanna Williams and Ranette Iding. Our presentation at the Gathering of Neighbors went wonderfully, with lots of volunteer pledges collected!

Mobile Market: We are now waiting to discover whether we have been awarded the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Small and Simple Neighborhood Matching Fund grant; we should know at least by the middle of May. We will begin mass work on the ‘Mobile Market’ project on May 1st, and we are now in the process of organizing the volunteers for that effort. Attached, you will find the rough schedule (“Timetable”) for the activities that will make up the project. We need people to volunteer to work on these activities; so if you have an interest in any of those areas, please let us know. We are also looking for team leaders for the committees for each of those tasks except for Volunteer Organizer and Translations, so if you’re good at organizing, this is a chance to make a difference.

Tote Bag Art Contest: The deadline is tomorrow, and we have still only received three submissions. If you wish to enter, please design a black-and-white image which represents your desire to see a produce cooperative on Delridge. It should be less than a foot square on non-cardstock-weight paper and have (attached) your full name, address, phone number and email address. Place it in the envelope marked, “Delridge Produce Co-Op,” in the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association office at 5411 Delridge Way SW by April 28th, 2009. 1st prize $48, 2nd prize $32, 3rd prize $16. Winners will be informed May 12th, 2009.

Sustainable West Seattle Festival: We are teaming up with Seattle Permaculture Meetup to put on a presentation from 10am to 3pm on May 3rd at SW Alaska St. & 44th Avenue SW. Panelists for the theme of ‘*Building Resilience in our Local Community*’ include:
Richard Conlin: President, Seattle City Council; Introduced “Local Food
Initiative,” which became policy in Seattle.
Mary Embleton: Executive Director, Cascade Harvest Coalition,
Aviva Furman: Executive Director, Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle.
Galena White: President, Delridge Produce Cooperative
Jack Wagstaff: Operations Manager, West Seattle Food Bank
There will be an activity at our table to make your own seed balls, which are full of ‘guilds’ of seeds that help each other grow.

West Seattle Garage Sale Day: As a fundraiser for the co-op, we are participating in this event (May 9th), for which we will have a space in the courtyard of Hotwire Coffee, which has graciously allowed us use for free (4410 California Ave SW). If you have a couple salable items that you’d like to get rid of (but don’t want to hold a sale), you can donate them to the Delridge Produce Cooperative – just stop by our stall early on the day of the sale. We also need someone with a truck or large trunk to help us get stuff from a couple houses to the sale – let us know if you can help! Stop by and see us – we’ll have cool stuff like clothes, handmade totes, a hexagonal light enclosure for growing plants indoors, and a water distillation unit. Material donations to the co-op are not yet tax-deductible in this case, since it is a fundraiser for the co-op and not the ‘Mobile Market’ project.

West Seattle Edible Garden Fair: On May 23rd we’ll be presenting to attendees at this event, which is designed to help people grow their own groceries. South Seattle Community College (6000 16th Ave SW) from 9:30 am to 4pm, with free food!

Meetings are still being held every week, with a general invitation to the public. If the meeting is closed to all but board members, it will say so in the event details; please check the calendar regularly for information about what we’re up to next:
http://sites.google.com/site/delridgeproducecooperative/calendar-of-events