Super Fruit and Veggies! at Howe Library

The Honest Weight Food Co-op outreach team spent Thursday afternoon at the Howe Public Library with 20 very excited kids building sculptures out of fresh fruits and veggies!

Hip Dips at North Albany Library

The Honest Weight Food Co-op outreach team spent the afternoon at the North Albany Library making hip dips as a part of our Ready, Set, Grow! program and community outreach & education efforts. The kids made a Groovy Grasshopper, Creamy dill & chili bean dip with platefuls of fresh colorful veggies. It was a lot of fun!

Making Mexcian Rice at The Troy Art Center Summer Camp

Honest Weight Food Co-op's Outreach Coordinator, Mariah Dahl spent last Monday afternoon at The Troy Art Center's summer camp mixing up a delicious and healthy afternoon snack. The students worked together as a team, cooked Mexican brown rice, real hot chocolate and made el dia de muerte skeletons from dried pasta.

Food for Thought: Taking Root

Food For Thought: An Evening of Socially Relevant Cinema
Taking Root

Thursday May 20th
Reception 6pm
Film 7pm
Discussion follows film
$6 at the door

Co-presented by the Honest Weight Food Co-op and WAMC’s Documentary Film Series, Food For Thought is a monthly evening of food, film and discussion with a focus on films of social, political, environmental and community interest. Held on the third Thursday of each month, the night will feature food samples by Honest Weight Food Co-op, a feature film screening, and an open panel discussion. For more information and ticket sales visit: http://www.wamcarts.org/

About the film: Taking Root: The Vision Of Wangari Maathai is the story of the growth of a woman and the grassroots movement she founded, the Green Belt Movement of Kenya. Together they have transformed their country and our understanding of the integral connections of sustainable development, ecological diversity, human rights, and democracy.

Planting trees for fuel and food is not something that anyone imagined as the first step toward the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet with that simple act, Wangari Maathai started down the path that led her to organize rural Kenyan women in a tree-planting project that reclaimed their land from 100 years of deforestation, restored indigenous agriculture, provided new sources of income, and gave these previously impoverished and powerless women a vital role in their country. They became Kenya's Green Belt Movement: their small organization found itself working successively against ignorance, against prejudice, against embedded economic interests, and political oppression, until they became a national force and in the face of violent government reaction helped to bring down Kenya's dictatorship. The Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 recognized Maathai for her 30-year struggle "to protect the environment, promote democracy, defend human rights, and ensure equality between men and women." In so doing, it also presented to the world a model of personal courage in her determination to follow the links from poverty to development, climate, economics, and democracy.

Guest panelists to include:
Lisa Merton, Director - Lisa started out her career as a weaver. She studied textile design and weaving in Scandinavia and, after returning to the U.S., worked professionally as a weaver for ten years. While studying in Norway she was inspired by a series of tapestries that depicted the occupation of Norway by the Nazis. Her intent was to weave tapestry and use it as an art form for social change but instead she ended up as a production weaver. It was not until she started making films in 1989 that she fulfilled her intent to weave images that could inspire social change. She has a Masters in Teaching English and has taught English as a second language in multi-cultural classrooms. She brings her interest in education, cultural diversity, and social change, as well as her skill as a craftsman, to the filmmaking process.

Hope to see you there!

Film and Reception: Addicted to Plastic

The Honest Weight Food Co-op will be co-sponsoring with the The Sanctuary for Independent Media a reception, screening, and discussion featuring the film








"Addicted to Plastic: The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle"

On Saturday, May 15, 2010 beginning at 7 PM. Admission is by donation ($10 suggested, $5 student/low income).

The Sanctuary for Independent Media is located at 3361 6th Avenue in North Troy (at 101st Street); visit www.MediaSanctuary.org, email info@MediaSanctuary.org or phone 518-272-2390 for more information and directions.

From 7-8 PM, there will be an interactive reception to offer everyday alternatives to using plastic. The Honest Weight Food Coop’s "Homemade To Go" demo will give ideas on how to stop buying ready-made food in plastic tubs, and start making your own to-go items. Other local ecological resources and businesses will be charting routes to a less plastic-filled life.

At 8 PM, the film "Addicted to Plastic: The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle" will show the history and scope of plastics pollution around the world, and explore solutions. Filmmaker Ian Connacher tells the story of plastic’s ubiquity, having filmed on 5 continents and visited the so-called plastic island floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The documentary presents grim facts, but offers viewers practical steps to address this environmental problem on a personal level.

From styrofoam cups to artificial organs, plastics are perhaps the most ubiquitous and versatile material ever invented. No invention in the past 100 years has had more influence and presence than synthetics. But such progress has had a cost.

For better and for worse, no ecosystem or segment of human activity has escaped the shrink-wrapped grasp of plastic. "Addicted To Plastic" is a global journey to investigate what we really know about the material of a thousand uses and why there's so darn much of it. On the way we discover a toxic legacy, and the men and women dedicated to cleaning it up.

Following the film, local recycling and reuse expert Steve Davis will facilitate a discussion on how to incorporate the film’s information and suggestions into everyday life on a personal level and beyond, at a community level. Davis’ company Ecolibrium helps residential and business customers be sustainable by providing multiple services in the area of reuse, resale and recycling.

Hope to see you there!

Food For Thought: An Evening of Socially Relevant Cinema

HWFC & WAMC present
"The Visitors"
Food for Thought: An Evening of Socially Relevant Cinema

Thursday, April 15th,
6:00 PM reception
7:00 PM film
$6

Co-presented by the Honest Weight Food Co-op and WAMC's Documentary Film Series, Food For Thought is a monthly evening of food, film and discussion with a focus on films of social, political, environmental and community interest. Held on the third Thursday of each month, the night features food samples by Honest Weight Food Co-op, a feature film screening, and an open panel discussion.



About the film: In 1960, approximately 330,000 people were behind bars in USA. Since then, “three strikes” laws and “zero tolerance” policies wiped out many low level offenders. As a result America’s inmate population soared to 2.3 million having an enormous impact on the poor and minorities. There are now 70 prisons in New York State. Although 60 percent of all prisoners in New York State come from New York City, 95 percent of these prisons are located upstate, in remote rural towns and villages, like Attica, Dannemora, and Malone. Every Friday night about 800 people, mostly women and children, almost all of them African American and Latino, gather at Columbus Circle in Manhattan and board buses for the north. Depending on the destination, the whole visiting trip can take up to 25 hours. Most of the passengers make this trip every weekend for many years and in some cases decades.


The Visitors represent a unique and an under served community with common problems, joy and endeavors that has given birth to a subculture with habits, experience, dreams – and even a language – characteristics to themselves.


Guest panelists:
Dennis Mosley - Is a long-time community activist who has worked professionally and voluntarily promoting alternative sentencing and restorative justice models. Dennis also has a passion for the arts and independent film. In 2002, Dennis was a partner in Roots 2 Reels, a project dedicated to works by and about people of color and their allies. This endeavor brought four films to Albany Law School, including Litany for Survival about legendary poet Audre Lorde. The film series also brought the Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, Jonathan Stack (The Farm: Angola) to Albany to discuss his work. In 2003, Dennis partnered with other film enthusiasts to begin the Albany Independent Film Forum, a film series at the Albany Public Library. Two of the featured films of Albany Independent Film Forum that included discussions with the filmmakers were Big Pun: Still Not a Player, the raw and painful story of Christopher Rios, aka BIG PUNISHER, the first Latino hip-hop artist to go platinum, and Love and Diane, an unsentimental look into the lives of a family mired in the social welfare system.

Originally from the town of Hempstead on Long Island, Dennis has spent most of past thirty years in Albany, where he takes pride in raising his 10-year old daughter, Sierra.


Alison Coleman - Director and founder, created Prison Families of New York, Inc. as a response to her husband going to prison for 25 years to life for a non-violent crime. Incorporated in 1987, PFNY has developed from providing direct client services on a local basis to statewide organizing, policy advisement and advocacy on prison family and re-entry issues. During these years, Alison also worked for The Osborne Association in Brooklyn, NY running the first and only hotline in the nation for prison families. She has raised 2 children, worked with her husband, who was released in October, 2005, to keep their marriage and family intact, provides information and inspiration to prison families across the country and training (often with Jay and their daughter, Cecily), technical assistance and policy development to agencies, advocacy groups statewide and NYS government.


Judith Brink - Judith moved to Albany in 1999 to study at Albany Medical Center's Clinical Pastoral Care program, where a call to the hospital's Secure Unit late one night brought her face to face with an incarcerated young man and a system that seemed all wrong. For the past 5 years she has been the Director of Prison Action Network, a criminal justice and prison reform organization, She has been a promoter of The Visitors documentary since she first met the filmmaker in 2006, and presented a "rough cut" at Family Empowerment Day 3 in Albany in 2007, and a "next to a final edit" at Family Empowerment Day 4 in NYC in 2008. Many of those who attended those events had been visitors and some of them even appear in tonight's film. She dedicates her reform efforts to the memory of Ricky Philbert, the incarcerated man she met at Albany Med., who taught her that not everyone in prison belonged there, and that her true calling was in the struggle to correct the system. Visit http://prisonaction.blogspot.com for updates on issues of incarceration.


Charles LaCourt - Born and raised in the public housing projects of Spanish Harlem in New York City. Despite a loving family and catholic school education he became immersed into the hard core criminal lifestyle of New York City – selling drugs, robberies and a chronic heroin-cocaine addiction. This 28 year experience resulted in numerous arrests, four felony convictions for selling drugs and robbery; and three state prison sentences.

Since 1996 Charles has been drug free and crime free; he is a community activist in the city of Albany who works with youth, the formerly incarcerated and community empowerment.

Charles has been program manager for the AIDS Council of Northeastern New York’s Intensive Case Management Program, facilitated a father’s educational support group at Albany County Bright Beginnings Program, served as coordinator for the Center for Law and Justice’s Prevention and Empowerment Program (PREP) and been a clinical supervisor for Adolescent Employability Skills Program in Albany.

A recipient of the 2006 Phoenix Award from the NYS Hispanic Heritage Month Committee and the WFP 2007 Community Activist of the Year he co-founded ROOTS (Reentry Opportunities and Orientations Towards Success) which assists formerly incarcerated men and women to make a positive reentry back into their communities.

He is currently a Community Prosecution Coordinator at the Albany County District Attorney’s Office and sits on the NYS Reentry Advisory Group.


Info: http://www.wamcarts.org/artsched.html

The Linda, WAMC's Performing Arts Studio 339 Central Ave, Albany, NY

Yummmmy! Creamy Dill Dip

This Wednesday, April 14th the Honest Weight Food co-op's Outreach Team will be at the College of St. Rose's health fair sampling homemade creamy dill dip with carrots and broccoli.

The recipe is very easy and fun to do with kids or as a fast appetizer for your next potluck dinner.

*My favorite is substituting mayonnaise for vegenaise. If you or your family is lactose intolerant, you can also substitute plain yogurt with soy yogurt.

*Dips are a fun way to get kids excited about eating raw veggies!

*If you are working with younger kids you can also have them cut the dill or scallions with clean craft style scissors instead of using knifes.

Library film series honors Earth Day 40

P.O. V.’s award-winning documentary The Chances of the World Changing opens Bethlehem Public Library’s environmental film series on Thursday April 8 at 7pm.
Filmmakers Eric Daniel Metzgar and Nell Carden Grey followed Richard Ogust, who dedicated fifteen years to rescuing and harboring endangered turtles bound for Southeast Asian food markets. When the filmmakers catch up with the 50-year-old writer, he is sharing his Manhattan loft with 1,200 turtles, including five species extinct in the wild. But his growing "ark" and preservation efforts are threatening to exhaust him, both mentally and financially.
With luminous images and a haunting musical score, the film documents two years in the life of a man who finds himself struggling to save hundreds of lives, including his own.
This event is a collaboration with P.O. V., the award-winning nonfiction film series from PBS. Find out more at www.pbs.org/pov.

The April 8 screening is preceded at 6pm with “Live Turtles,” a half-hour program for families about local efforts to rescue and rehabilitate turtles. Presenter Dee Strnisa is a Five Rivers water education specialist who has been rescuing and rehabilitating reptiles and amphibians for over twenty years. She will bring several live specimens, and answer questions at the end of her talk.

The film series continues on Saturday April 10 at 1pm with Eating Alaska, a documentary by Ellen Frankenstein about balancing processed and locally grown foods.

At 2pm, Mariah Dahl of Honest Weight Food Co-op talks about eating locally and sustainably.

A screening of Food, Inc. follows at 3pm. Nominated for a 2010 Academy Award, this documentary by Robert Kenner focuses on the industry that underlies the nation’s food supply.

The series honors the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. All events are free and open to the public.
For more information visit: http://www.bethlehempubliclibrary.org/

Food Sustianability with the Stakeholders Inc.

The Honest Weight Food co-op will be participating in a panel of local experts as they explore food sustainability from multiple perspectives on Thursday March 11th.

WHAT: Food & Sustainability Panel Discussion - What are the importance of local food options and food security if we are going to make our region more sustainable?

Join our panel of local leaders in this important discussion:

Mariah Dahl, Outreach Coordinator, Honest Weight Food Co-op

Scott Kellogg, Founder, The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center,

Shannon Hayes, Sap Bush Hollow Farm, Author of The Grassfed Gourmet and The Farmer and the Grill

WHEN: Thursday, March 11, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Albany Public Library,

Pine Hills Branch

PRICE: $10 - PAY ONLINE; Space is limited, so

please RSVP to sustainability@thestakeholders.org

Honest Weight Food Co-op at Kids Expo

This Saturday the Honest Weight Food Co-op's deli and bakery will be at the 5th annual Kid's Expo at the Empire Plaza on March 7th from 10am-5pm selling delicious and nutritious snacks and lunches! The event is will include fun and exciting activities all day long.

Some of the items the deli will be selling are fresh and crispy celery and carrots with our famous bomb-digity dill dips, R.W. Knudsen spritzers, organic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and yummy homemade organic cookies!

We will also be showcasing some eco-friendly reusable snack and lunch containers, for example one of my favorites snacktaxi's super cool sandwich bag, bamboo eating utensils and fun kid friendly cookbooks!

Hope to see you there and don't forget to stop by and say Hi!

Super Fruit and Veggies! at Roseville Elementary

This week the Honest Weight Food Co-op outreach team spent the afternoon at Roseville Elementary School with group of kindergartners playing with food!

The activity is called "Fruit and Veggie Sculptures" and is a part of Honest Weight Food Co-op's Ready, Set, Grow! program geared at introducing a variety of healthy, natural and locally grown food to school children and to increase their knowledge of the origin of food.


In this activity the children read "Gus and Button" and built sculptures out of fresh fruits and veggies.

Honest Weight Food Co-op at New York in Bloom

One of upstate New York’s most anticipated winter events, New York in Bloom features more than 100 spectacular floral arrangements—each one designed to interpret a Museum exhibition—plus informative demonstrations and children’s activities. This year the Honest Weight Food Co-op is participating with a sustainably grown flower display in the warf section of museum.

New York in Bloom is the Museum’s signature fund-raising event to benefit its nationally recognized after-school programs for children and teens from Albany’s urban neighborhoods. The Museum Club and Discovery Squad provide a friendly and nurturing place for students to explore, discover, and challenge themselves through educational enrichment and work-based learning programs. For additional information, call (518) 474-5877.

Admission:
Friday, February 19: 9:30 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Cost: $5.00; Children 12 and under free when accompanied by an adult

Saturday & Sunday, February 20-21: 9:30 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Cost: $6.00*; Children 12 and under free when accompanied by an adult

* includes admission to the 16th Annual James E. Campbell Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show and Sale, with vendors displaying and selling gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils and much more (10:00 A.M.–5:00 P.M. Saturday and Sunday)

Food for Thought: No Impact Man

Food for Thought: No Impact Man

Co-presented by the Honest Weight Food Co-op and WAMC’s Documentary Film Series, Food For Thought is a monthly evening of food, film and discussion with a focus on films of social, political, environmental and community interest. Held on the third Thursday of each month, the night will feature food samples by Honest Weight Food Co-op, a feature film screening, and an open panel discussion.

$6 at the door/doors open 6pm at The Linda
339 Central Ave Albany NY
For more information or to purchase tickets:
http://www.wamcarts.org/

No Impact Man
Colin Beavan decides to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for the next year.It means eating vegetarian, buying only local food, and turning off the refrigerator. It also means no elevators, no television, no cars, busses, or airplanes, no toxic cleaning products, no electricity, no material consumption, and no garbage. No problem – at least for Colin – but he and his family live in Manhattan. So when his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two-year-old daughter are dragged into the fray, the No Impact Project has an unforeseen impact of its own.

Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's film provides an intriguing inside look into the experiment that became a national fascination and media sensation, while examining the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from Colin and Michelle’s struggle with their radical lifestyle change.

The panelist for the film include Shannon Hayes, Rob Morrell and Mariah Dahl...

Shannon Hayes is the host of grassfedcooking.com, and the author of The
Farmer and the Grill and The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook. Hayes works with
her family on Sap Bush Hollow Farm in Schoharie County, NY, where they
raise grassfed beef and lamb and pastured pork and poultry. Hayes' newest
book, Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity From a Consumer Culture
is due out in April. She holds a ph.d. in sustainable ag and community
development from Cornell University and has written for numerous national
publications, including the New York Times.


Rob Morrell is the Senior Land Surveyor for the New York Dept of Environmental Conservation or D.E.C. Jen and Rob are on long term plans to develop a pick your own Blueberry farm on our 65 acres. Their home was buillt a Energy Star home. The energy star program is overseen by NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority). NYSERDA's also oversees the State's "Net Metering" program. Through this program, we secured a grant to help pay for our 10 kw solar array. This array meets 100% of our home's electrical needs annually. They are able to sell excess electricity back to the utility co. They do not have a battery bank, although have used one in the past. They heat their home and hot water with a indoor , high efficiency wood gasification boiler. This boiler stores it's heat or BTU's in a 800 gallon insulated water tank in our basement. They consume far less wood than the outdoor wood boilers and the exhaust is much cleaner. They are very interested in the use of renewable sources of energy.

Mariah Rose Dahl is currently the Outreach Coordinator at the Honest Weight Food Co-op. She received her bachelors degree from University at Albany in Woman's Studies with a concentration in media justice and community activism. She holds a world music and underground hip-hop radio show called "Rebels With A Cause" on WCDB 90.9 FM. She spends her spare time engaged in community activism, promoting art and music as a tool for social change and traveling the world. Mariah spent most of her childhood living with her mother on a sustainable land trust of 350 rural acres in upstate NY. The cabin she grew up was located on a seasonal road, with solely snow shoe or snowmobile access during the winter. The cabin's water supply was gravity fed, while being heated solely by wood and propane lights. The small refrigerator ran on car batteries that were re-charged by a 350 watt generator.The summers were spent living in a tepee, swimming in the communal pond and working in the community garden. Mariah currently resides in Albany NY although she is member of The Land of Dawes, an earth spirituality community on 38 acres outside of Ithaca, NY.

In Vino Veritas- An Italian Wine and Cheese Tasting

This Friday the Honest Weight Food Co-op's very own cheese aficionado Gustav Ericson will be at The Friends of the Choir benefit fundraiser. The event will take place from 5:30-7:30pm at the Cathedral of All Saints. The event is the first in a series of several events to raise money for the Choir's planned trip to Rome, Italy and other European venues in February of 2011.

The event will be held in the grand nave of the Cathedral and will provide an opportunity to sample extraordinary Italian red and white wines and cheese provided Kinderhook Wine and Spirits (http://www.kinderwine.com/)And the cheese of Course! provided by the Honest Weight Food Co-op.

The boy choristers of the Cathedral Choir will be on hand to sing while patrons enjoy the finery of the offerings and splendor of the surroundings. To round out the experience all attendees will be provided with discounts for dinner at some of Albany's finest downtown restaurants including: Yono's, DP Brasserie; and the Hollywood Brown Derby.

The cost to attend is $50.00 per person in advance and $60.00 at the door. Tickets may be purchased by calling 1-800-838-3006, asking for event 95785 or through the Cathedral of All Saints website www.cathdralofallsaints.org

Hope to see you there!

Honest Weight Food Co-op at SUNY

This Thursday the HWFC Outreach Team will be at the SUNY Albany downtown campus participating in a local business fair sponsored by The Central Ave BID from 11:30-1:30. Students will have an opportunity enter a raffle to win a stellar HWFC gift basket packed with yummy nutritious goodies and a stainless steel water bottle for the grad on the go or a dorm room study session.

The HWFC will also be providing a DIY Message board project to all participants using recycled egg cartons from the store (Design idea compliments of Stella Rivet from mookychick.com)

As well as information on HWFC egg selling practices.

Food For Thought: FRESH

Food For Thought: An Evening of Socially Relevant Cinema
Fresh

Co-presented by the Honest Weight Food Co-op and WAMC’s Documentary Film Series, Food For Thought is a monthly evening of food, film and discussion with a focus on films of social, political, environmental and community interest. Held on the third Thursday of each month, the night will feature food samples by Honest Weight Food Co-op, a feature film screening, and an open panel discussion. Doors open at 6pm, film starts at 7pm. $6 at the door.
FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

See you there!

Haiti Fund Drive

Honest Weight Food Co-op is currently excepting donations in increments of $1, $5 and $10. For more information as a HWFC staff member or the service desk.

For for information on The Cooperative Emergency Fund you can visit http://www.cdf.coop/

Scout Sleepover Night With the Albany River Rats

This Saturday the Honest Weight Food Co-op will be at the Times Union Center with the Albany River Rats vs. Bridgeport Sound Tigers.



Local Scout troops will be spending the night at the Times Union Center.

Honest Weight Food Co-op will be providing the scouts with delicious samples of real organic popcorn popped on an old style popcorn maker.