Skookum Food Provisioners' Cooperative – Page 13

A fresh look at Skookum

Ah, the promise of spring is in the air as those earliest tree buds and flowers pop, it’s a good time to take a fresh look at what Skookum does and can do, with your help.

We are a network of regular folks sharing the knowledge, skills and supports to grow, gather, raise, catch, preserve, prepare and access local, healthful food.

We chose the non-profit, cooperative model because we feel that a network of ‘members helping members’ under our collectively-owned, democratic umbrella is the best way to make local food happen for our members and the larger community. Our actions include raising public awareness of topics related to personal food sovereignty via member-run workshops, events and gatherings, projects, presentations, work parties, film screenings, group buying clubs (like our own The Abundant Pantry bulk food buying club, our Tattler reusable canning lids, Eternal Seed and Rancho Vignola fruit/nut bulk purchases), that all aim at strengthening our network of engaged citizens, while increasing our individual and collective self-reliance when it comes to good, healthful food, as locally-sourced as possible.

One great way anyone can learn how to grow at least some of their own food is through attending Seedy Saturday this coming Saturday! Drop by and see us at Seedy Saturday on March 9 at the Powell River Recreation Complex (10am-3pm) at 5001 Joyce Avenue, for a chat.

Click to find out more... — Click to find out more…

If you want to help out with public events like this above (the Newcomers’ Social is coming up April 23, for example), or come up with our own events like hosting a film screening or guest speaker… let us know, and we’ll help you make it happen.

Also, for you writers/bloggers out there, please feel free to send us your pithy prose on how Skookum works its way into your food-related solutions (how you learned to can, dehydrate, etc.) ; we’d all love to hear from you. Just send us your writing via email to skookum@skookumfood.ca, and we’ll handle the rest.

Have a more concrete project or workshop or event idea and want Skookum to help you run it? You can contact us to submit a short proposal via email to skookum@skookumfood.ca, and we’ll get back to you. For ideas on what a project can look like, visit our past projects page.

Let us know what your interests are and how you’d like to help make your cooperative even better, take our on-going Members’ Skills Survey.

A Few On-going Projects

We just completed a bulk order of more Tattler reusable BPA-free canning lids (on sale to members soon), as well as a Rancho Vignola clearance order for our members only, and as you can see below The Abundant Pantry is ready for the next order…

Keep the evening of Thursday May 2 free, as this is the date of our Annual General Meeting (more on this shortly).

Click above to get the acorn rolling... — Click above to get the acorn rolling…

For you lucky The Abundant Pantry (TAP) Members: Your March bulk food order cycle closes this Sunday, March 10th, at 11:00 pm, so now is the time to become a member of TAP and to shop for the best prices and food quality, while stocking up your pantry. Find out how to become a member here.

Thank you. And here are the winners…

Thank you members, for taking the quick-n-easy Skookum Members’ Skills survey by the deadline of February 14th! The Survey has since been Re-opened, and we’d like the rest of the membership to also consider filling it out too (click here), as we feel it’s important to gauge our collective capacity.

More Than Honey plays at the Patricia Theatre on Saturday, February 10:30am. $8/$6 students/seniors.

The winners of 2 pairs of tickets each to the Powell River Film Festival (Feb 19-24, 2013), including tickets to More Than Honey and to the opening gala reception/film A Royal Affair….

Skookum members Eva Van Loon and Karen Munro!

Thanks for playing and happy viewing!

The results (with no names attached) of the survey will be revealed shortly, so please take the survey as soon as you can (click here)!

Show us what you love to do & win film festival tickets!

Click the picture to take the 3-minute survey and you can win tickets for 2 to the Powell River Film Festival (Feb 19-24, 2013) — Click the picture to take the 2-minute survey and you can win tickets for 2 to the Powell River Film Festival (Feb 19-24, 2013)

As a cooperative, we want to know more about you: what your concerns are, what your skills and interests are, and what you feel you can do to help strengthen our cooperative and the larger community. We encourage each member to commit to initiating or participating in projects, joining a committee, serving on the board of directors, and helping with events and tasks as they arise. No pressure, though. Just take the short ‘n snappy survey now (2 minutes of your time) click here BY THURSDAY FEBRUARY 14 (yes, Valentine’s Day) and we will return the love via a random draw of two pairs of tickets for two, to the Powell River Film Festival (Feb 19-24, 2013)!

If you’ve already taken this survey, thank you! You are automatically entered in our random draw!

Food Issues at the Powell River 2013 Film Festival

Many thanks to you who helped make our winter get-together potluck happen last Wednesday, especially chef Jacqueline Huddleston. It sounded like a smashing good time to those of us who were too under-the-weather to attend.

Well, that’s winter for ya. On to spring!

With the Powell River Film Festival coming up Feb. 19-24 at The Patricia Theatre (with Arts Mosaic and community tables at Dwight Hall), here are two films, both screening on Saturday, Feb 23, that have food as a central concern. Do keep in mind that there are several other films that deal with topics like climate change (the spectacular Chasing Ice), social change (Occupy Love), and the intersection of environmental protection, stewardship, and art (Reflections:Art For An Oil-Free Coast and local filmmaker Jeremy Williams’ St’at’imckalh), all with local and international implications on the food system as well. See all the 20+ film selections at this year’s festival here. Note that these will be showing at The Patricia Theatre this year; buy tickets early to avoid disappointment (at Breakwater Books, at Patricia Theatre, Armitage Men’s Wear, and online).

MORE THAN HONEY
Over the last decade, millions of bees have disappeared worldwide. Is this a one-time anomaly or are we facing total system collapse? Looking for answers, director Markus Imhoof, grandson of a professional beekeeper, travels to interview experts ranging from beekeepers to scientists. Employing the latest in film-making technology to observe phenomena inside the hive, in blossoms and during flight, Imhoof leaves us with a sense of wonder and awe mixed with urgency
over the fate of the world’s bees.

More Than Honey is distinguished for its international perspective as Imhoof charts how the bee crisis is being experienced in different parts of the world. Imhoof highlights the pressure caused by the continually growing pyramid of the global economy, at the base of which we can find, and must not forget, the insects. Bees have become chain workers, a machine expected to function upon the simple push of a button. Certainly a lot more than honey is at stake. Without bees, modern society will be radically different and some question whether it can survive at all. What separates this work from earlier films on the
subject is that Imhoof proposes a possible solution.

BITTER SEEDS
This deeply affecting, character-driven film exposes the issues surrounding a rash of farmer suicides in India. Bitter Seeds masterfully weaves a rich tapestry of compelling human stories and subplots, allowing you to enter a world that is both personal and profound.
With industrial agriculture seemingly thriving in India, why have a staggering 250,000 farmers committed suicide in the past 16 years? Touching down in Telung Takli, intrepid documentarian Micha X. Peled traces the roots of this epidemic to an all-too-familiar villain: biotech giant Monsanto. Also seeking answers, and hopefully solutions, is aspiring journalist Manjusha Amberwar. After her father took his own life, she wants to stop other farmers, including her distraught uncle, from meeting an identical fate. Her quest not only requires her to knock on doors, but also to break through India’s glass ceiling for women. Skilfully weaving together an economic, agricultural and sociological narrative, while above all telling a number of different human stories, we engage not only with the struggle, but also in a possible way of escape.

It’s on! Members’ Skills Survey

As a cooperative, we encourage each member to commit to initiating or participating in projects, joining a committee, serving on the board of directors, and helping with events and tasks as they arise. Take the short ‘n snappy survey now (2 minutes of your time) click here.

Short Survey & New Addition to Wednesday Jan 23 Event

Members’ Skills Survey

As a cooperative, we encourage each member to commit to initiating or participating in projects, joining a committee, serving on the board of directors, and helping with events and tasks as they arise. Take the shortissimo survey now (2 minutes of your time) tap here.

Eternal_Seed_140 — Tap to visit their site

Our local Eternal Seed company has agreed to come to our event and sell packets of seeds to our members from their catalogue tax-free, plus they will donate 5% of sales to Skookum Food Provisioners’ Cooperative. So, there is some more incentive for you.

This will be our seed project for this year, folks. There may be a large cover crop order later on, but this is your chance to get in on a members-only sale of veggies/herbs/flowers. Additionally Ellen from Eternal Seed says: “If people want seed we don’t have with us (should not be many varieties) then we will offer to deliver in town one day and phone them to do so.” How cool is that? Please come to our laid-back feast this Wed. Jan 23 @ 7PM.

On the foodie side of things, our main courses will include…Chef Jacqueline Huddleston’s Vegan/Gluten-free NutLoaf and Vegetarian Creamy Leek Bread Pudding and Cranberry Chutney!), and YOU bring a dessert or salad or appetizer/side. Bring what you like, the more local the better. And if you’re rushed, just bring yourselves. Seriously. The event will take place at the United Church’s Trinity Hall (Michigan at Duncan, kitty-corner to City Hall) in Powell River starting at 7:00 PM sharp.