But how best to celebrate?  A lot depends on your budget, of course, but if it is the thought that counts, let’s be as thoughtful as possible.  The simplest thing to start with is a card.  A Mother’s Day theme is great, but forgo the Hallmark sentiment and write something straight from the heart.  You can be sure that it will be one piece of hopefully recycled paper that WON’T find its way back to the landfill.  A simple bouquet of flowers in a vase with the card in front is as beautiful a centerpiece in the eyes of mom as any you could find in Buckingham Palace.  Right now we’ve also got a wonderful selection of hydrangea that will say “I love you, mom” in living color.

Following that theme, you can up the ante and get mom a potted plant for indoor display or the garden.  It’s the floral arrangement that daily speaks of your affection.  And if you go with the outdoor option, we’ve got some wonderful garden art and accessories that range from the funky to the sublime — from gnomes to wind chimes.

If mom likes to cook — especially if she likes to cook for you — there are any number of gift ideas.  We’ve got some great cookbooks in the store, but what I would especially recommend is that you hang out in our Housewares Department for at least half an hour.  It will take that long for just a cursory glance at all of the various kitchen aids and gadgets we have, from spatulas (spatuli?) to cherry stoners (seriously), Cuisinart appliances and Fagor pressure cookers.  And if you really have some atoning to do for that gray in mom’s hair, just remember that Le Creuset is French for, “Mother, forgive me for being such a miserable kid.”

If mom likes chocolate, a sampler of our many different chocolates from handmade truffles to packaged bars from local and fair trade sources will delight her — especially if you pair that selection with a bag of organic espresso beans (if she needs to stay awake past 8:00) or a fine port wine or other selection from the Wine Shop (for a more mellow mood). Just tell the staff what type of chocolate you’ve bought, and they’ll come up with a pairing that will arm mom with bragging rights at the next bridge club gathering — scout’s honor.

Of all the Co-op departments, the one least likely to miss the mark with the pickiest mom is Health & Beauty.  Here I would have to go with the gift basket idea.  You can supply your own basket, or give us a budget and some idea of what you’d like to include, and we’ll take it from there.  Combine a brilliantly colored scarf as a functional wrapping, and nest a variety of oils, lotions, funky socks, perfumes, lip gloss, soaps, and any number of items to pamper and enhance the woman who gave birth to you.  Lord knows you caused at least a few of those wrinkles…and laugh lines.

A final suggestion might be the greatest gift of all for many a mother: the gift of your time.  We’d recommend spending that gift in the kitchen, fixing a Mother’s Day brunch (“brunch” being a derivative of the Latin word for, “I hate to get up early and cook”).  A simple breakfast of fruit and scones, or perhaps some scrambled eggs with cheese and some Canadian bacon or handmade Co-op sausage (oh, yeah!), can be a real luxury when you’re not the one who has to cook it.  And it doesn’t take long to prepare.  And if mom isn’t averse to a little bit of bubbly with her repast, you might want to take the advice of Co-op Wine Shop manager Leslie Young and pour her a glass or three of Domaine Ste. Michelle’s Cuvee Brut for a taste of Eastern Washington’s Columbia Valley terroir.

Just remember, however you roll on Mother’s Day, make it a gesture straight from the heart.  You can’t buy sincerity, and along with your love, that’s what means most to mothers.  Call it cheesy, call it a crass commercial holiday…or simply think of it as one day in the year when you can treat your mother the way you know in your heart that you should on the other 364.  It’s all up to you.  We just want you to know that, like mom, we’ve got your back.

A Co-op Mother’s Day Poem

A dinner that I made for you.

Perhaps a scarf of brilliant hue.

Some aromatic moisture cream,

Or perfume that will make you dream

Of all the cherished days to come,

On this your moment in the sun.

It’s Susan Colwell’s job (or labor of love, as you like) to make sure that we bring in the best plants for our growing conditions in the Treasure Valley — and she has a number of local sources that she loves to buy from as April showers give way to May flowers.  One of these sources is Beth Rasgorshek of Canyon Bounty Farms (CBF) of Nampa.  In addition to a dizzying array of vegetables that you can purchase from their greenhouse and plant in your own garden, CBF also supplies whole wheat flour to a number of local bakeries and restaurants, including Zeppole.  This is their fifth year of milling flour from the wheat they grow on their farm.  Be sure to print out the handy shopping list of plants from their website and bring it along with you to their farm.

“Beth has grown a beautiful crop of vegetables for us,” says Susan, “and you can get a good preview of what she has to offer at the Co-op, as well as buy them here.”

We’re currently getting raspberries, blackberries, and rhubarb from Edwards Greenhouse, a family business that has been around for since 1930 — and from whom we’ve been buying plants for years.  We’re expecting the arrival of tomatoes from North End Organic Nursery (NEON) during the first week of May.  NEON is a local, family-owned nursery and garden center “dedicated to providing the supplies and support needed to grow food and landscapes without using toxic and environmentally damaging chemicals,” and they’ll be growing a variety of herbs and veggies for us this year.

Our source for hanging baskets and small starts for patio pots will once again be Warm Springs Nursery.  “They have been growing for us for as long as we’ve had a Plant Department,” Susan notes.  “You can expect to see plants from them around the first of May.”

On the question of WHEN to get your plants in the ground, I asked Susan about the veracity of that bit of local folk wisdom regarding the presences of snow on Shafer Butte.  Susan offered what she considered to be a more reasonable guideline: “The last frost day for Boise is May 12.  Which is not to say that you can’t plant tomatoes during the first or second week of May — I would just encourage people to have some means of covering them if you do.  Although it looks like beautiful weather now, we can always get a frost.”

Susan’s love for the plants she stocks is equaled only by the affection she feels toward the folks she buys them from.  “These are relationships we’ve maintained for twenty years,” she notes.  “These aren’t just vendors, they are friends.  I’m proud of the fact that everything we buy comes from local sources — local families.”

Click here for a YouTube interview with Susan Colwell on what’s hip, hot, and green in our Plant Department as we head into the garden season.

As a co-operative grocery store, we have an insatiable curiosity about what other co-ops around the country are doing.  Fortunately in this era of social media, keeping up with our co-op cousins is as simple as clicking “Follow” on Twitter – and as a result of a few hundred such clicks, we continually run across interesting stories, nutritional resources, and fun food facts worth sharing (or, to use the SM vernacular, “retweeting”).

We thought it might be nice for our customers to have access to some of the best links we’ve discovered over the previous week.  So, grab yourself a cup of coffee or beverage of choice, settle back, and prepare to be challenged, entertained, inspired, amused, or whatever other emotion takes you away from the humdrum and into the wonderful world of natural food.

Welcome to the Boise Co-op Weekly Reader!

Kiddies in the Kitchen

There is a contagious excitement from kids when they begin discovering the joy of cooking. Simple tasks like cracking eggs or stirring a soup can engage children, leading them on a learning adventure and helping them try new foods through flavor exploration.  This blog from PCC Natural Markets will inspire parents of young children to make the kitchen a place where learning and magic…as well as nutrition… happen.

Putting Food Scraps to Work

Organics make up a huge part of the overall waste stream, and while recycling is more commonplace than ever, composting is still catching up. Municipalities throughout Canada are at various stages of implementing residential kitchen-scrap-pickup programs, and most restaurants and hotels have long been eco-conscious about their organic trash.  Learn more about what they’re doing in this story that Eating Locally shared with us.

Sowing the Seeds of Change

Local people growing and selling their own food products, improving the environment and helping low-income residents eat better are the goals of Seeds of Change Appalachia Coalition.  Yet another dispatch from the local food front.

Coming to the Big Screen: The Co-op Story

The co-operative business model is set to hit the big screen in a new film telling the story of the birth of the movement now headed by a Bradford-born retail boss.  The 52-minute feature film is being funded by The Co-operative Group, now headed by Bingley-based Peter Marks, whose origins go back to the original ‘Rochdale Pioneers’, to celebrate the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives, 2012.  You’ll find organic popcorn on Aisle 2.

Food Hubs: How Small Farmers Get to Market

Ask most small and mid-sized farmers who sell food to a local audience what they like least about their job and they will probably say marketing and distribution.  Enter the Food Hub.

Pop Up Farms

Here’s a story from the UK that made me think of our Boise Urban Garden School (BUGS) program (our Shop for Good recipient for April).  If nothing else, efforts to connect kids to the soil as part of the learning process make it less likely that when asked, “Where does your food come from?”, the answer will be: “The grocery store.”

The Benefits of Pasture-Raised Meat

If you still find yourself wondering, “What’s the big deal about grass-fed beef?”, here’s an article from the San Francisco Bay Area that will help explain why we’re proud to feature local producers such as Homestead Natural Foods and Aldersprings Ranch.

While in France, I had many opportunities to talk to my friends and family about my job as Culinary Educator at the Boise Co-op. The subject seemed to open up very interesting and insightful conversations regarding the choices we all have to make as consumers.  Even though buying local has always been part of the French people’s shopping habits, I noticed that the focus has been shifting more toward buying organic and seasonal as an important element in that set of choices.

In many towns in France you will find stores called “Biocoops.” These were the first network of organic stores in France with more than 300 locations, and the original one that opened more than 30 years ago happens to be in Alsace, just 10 minutes from where I grew up. I absolutely had to pay that store a visit. The name of this particular co-op is the Colmar Sonnebluem Biocoop. In the Alsatian dialect, “sonnebluem” means “sunflower.”

As I entered the store, I was instantly reminded of the Boise Co-op, back when it was still located on Hill Road…and when I decided to become a member many, many years ago. I felt inspired and started a conversation with the employees, who graciously invited me to take photos and who were excited to share our commonality. We were instant family, exchanging amazing stories of the longtime relationships nurtured with local growers and ranchers.

There are striking similarities and important common values between the Colmar Biocoop and Boise Co-op. These include supporting local vendors, prioritizing sustainable, fair trade, and organic products, diversifying the business relationships and goods we carry, initiating fundraising events to support local non-profit organizations — just to mention a few.

The Colmar Biocoop is just a small version of ours, with only four employees and a handful of volunteers to run it, but it felt so warm and familiar that I thought I’d share with you how even on different continents, connections can be possible around a common set of food values.

Today if someone asks me if our store is really a “co-op,” I can proudly look them in the eye, point to the 7 Cooperative Principles and say without hesitation, “Damn straight we are!” More honestly, however, I’d really have to say “We’re getting there.”

With our Annual Member Meeting and election upon us, I’ve been thinking a lot about how far the Boise Co-op has journeyed over the past ten months. Having been a member some fifteen years before I became an employee, I like to think I have both the “insider’s” and “outsider’s” perspectives on the changes that have taken place this past year. I also like to think that the most profound change has been the blurring of the distinction between those perspectives.

As an employee I certainly felt the sting of the criticisms of our store that I read during the management upheaval that took place back in January. That was a tough time for everyone at the Co-op and it tested our cohesiveness, not to mention our members’ loyalties — and the negativity that surfaced from some in our community sure didn’t help our morale. Nevertheless, many of the criticisms we faced had a core of truth that we needed to recognize and act on. Yes, our customer service needed to be improved. Yes, the appearance and organization of our store was not living up to the expectations of our customers.

But perhaps the most stinging criticism (besides the assertion that we deserved to be crushed by a looming corporate competitor) was that we had ceased to be a “co-op” in anything but name. For a culture rooted in the belief that our founding nearly forty years ago was about creating a resource that would honor the best and healthiest aspirations of our community, having our cooperative relevance disparaged was the ultimate rebuke.

In the months that followed the tectonic plate shift of January 2011, the Co-op underwent a rapid series of changes designed to not only meet these criticisms head-on, but to better prepare ourselves for a new competitive environment. Under the guidance of interim store manager Gary Lyons and our board of directors we initiated a series of customer service trainings, addressed some immediate improvements to our store’s appearance and operations, and engaged a local marketing firm to manage a comprehensive survey of our members, customers, suppliers, and employees. We also began the search for a full-time GM.

In June we put on our first ever Member Appreciation Party, at which we hosted more than 2,000 folks at the Idaho Botanical Garden, along with a number of our local suppliers. One of the attendees at that landmark event was none other than our new general manager, Ben Kuzma, who joined us from the Tucson, Arizona-based co-op, Food Conspiracy.

Since June, we’ve acted on many of the suggestions we received through our survey efforts. Many of the resulting changes may seem minor (new shopping carts, less clutter in our aisles, extended store hours, etc.), but the cumulative effect has not gone unnoticed by the many customers who have commented positively on the differences they’ve witnessed. Even more important, however, have been the compliments we’ve received about the customer service being delivered by our Co-op staff.

The Boise Co-op Member Appreciation Party

During the summer, Boise Co-op joined the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) – a “co-op of co-ops.” Associated with this decision was our commitment to uphold the 7 Cooperative Principles, which include “democratic member control” and “member economic participation.” Along with the other benefits of NCGA membership, living into the Cooperative Principles meant revising our bylaws to shift power from our board of directors to our members in determining the Co-op’s future, as well as restructuring our program of patronage rebates to better recognize and reward our members’ contributions through their investment of membership dollars and their on going support of our business.

Today if someone asks me if our store is really a “co-op,” I can proudly look them in the eye, point to the 7 Cooperative Principles and say without hesitation, “Damn straight we are!” More honestly, however, I’d really have to say “We’re getting there.” The double-edged sword of democracy dictates that we can’t truly act on our cooperative impulses without the approval of a quorum of our membership (roughly 1,000 of you) in ratifying the changes to our bylaws. This and the election of new board members who will help oversee our continuing journey toward “cooperativeness” is at the heart of our November 1 election. Ironically, we have to follow a democratic process in order to become more democratic. We’re asking you to empower us to empower you. It’s a beautiful thing.

We’ve come a long way in our “year of living cooperatively,” but we can’t take the next step without you. We need your vote on the changes to our Articles of Incorporation, yes or no, regardless of who you choose to be on our board. When all is said and done, I’m sure we’ll still have our share of critics – and we’ll count on them to keep us honest. But I will tell you this: if you can show me an organization in the Treasure Valley of our size and visibility that has so profoundly changed in response to the wishes of its constituents, I’ll dedicate my next blog to them. What do you say?

38 years later, what a long, great trip it's been!

No one could ever accuse Todd Giesler, Our Man in Deli, of stonewalling when it comes to sharing the delights of our Deli Department with us.  Until now, that is…

Stonewall Kitchen has been a Co-Op Deli source of many intriguing and eclectic products — in just about any flavor or fashion you canimagine — for quite some time. The white, upright wooden “pantry shelves” that grace our space bring a touch of New England Countrycharm to an already eye-candy-filled environment.
 
Beginning in 1991 in very humble beginnings in York, Maine, with a few jars of jam concocted for a local Farmer’s Market, StonewallKitchen gained instant success (and therefore growth), and became a nationally renowned leader in gourmet and specialty foods andcooking accessories. Starting in 1995 , the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) has awarded them an “OutstandingAchievement” year after year for their jams, butters, oils, and mixes. They have so far won the coveted “Outstanding Product Line” bythe NASFT three times (and counting).
 
We are very happy to offer the Stonewall Kitchen line to those who want to accent their meals with a little more flair than just “status quo”, (although, isn’t that why you shop at the Co Op in the first place?). Now, along with what you may have already been enjoying, we can present some new and exciting delectables that prove once again that complacency (on our part and theirs), will not be tolerated!  We want dynamics and surprises!
 
So…here we are..the new Stonewall Kitchen items, including some gluten free offerings:
 
Curds, you say?
 
Don’t leave it to “Little Miss Muffet” to be the only one to enjoy curds (she can have the whey, by the way). We have them in jar-form, and they are dee-lish. This is an American twist on an English classic, made with egg yolks, super fine sugar,and fresh fruit, cooked until silky-smooth. A spoonful or two over some fresh fruit is one sure-fire way to prepare a quick dessert without having to slave over the oven any longer than necessary.
 
We now offer the Key Lime, Lemon, and Tangerine Ginger varieties of Curds. Tangerine Ginger? (I think I saw her perform in TimesSquare, NY several years ago…).  This offers the brightness of the orange fruit, followed by the “snap” of ginger to make a slice of apple or a cracker so much more fun.  Each come in clear glass 12 oz. jars for $6.99 — very eye pleasing.
 
Pancake Mixes
 
Come to think of it, a little sweetness on the palate in the morning sounds pretty good sometimes. We recently had a customer special order the Toasted Coconut Pancake Mix, proclaiming it the greatest thing since – well, you know…and we have witnessed it met with adulation on the shelf as well. We also carry the Farmhouse Pancake Mix and the Double Chocolate Mix. Again, sweetness is always welcome. 16 oz. cans of powder mix are $7.99.
 
Still “Kicking it” Gluten-Free, too!
 
As Stonewall Kitchen puts it: “We believe food is meant to be enjoyed, so the only thing we take out of the gluten-free products is the gluten, and not the home-baked taste”. Sounds good to me.  And speaking of gluten-free…cupcakes, anyone?  We have the following:

• Gluten free Vanilla Cupcake Mix
• Gluten free Chocolate Cupcake Mix
• Gluten free Chocolate Chunk Cupcake Mix

Todd Giesler, Our Man in Deli

These use rice flour, potato starch, and corn starch as the substitutes for wheat. Worth a try, and no sacrifice on flavor. 21.5 oz box for $8.99
 
Gluten-free Pancake and Waffle Mix 
 
All of the light, fluffy texture you (hopefully) expect from other pancake mixes, but gluten-free and ready to start your morning off right. Or make a crisp, golden brown waffle, and top it with some fresh strawberries and a scoop of ice cream, and it’s a custom-made dessert. Rice, corn, and soy flour are the method of staying away from wheat. 16 oz. box of mix for $7.99.  I could write about Stonewall Kitchen every month, because they offer so many interesting and flavorful ideas, from cheesesticks, salad dressings, and pie fillings…and how about  jams, marmalades, and butters? These are some very ambitious and creative people.
 
The Co op Deli is proud to be a supporter and supplier of Stonewall Kitchen for many years. Find out why they are a “tried and true” favorite of ours!

One of the Meat Department offerings that we are particularly proud of is our selection of grass-fed beef from Homestead Natural Foods and Alderspring Ranch.  It makes us feel really good to be dealing with a ranching community that sees the beef it produces as a by-product of responsible pasture managment.  In fact, in a blog from a couple of months ago, we shared with you the story of how Ed and Debby Wilsey, one of the ranching families that comprise the Homestead Natural Foods collective, received a Conservationist of the Year award from the Owyhee Conservation District.  And if you think that keeping the circle of life going by raising your cattle from start to finish on grass compromises the taste of that grilled t-bone, guess again.  Alderspring Ranch earned inclusion in the final chapter of a recently published book, Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef.  Let’s hear it for Idaho terroir!

Wilsey Ranch -- The High Lonesome Country

If you’re more up for surf than turf, you’ll be pleased to know that the Co-op Meat Department is equally discriminating about the sources of its seafood.  For starters, we subscribe to the sustainable seafood guidelines issued by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Seafood Watch” program, which raises consumer awareness through consistently updated pocket guides, website, mobile applications and outreach efforts.  With close to 200 partners across North America, including the two largest food service companies in the U.S., restaurants, distributors and seafood purveyors are encouraged to purchase from sustainable sources.

Among the seafood sources our Meat Department purchases from is Taku River Reds, a family business that operates in the Taku River watershed not far from Juneau, Alaska.  More than 7,000 square miles in size (almost as big as New Jersey), it is the largest unprotected roadless area on the west coast of North America, and a model for a salmon-driven ecosystem.  If you have any questions about just how good seafood obtained according to the guidelines we follow can taste, you can satisfy your curiosity for under $5.00 — just pick up a box of sushi prepared by our resident sushi chef, Scott Clapsadle.  Believe me, you’ll taste the difference.

Meat Department Manager Elisa Jordan gives this turkey an "A+"

As with our seafood and beef, the poultry we sell in the Co-op Meat Department has to meet some pretty high standards as well.  Just read about our local sources for turkeys, A+ Ranch and Robins Family Farms, and the organic chicken that we recently began carrying from Smart Chicken, who our Meat Department manager Elisa Jordan will be visiting this month (I’m looking forward to some good stories from that trip, by the way).  Sure, you’ll feel good about how these animals have been raised and brought to your table, but that sense of satisfaction will most likely be trumped by just how good they taste.  It’s not at all uncommon to hear customers say, “So this is how chicken/turkey tastes!”  It makes you appreciate how dumbed down our palates have become by factory food.

Since our Meat Department also includes our dairy cases, we’ve barely scratched the surface of sustainably raised protein sources.  We could devote hundreds of words to folks like Treasured Sunrise Acres, Clover Leaf Dairy, and Morning Owl Farms.  But these are worthy topics for future stories.  In the meantime, we encourage you to learn more about our Meat Department purchasing practices by reading our Meat & Seafood FAQs.  Knowledge is power.

Here are the brands we’re featuring:

• Hot Knot’s and Tara ~ Fair trade from Nepal
• Andes Gift’s ~ Fair trade Alpaca from Nepal/India
• Emiline ~ Fair Trade Women’s Cooperative from Peru
• Artisana ~ Fair Trade from Nepal
• Twice Toastie ~ Local  cashmere and wool

Oh…for the bright copper kettles and schnitzel with noodles, I’d try our Housewares and Deli departments.

When it comes to understanding a co-op culture, business model and mission, it’s hard to imagine a person more thoroughly steeped in the ethos of it all than Dave Brown.  But how he ended up at Boise Co-op is a “long strange trip” that comes full circle.

Dave Brown

Just in case you hadn’t been paying attention, there’s been a lot going on at your little North End grocery store these past few weeks.  Lost in the hullabaloo has been a very significant addition to our Co-op family: Dave Brown, our new Grocery Department Manager.

When it comes to understanding a co-op culture, business model and mission, it’s hard to imagine a person more thoroughly steeped in the ethos of it all than Mr. Brown.  But how Dave ended up at Boise Co-op is a “long strange trip” that comes full circle – so it’s best to begin at the beginning.

Dave grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, which he remembers with great fondness.  “There were lots of orchards and palm trees – not like today when there is a lot more concrete, and a lot more swimming pools and golf courses.”  In 1971, not long after he graduated from high school, Dave’s family relocated to Boise, where Dave “spent a number of years working Phoenix out of my system” before settling down.

Dave Brown...back in the day

In the mid-70s, Dave moved to Pendleton, Oregon, where he lived for a time on the Umatilla Indian Reservation.  It was here that he got his first “co-op experience”.  Pendleton had a little food store called the Root Cellar.  “It was actually more like a buying club,” he recalls.  “They didn’t have a storefront, just a back room in an unused retail space where we would handle bulk orders.”

Dave moved back to Boise in 1980 and became a volunteer at Boise Co-op’s Hyde Park location.  As opportunities became available, Dave spent more time working on the floor.  “Back then everybody did everything – cashier, opening and closing, mopping, and stocking,” says Dave.  “I worked in the produce department as the assistant manager when it was a two-person operation, not including volunteers.  I later switched over to the Grocery Department.”

Dave moved to Newport, Oregon in 1984 and managed a co-op on the beach.  “It was great,” he says.  “When work got a little stressful you could just walk down to the ocean and let the waves take care of it.”  His experience at the Newport store entrenched him  more deeply in the workings of the co-op model.  During his time there he functioned as bookkeeper, store manager, and member of the board of directors.

Remember when?

While in Oregon, Dave also got some insight into the supply side of the food chain, working a year for a 20-acre organic farm in Waldport, just down the coast from Newport.  Dave has a lot of great memories of going to farmers markets and selling flowers from the back of a pickup truck parked along Highway 101.

Dave’s next major career move was to go to work for a food distributor that sold to independent natural food stores and supermarkets in the Northwest.  Among his customers for the organic and specialty foods he sold was Safeway.  His company eventually transferred him to Humboldt County, which he recalls as “a mecca of natural foods…and many other things.”

Notice the price of gas?

As Dave became familiar with folks in the local natural food market, he went to work for a former marketing manager of the North Coast Co-op to open a store in Arcata, California known as Wildberries.  Dave later helped relocate and remodel the Eureka Co-op, holding positions as store manager and later grocery manager.  Dave and his wife eventually tired of the rain and gray skies of Northern California, and moved back to Arizona, where Dave worked for the distributor Tree of Life as a sales rep before returning to Boise in 2008.

In accepting the position of Grocery Manager for Boise Co-op, Dave sees an opportunity to “live the lifestyle that I honor and believe in.”

“If you come to our house and go through our pantry, you’ll see it’s about 98 percent organic,” he says.  “We try to live as healthy a lifestyle as possible, and that is a lifestyle I want to make available to others,” Dave says.  “This is what I do, what I live…the world I’d like to see.”

Click here for a video interview with Dave Brown

Coming to the Boise Co-op at a time of transition might seem daunting for a new member of the management team, but Dave is excited about the challenge.  “A co-op should always be changing to fit the times,” he says.  “I want to honor the choices our customers make, and satisfy those in a professional way with the best service at the best price, and still run the business we need to run.  A co-op isn’t an elitist place, it is embracing of everyone.  It has nothing to do with politics – it revolves around food and health, and providing a work environment where people are allowed to be human beings.”

Welcome back, Dave – we missed you.

The Boise Co-op is proud to sponsor the Boise debut of a new movie by local filmmaker Heather Rae: First Circle.  The movie, which recently premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival, is a feature documentary about foster care, families and healing in the Western United States, and is a benefit screening with proceeds going to the Family Advocates’ Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program for the protection and healing of abused and neglected children who have been placed in foster care.  The event takes place on Wednesday, December 8, at the Egyptian Theater.

The Boise Co-op supports a lot of great local causes through sponsorship.  After all, as your local grocer, we have a vested interest in anything that aligns with our values and strengthens our community — and if it touches on things culinary or artistic, so much the better.

Which is why we are very pleased to be working with a great local social services agency, Family Advocates, in hosting the Boise debut of First Circle, the latest effort by local filmmaker Heather Rae and her screenwriter husband, Russell Friedenberg.  The film “follows families struggling to heal, administrators working for change, and the isolation of a western landscape responsible for both the manufacturing of and liberation from addiction.”

The issues the film explores are well known to Nicole Sirak, the executive director of Family Advocates, whose Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program is committed to the protection and healing of abused and neglected children who have been placed in foster care and referred by the court.  CASA will be the beneficiary of the proceeds from the film debut’s ticket sales at Boise’s Egyptian Theater on Wednesday, December 8, 2010.

“Between 2000-2006 there was an 80 percent jump in the number of children coming into the program – which corresponds to the increase in methamphetamine use.  We went from 300 children to 700 children during that time.” — Nicole Sirak, Executive Director, Family Advocates

Click here for a YouTube interview with Nicole Sirack

We recently sat down with Nicole to learn more about CASA, its mission and activities.  The program was started by a judge in Seattle who was dealing with cases involving children in foster care and realized that there was inadequate information to determine whether or not parental rights should be terminated, or if families should be reunited.  He started a program through which volunteers are given 30 hours of training and a court order, and are assigned to a child in foster care.  ”They visit with that child every month and get to know everything about them and their family situation before making a recommendation to the judge,” says Nicole.

In Idaho alone there are seven CASA programs in operation, reflecting a need that has increased over the years as a result of the ravages of methamphetamine.  ”Between 2000-2006 there was an 80 percent jump in the number of children coming into the program,” says Nicole, “which corresponds to the increase in methamphetamine use.  We went from 300 children to 700 children during that time.”

While proceeds from ticket sales for the December 8 debut of First Circle will help Family Advocates put more “feet on the street” through its CASA program, Nicole would love to see the program end — not through lack of funding or volunteers, but through lack of need.  ”We hope that our next program, Families First, will put CASA out of business,” she says.  ”It is a child abuse prevention program that goes into the homes of families that are struggling: folks in recovery, teen parents, and parents who simply lacked good parenting models.”  Through Families First, volunteers will work preventatively by going into the homes of families at risk with resources that will help parents prepare their kids for school, and hopefully break the cycle of child abuse and kids dropping out of school.

Heather Rae’s film, First Circle, follows the journey of Rae’s nephew through child protection and foster care.  The point of intersection between CASA and the film is Jerrilea Archer, a former Ada County sheriff who was assigned to child protection, and who now sits on the board of directors for Family Advocates.  ”Jerrilea is our guardian angel, and a fierce protector of children,” says Nicole.

Heather Rae has worked in a producing capacity on more than a dozen documentaries and half dozen features throughout her twenty years in the film industry. After thirteen years of work on her documentary Trudell, the film was accepted in over 100 festivals, played theatrically in over 60 markets, aired on PBS’ Independent Lens Series and The Sundance Channel. Rae also produced Frozen River, which stars Melissa Leo, Michael O’Keefe and Marc Boone Jr. Frozen River premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, won the Grand Jury Prize and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.  Rae’s husband and collaborator, Russell Friedenberg, has worked as a screenwriter, actor, producer and director. Russell has attended the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab, Tribeca All Access, the Sundance Producer’s Lab, and is a fellow at the Writer’s Guild Screenwriter’s Lab.

Aside from our desire to support the art of great local talent and a program that helps heal our community, the Co-op has another interest in the success of this event.  The musical score for First Circle was composed by our very own Marketing Manager, Robin Zimmermann.  That’s a story in itself…and one we’ll be bringing to you between now and the debut of First Circle.

Click here for ticket information on the Boise benefit screening/debut of First Circle.  We’ll see you there!