News and Articles

The Latest

UN proclaims 2012 International Year of Co-operatives

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am

The ICA is pleased to announce the adoption of the UN resolution, "Co-operatives and social development: which proclaims 2012 International Year of Co-operatives. The resolution (A/RES/64/136) passed on 18 December 2009 by consensus was proposed by 55 UN Member States. It recognises that the co-operative business model is a major factor in realising economic and social development and calls on governments, international institutions, co-operatives and other stakeholders to support the development and growth of co-operatives worldwide."

Source: www.ica.coop/al-ica

2010 Board and Committees Begin Their Work

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am

The 2010 board committees have formed and begun meeting: membership, board development, physical plant, and finance.

Hampden Park Co-op Values Framework

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am

Our Values Framework is used as a guide for assisting in policy and program decisions.

Membership News, February, 2010

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am

—by Naomi Jackson, Membership Coordinator

2010 Member Cards

If you are a volunteer and have not yet picked up your 2010 wallet card or filled out a new Rolodex card, please do so soon. If you have questions, or there is something wrong with your cards, drop me a note in the Membership Coordinator envelope in the entryway.

If you are a shareholder or senior and your card is getting frayed around the edges, or you’ve lost your card, fill out a new card request form (available at register 1, or ask any staff person). Drop the form in the Membership Coordinator envelope, and new cards will be made for you.

Greetings From The Aisles of HPC -- February, 2010

Posted Thu, 02/04/2010 - 1:06pm

—by Matt Hass, General Manager

Mayfest

Winter always seems to bring strong opinions out from folks; people either love it or hate it. If you are in the latter camp, it should be good news to you that we have already ordered our plants for the Mayfest sale. Surely spring can’t be that far away!

Quarterly Inventory

New Year’s Eve we had our second try at quarterly inventory. It was harder to line up volunteers, but we got a crew to come in, and finished everything aside from a few odds and ends. We are still fine tuning our process, but we are becoming more comfortable with this change in our operations. A big “THANK YOU” to everyone who came in to help out.

Warm up (and save money) with Malted Milk

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am

—by Linda Morey

Malted milk! “Malted milk powder,” really. It’s on the top shelf above the soy milks, and it will make your taste buds tingle.

Instead of artery-clogging cream in your hot coffee, try a few spoonfuls of malted milk powder. The barley malt adds richness and depth.

You wanna mocha latte? Easy. To your hot coffee add malted milk powder and cocoa (or grated semisweet/ bittersweet chocolate).

Jazz up the kids’ hot chocolate with malted milk powder. Add the powder to hot drinks — it dissolves with a few stirs of a spoon.

For kids, especially, malted milk powder boosts nutrition. It’s a combination of ground malt, wheat, and dried milk.

Olives on Your Table

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am
Featured resource: 
Chunky Tomato Sauce with Green Olives
Pimento Olive and Cheese Spread
Olivada

—by Emma Onawa

There’s a whole lot more to olives than those ubiquitous green pimento-stuffed spheres found in every grocery store. People have eaten olives and olive oil for thousands of years. The oldest living olive tree, located in Crete, Greece, believed to be over 2000 years old1, still produces a crop.

Olive trees are indigenous to Turkey and Syria and were first cultivated in Greece. The trees spread through the Mediterranean, to Spain and Italy, and then were brought to the Americas by the Spanish. The olive tree, Olea europaea L (Latin for oil and the Mediterranean region of Europe), is a small, subtropical evergreen. This tree differs botanically from the Russian Olive tree.

Seitan: From Monks to Mass Appeal

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am
Featured resource: 
Drunken Noodles with Seitan

—by Caroline Daykin

With a name that means “ideal protein” in Japanese, seitan (SAY-tan) has much to live up to. Also known as mock duck, this wheat-derived victual has become a consistent, if not exactly prominent, fixture at natural foods and Asian grocery stores during the past quarter century. This more obscure cousin of tofu, utilized as a meat substitute in myriad vegetarian recipes, is made by separating proteinrich wheat gluten from the starch and bran in the grain.

Surprising Uses for Witch Hazel

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am

—by Linda Morey

Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. — Lao Tzu

There’s a Vegetarian in the Family

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am
Featured resource: 
Southwestern Pinto Bean Burgers

—by Kathryn Tempas

Maybe your daughter or son came home from school informing you she wanted to be a vegetarian. Maybe you’ve decided to give it a try because you’ve heard it’s healthful. Perhaps your doctor suggested you improve your diet.

For whatever reason, now there are some vegetarians in the family and some carnivores. How to cook for both and keep them happy? It’s not as difficult as it sounds. We’ve got a culinarily divided family and it’s been working fine for several years now. Here are some suggestions from my experience.

Read more of the latest in the archive

Under My Hat

Leadership Changes

Posted Mon, 06/01/2009 - 7:00am

—by Helen DuFault, General Manager

Living in Minnesota, where we experience changes all year long, means we are not surprised by change. It can be cooking hot one day and cold the next—all the more to not let us get too complacent.

Hampden Park Co-op also has had many changes this past year. We have moved into a larger space. We are about to buy a building. And the store will have a new General Manager some time in the coming months. I will be stepping down as the General Manager as of June 30, the end of the fiscal year. During the time of the search for a new manager, a managerial team (from current staff) will be in place for the daily operations of the store.

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Book reviews

Book Review: A Review of The China Study

Posted Sun, 02/01/2009 - 8:00am

by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II (Benbella, 2006)

—by Steve Anthony

In the early 1970s Frances Moore Lappe’s Diet for a Small Planet challenged the “sacred cows” of prevailing nutritional orthodoxy—that we can’t get adequate protein without regular consumption of meat and dairy products. In his landmark book, The China Study, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a renowned authority in the field of nutritional science, stands the old shibboleth completely on its head by making the case that, far from leading to good health, our high level of animal protein consumption is implicated in virtually all the major “killer” diseases in the West—from various cancers to heart disease to diabetes—as well as a number of other chronic diseases such as osteoporosis, obesity, and Alzheimer’s.

Coming from a two-quarts-of-milk-per- day farm-boy background, Campbell’s career has led him to the conviction that a plant-based diet easily provides all the nutrients we need while protecting us from a broad range of diseases. At the heart of the book is the China Study itself, which capitalized on a massive data base of mortality statistics compiled in China in the late 1970s at the behest of Chou En-Lai and known as the China Cancer Atlas.

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Interviews

Interview with Heidi and Bill Schwabacher

Posted Mon, 02/01/2010 - 6:00am

—by Rachel Fang

I spoke with longtime Hampden Park Co-op members Heidi and Bill Schwabacher on a sunny, cold day in January. We sat at a table in their dining room, decorated with an eclectic collection of paintings—some by Heidi, some by friends or family members— and had tea, served in a wonderful teapot—also Heidi’s work. They told me about their experiences with co-ops and how they came to Minnesota.

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Opinion

What Does the Federal Farm Bill Have to Do With Me?

Posted Fri, 12/01/2006 - 8:00am

—by Lois Braun, HPC Member (October/November 2006)

About 45% of all land in this country is used for agriculture, more than for any other single activity. Thus agricultural policy is everybody’s business, not just that of farmers. Farm policy affects you even though you live in a city, and even though you might not have any family left on the farm. It affects you because, not only do you eat food, but you drink water, breathe air, and pay taxes. It affects you if you like to fish, canoe, or swim in natural bodies of water.

As a human being, you deserve safe nourishing food, clean air, and clean water. The farm bill should deliver these, but it doesn’t; and thus it is wasting taxpayers’ money—YOUR money. In the farm bill we are not getting what we pay for. Discussions are starting now about the next farm bill, which will come out in 2007. It is time for city people to get involved.

Origins of the Farm Program

The original idea of the farm program was good. It started at a time when the majority of our nation’s population were farmers, and a majority of farmers were poor due in part to wildly fluctuating crop prices. So price support systems were enacted that made up the difference to farmers when prices of “commodity crops” (corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, cotton) fell below a baseline.

Why It Hasn't Worked