In this month's newsletter:



Read Gary's March piece on activities and events to look forward to this month, including the Edible Book Festival, the Financial Meeting of Owners, and a new event called Immersion.

April 2019

Twice a year, your Board of Directors hosts meetings of owners and invites all owners of Common Ground to hear from the board and the store, ask questions, and mingle with fellow owners. The annual Financial Meeting of Owners is just around the corner, on Tuesday, April 16th, 6:00 pm at the Independent Media Center (IMC). We hope you’ll join us for presentations from our Board Treasurer and General Manager, food, drinks, prize drawings, and camaraderie!

When we host these owner-only events, it feels appropriate to reflect a little bit on what it means to be an owner of Common Ground. We all know that being a shopper of the co-op means simply walking in the door and basking in all the wonderful smells, sights, and tastes of Common Ground. What does it mean to be an owner, then? Perhaps some of the more obvious components of ownership are the financial ones. Owners purchase equity in the co-op. Through equity and choosing to purchase goods at Common Ground, you’re keeping your dollars local, helping to provide good jobs and supporting local farmers, producers, vendors, craftspeople, artists, and educators right here in our community. Your choices are also having a positive effect on our environment, supporting sustainability and responsible consumerism.

There are also financial benefits in it for you as an owner. Owners get access to special deals throughout the co-op all year round. Also, a few times a year, there are special owner appreciation days set aside to celebrate owners and provide even deeper discounts and deals.

Read more on Co-op ownership here .

The next meeting of the Board of Directors is Monday, April 8th, from 6:15 to 8:15 pm at First United Methodist Church of Urbana located on Race Street near the west entrance to Lincoln Square. Owners are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please use the entrance with the maroon awning, on the east side of the church.

This year's Financial Meeting of Owners is happening on Tuesday, April 16th, from 6-8 pm at the Independent Media Center.

Join us at the Co-op for the 11th Annual Plant Sale on Saturday, May 4th. Most of our seedlings featured during this fundraiser have been grown locally by our farmers and the Co-op community. We will have tomatoes, peppers, brassicas, lettuces, flowers, herbs, house plants, succulents and much more!

The success of the plant sale is very important to us and the community, as our Food for All program is made possible through its proceeds. Food for All funds equity grants, food discounts, and free Co-op classes for those who are in need of financial assistance or who are interested in learning how to cook.

Special thanks to our local farm sponsors: Blue Moon Farm , PrairiErth Farm , Sola Gratia Farm , Wolf Creek, Meyer Produce, Old Town Flowers CU , and Green Pantry Nursery!

We want to invite you to participate in our targeted book drive for Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners during April. Currently, B2P is the primary source of books for Illinois inmates, as well as for prison lending libraries. Bring your book donations to the Co-op during the times of the Book Drive or donate them in the B2P receptacles in our Co-op Mall hallway anytime.

B2P is seeking specific books like art books, how to draw books, fantasy, science fiction series, small business, finance, self-help, young adult, newly published books, and books authored by people of color. These genres have been requested by many patrons at the lending libraries within the Champaign County jails .

For more information and a list of titles, click here .

From March 24 to May 18, you'll be able to experience the amazing art of  Ja Nelle Davenport-Pleasure  titled "Home Grown." The pieces in this Urbana artist's exhibit were made using recycled trash and the idea behind them is to show how we can take what we have sitting around and create a wonderful story. 

Alongside "Home Grown" hangs "The 7th Eye" by  Keenan Dailey . Through these pieces, he places African Americans in the context of Afrodiasporic royalty and divination, looking at what already IS in order to recognize what is possible.

See a closer look of their artwork here.

April Café feature:

It's the return of the ice table! Spring is here and our iced beverages are back.

Drip coffee has new pricing:

New meat and cheese items

Co-op Bakery:

$1 off whole pies for Easter from 4/16-4/23

Our Co-op Bakery is located in the Co-op Kitchen, where all of our delicious Co-op foods are made from scratch, with love, with local and organic ingredients whenever possible.

"Have you noticed that some of our cheeses are now wrapped in wax paper? The reason for the change in wrapping is that plastic wrap is used to prevent the moisture wicking from cut cheese to sit on the cheese, creating greater moisture loss and allowing for flavors from the plastic to penetrate the cheese. The cheese should also have some ability to release ammonia and breathe slightly. Plastic wrap prevents that

oxygen exchange, which is why waxed paper is currently the best solution."  

  "Thank you for the opportunity to share information about our farm and how its level of flourishing is directly related to your customer’s. We believe the food we eat is connected to every aspect of our lives. Since our food’s level of nourishment is connected to its origins, the foundation which food is grown must be solid; the methods in which food is grown must be sound. If the origins and methods of food propagation and growth are honored with the respect they deserve our need for wholesome increases are met. Finally, our farm is new; we have started it very intentionally with the principle of integrity as the goal. Each step in the unfolding of our farm’s growth process has been carefully weighed and measured in order to bring about the highest level of complementary with the soil, air, water, and all the living organisms there in and the yields given for our food."

Their free range & antibiotic-free farm consist of hogs and chickens that are pasture-fed clover, alfalfa, and oats in the growing season and the same mix of hay in the winter. The pasture and hay is grown without harmful pesticides or herbicides, and is also supplemented with a non-GMO and chemical free ration of corn and soybeans.

CGFC: There seems to be is a lack of nutritional education in schools and we’ve been talking with pre-med students and they’ve expressed how pre-med curriculum also doesn’t emphasize nutrition. What are your thoughts on access to nutritional education in schools?

Priya: I definitely agree with your point that it is lacking. I’m actually pre-med as well and one of the things that really drew me to medicine is wanting to bring in these important things like nutrition into the forefront. And it’s becoming better. For example, I worked on a curriculum to implement a teaching kitchen for med school students, so there are more initiatives like that, but it’s still lacking greatly. The majority of physicians do not feel comfortable giving nutritional information. I think it was definitely under 15% of people that feel confident with that. There’s obviously a problem there because they’re not getting many hours on that education [on nutrition]. They usually don’t meet the recommended and sometimes get around it by getting IV nutrition. They don’t get the actual core details that they need and I think the same is true with younger kids’ curriculum. Schools have been ramping up science and all of the core things and sometimes forgets about the ones that don’t get them funding. So I think it’s really important that we all come together to bring nutrition to the forefront.

Read more from the interview.

Visit the Humans of the Co-op website for the entire interview and to see all our Humans.

With Earth Day approaching on April 22nd, much of March's media narratives revolved around finding greener alternatives to plastic packaging. Faced with the issue of single-use plastic taking up to 1000 years to decompose in landfills, or the even more pressing issues that plastics contribute to climate change, as oil is used to make them, and that plastic that is slower to degrade is showing up at sea and on beaches . Many U.S. states and businesses are now looking for alternative single-use container options that would be more environmentally friendly in the long run.

States such as New York, California, Maryland, and even Hawaii are creating and negotiating legislature that would likely orchestrate an end to the distribution single-use plastics in places such as restaurants, stores, wholesalers, and government agencies . At the business level, Starbucks is testing out greener alternatives to its paper cup, which is wrapped in plastic.

Overall, March has shown many efforts being taken to the State level, as well as some effort being taken at a business level, to reduce the distribution of single-use non-biodegradable plastics, and thus better protect the environment. Though there are still many details that need to be worked out, it is clear that steps are being taken towards more greener alternatives to single-use plastic packaging. If this kind of legislature is passed, it would have a better, lasting effect on the parts of our ecosystem that suffers due to single-use plastics, most notably being sea life.

If you're interested in reading more on the subject, here are a few different articles:

Round Up For R.A.C.E.S.

An update on the March Round Up

In March, together we raised over $3,600 for Rape Advocacy, Counseling, and Education Services and contributed towards its efforts “ to challenge the rape culture and empower victims and survivors of sexual violence through advocacy, counseling, education, crisis intervention, and activism.   "

Your donations will help enable R.A.C.E.S. to continue a nearly 40 year tradition of service to victims and survivors in a safe, confidential environment free of charge.

Round Up For Good is a call-to-action inspired program, which began in February 2010 when Common Ground owners expressed a desire to help fund the relief of the earthquake in Haiti. Since then, the program has transformed into a community-focused ongoing effort to help fund local organizations that are selected democratically by store owners.



April Round-Up: Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners

Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners   is a community-based project that focuses on providing books to Illinois inmates at no cost by mail and through two county jail libraries.

UC Books to Prisoners' mission includes:

They are a "community-powered" local volunteer organization, and offer many different ways to get involved, such as reading letters from inmates, selecting books from the collection of donated materials and sending books to inmates in response to their requests, and more.

A word from Elizabeth Abraham ( Co-op Owner #5230, Volunteer with B2P for 10 years)

You can donate books, computers, and more; visit http://www.books2prisoners.org

April Classes & Events

See what's new for the month of April in our classes email.

You can always sign up online or in-store and classes are listed on the class calendar.

Just bring in this slip or show it on your device. Valid through the end of February. May not be reused or used for sale items, Co-op Basics, or alcohol.