Who the hell am I?
I'm a member of People's Food Coop.
I'm 36 years old, born on Halloween/Samhain.
I'm Wiccan, though it has become more of a personal spiritual path than a shared religious tradition.
I grew up in a town with no food cooperative whatsoever. That would be Salem, Oregon, population 142,940.
I went to college at Wabash College, got a degree in math. I was in the middle of Crawfordsville, Indiana, population 15,243. No co-op there, either.
Lived in informal cooperatives in Salem after I got out of college for about six years. My interests in food and its impact on society began about then, and I also became vegetarian about that time. By the end of my stay in Salem, I've become vegan.
Moved to New York City, population 8,008,278, in 1999. Moved directly into Ganas, a full-blown commune, although today we call them intentional communities. My interest in exploring countercultural ways to think of community and community building is now at its height, and I'm steeping myself in it (though admittedly not always most effectively or efficiently).
In 2000 or 2001, I start becoming more familiar with a movement called "Slow Food." This movement speaks to the very depths of me. But I don't know what to do with that vibration as of yet.
In 2001, I meet my wife. My wife at that time is a volunteer/resident of the Catholic Worker in New York City, a strong advocate of personalism (also see), and without a doubt the woman with the strongest personal moral compass I know. At the time I was a dreamer wanting to organize non-violent direct action against slaughterhouses and meat packing plants.
By 2002, I've toned down the dreams of my social protesting to joining a food co-op, supporting Community Supported Agriculture, and absorbing what I can about Slow Food. I'm now engaged to be married.
I moved to Michigan in late 2003 to reside in Ann Arbor, population 114,024, because my wife's family lives in Michigan and we wanted to move to a hippie, college town.
The moment I move into Ann Arbor my wife and I join the local food cooperative, People's Food Coop, and I promise myself that I will pursue many of my ideals about food: food as a community builder, food as a medium for criticizing Western middle-class values, food as a tool for identifying corporate industry greed and domination. and food as a method of illustrating ecological issues and defending biodiversity. Food was to be one of the focuses of my newly married life. Married, July 10, 2004.
I fell in love with Zingerman's the first moment I walked in, marvelling at the selections of food grown by artisan farmers treating the earth, the animals, and the food with as much respect as possible in creating their product. I knew that I wanted to work there. I didn't have much food experience on my resume, just in my head.
My personal food philosophies muted and I retained a vegetarian diet, but became non-vegan.
After working as a substitute pre-school teacher for the University of Michigan for a few months, I then worked at Arbor Farms for about half a year.
My wife got a job as a union organizer--GO UPOWER!
Had a wonderful honeymoon exploring Northern Michigan and a little of the Upper Peninsula.
Came back and got a job as a Produce Stocker at the People's Food Coop in August 2004. I told Kevin Sharp, the Assistant General Manager, when he hired me that I wanted to be very involved with the coop and planned to eventually be one of the board members because of how much I believed in the potential of food cooperatives.
I became one of two final candidates for the job of Director of Outreach and Education/Marketing for the PFC, though the choice was not me in the end. I'm told by the management that I was highly qualified and was also told that if Cynthia Edwards, the new hire, was successful in creating a separate non-profit organization from the coop itself, that I would be the new Director of Marketing. I happen to love both marketing and food, so I thought I might have enjoyed the job. As it turns out, because I believe the coop is broken, being rejected for that job was fortunate.
I've worked as a Produce Stocker until today and through June 26, 2005.
My new employer is finally Zingerman's.
I'm 36 years old, born on Halloween/Samhain.
I'm Wiccan, though it has become more of a personal spiritual path than a shared religious tradition.
I grew up in a town with no food cooperative whatsoever. That would be Salem, Oregon, population 142,940.
I went to college at Wabash College, got a degree in math. I was in the middle of Crawfordsville, Indiana, population 15,243. No co-op there, either.
Lived in informal cooperatives in Salem after I got out of college for about six years. My interests in food and its impact on society began about then, and I also became vegetarian about that time. By the end of my stay in Salem, I've become vegan.
Moved to New York City, population 8,008,278, in 1999. Moved directly into Ganas, a full-blown commune, although today we call them intentional communities. My interest in exploring countercultural ways to think of community and community building is now at its height, and I'm steeping myself in it (though admittedly not always most effectively or efficiently).
In 2000 or 2001, I start becoming more familiar with a movement called "Slow Food." This movement speaks to the very depths of me. But I don't know what to do with that vibration as of yet.
In 2001, I meet my wife. My wife at that time is a volunteer/resident of the Catholic Worker in New York City, a strong advocate of personalism (also see), and without a doubt the woman with the strongest personal moral compass I know. At the time I was a dreamer wanting to organize non-violent direct action against slaughterhouses and meat packing plants.
By 2002, I've toned down the dreams of my social protesting to joining a food co-op, supporting Community Supported Agriculture, and absorbing what I can about Slow Food. I'm now engaged to be married.
I moved to Michigan in late 2003 to reside in Ann Arbor, population 114,024, because my wife's family lives in Michigan and we wanted to move to a hippie, college town.
The moment I move into Ann Arbor my wife and I join the local food cooperative, People's Food Coop, and I promise myself that I will pursue many of my ideals about food: food as a community builder, food as a medium for criticizing Western middle-class values, food as a tool for identifying corporate industry greed and domination. and food as a method of illustrating ecological issues and defending biodiversity. Food was to be one of the focuses of my newly married life. Married, July 10, 2004.
I fell in love with Zingerman's the first moment I walked in, marvelling at the selections of food grown by artisan farmers treating the earth, the animals, and the food with as much respect as possible in creating their product. I knew that I wanted to work there. I didn't have much food experience on my resume, just in my head.
My personal food philosophies muted and I retained a vegetarian diet, but became non-vegan.
After working as a substitute pre-school teacher for the University of Michigan for a few months, I then worked at Arbor Farms for about half a year.
My wife got a job as a union organizer--GO UPOWER!
Had a wonderful honeymoon exploring Northern Michigan and a little of the Upper Peninsula.
Came back and got a job as a Produce Stocker at the People's Food Coop in August 2004. I told Kevin Sharp, the Assistant General Manager, when he hired me that I wanted to be very involved with the coop and planned to eventually be one of the board members because of how much I believed in the potential of food cooperatives.
I became one of two final candidates for the job of Director of Outreach and Education/Marketing for the PFC, though the choice was not me in the end. I'm told by the management that I was highly qualified and was also told that if Cynthia Edwards, the new hire, was successful in creating a separate non-profit organization from the coop itself, that I would be the new Director of Marketing. I happen to love both marketing and food, so I thought I might have enjoyed the job. As it turns out, because I believe the coop is broken, being rejected for that job was fortunate.
I've worked as a Produce Stocker until today and through June 26, 2005.
My new employer is finally Zingerman's.
posted by Solomon at 10:03 PM
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