Comment

Comment by Winston Vaughan on February 16, 2011 at 11:52am

Thanks Breton.  Seems like a total no-brainer to me.  Makes it easier for people who work during the day to get their CSA shares, gets them out of that terrible BofA parking lot location, drives traffic to Whole Foods and gets WF some needed community love.  I hope WF, Stillmans, Catch Shares and others read that article!

Comment by Breton Hornblower on February 16, 2011 at 11:43am

Hi Winston,

 

Regarding CSAs, it appears they are already doing this in their Florida stores. Please check out this link:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-02-14/news/fl-pf-farmer-0216-...

 

Best,

Breton

Comment by Rira on February 15, 2011 at 3:56pm

People lamented the loss of culture - the new market, could offer prepared foods and have a mini food court with seating that would create a gathering place, village like cultural venue - win win win win all around - so many opportunities, just waiting to be taken full advantage of.  The area politicians, business people, community organizers, area youth, everyone - THIS is the golden opportunity to create something  - hi lo is gone , the doors are closed - they're retiring and  have moved on - but 100's of people could come together and open their own market, create exactly what they want - offer the products they want, treat workers the way they would want to be treated- it's all there, just waiting for a strong leader to step up and inspire everyone to create a new better "hi lo" but with a new name of course - call it " Mercado de las Americas" or something like that!  I'd love to shop there!

 

Put all that energy and all those words into real action - create a new market - find an empty space, stock the shelves, hire all the hi lo workers, create a vibrant cultural space, and best of all - in today's spirit of improving educational opportunities especially in the inner city - show today's youth that negatives are really positives behind a thin curtain - teach at risk teens to imagine the possibilities of thinking creatively , optimistically and productively.   Such a market if it comes to be from the hard work of so many will be a brilliant example to our youth of how the future can be such a wonderful thing fore them and THEIR children if people think creatively , work hard, and have the confidence to say to themselves - they can make their world better by harnessing resources to make something out of nothing.

 

I hope someone reads this to the bottom and at the very least gives the idea thought and just for a moment pauses and thinks   ' what if ? "

Comment by Rira on February 15, 2011 at 3:53pm

  I never saw "hi lo" givieng back 5 pennies to the Hyde Square community.  Did they?  If they did, I'd love to hear about it.

 

On the other hand, if Hi Lo wanted to retire after 50 years - why not?  Why do people object so much to the hi lo closing.  They spent 50 years in business, they must be in the 90's - how much longer can someone work?  They wanted to retire and whole foods wanted to take the spot.  I'm sure hi lo offered the spot to others, but whole foods felt they had the best product line that will answer the needs of the local shoppers. 

 

On the other hand - I think for the 100's of people who feel strongly that there will be a void left by the hi lo closing - that then opens up a wonderful opportunity for the latin community to open a new market somewhere in the 2 mile area.  There must be affordable vacant space around town.  It would be a fantastic way to bring everyone together to create a positive from what so many see as a negative.  So many said "organize" and every one clapped - so the energy is there.  A few high energy leaders could take all that energy in the room and organize a team to create a new market that picks up where the Hi Lo is leaving off.  Re- hire all the workers, re-stock shelves with all the products that people will miss - ADD an educational component that educate people Michelle Obama style about making good choices for healthier foods, .  People lamented the loss of culture - the new market, could offer prepared foods and have a mini food court with seating that would create a gathering place, village like cultural venue - win win win win all around - so many opportunities, just waiting to be taken full advantage of.  The area politicians, business people, community organizers, area youth, everyone - THIS is the golden opportunity to create something  - hi lo is gone , the doors are closed - they're retiring and  have moved on - but 100's of people could come tog

Comment by Rira on February 15, 2011 at 3:52pm

It would have been great to have this letter available for last week's meeting.  I think Whole Foods will be a pleasant surprise for many people.  I attended the meeting last week and was not sure why whole foods is the bad guy or for that matter why Knapp is the good guy - firing all those people who gave 30 and 40 years of service and then booted, no severance, nothing, nada - but yet everyone seemed to want Knapp to stay around even tho they treated their staff like dirt.  Knapp did not seem to care that their high sugar content, high starch foods are a direct cause of poor health in the Latin community and they made zero effort to educate the community about healthy choices - as Michelle Obama says so often - 'make good choices' well Knapp enabled people to make bad choices, really bad choices.  If they were such a great part of the community why didn;t they make any effort to show they cared by taking better care of their workers and by making the least effort to educate 1,000's of people about better nutrition.  They could have had information tables with affordable good tasting ethnic food samples and recipes  that were not high sugar, high starch, but healthy AND affordable.  They did not Hi lo did not care about the health of the latin community, they just cared about squeezing every nickel they could.  I think Whole Foods will care about the latin community AND the workers - their reputation internationally proves it AND they give 5% of their profits back to the local community.  I never saw "hi lo" givieng back 5 pennies to the Hyde Square community.  Did they?  If they did, I'd love to hear about it.

 

On the other hand, if Hi Lo wanted to retire after 50 years - why not?  Why do people object so much to the hi lo closing.  They spent 50 years in business, they must be in the 90's - how much longer can someone work?  They wanted to retire and whole foods wanted to take the spot.  I'm sure hi lo offered the spot to others, but whole foods

Comment by Winston Vaughan on February 15, 2011 at 2:31pm

I'd love to see Whole Foods allow their parking lot to be used for CSA pick-up and farmers markets.  I am sure it would be good for business, as well as community relations, and the BofA location seems problematic.

Comment by Todd on February 15, 2011 at 2:15pm

I think this is great. People need to chill the heck out...