The Univesal project was described by James Gill today in The Time Picayune, and although much of the article focused on the off-topic issues for us, there were a couple of excellent highlights.

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We had a wonderful potluck dinner yesterday at the First
Pilgrims Baptist Church in the St. Roch neighborhood. About 40 people
attended and shared a great dinner. We gained 6 new members at this
meeting and folks are really getting excited about owning their own
co-op grocery. Our membership committee plans to continue having
potluck dinners in rotating neighborhoods near our future store.
February’s potluck will be in the Bywater, and we are considering the
Treme for our March potluck. When we know the dates and locations they
will be sent out as part of the weekly announcement. I envision our
potlucks getting bigger and bigger each month!!

The January 12th issue of the Renaissance Project’s Downtown Neighborhood Market Consortium newsletter contains a statement of support for our efforts to open a storefront at St. Roch and St. Claude.

Healthy Affordable Groceries for Everyone

We support the efforts of New Orleans Food Community, Inc. to open a food cooperative in the Universal Furniture building in 2009. The food co-op will sell local produce, local seafood, bulk and packaged natural foods, and whatever else the membership asks for. The New Orleans Food Community currently operates a monthly buying club through which allows members to order on-line from a natural foods wholesaler in Arkansas who brings the food to New Orleans. One-time membership fees are on a sliding scale ranging between $25-$100. To learn more about the food co-op attend their potluck dinner on Monday, January 14, 2008, at 6:30 p.m., at First Pilgrims Baptist Church at 1228 Arts Street (near the corner of Franklin and Marais).

from downtown neighborhood market consortium newsletter, Jan 12, 2008

Thanks for the support you guys! Check out the newsletter for regular information about what is featured at the Upper Ninth Ward Farmer’s market every Saturday from 1 to 4pm at the Holy Angel’s parking lot at 3500 St. Claude Avenue.

We have gained 2 new members this week bringing our founding member total up to 76. We continue to grow and are working on strategies to increase this rate of growth so we can meet our short term goal of having 300 members by May 1. We are having our first potluck dinner of the new year next Monday, Jan. 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the St. Roch neighborhood at the First Pilgrim Baptist Church at 1228 Arts (half a block from the corner of Franklin and Marais). As always our potluck dinners are open to anyone and everyone. Friends, family, adn children of all ages are welcome. This is a very important community event and we encourage everyone to attend. It is very essential that our current members and others who have been involved with the co-op attend to help welcome new faces to our food co-op.

We had success with our December info meeting and are hoping to repeat this with our January potluck/info meeting. Our thorough flyering of the Marigny/Bywater was a large part of the reason we had a good attendance at this December meeting. We plan to do widespread door to door flyering in the St. Roch and surrounding neighborhoods for this potluck and info meeting. Please call John at 914-6936 if you can help with this effort. If you aren’t available to help with flyering, please bring a friend to the potluck or spread the word in other ways. We are gradually getting closer to our membership goals and our larger goal of opening a storefront, and we will need an even larger and more inclusive and widespread effort to ensure that our store opens. At this critical time in our development we need the widespread involvement of our membership and our community to open our store. A good attendance at this potluck and other community outreach events is essential in growing our membership and increasing our community involvement and support which will both be necessary for our store to open.

Get involved!! We are having our next membership committee meeting on Saturday Jan. 12 at 4 p.m. at the Sound Cafe. This is a great way for people to get involved with growing our membership and community outreach. We are currently working on many strategies to grow our membership and spread the word about what we are doing. There are many ways to be involved regardless of interest or skill level. We are excited about continuing to see our co-op infused with new faces and fresh ideas in the new year.

There is a new blog available for folks seeking news about food issues in New Orleans, LA. The byline is “Local food news, action and surveys about our Alligator territory bioregion” and you can find it here http://nolafoodnews.blogspot.com/