Metaphor of the Squash Patch

Squash Blossoms, let’s go for a walk there’s something I want you to see. Come with me down this path. It twists and turns past tall trees and fields of wildflowers, yellows and purple abound. Up ahead we see a split rail fence overgrown with vines. As we approach we see there, a familiar vine, squash. We pass through the threshold stone and are in the Squash Patch. What a lovely spot. The vines and there companions, corn and beans are everywhere. The huge yellow squash blossoms are open to the morning Sun. We come to the center of the garden and see the biggest plant covered with ripening fruit and blossoms. Worker bees buzz about busy going from flower to flower, doing their work of combining the male and female essence to produce new life. We feel a peace and contentment. We feel Love. The Spark of Creation is strong here in the Squash Patch. This is how it should be. A community in balance, filled with beauty, harmony and love.

The Squash Blossom Food Coop can be such a community. Food is the foundation of community. Human activities and family life revolve around food. But we all sense there is something wrong in our communities. We are not in balance like the Squash patch. Large portions of our community can’t get healthy, pure food. The grocery stores are boarded up. We have a term for this, a food desert. A community can’t thrive in a desert. It needs a garden. The people in these communities can go to the convince store and get salty, sugared up snacks. Poor health, poverty and neglect are everywhere. Those of us who live outside the urban core can go shopping in a modern grocery store. But even these are virtual deserts filled with cardboard, plastic and carbonation. There fattening us up on corn syrup, it’s in virtually everything. The produce is filled with pesticides. The meat and dairy is produced in a horrendous inhumane manner. We never know what price we will pay there constantly going up and down. This week meat is on sale. But canned goods are higher. Next week meat is high and canned goods are low. Something odd is going on. But you say our food is the cheapest in the world. The true cost of food is hidden from our eyes. Our cheap food system is an elusion, a fantasy world. Big Agg is in control. It’s been estimated we get 4% of our food locally. The rest comes from far away with a tremendous moral cost in unjust exploitation of the environment and workers in foreign lands and the fields of California and Florida. America’s cheap food policies hide the dirty truth.

• Exploitation of natives workers to get cheap produce in January
• Poisoning the environment with pesticides, petrochemicals and runoff.
• Animal cruelty, dishonoring the animals that will give their lives so we might live
• Loss of America’s backbone, the family farm.

What can we do? We can come together as a community to control our own destiny and build a just, sustainable Local food system. We have started. The Squash Blossom is such a community. The Squash Blossom Cooperative is building a local food ordering and distribution system to be a tool for a secure, just, locally controlled food system for its members. We will give customer members access to local producers and keep our food dollar in the local economy. We will lower our carbon footprint and pay the true cost of our food Local producer will gain access to a local market where they can let the coop do the selling and concentrate on production. Smaller producers benefit by aggregating production to meet institutional needs. The coop would be a virtual food store. Producer member will list there items on a product webpage. Customer member will browse the Coop Store online and place an order. The Coop then compiles the orders and arranged for delivery. Customer could have the option to pick up at a drop off site or possibly have home delivery. The coop would collect from the customer and pay the producer. Ultimately we will open small Coop stores in our neighborhoods, stocked with the essential healthy foods we need for our families to thrive. Forget the cardboard and plastic. Bring your canisters and jars fill them with food for living. Using coop principals we can:

• Own a piece of food security
• Buy Local First
• Combine our buying power
• Tread with the lightest ecological footprint possible
• Give local producers a market.
• Transact business in a fair, just manner
• Provide the best possible quality at the lowest possible price
• A business owned by and for the benefit of members
• Be a positive force in our communities
• Grow green jobs

This is my vision, my values. Were not about convenience were about justice, community and health. If these are your values I ask you to join our community, our Cooperative, the Squash Blossom Food Coop for the sake of our children's children.
Squash Father