Local Sprouts dig in

Venue watch + more
By DEIRDRE FULTON  |  July 29, 2009

For two years, the Local Sprouts Cooperative has been creating a name for itself as a sustainable and healthy catering and meal cooperative in Portland. Hanifa Washington, a worker-owner and chef, likens it to "Superman in slo-mo," saying that the organization has experienced a "steady advance" since its inception in 2007. In addition to catering events for approximately 50 like-minded groups, Local Sprouts has attracted about 60 co-op members who benefit from the group's community-supported kitchen, paying a fee in return for a certain amount of freshly prepared foods every week.

Now, the eight worker-owners are about to take a giant leap, as they attempt to launch a Community Supported Café in town, possibly in the former Portland Hall. (The owners are currently in negotiations with Bayside Maine LLC, the development company co-owned by activist and state senator Justin Alfond, which bought the building at 645 Congress Street and plans to build apartments above the ground-floor retail space the Sprouts hope to occupy.)

To celebrate their achievements so far, Local Sprouts will host Taking Root, a fundraising event at SPACE Gallery on August 8. They'll serve a giant meal (roasted-veggie and greens salad, fresh bread, haddock or marinated tempeh with caramelized onions and more seasonal vegetables, plus chocolate beet cake and blueberry cheesecake bars), bands will play (including Over a Cardboard Sea, The Orchards, Lady Zen, and the Excuse Me Circus), and representatives will be on hand to talk about what Local Sprouts founder Jonah Fertig calls a "very unconventional" café idea.

In addition to carrying over the Local Sprouts community-supported kitchen model, the café will be financed (Fertig hopes) through community-based loans and investments. Members will be able to pick up meals, but the café will also be open for the public to order off a menu; Washington and Fertig describe a space that's available for educational programs and possibly even winter farmers' markets and co-op retail. Could this be the community space that Portland's social-activists have been clamoring for? Stay tuned.

TAKING ROOT | August 8 @ 6:30 pm for dinner, 8 pm for show | $15 dinner + show; $10 dinner only; $8 show only | at SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St, Portland | 207.615.9970 | localsproutscooperative.com 

  Topics: This Just In , Culture and Lifestyle, Food and Cooking, Foods,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY DEIRDRE FULTON
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE  |  July 24, 2014
    When three theater companies, all within a one-hour drive of Portland, choose to present the same Shakespeare play on overlapping dates, you have to wonder what about that particular show resonates with this particular moment.
  •   NUMBER CRUNCHERS  |  July 23, 2014
    Maybe instead of devoting still-more resources to food reviews, Maine’s leading news organizations should spend money on keeping better tabs on Augusta.
  •   BLUESTOCKING FILM SERIES SHOWCASES WOMEN'S STORIES  |  July 16, 2014
    Among last year’s 100 top-grossing films, women represented just 15 percent of protagonists, and less than one-third of total characters.
  •   CHECKING IN: THE NEW GUARD AND THE WRITER'S HOTEL  |  July 11, 2014
    Former Mainer Shanna McNair started The New Guard, an independent, multi-genre literary review, in order to exalt the writer, no matter if that writer was well-established or just starting out.
  •   NO TAR SANDS  |  July 10, 2014
    “People’s feelings are clear...they don’t want to be known as the tar sands capitol of the United States."

 See all articles by: DEIRDRE FULTON