2021 - Year in Review
Our Vision
The Dorchester Food Co-op (DFC) is building a community and worker owned grocery store that nourishes, employs, and reinvests in the local community.
The DFC envisions a diverse and inclusive community with opportunities for employment, ownership, and access to healthy food. We serve and reflect the wide variety of cultural, racial and socio-economic groups that make up the neighborhoods of Boston.
To achieve this vision, let's reflect on the work accomplished in the past year, as we invite you to join in Building Momentum to open the new store in 2022.
WHAT VOLUNTEERS AND DONORS MADE HAPPEN IN 2021!
Thanks to the 75+ active members who volunteered in 2021, we were able to.
welcome 291 new households to the Co-op, bringing the total year-end membership to 1212
establish a “Solidarity Fund” providing member equity support through the DFC “Membership for All Program"
negotiate a 10-year lease with VietAID to occupy 6000 sf of ground floor space in Bowdoin-Geneva
hire Mea Johnson as staff Community Organizer from January-June. Thank you Mea for all your work last Spring!
hire Mary Regan as staff Community Organizer in September. We are so grateful for the 181 families who participated in the Capital Campaign in 2021.
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ACTIVE IN THE COMMUNITY IN 2021!
See the Boston City Council declare October as Co-op Month for the City of Boston!
Click ‘HERE’ to watch this fabulous 1 minute video about the Power of Co-ops in our city!
GREEN NEW DANCE PARTY!
We kicked off October as National Co-op Month with more than 100 people at our Green New (Deal) Dance Party, co-hosted with The Trustees. Families made hand pressed apple cider, bought locally grown produce, learned about environmental programs offered in the city, participated in hands-on activities provided by 11 community organizations and danced to music from a tricycle at Nightingale Community Garden in Dorchester. Big thanks to NEGEF for sponsoring and all our volunteers who assisted.
Community Pumpkin Party!
With the hands of many volunteers we trucked in hundreds of locally-sourced pumpkins to Four Corners at our 1st ever Community Pumpkin Party, co-hosted with Four Corner Main Streets. Many thanks for all the help from volunteers with translation, interpretation and emceeing! We can't get over how great it was to play pumpkin games with kids of all ages. We're looking forward to a 2nd Annual Pumpkin Party in 2022. Hot p-p-pumpkin anyone?
Gather: The Fight To Revitalize Our Native Foodways.
We hosted the screening and discussions of two documentaries: "Gather: The Fight To Revitalize Our Native Foodways" a film showing the ways Native Americans are reclaiming their spiritual, political, and cultural identities through food sovereignty, and "Food Chains", a documentary detailing the questionable ethics of the food supply industry, and the inhumane conditions farm workers are subjected to.
3rd Community Supported Agriculture.
Last spring-summer, DFC member-owners volunteered and organized our 3rd (Community Supported Agriculture) CSA program with produce from O.A.S.I.S. at Ballou Farm of Dorchester and Urban Farming Institute of Mattapan, with 27 household participants.
We offered three pop-up markets in collaboration with the P.A.C.E. (Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) program of Uphams Corner Health Center, which provided over 1000 pounds of regionally grown fruits and vegetables from The Boston Area Gleaners and The Food Project to community seniors.
Tables at Six different Farmers Markets!
During the summer-fall, DFC member-owners volunteered to table at 6 different farmers markets (Ashmont - Peabody Sq.; Codman Sq.; Dudley Commons; Mattapan Sq.; Roslindale Sq.; and Milton) and initiated 4 neighborhhood outreach opportunities at the Roxbury Puddingstone Park, Milton Farmers Market and Baker Square apartments. We presented at neighborhood meetings in Bowdoin Geneva, Four Corners, Meetinghouse Hill, Melville Park, Lower Mills; held zoom Meet & Greets every month of the year and 3 on-line Neighborhood Coffees during March, April and June. Four new Board Members were elected at our Annual Meeting in April which was well attended by 109 community members on zoom.
It's because of collective efforts, that our community-owned and operated
co-op was able to plan, host and staff all of these events. Volunteers like you made all these neighborhood meetings and events happen. The Co-op was committed to community last year, because You were committed to community. So, just imagine how active we can be and what we can accomplish in 2022 with collective input!! Dorchester Food Co-op is more than just a store. #Cooperation is our Approach #Justice Is our Goal #Own It #AllAreWelcome
A RECIPE FOR COLD WINTER DAYS.
Cachupa / Katxupa / Catchupa / Katchupa / Cachoupa....there are many ways to spell Cape Verde's national dish, and even more variations to prepare it...Cachupa Rica, Cachupa Pobre, Cachupa Refogada, etc.
A RECIPE FOR COLD WINTER DAYS.
Cachupa / Katxupa / Catchupa / Katchupa / Cachoupa....there are many ways to spell Cape Verde's national dish, and even more variations to prepare it...Cachupa Rica, Cachupa Pobre, Cachupa Refogada, etc.
Click here: To learn more, recipe included
Click here: For a different recipe
Click here: This article recommends Dorchester's own Restaurant Cesaria's cachupa
***CLICK HERE to email us YOUR FAVORITE RECIPE (desserts, snacks, one-pot meals, breakfast dish, quick lunch idea, holiday delights, beverages, etc.) and we may feature it in next month's newsletter or a future posting.
The Dorchester Food Co-op is supported by: Babson Foundation, Boston Children's Collaboration for Community Health, Boston Foundation, Boston Trust Walden, Burgess Fund of the Episcopal Mission, Commonwealth of MA, Cummings Foundation, Eastern Bank, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation Employee Mini Grant, Hyams Foundation, Jane Cook Trust, Klarman Family Foundation, The Mayor's Office of Food Access, New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, Wild Geese Foundation and people in the community, just like you!