For the past six years, Weavers Way and Saul have collaborated in a community-supported agriculture farm at the Saul campus in Roxborough. Weavers Way Co-op farm staff, led by Farm Manager Nina Berryman, is responsible for the production aspects of the 2.5-acre Henry Got Crops CSA farm, while the nonprofit Weavers Way Community Programs works with Saul teachers and other staff on the education programs.
“I tell people I have my dream job — I get to farm, which is my passion, while teaching others and working with a wide group of people, which is my inspiration, and live in a city, which adds a level of complexity to growing food, which keeps me challenged,” said Berryman, who arrived at Weavers Way in 2008 as a farm apprentice and has been instrumental in building the CSA from its very beginning.
In the CSA model, consumers buy shares of the farm output at the beginning of the season, thus sharing the risks and benefits of food production. More than 100 families now participate in Henry Got Crops, and the CSA also runs a twice-a-week seasonal farm market at Saul.
Henry Got Crops complements the existing agricultural curriculum at Saul by providing students with experience in a real organic vegetable growing operation. There are many opportunities for student involvement, from hands-on fieldwork to helping with community outreach and newsletter-writing and engaging in applied research.
Urban farming was a logical extension for Weavers Way, with its emphasis on healthy food and sustaining the local economy. The original Weavers Way farm, at Awbury Arboretum
in Germantown, was first organized by Weavers Way members in 2000 and has grown to 2 acres in production. Saul students worked as interns at the Awbury farm even before Henry Got Crops was founded, and in 2007-2008, Weavers Way farm staff helped Saul students refurbish and plant an existing hoophouse at the school. It yielded a harvest of vegetables and herbs that were sold at Weavers Way stores and at Weavers Way’s stand at the Headhouse Square farmers market. Henry Got Crops CSA was established in 2009, and got its name in a student contest — it refers to Saul High School’s location on Henry Avenue.
Both Weavers Way and Saul have longstanding relationships with PHS. Saul, a public magnet high school focused on agricultural subjects, has exhibited in the Philadelphia Flower Show for more than 40 years, and PHS is currently developing a “Community Groves” fruit and nut orchard on the campus. Weavers Way helped PHS get the City Harvest Growers Alliance off the ground and was instrumental in obtaining a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for the program. PHS shares a greenhouse with Weavers Way at the Awbury farm.
“Our partnership with PHS has helped to change the way we see ourselves as an important team player in the movement to bring fresh food, better neighborhoods, and a better city to all of the people of Philadelphia,” said Weavers Way General Manager Glenn Bergman. “Without the leadership of PHS we would not be doing the work that we have undertaken.”
The annual PHS Awards Celebration will take place Wednesday, Nov. 12, in the Town Hall of the recently renovated PHS headquarters at 100 N. 20th St. PHS will present its Distinguished Achievement Medal to Center City District founder Paul A. Levy, and other Certificates of Merit to PHS volunteers extraordinaire Cynthia and Morris Cheston and to Suku John, executive director of the East Park Revitalization Alliance. EPRA (epralliance.org) works to build a healthy community in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood; EPRA’s Food Access Director, Nicole Sugerman, is a former Weavers Way farmer who co-managed the Henry Got Crops CSA for the first two instrumental years.
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About Saul High School: Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences is a School District of Philadelphia magnet school located in upper Roxborough on a 130-acre campus that includes a working farm. Saul educators seek to develop in students an understanding of and appreciation for the career and leadership opportunities available to them in the many fields of agriculture. To learn more, visit Saul’s website at webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/s/saul.
About Weavers Way: Founded in 1973 as a neighborhood buying club, “the Co-op” now encompasses two grocery stores, two specialty wellness and beauty shops and a pet store in Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. Weavers Way is member-owned, open to the public and committed to offering quality products that are local, sustainable and nutritious. For more information, visit www.weaversway.coop.
About Weavers Way Community Programs: The nonprofit WWCP provides farm and nutrition education to help children grow up with an appreciation for healthy, sustainably grown food. For more information, visit www.weaversway.coop/wwcp.
For the past six years, Weavers Way and Saul have collaborated in a community-supported agriculture farm at the Saul campus in Roxborough. Weavers Way Co-op farm staff, led by Farm Manager Nina Berryman, is responsible for the production aspects of the 2.5-acre Henry Got Crops CSA farm, while the nonprofit Weavers Way Community Programs works with Saul teachers and other staff on the education programs.
“I tell people I have my dream job — I get to farm, which is my passion, while teaching others and working with a wide group of people, which is my inspiration, and live in a city, which adds a level of complexity to growing food, which keeps me challenged,” said Berryman, who arrived at Weavers Way in 2008 as a farm apprentice and has been instrumental in building the CSA from its very beginning.
In the CSA model, consumers buy shares of the farm output at the beginning of the season, thus sharing the risks and benefits of food production. More than 100 families now participate in Henry Got Crops, and the CSA also runs a twice-a-week seasonal farm market at Saul.
Henry Got Crops complements the existing agricultural curriculum at Saul by providing students with experience in a real organic vegetable growing operation. There are many opportunities for student involvement, from hands-on fieldwork to helping with community outreach and newsletter-writing and engaging in applied research.
Urban farming was a logical extension for Weavers Way, with its emphasis on healthy food and sustaining the local economy. The original Weavers Way farm, at Awbury Arboretum
in Germantown, was first organized by Weavers Way members in 2000 and has grown to 2 acres in production. Saul students worked as interns at the Awbury farm even before Henry Got Crops was founded, and in 2007-2008, Weavers Way farm staff helped Saul students refurbish and plant an existing hoophouse at the school. It yielded a harvest of vegetables and herbs that were sold at Weavers Way stores and at Weavers Way’s stand at the Headhouse Square farmers market. Henry Got Crops CSA was established in 2009, and got its name in a student contest — it refers to Saul High School’s location on Henry Avenue.
Both Weavers Way and Saul have longstanding relationships with PHS. Saul, a public magnet high school focused on agricultural subjects, has exhibited in the Philadelphia Flower Show for more than 40 years, and PHS is currently developing a “Community Groves” fruit and nut orchard on the campus. Weavers Way helped PHS get the City Harvest Growers Alliance off the ground and was instrumental in obtaining a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for the program. PHS shares a greenhouse with Weavers Way at the Awbury farm.
“Our partnership with PHS has helped to change the way we see ourselves as an important team player in the movement to bring fresh food, better neighborhoods, and a better city to all of the people of Philadelphia,” said Weavers Way General Manager Glenn Bergman. “Without the leadership of PHS we would not be doing the work that we have undertaken.”
The annual PHS Awards Celebration will take place Wednesday, Nov. 12, in the Town Hall of the recently renovated PHS headquarters at 100 N. 20th St. PHS will present its Distinguished Achievement Medal to Center City District founder Paul A. Levy, and other Certificates of Merit to PHS volunteers extraordinaire Cynthia and Morris Cheston and to Suku John, executive director of the East Park Revitalization Alliance. EPRA (epralliance.org) works to build a healthy community in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood; EPRA’s Food Access Director, Nicole Sugerman, is a former Weavers Way farmer who co-managed the Henry Got Crops CSA for the first two instrumental years.
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About Saul High School: Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences is a School District of Philadelphia magnet school located in upper Roxborough on a 130-acre campus that includes a working farm. Saul educators seek to develop in students an understanding of and appreciation for the career and leadership opportunities available to them in the many fields of agriculture. To learn more, visit Saul’s website at webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/s/saul.
About Weavers Way: Founded in 1973 as a neighborhood buying club, “the Co-op” now encompasses two grocery stores, two specialty wellness and beauty shops and a pet store in Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. Weavers Way is member-owned, open to the public and committed to offering quality products that are local, sustainable and nutritious. For more information, visit www.weaversway.coop.
About Weavers Way Community Programs: The nonprofit WWCP provides farm and nutrition education to help children grow up with an appreciation for healthy, sustainably grown food. For more information, visit www.weaversway.coop/wwcp.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 9, 2014 – This year’s Harvest on Henry, the fourth annual Philadelphia farm festival brought to you byWeavers Way Co-op and W.B. Saul Agricultural High School, is 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18,It’s a day of fun on the farm, celebrating the end of the main growing season with:
Vegetable-themed games and activities — including but not limited to pumpkin bowling, pumpkin golf, pumpkin ring toss and pumpkin painting.
Hay rides and the petting barnyard. Feed the lambs!
Canning demo by Philadelphia "Food in Jars" blogger Marisa McClellan.
Farm craft demonstrations (think apple-cider press), vendors and info tables.
Farmer photo booth.
Tours of the Saul farm.
Live music all afternoon, with percussionist Jim Hamilton, Nothing Wrong, Art Miron, Riley Luce on ukulele and more
Famous Cow Plop Bingo, featuring Nina the Cow, who inadvertently — but officially — will choose the winner of the 50-50 raffle.
Of course, there’s also delicious food: homemade ice cream churned on the spot by Saul students; apples, apples, apples, apple cider and fresh apple-cider donuts; and a fleet of food trucks, all donating 10 percent of the day’s proceeds.
Save room for pie
As in past years, a highlight is the Pie Baking Contest. Contenders are required to bring TWO pies, one for judging and one to be sold by the slice to the appreciative crowd! Details on how to enter are at www.weaversway.coop/pie. Entry fee is $15 per contestant, $5 per additional pie, FREE for Saul students. Cash prizes and gift certificates will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, and the maker of the top student pie will get four movie tickets.
Saul High School is the home of the 2 1/2-acre Henry Got Crops CSA, one of the first high school-based Community Supported Agriculture farms in the United States. It provides fresh produce to more than 100 subscribers and countless more folks who shop the twice-a-week Saul farmstand and buy Saul-grown vegetables at Weavers Way Co-op.
The CSA is a partnership of Saul, Weavers Way and the nonprofit Weavers Way Community Programs. Weavers Way farmers manage production aspects of the CSA, and Weavers Way Community Programs is responsible for farm education programs run in collaboration with teachers at Saul that allow students to learn about and take part in small-scale organic vegetable growing. There are many opportunities for Saul students, ranging from hands-on fieldwork to community outreach and newsletter-writing to applied research, budgeting and planning.
Harvest on Henry runs 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Saul farm, across from Saul High School, 7100 Henry Ave. (Henry and Cinnaminson) in Roxborough. Pie contest winners will be announced at 3 p.m. In case of rain, the festival goes off at the same time the next day, Sunday, Oct. 19. Admission is free; proceeds from food sales, Cow Plop Bingo and pie entries go to support farm operations. There’s plenty of street parking and the Route 27 bus stops right at the gate!
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 9, 2014 – This year’s Harvest on Henry, the fourth annual Philadelphia farm festival brought to you byWeavers Way Co-op and W.B. Saul Agricultural High School, is 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18,It’s a day of fun on the farm, celebrating the end of the main growing season with:
Vegetable-themed games and activities — including but not limited to pumpkin bowling, pumpkin golf, pumpkin ring toss and pumpkin painting.
Hay rides and the petting barnyard. Feed the lambs!
Canning demo by Philadelphia "Food in Jars" blogger Marisa McClellan.
Farm craft demonstrations (think apple-cider press), vendors and info tables.
Farmer photo booth.
Tours of the Saul farm.
Live music all afternoon, with percussionist Jim Hamilton, Nothing Wrong, Art Miron, Riley Luce on ukulele and more
Famous Cow Plop Bingo, featuring Nina the Cow, who inadvertently — but officially — will choose the winner of the 50-50 raffle.
Of course, there’s also delicious food: homemade ice cream churned on the spot by Saul students; apples, apples, apples, apple cider and fresh apple-cider donuts; and a fleet of food trucks, all donating 10 percent of the day’s proceeds.
Save room for pie
As in past years, a highlight is the Pie Baking Contest. Contenders are required to bring TWO pies, one for judging and one to be sold by the slice to the appreciative crowd! Details on how to enter are at www.weaversway.coop/pie. Entry fee is $15 per contestant, $5 per additional pie, FREE for Saul students. Cash prizes and gift certificates will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, and the maker of the top student pie will get four movie tickets.
Saul High School is the home of the 2 1/2-acre Henry Got Crops CSA, one of the first high school-based Community Supported Agriculture farms in the United States. It provides fresh produce to more than 100 subscribers and countless more folks who shop the twice-a-week Saul farmstand and buy Saul-grown vegetables at Weavers Way Co-op.
The CSA is a partnership of Saul, Weavers Way and the nonprofit Weavers Way Community Programs. Weavers Way farmers manage production aspects of the CSA, and Weavers Way Community Programs is responsible for farm education programs run in collaboration with teachers at Saul that allow students to learn about and take part in small-scale organic vegetable growing. There are many opportunities for Saul students, ranging from hands-on fieldwork to community outreach and newsletter-writing to applied research, budgeting and planning.
Harvest on Henry runs 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Saul farm, across from Saul High School, 7100 Henry Ave. (Henry and Cinnaminson) in Roxborough. Pie contest winners will be announced at 3 p.m. In case of rain, the festival goes off at the same time the next day, Sunday, Oct. 19. Admission is free; proceeds from food sales, Cow Plop Bingo and pie entries go to support farm operations. There’s plenty of street parking and the Route 27 bus stops right at the gate!
Weavers Way receives many requests to endorse or lend the Co-op's name to causes. While we do seek to promote local, regional and national campaigns that further the Co-op's Ends (mission, vision and values), we strive to do so while honoring the diversity of our member-owners, recognizing they may hold a wide range of opinions.
Any Weavers Way member may request that the Board of Directors make an official endorsement on behalf of the Co-op. To do so, the member must fill out an Advocacy Action Request (.pdf) describing the desired action and how it aligns with the Ends.
A committee of Co-op staff, including the General Manager, reviews all requests, meeting monthly or as needed. Considerations for approval may include resources, timing, impact, educational value and appropriateness. The review committee may meet with the member or members bringing the advocacy request, or may refer the request to one of the Co-op’s standing member committees if appropriate.
If the request is approved, the General Manager will contact the member who brought the request and review the action to be taken (e.g., allowing Weavers Way's name to be added to an endorsement, providing space in the Shuttle and Weavers Way website, providing public relations support to an event or topic). The General Manager will also inform the Board of all requests approved and declined.
(Please note: This process is not for requesting monetary or in-kind donations from the Co-op. To find out about making these requests, visit www.weaversway.coop/donations.)
Here is some more guidance about making an Advocacy Action Request:
Weavers Way will not endorse a political party or person running for a political office. The Co-op can provide ad space for political parties and those seeking offices, but cannot work on behalf of a candidate.
Requests take about 30 days to process. Please plan accordingly and let us know if your request is time sensitive.
Include links, if appropriate, to organizations or the campaign’s website, and provide information about other organizations or community leaders that are supporting the campaign.
Weavers Way receives many requests to endorse or lend the Co-op's name to causes. While we do seek to promote local, regional and national campaigns that further the Co-op's Ends (mission, vision and values), we strive to do so while honoring the diversity of our member-owners, recognizing they may hold a wide range of opinions.
Any Weavers Way member may request that the Board of Directors make an official endorsement on behalf of the Co-op. To do so, the member must fill out an Advocacy Action Request (.pdf) describing the desired action and how it aligns with the Ends.
A committee of Co-op staff, including the General Manager, reviews all requests, meeting monthly or as needed. Considerations for approval may include resources, timing, impact, educational value and appropriateness. The review committee may meet with the member or members bringing the advocacy request, or may refer the request to one of the Co-op’s standing member committees if appropriate.
If the request is approved, the General Manager will contact the member who brought the request and review the action to be taken (e.g., allowing Weavers Way's name to be added to an endorsement, providing space in the Shuttle and Weavers Way website, providing public relations support to an event or topic). The General Manager will also inform the Board of all requests approved and declined.
(Please note: This process is not for requesting monetary or in-kind donations from the Co-op. To find out about making these requests, visit www.weaversway.coop/donations.)
Here is some more guidance about making an Advocacy Action Request:
Weavers Way will not endorse a political party or person running for a political office. The Co-op can provide ad space for political parties and those seeking offices, but cannot work on behalf of a candidate.
Requests take about 30 days to process. Please plan accordingly and let us know if your request is time sensitive.
Include links, if appropriate, to organizations or the campaign’s website, and provide information about other organizations or community leaders that are supporting the campaign.
