A couple of these very rare & collectible (neon vinyl and spray paint stencil sleeves with glitter!) 7”s of Hot Chip’s 2004 remix of my band Le Tigre’s song TKO have been added as prizes for backers of a Kickstarter campaign for an ambitious and radical new enterprise.
Sweetwork Project will be a worker-owned organic grocery store and coffee bar in a neighborhood of West Harlem where fresh produce and healthy food is not available. It will be staffed and owned by young people who have “aged out” of our city’s social service programs.
The store’s future location is a vacant, gutted former bodega in my neighborhood, on a block I have walked down every day for over a decade. This area has changed a lot since I’ve lived here. It’s a perpetually “up and coming” neighborhood that has seen fits and starts of gentrification, but none of the promised amenities or influx of money to struggling local businesses. There is always a new wave of people flooding up the block from the subway station with Whole Foods bags after work, but for most of the long-term residents of this historically Black and presently very mixed neighborhood, the shopping options are limited and inconvenient. And for the “other” young people, those who aren’t living in City College dorms up the hill or attending classes at the ever-encroaching Columbia campus, there are few opportunities. Sweetwork Project is a sustainable idea that EVERYONE in this economically diverse neighborhood wants.
Greg Allen, the founder of this project, has spent six years working as a counselor and youth advocate in a drop-in center for homeless youth. He’s seen first-hand the frustrations and dead-ends these kids face as they graduate from youth services, and he has developed his idea in response to a clear need. The worker-owners of Sweetwork Project will be kids who have spent time living on the street, young people who have been poorly served, often from early childhood, by a tangle of social services and institutions—foster care, group homes, schools, programs, and prison. As Greg writes, “If the State cannot adequately deal with youth who are involved with youth services, then they should let us have just a few of them when they’re finished beating them down and medicating them; sending them to appointments with a referral letter, to job programs where you pick up trash…This project is about real community; it’s about lifting up the ones who are struggling, and asking them to seek self-realization through service to others, work, and accountability.”
Greg has done exhaustive market research, crafted a focused mission statement, and written a comprehensive business plan showing how successful this business will be. All of this information is available on the Sweetwork Project website.
In just one week, Sweetwork Project’s initial fundraising phase, a Kickstarter campaign to lease the space and start a Pop-up Co-op has gained over 100 backers together pledging close to $10,000! It is now imperative to reach the minimum goal of $22,835 or these pledges are lost and the project won’t be funded. The Pop-up Co-op will last for 3 months. While selling great coffee for $1 and limited organic produce from the take-out window of the unrenovated space, Sweetwork will establish a neighborhood presence. The project already has enthusiastic community support, but actually securing the space and making sales will demonstrate that it’s not all talk. This is crucial to setting the stage for a permanent grocery store by attracting more donations—of money, labor, materials, and expertise—as well as the attention of investors and grant-giving institutions.
How you can help:
- Become a backer of the project on Kickstarter. If you are not familiar with it, Kickstarter is a web platform where people can fund their creative projects through the power of social media. One sets a fundraising goal and a deadline, and if friends and supporters commit to meeting or exceeding the funding goal before the deadline, the pledges go through. Please consider making a pledge even if you can only afford one dollar. Every penny helps and each pledge is a vote for a radical idea that will show other potential backers what broad grassroots support this project has!
- Get the word out to your social network. If you are a Facebook user, “like” the Sweetwork Project Page and the home page for the Pop-up Co-op on Kickstarter. And “share” these links with all of your friends or post them on the walls of individual people that you think would be interested. And if you use Twitter, post this shortened link http://kck.st/q7UnCA with a personalized message about Sweetwork’s mission to all of your followers.
- Personal emails, phone calls, and meetings are even better. There are so many angles here: food activism and community health, social entrepreneurship and new business models, alternatives to failing job programs, and opportunities for kids who’ve gotten a raw deal. If there are people you know who feel strongly about these issues, please contact them. If you have personal contacts with people in the press, relevant bloggers, or anyone who can help spread the word, tell them! Forward this email, or borrow freely from it while writing your own. There is also clear, eloquent text available on the Sweetwork Project site, as well as much more detailed information about the business itself.
Thank you for your time, I hope you’ll get involved!
xo Jo
