Soon after we published an article about a community meeting held by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op to present preliminary designs for its new location to residents and and business owners who might be impacted by the move, questions started pouring in, and parking-related questions topped the list. “Why are they building another huge street-fronted parking lot in the urban core,” Sacramento Press reader Tom Runge asked in a story comment. “This will do nothing but create more dead space for the area.” The co-op’s plan to move from its Alhambra Boulevard at S Street location to a new, larger store four blocks away at 28th and R streets has largely received positive feedback, accordin

Welcome to another edition of the "Wake-Up Call," a rundown of five items that we're working on, found interesting, or otherwise thought you might want to know about today. As is always the case here at Sac Press, suggestions are welcome. BEST DAY TO BE A KINGS FAN: It’s that time of year again, when basketball fans are filled with a special mix of hope and dread, and the sports blogshere and radio waves are dominated with enough rampant speculation and what-if scenarios to make your head spin: NBA Draft day. The Bee says the team will go for a small forward, allowing Tyreke Evans to go back to playing point guard. The paper hints that the choice will be between North Carolina's Harrison

Preliminary designs for the new Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op at 29th and R streets that will offer shoppers nearly 10,000 additional square feet of store space and more than double the amount of available parking were unveiled to residents and business owners at a community meeting Tuesday at Revolution Wines. “I’m excited for every aspect of it,” said Tahoe Park resident Donna Parten. Parten, a co-op member since the 1970s, said she is looking forward to more parking outside of the new location, and the increased space on the inside – similar to what she experienced at the former Elk Grove co-op location. “I’m hoping it will be spacious and have more room for products so we’re not ru

Pachamama Coffee Co-op is Sacramento’s newest coffee business, and CEO Thaleon Tremain said it takes fair-trade coffee a step further since it is actually owned by coffee farmers in Latin America and Africa. All profits go back to the farmer/owners, with Tremain essentially serving as an employee of the co-op. Customers can learn more about the farmers by scanning a QR code with their smartphones to pull up videos of the farms on which the product is grown, see the farmers and, if they choose, tip them. “It’s a premium product, but I think we’ve seen with fair-trade coffee that people are willing to pay a little extra to know they are supporting good wages for the people producing it,” T

By day the sound of an angle grinder echoes through Midtown’s alleys, dust and occasional fragments of powdery stone bouncing into the lane. Neighbors walking by often stop to chat, remarking on the elaborately carved marble sculptures made by local sculptor, Vince King, admiring his progress over the last several months.  King created his garage-studio at the I Street Co-op where he moved just over 5 years ago, a then-recent graduate of UC Davis with a degree in Environmental Conservation Biology and Management. He began working for the County of Sacramento, helping to develop several conservation planning initiatives, and sculpting in his spare time.  After some planning of his own, Ki

The slaughterhouse leftovers and trimmings recently tagged as “pink slime” that are present in many meats has brought nationwide attention to the content in store-bought meats, and The Daily published a graphic on Monday showing which large retailers do and don’t stock “pink slime.” The Sacramento Press looked at some local grocery stores and asked if they carry “pink slime,” and other local options, such as Safeway and Target, were included in the larger report. Locally, representatives of both Corti Brothers and the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op said they do not sell “pink slime.” “Corti Brothers grinds its own ground beef,” said Corti Brothers Owner Darrell Corti. “Corti Brothers ha

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op is looking at the possibility of moving its store from the current site at 1900 Alhambra Blvd. to a larger location with more than double the parking at the block that borders R, S, 28th and 29th streets  24th and S streets . Members will vote on the potential move toward the end of March or early April, and if approved, the new store could open in 2014, said Wendy Hoyt, an urban planer who works for the new site’s developer, Separovich/Domich Real Estate Development. Ravel Rasmussen Properties is also part of the development team. Co-op General Manager Paul Cultrera said Tuesday that the proposed move would be advantageous for a number of reasons. “Ou

A lawsuit against the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op has been dismissed at the request of those who filed it, members of the co-op who earlier this year sought to ban the sale of Israeli-made products at the grocery store. “We, the petitioners, chose to dismiss this case,” said Sharon Adams, Berkeley-based attorney for Maggie Coulter and Robin Kristufek. The lawsuit, filed June 30, alleged that the co-op’s board was violating its bylaws by not allowing a ballot initiative to ban Israeli-made products to go to a vote by the full membership. The Sacramento County Superior Court denied a request to expedite the case on July 28, which could have brought a resolution in advance of ballots go

  I agree with mycologist Paul Stamets when he said  ”We should be very concerned about our future,” in the film “DIRT! The movie.” While the movie focused on the dangers posed by global soil degradation, I find myself concerned about the state of our co-op. As a social worker, I see the recent events in the context of a time when we are faced with the large corporate buy outs of natural food companies and coincidentally higher interest in starting up co-ops than we’ve had since the 1970s, we have both an opportunity and a danger on our hands as co-op members. Our movement is growing and it’s up to us to harness the energy and focus on ways to use that energy in ways that will advance t

For the last year, an earnest and at times sadly acrimonious debate at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op has focused on whether and how the co-op should officially participate in a boycott or selective buying campaign to challenge Israeli government policies and promote peace in the Middle East. While the 110-year conflict now known as the Israel/Palestine question continues to attract the attention of the world, observers in Sacramento may wonder whether peace at the co-op is possible. The co-op debate is a multilayered one. What are the merits of the Israel/Palestine conflict itself? What kinds of boycott or selective buying strategies, if any, might move this conflict in the direction