Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Yesterday, we spent a couple hours hanging out with Sam in his store with our cardboard posters in hand and fliers ready to pass out. After our attempt to get government funding fell out the window, we came up with a new idea to bring the community together in the name of produce at Sam's store: getting the neighborhood interested in joining a CSA. A CSA is community supported agriculture, and it's essentially setting up a deal with a local farm to have boxes of local, organic produce delivered weekly to a certain drop-site. We came in contact with a farm in Sacramento Valley called Eatwell Farm that was very interested in getting us and the neighborhood involved. We were to find 10 people who were interested in joining the CSA in order to create a new drop-site. Our idea was to create this new drop-site at Sam's store, and while he wouldn't be able to personally sell the produce, neighbors would have to come to his store to pick up their goods, which would potentially roll in some business.

We walked from our campus to the store at Divisadero and McCallister, holding up our signs as we went. Ask me about CSA's! and Want fresh, local, seasonal produce? We got a reaction out of a couple passerbys. "Oh, should I ask you?!"


Once we got to the store--technically called Save More Market, but "Sam's store" to everyone else--we set up shop with our fliers and posters, explaining to Sam what we planned to do for the afternoon. He was very excited to get the ball rolling on this project, and stood outside in the rain with us, waving to the people he knew who drove by and asked everyone who came to the store, "Have you heard of this CSA thing?" We found that this tactic worked; despite the fact that Sam couldn't tell his customers much about the whole thing, because they usually knew and trusted him made people more willing to listen to what we had to say.




All-in-all, we had a fun afternoon at the store. We talked to numerous people, sparked interest in a couple (unfortunately only getting 5 of the 10 we needed), and learned a lot about Sam and his local clientele. I still can't believe that he is the sole employee at his store, spending each and every day there from around noon to as late as 2am on weekends. He doesn't mind at all though, his customers keep him company and when I asked him if he gets cold with the door open all the time, he simply said "he's used to it." Such an adorable man who is truly respected by his neighborhood--how many times do people drive by and yell "happy birthday" out the window to store owners? And because of his genuine interest, we plan to return to visit and help him get this running, despite the fact that the class will be over.

csa flier