#somerville local first

[lucifurfluffypants]

Cinderella went to the ball.

[thefavecast]

Community Feature: Local Craft Market at Arts at the Armory

Over the weekend Somerville Local First put together a great local craft fair called: Local is for Lovers Valentine’s Day Market. This was at a real cool space called the Arts at the Armory. They featured amazing local artisans, along with delicious food and drink vendors and an overall cool vibe for a Sunday afternoon.

I was able to stop by and here’s what I saw:

http://favecast.com/29ELUVz16S

Overall a great event, highlighting some of the best local shops and artisans that Somerville, MA has to offer.

What’s your favorite local shop that no one knows about?

Favecast it and help spread the word!

-Andrew

Download Favecast

[johnnydsuptown]

Thoughtful Thursday: Did You Know????

This thoughtful Thursday Bridget and Julia educate! (because we're thougthful)...

Here at JD's we represent a healthier community approach to business!  Johnny D’s was a founding member of Somerville Local First, GoGreen Davis Square (see the Boston Globe article, "GoGreen Davis Square"), and Darbi (Davis Area Resident Business Initiative). We are a proud member of the Somerville Chamber of Commerce and support many great causes including Groundworks Somerville, HONK, and the Somerville Homeless Coalition annual Road Race (1st Saturday of October).

Johnny brings you:

grass-fed steroid antibiotic free ground beef from farms in western MA

antibiotic and steroid free humanely raised chicken

cage-free humanely raised eggs

non-high fructose corn syrup ketchup

dairy from farms pledging rBHST free cows

100% soybean oil frying oil and a dedicated vegetarian fryer

Also, we:

recycle our plastics, cardboard, and glass, and toner cartridges

only use 100% recycled paper for in house use

have installed many LED lights

have waterless urinals

put out our organic fair trade coffee grinds for gardeners during the growing months

Do you have any thoughts this Thursday???

We welcome your suggestions and input. There is always more to do yet overall we try to be a good citizen of the community and our planet with every decision we make. This has been our approach for over 25 years.

[goodtogether-blog]

Somerville Local First post! @CYCLEkids Fundraiser today

Every ticket supports a fourth- through sixth-grade cycling curriculum paired with nutrition classes that help kids sustain an active, healthy lifestyle.  “My goal is to create an atmosphere that parallels what the CYCLE Kids curriculum does for the kids.  We want people to be curious about where their food comes from!” says Eileen Elliot, CYCLE kids’ event planner and the buyer of Cardullo’s Gourmet Shoppe, Harvard Square’s beloved specialty foods purveyor.  Who better to select the most delicious local offerings?

>> More on SLF Community Blog

[goodtogether-blog]

#Blogging: Interview With Somerville Local First

Joe Grafton, Executive Director of Somerville Local First, is on top of his game. He excels at marrying serious, sustainable change with desirable, fun and sticky brands.  SLF’s Harvest Fest, their annual fall fundraiser, is a smorgasbord of the finest local eats and treats (why, hello, Pretty Things Beer) set to live music and a decidedly un-stuffy vibe.

Did you know that he’s also Chief Operating Officer of Together Boston, a badass electronic music festival? Even that supports his mission of unifying local businesses and getting people to spend money in our fair city.

Together Boston 2011 Festival Preview from TOGETHER BOSTON on Vimeo.

I take long to get to my point but here it is: He asked me to be a community blogger for SLF (posts coming soon!) and I thought this was a terrific opportunity to pick his brain about what SLF needs and in general, the role bloggers play in advancing a nonprofit’s mission. So here it is, straight from an ED and Huffington Post blogger: 

Joe, for the uninitiated, please talk about Somerville Local First.  How did you get involved?

Somerville Local First is one many local nonprofit networks of locally owned and independent businesses, nonprofits, artists and community members seeking to build an economy that is local, green and fair.

I'm the founder, along with our founding Board of Directors,so I've been with SLF from before our official launch date.  The story is a long one, but I worked successfully in corporate for a number of years, had a crisis of conscience, and started to work for what I believed in instead.  SLF became the genesis of that for me.

Why should we buy local? 

First and foremost: because it is far more impactful on our local economy, and therefore our community.  Two to three times as much money stays local when someone buys local, via local businesses using other local businesses for products and services.

But also, buying locally gives individuals an opportunity to affect positive change through simple actions.  In our current world, with the frustration with our elected officials, an environmental crisis that is only getting worse, and many other challenges, people can feel paralyzed and powerless.  The reality is that depending on the estimate you trust, consumer spending represents 60-70% of the economy every year.  So we actually have the power in our society. By choosing local businesses, we exercise that power.

Finally, buying locally helps foster and create community, and I believe that we all desire community in our lives.

How does SLF encourage people to buy local?

We run a number of programs and campaigns to do so.  We do two major events each year, SomerFun (a street festival in Union Square) and Harvest Fest (one of Greater Boston's best tasting events).  We manage a robust online presence including website, blog and social media.  We also distribute two publications per year, our coupon book which is a collaboration with our sister network in Cambridge, and our annual magazine, "A Local's Guide to Somerville."

You’re looking to add new community bloggers to your roster.  Who are they? What is the most important thing they do for SLF?

We are and we're PSYCHED you're gonna be one. We've got a number of contributors, you can see them on our Our Bloggers page.  They are a wide-ranging group of individuals, and their most important role is to give our readers, and us, a number of different lenses and opportunities to learn about local economies. 

How much traffic does the SLF blog drive to its website?

Without getting too deep into analytics (Google Analytics = gold), I'd guess its about 50% of our total traffic.  Our goal is to get three posts per week posted to the blog, so posting frequently is a key driver for our website.

Who are we writing for? Use three adjectives to describe the SLF blog’s audience.

The audience varies, but I'd use these three adjectives: Engaged, community-minded, and smart.

Describe SLF's blogging voice.

Lively and fresh, covering a wide range of expertise and interests so our readers can be educated and engaged by various topics. Our style is to identify and partner with creative professionals, and then let them do what they do best.  Placing too many boundaries reduces the quality of the product, so we let them do their thing, which typically means awesomesauce.

What other opportunities are available for people who want to support SLF?

Here's a few:

Make the shift to buying local businesses, especially our members, and tell people about it!  The way to create tipping points in my view via Malcolm Gladwell, is to influence numerous social circles and create new social norms and behaviors.

Becoming a community member or making a donation is tremendously helpful. We are even worse off in the current nonprofit environment, because our work isn't really supported by either government OR foundations.  

Sign up for our email list, read our blog, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Attend our events: SomerFun is FREE, Harvest Fest costs money, but is one of the best deals all year long.

[trulygood]

GOODLA + SLF = ?

A while ago I had read that GOOD  *[note below]  was releasing a localized version of its website, starting with LA, but hadn't thought of it since. 

As I recently "Liked" GOOD on Facebook, I have been reading a lot more of their content, which truly has been good for me. GOOD features well-written articles about topics I care about deeply and I am committed to following these things more closely.

Today after reading an article on their website, I wound up on the GOODLA front page. 

Wow!

I Love what they have to say up top (emphasis mine):

Let's make this city work. Join us and look forward to:

One-good-L.A.-thing-a-day in your inbox, Monday through Friday

Invites to GOOD LA events and the goings-on of our L.A. friends

GOOD-only deals at our favorite L.A. joints

First word on new GOOD projects

All free. All GOOD.

That's what's up! 

After taking a quick look over the front page and noticing that the Posts averaged probably 35 comments or more, my thoughts were: folks in LA are clearly taking advantage of this.  With Posts about topics like the role of the neighborhood, tackling environmental causes with creativity, & Los Angeles street food, it seems like a powerful way to spread the word about important issues, highlight interesting events, and really take the pulse of people in the city.

Now, obviously LA is one vast & populous city (almost 10 million large), and lil' ol' Somerville, while yes, densely populated, only weighs in at about 75-80,000 folks, so the possible user-base here is minimal compared to LA.  Also True: a daily publication with the breadth and scope of GOOD LA must take a serious time investment by a talented staff.

But I am thinking big on this, and mostly because it sure seems like an effective way to spread important messages and engage in important discussions, and Somerville has plenty to bring to the table on both fronts.

Not that Somerville Local First isn't already on the right path with their grittyish/shinyish/cityish/newish/oldish website (which includes a very active Blog) and their heavy Facebook activity & Tweets.  But things can certainly evolve and, well, I believe this is me saying they will.

May this post serve as the first step towards improving the way SLF does what it does. 

More details to follow.

-----

*Now is probably a good time to mention that Truly Good is in no way affiliated with GOOD INC, and the similar name is purely a coincidence in good taste.  At the time I decided to call my little web design company Truly Good, while GOOD was on the magazine stands, it served no conscious roll in my idea/decision. I promise.