R5 Productions now matching donations for Mariposa Food Co-op’s expansion

Straight from R5 Productions:

Bull Gervasi, who really inspired us to start R5 and who is pretty much the reason we have shows at The First Unitarian Church (he was one of the founders of “The Cabbage Collective” – the first group of kids to use the church as a show space), has been helping to run Mariposa Food Co-op in West Philly for years. Now he and all the members there are trying to renovate an old bank building on Baltimore Ave to make the store five times bigger and have a ton of space for more food, community events, roof garden, etc. Turning it into a space/store that would be for us as a community.

More info from Mariposa’s fundraising site:

***This just in: R5 Productions, a local show promotion agency, is going to match the next $5,000 in donations made here! Give now and your gift will be doubled!***

Our Story
For almost 40 years, West Philadelphia’s Mariposa Food Co-op has provided access to healthy, locally grown, and sustainably produced food. Growing from a buying club of a few dozen members to a full-service storefront open every day of the week, Mariposa now has well over 1,000 shoppers. With skyrocketing growth, and only 500 sq ft of retail space we made the decision to expand.

We purchased a big fabulous building at 4824 Baltimore Avenue! Our goal is to begin renovations in June.

What We Need
The purchase, renovation, and start-up costs for the new store is an estimated $2.3 million. The co-op has already raised over $2.2 million between various loans, grants and donations. We’re almost there.

Our goal is at least $10,000 of donations from community members and supporters.

Please make a donation to support this campaign – even $5 or $10 will help us reach our goal!

What Your Gift Supports
The new space will allow Mariposa Food Co-op to:

• create a beautiful new energy-efficient store that is 5 times larger
• provide access to more healthy, locally grown and sustainably produced food to the West Philadelphia community — currently, the closest full-service grocery store is over a mile away and for a comparable product line shoppers must travel three and a half miles!
• expand our non-working members and non-member shopping options, and provide access to healthy food to everyone in the neighborhood
• sell new items, including a variety of organic and free-range meat
• increase our buying power from local farmers
• allow more residents of the neighborhood to take part in cooperative economic democracy
• advance our mission of providing information about healthy, locally-grown, and sustainably-produced food with improved space for community meetings, workshops, and seminars

Mariposa Food Co-op Fundraiser from mariposa coop on Vimeo.

You can donate here. Any donation obviously will earn you the self-satisfaction that comes with doing your part to make your community a better place. But, if you like tangible things, $25 also gets you a Mariposa pin, $50 a reusable shopping bag, $100 a pin and a shopping bag, $150 a water bottle, and $250 a t-shirt.