Thanksgiving is a great time to give back, so if you’re looking for some local causes to help this week you might want to consider donating to local food growers and distributors. Check out these two fundraising campaigns currently underway in the area.

‘Bring in the Harvest with Mill Creek Farm’ fundraising campaign

Photo via Indiegogo.com.

Mill Creek Farm, and urban educational farm operating at 49th and Brown in West Philly, is dedicated to improving access to fresh produce and building a healthy community. The farm underwent a lot of transition this year, bringing a new farmer, acting director and board of directors, and is trying to stay afloat through the end of this season and into the winter. The current fundraising goal is $13,400 and there are still 12 days to go. Here’s what your money will go toward, according to the project’s Indiegogo page:

• keep our farmers employed through the farmers market season
• continue offering affordable, fresh, vegetables at 2 weekly farm stands
• offer educational tours for students from pre-schoolers to undergrads

For more information and to donate go to: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bring-in-the-harvest-with-mill-creek-farm

The Fresh Food Hub Mobile Grocery Store expansion project

Photo from The Fresh Food Hub’s Facebook page.

The Fresh Food Hub, a mobile grocery store and farmers’ market bringing fresh and healthy food to Powelton, Mantua and Belmont neighborhoods, is raising funds for its expansion into other parts of Philadelphia. The project launched in Spring 2012 and as of August 2013 The Fresh Food Hub has distributed over 15 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables and served over 1,500 West Philadelphia families.

The Fresh Food Hub fundraising campaign in on Kickstarter (some of you have probably seen it in the sidebar widget on West Philly Local) and there are still 11 days left to help. As of Monday, Nov. 25, 1:30 p.m., $8,555 has already been raised toward the $9,773 goal. To read more about The Fresh Food Hub and to donate, click here.

If you like the idea of the huge warehouse located at 3848 Lancaster Ave turning into a multi-use neighborhood event space for flea markets, food vendors, craft fairs, musical showcases, farmers markets, town fairs, expos, extravaganzas, contests, championships, food events, community events, karate demos, etc., you can show your support at tonight’s party at the space. The party called Lanxgiving will include performances by four bands – Pattern is Movement, Pile, Hound, and Amanda X. And hot food from Poi Dog and Ranch Road Tacos will be served with free cold drinks.

Entrance is from the rear of the building on Warren St. The event begins at 7 p.m. and here‘s its Facebook page.

Art part of “American Queen” series (Photo courtesy of Davis)

“Too many Basquiats. Not enough new artists.”

Black acrylic etches the lines of the first five words atop three stacked yellow crowns that run down the canvas’s vertical. The letters of the last two words—arguably the most prolific—are bold white on top a banner of black at the end, serving as the eyes of a symbolic queen. The background is a sea of baby blue with random strokes of white, red, navy and yellow.

In a way, Tiffany Davis’s anchor of her “American Queen” series—and the series itself, which includes “Never Condense Art,” a spin on Andy Warhol’s infamous soup cans—is both reverence and dismissal. For her series, the 29-year-old West Philadelphia artist (who goes by American Queen TJD (Facebook page)) takes elements from her favorite artists—like Jackson Pollack’s splashes or Jean-Michael Basquiat’s crown—and treats them as foundations for a larger purpose. Davis then washes the distinct trademarks away with her own deeply felt abstract expressionism—each canvas a kaleidoscope of color and words that call to a greater mission.

“Anybody can reproduce anything that Basquiat did, but why would you want to do it?,” Davis said, talking from her hotel room on Sunday as she waited for the Eagles game to begin. “I can probably make a name for myself [if I called] myself the female Basquiat, but why should I have to do that?”

Davis, who works during the day as a program director at Drexel University, hung up the hats of her successful fine art-cum-clothing line Cocky Persona last year in order to concentrate on the canvas-based visual work. It’s art that projects a message, with all canvas infected with the moments taking place in her life or in the world at large. (Her next string of pieces will reflect her recent trial — losing her rented South Philly home this past weekend to a fire. The day of our conversation, she was in the process of moving back to her childhood home at 56^th and Larchwood.) You can read it in the words that brand each canvas, like “Waste no time. Live,” “Breathe. Passion proves itself,” “Love you first,” or “Worth, state of mind”—positive reinforcements from the gut.  Continue Reading

On Spring Garden Street between 35th and 36th, 12 garden beds line the perimeter of the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships. Heads of cabbage still sway above the planks of wood, but the growing season is over. Soon the last few crops will be harvested, leaving the garden empty until next Spring.

But if a few Drexel University students have their way, the community will pick up the reigns and keep the garden alive for years.

For the most part, the garden was maintained through the growing season by the Drexel Urban Growers (DUG), a small group of students committed to urban farming and sustainability. The group began by building an urban apiary (beehive) on the campus garden at 33rd and Race, but they have since moved their work off the campus and into Mantua.

The Triskeles Foundation had already designated funding to build a garden at the Dornsife Center, but DUG simultaneously expressed interest and ended up helping with the construction and taking over as the garden’s caretaker. The only requirement by Triskeles was that half of all produce be donated to the community.

Christian Brown, president of DUG, noted that the group ended up donating more like 95 percent. “The community loved the produce. They’d often be lined up right when we started harvesting at 11 a.m.,” Brown said. “There was always more demand than supply.” Continue Reading

Editor’s Note: West Philly Local is proud to present the third in a series of vignettes of local block captains drawn from Them That Do, a multimedia documentary project and community blog by West Philly-based award-winning photographer Lori Waselchuk. Check Them That Do for more information, updates and additional photos.

Anita Harris’ inspiration to become block captain didn’t seem particularly ambitious when she started. “I needed something to do,” she explained.

Anita was already working fulltime as a secretary and raising her two daughters.  She simply wanted to make her block of 5300 Wyalusing safe and clean.

But I’ve learned to listen closely to Anita, because behind her efficient language is an ocean of commitment.

Early in Anita’s term as block captain, she met Skip Wiener of Urban Tree Connection. Skip’s organization was working with residents in the Haddington neighborhood to plant flower gardens and trees to rehabilitate crime-ridden vacant lots. Anita joined their efforts and was able to help build several gardens on and around her block.

Five years ago, Skip told Anita that he wanted to start growing food.  It was then that Anita devised a monumental plan for the ¾ acre abandoned lot behind her house.  The lot was once a construction company’s storage site, but it had been abandoned for over 30 years and still contained buried drums of oil and other hazardous construction waste.

“Why don’t we build a farm?” Anita asked as she showed Skip the property.

Skip remembers seeing the lot for the first time. “It was a nightmare. You couldn’t see a foot into the property because the weeds were so high. The space was being used as a chop shop, there were fires, nighttime prostitution, and drugs. It was a very dangerous place.”

For five years, Skip and Anita worked with residents, the city, volunteers, and organizations to clear the lot, remove the waste, replace the soil, and build an urban farm.  It has been slow and intense work, but The Farm at North 53^rd and Wyalusing is fully functional with three greenhouses, a packing shed, cold storage and compost stations.

The Farm produces and supplies fresh vegetables and herbs that are sold to Neighborhood Foods farm stands throughout Philadelphia. Anita spends her Saturdays picking, packing and selling the produce at the vegetable stand on the 600 block of North 53^rd Street, right around the corner from her home.

The 53^rd Street farm stand will open once more this year on Saturday, November 23^rd from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. to help families prepare for Thanksgiving.

If the loop playing of Wham’s “Last Christmas” at CVS hasn’t given it away already, the holiday season is here, with Thanksgiving just around the corner.

For many locals, the holidays mean planning a vacation or taking a trip back home for family quality time. But for others, the season means staying put in West Philly, be it because of circumstance or because loved ones are coming to you.

Your holiday staycation doesn’t have to turn out boring, though. After all, with all the great restaurants in the area you can embark in a week-long foodie tour that will satisfy your hunger and help you taste new flavors. But our little notch of Philadelphia proper has many other great gems to keep you and/or your family entertained during the season—some popular and historic, others hidden and in need of discovery.

In order to help your staycation take flight, West Philly Local put together a short list of places to play and sleep to help you plan your local itinerary—and discover the unique personality of our neighborhood.

Continue Reading