AUNI alumni (Photo via AUNI website).

The wonderful young folks from the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative (AUNI), a school-based program of the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships, are hosting a delicious fundraiser on Saturday, March 29. The annual Eats and Beats community dinner is an event that showcases youth leadership and skills and also helps raise funds for AUNI’s High School Internship Program.

West Philly Local wrote about AUNI’s youth efforts to grow and sell organic food in West Philadelphia. AUNI also offers healthy cooking lessons to high-school students and older community members and teaches how to tend to school gardens and operate farmers markets and CSAs.

Eats and Beats serves a locally sourced, 4-course organic meal prepared and grown by youth interns, featuring ingredients from local farms, restaurants and businesses, including Bon Appetit, Franklin Fountain, Guacamole, Milk and Honey, Lancaster Farm Fresh, John and Kira’s Chocolates, Little Baby’s Ice Cream, Pure Fare and Tara’s Catering. The event will also include live entertainment and speakers, a silent auction and raffle with gift certificates to restaurants, yoga, fitness and cooking classes, and locally-made arts and crafts.

The event will take place at the Mantua Haverford Community Center (631 N. 39th Street) from 5:30-8:30 p.m.. Suggested minimum donation is $25. Click here for more information and to RSVP.

The “design” table offers some suggestions during a community meeting on the proposed property at 4224 Baltimore Ave. on Monday.

The roughly 40 residents who sat down Monday evening at the International House (3701 Chestnut St.) to offer their input on the proposed 92-unit residential development project at 43rd and Baltimore made a few things clear: More parking, no pharmacies, absolutely no undergraduates and a design that respects what Clark Park means to West Philly.

Their input was part of the first of three community meetings designed to weave community input into design, retail space and transit choices to be made by the developers of the property at 4224 Baltimore Ave., the long-vacant plot across 43rd Street from Clark Park.

“Working with the community we can aspire for a project that works for the community, for the neighbors, for the business owners,” said Omar Blaik, a 15-year resident and former senior vice president at Penn, whose firm, U3 Ventures, is serving as a development liaison between the community and the property owners. U3’s job is to gather community input over the next couple of months and integrate them into the project’s design.

So far, there is no design. A conditional use permit from the city allows the development of a 92-unit structure, but places few restrictions on the amenities offered or the businesses that could occupy the first floor of the project. No building drawings were offered at the meeting. Those will be available at the next meeting in mid June, when the comments from Monday’s meeting are passed along to architects.

Residents were broken into groups and asked to address the building design, ideas about retail spaces, the type of units that should be offered and parking/transit. Here’s what they had to say:

• Design – This group of residents recommended that there be at least 50-60 parking spaces incorporated into the design. The original proposal calls for six. They also advised that the service access for the project in no way interferes with trolley traffic on Baltimore Avenue. So no double parking etc. The height of the building should fit in with other buildings in the vicinity.

• Retail – They recommended businesses that fit the current flavor of the neighborhood. The options range from a single 5,000-square-foot business (the space at Mariposa is about 5,500 feet for comparison), or whether it should house several smaller spaces. The Green Line Café at 43rd and Baltimore, for example, is about 1,000 square feet. Milk and Honey Market is about 2,000 square feet. Resident Mel Clampet-Lundquist suggested a design that incorporates a pub/restaurant that looks out over a recreational space that could be used for wiffleball, similar to Rookie’s, a Wisconsin pub/field. “Absolutely no pharmacies,” the group concluded. Another suggestion was a “restaurant that served good booze rather than a pub that served bad food.”

• Unit type – This group was asked to consider the preferred market for the complex. There was a clear consensus that it should not include undergraduates. Other possibilities included single families or condos that could be purchased by current neighborhood residents looking to downsize. One issue the group raised was the added pressure that would  be placed on the Penn Alexander School if the project marketed to young families.

• Parking/Transit – They recommended a resident-to-parking-space ratio of 2:1 or 3:1. They also recommended that the project should encourage walking, biking, car share and public transit to residents through added car share spaces and maybe a SEPTA kiosk.

Blaik said that these suggestions will be be taken into consideration in the designs that are set to be released at a June meeting. A final meeting will be held in early July.

What can you do?

This process isn’t over. The developers are collecting ideas from residents at a website, 4224baltimore.com. They encourage everyone to submit design ideas on the “community” portion of the site, including photos of building designs you like and restaurants you would like to see housed there.

– Mike Lyons

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Here’s another great event for the whole family happening this weekend in the neighborhood. The University City Arts League (4226 Spruce St) invites friends and neighbors to their 4th annual Chili Bowl event that will be held on Sunday, Apr. 7, from 1 – 5 p.m.

As always, the UCAL staff will fill up bowls made in their pottery studio with different versions of delicious warm chili, veggie and meat, provided by nine local restaurants: Atiya Ola, Distrito, Gold Standard Café, Green Line Café, Guacamole Mex Grill, Harvest, Honest Tom’s, Milk and Honey, and Powelton Pizza. Once again, Greg Salisbury, head of SOOP catering, will be creating meat and vegan chili and Yards Brewing will be supplying beverages.

The annual Chili Bowl event raises funds for the University City Arts League’s Pottery Studio. (Photo courtesy UCAL).

Sounds great, right? All you have to do is to buy a beautiful hand-crafted chili bowl and you can eat all the free chili you want. And if you bring your kids, they all will eat free when their parents purchase a bowl! After you try all the chili you can vote for the best chili-maker in the neighborhood.

“This is a really fun event,” says Noreen Shanfelter, Arts League executive director. “It’s great for the whole family. We’ll have music and face painting for the children to enjoy.”

This event benefits the UCAL Pottery Studio. It will help cover the expenses of a new, third kiln that was recently added to increase capacity at the studio and new lighting.

Pottery is the most popular of all courses at the Arts League and is available for children, aged 5 to 12 after school Monday to Friday, and for adults on the weekends and on several weeknights.

For more information contact the Arts League at 215 382 7811 or visit www.ucartsleague.org.

Here’s another CSA option in West Philly. The West Philly Foods CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program is taking applications for the upcoming growing season.

Run by The Enterprise Center, this CSA includes a box of fresh, locally grown produce – from herbs to tomatoes to berries –  delivered monthly and optional items, including jams, pies, baked goods and bread. The program even includes shares for beer, pesto and flowers.

The program is also committed to providing fresh produce to low-income residents around the Walnut Hill and surrounding neighborhoods. The program also employs local youths in the program and helps connect a growing network of young urban farmers.

Pick-up locations include the Walnut Hill Community Farm at 46th and Market and Milk and Honey Market at 45th and Baltimore.

This upcoming weekend Milk & Honey Market is throwing two holiday celebrations: a Holiday Pop-Up Shop on Sunday at their West Philly store at 45th and Baltimore and Winterfest on Saturday at their Center City location at Sister Cities Park (18th St. and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway). Annie Baum-Stein, the owner, invites her West Philly neighbors to both events.

Winterfest will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and includes a lot of fun holiday activities for the whole family – a Treasure Hunt, Karaoke sing-a-long with Frosty the Snowman, and holiday arts and crafts. The event will kick off with a choir performing songs of the season. Throughout the day children will enjoy Story Art, Snowflake Science, Cold Weather Creatures, and cookie decorating. This page has a full schedule.

For Sunday’s Pop-Up Shop held at 11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. in West Philly, Milk & Honey partnered with local artist/craft team Fennec Designs (many will recognize their wares from VIX Emporium or Go West Craft Fests) who have invited their neighborhood artisan friends to participate. In addition to the pop-up gift shop, Build-Your-Own gift baskets and Cookie decorating kits will be on tap at the event.  You can purchase anything in the store for a gift basket and receive the gift packaging and a custom gift card free.

And here are some examples of locally grown or made gift items:

Urban Apiaries Honey, unusual bitters, shrubs and syrups for cocktailers, Beer Kits for Home Brewers, local artisan made kitchen accessories, art works and beeswax candles, a great assortment of cookbooks and of course lots of delicious edible gifts!

In parts of West Philly we have big old trees with lots of dropped leaves. They are already clogging street gutters.

UPDATE (2:45 p.m.): Philadelphia public schools will be closed tomorrow, Superintendent William Hite announced. Also, SEPTA will reinspect tracks and routes after the storm. Service is canceled for Tuesday morning.

As of 2 p.m., there haven’t been any power outages reported in West Philly. Please check the PECO Power Outage map for updates. What appears to be a problem already is leaf-clogged street gutters. If you have one near your home, you might want to take a minute to clear it.

We included some storm prep tips in a post yesterday. You can find that here. At the end of this post we have some important phone numbers and an embedded #sandyinphilly Twitter feed, which many local media outlets are using to keep people updated.

Here are some other closures for Tuesday:

• Public schools are closed, Superintendent William Hite announced.

• No SEPTA service Tuesday morning.

• City offices closed.

• Courts closed.

• City trash pickup scheduled for Tuesday has been canceled. If Tuesday is your day, hold off until next Tuesday.

• Most Amtrak routes in the Northeast have been cancelled. They have good info on their Facebook page here.

If you need some last-minute supplies, here are some businesses that are open as of about 2 p.m.:

• Mariposa Food Coop is open and just got in a big produce and bread delivery from Four Worlds Bakery. (Update: Mariposa is closing at 5 p.m.)

• Milk and Honey Market is open at 45th and Baltimore.

• Supremo Shop n’ Bag on Walnut Street between 43rd and 44th plans to stay open until 3 p.m.

• For halal supplies, Makkah Market at 4249 Walnut St. is open.

• CVS at 43rd and Locust will be open indefinitely. The manager there said they will be open until the electricity goes out.

• Green Line Cafe and Earth Cup are open. (Update: Earth Cup has reportedly closed)

• The Gold Standard will be serving their weekend brunch today and tomorrow.

• Fu-Wah Market is open at 810 S. 47th St.

• The Dollar Store on 48th between Spruce and Pine is open and they have a pretty good selection of candles remaining and a bunch of flashlights.

If you know of some businesses that should be on the list, leave a comment below, tweet us at @westphillylocal or drop us an e-mail at: editor@westphillylocal.com.

If you see animals in need or find pets during/after Hurricane Sandy, please immediately contact:

PhillyPAWS
[tel: 215-238-9901/phillypaws.org]

PSPCA
[tel: (215) 426-6300/pspca.org]

ACCT
[tel: (267) 385-3800/acctphilly.org]
Some important numbers:

PECO Energy Customer Service: 1-800-494-400
PECO Energy Emergency Hotline: 1-800-841-4141
Philadelphia Water Department (PWD): 215-685-6300
Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW): 215-235-1212

Tweets about “#sandyinphilly”