Dear Wedge Member-Owners: WedgeShare is the Wedge Co-op's philanthropy that continues to positively influence our community. For the eighth year, we have an opportunity to share the prosperity of our Co-op and simultaneously promote aspects of our mission as a cooperative.

This year we will again give a portion of the Co-op's post-tax profits to non-partisan, non-sectarian organizations in the community that are committed to sustainability through activities related to:

• Environmental Quality and Protection
• Food and Agriculture
• Cooperative-related Activities
• Health and Wellness

Over the past months, we received and evaluated many applications. The 12 organizations on the ballot most closely match the program's criteria. Now it's your turn to decide which organizations should receive WedgeShare grants.

Please read the program descriptions carefully. The WedgeShare voting is done on the same ballot as the Board election.

Thank you for your time and consideration! Vote for up to 3 of the following organizations.

The Cornucopia Institute - Organic Integrity Project

The integrity of organic farming and the quality of organic food are at risk as factory farms and big business seek their slice of the organic pie. Want to operate a 5000 cow confinement factory farm, raise 100,000 chickens without access to the outdoors, use unapproved preservatives in your product, buy non-organic replacement dairy cattle shot-up with antibiotics? No problem, according to federal bureaucrats and political appointees at the USDA.

The Cornucopia Institute has emerged as the most aggressive voice protecting organic ethics from unacceptable production shortcuts and corporate profiteering. Based in Wisconsin, we are rallying family farmers with consumer/urban allies and food cooperatives in a grassroots defense of organics.

We've filed formal complaints with the USDA demanding an investigation into questionable production practices at 3000 to 5000 head organic confinement dairy farms. We're investigating similar abuses in eggs, poultry, beef, and imported vegetables. Help us draw a line in the sand.

Eco Education

How often do you see school kids make a real difference in their urban neighborhoods? We do every day... Eco Education is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1991 and based in St. Paul. We have reached over 130,000 young people and their teachers in the Twin Cities by giving them tools to engage in environmental issues that affect the health and vitality of their urban communities. Eco Education's mission is to foster within young people the appreciation, knowledge, values, and skills necessary to inspire ecologically sound decisions and actions.

Urban Stewards, an award-winning program, engages middle and high school youth, our future leaders, in active citizenship. Students practice environmental stewardship skills using a process to address a current, local environmental issue of concern (in either the natural or built environment). Throughout the year, students research an issue, and design and carry out a project that addresses that issue.

Foundation for Minneapolis Parks

Planting beans, watering artichokes, releasing ladybugs, tasting purple carrots and digging potatoes for the first time are all part of the garden experience for youth participants at the JD Rivers' Children's Garden. Nestled near Bassett's Creek in Theodore Wirth Park in north Minneapolis, this one-acre garden serves over 300 children each growing season. During a 6 to 8 week summer session, children garden and also explore Wirth Park's natural areas by hiking, wading and fishing, birding, and sampling wild edibles. All programs are free. More than 70% of participants are children of color and 60% live in north Minneapolis. A WedgeShare grant would increase the number of children served by providing additional staff for children's programming and garden care. The grant would also fund field trips to local organic farms so children could meet farmers, explore agriculture on a larger scale and learn about farm animals.

Green Institute

Community gardens provide opportunities to grow food, to share traditions between cultures and generations, to create habitable environments, and most importantly to build community. The Green Institute's GreenSpace Partners program supports community gardens by facilitating the Twin Cities Greening Coalition, by providing leases and liability insurance to garden groups, and by connecting gardens with resources.

Community gardens in the Twin Cities face significant threats. Many people are familiar with the Soo Line Community Garden, a community cornerstone at risk under development pressure along the Midtown Greenway. While the Soo Line presents a prominent example, many other community gardens serving youth, elders, and non-English speakers face similar threats.

With a challenge grant from The McKnight Foundation, we are par tnering with Minnesota Green and Farm in the City to develop a regional community garden sustainability plan. Matching funds from Wedge Co-op will be vital to develop regional strategies supporting community gardens.

Neighborhood Energy Consortium

The Neighborhood Energy Consortium (NEC) reduces pollution, conserves resources, and improves quality of life by offering tools for energy-efficient living. This summer, the NEC launched HOURCAR, car-sharing for the Twin Cities. HOURCAR's fleet of 13 new Toyota Prius hybrids are available for self-service reservation at convenient hubs in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. HOURCAR is the smart and affordable choice for improved air quality, fuel efficiency, and a transit, bicycle, and pedestrian-centered life.

HOURCAR proposes a Wedge partnership to promote car-sharing and demonstrate truly sustainable transportation by deploying the first 100% electric car in HOURCAR's fleet. The vehicle will be parked at the Wedge, and will be powered by renewable energy through the purchase of green power from the co-op's utility.

Additionally, a defined number of HOURCAR member discounts will be made available to Wedge members as determined by the Wedge Board. For more information see www.HOURCAR.org.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

IATP promotes family farms and rural communities that are healthy and ecologically resilient. Through our Farm-to-Hospital project, we support family farms by creating greater demand in the marketplace for their products. Hospitals alone spend more than $5 billion per year on food. We work with hospitals and health care facilities to make "good hospital food" less of an oxymoron by helping them to provide healthy, local and sustainably raised foods. We work with hospitals to buy meat/poultry and milk raised with few or no antibiotics or hormones; substitute whole, locally produced organic fruits and vegetables for processed, mass distributed products; and create farmers' markets on hospital grounds. In the process, we hope that people visiting, working in and operating hospitals will come to appreciate what Wedge shoppers already know: local, sustainably raised food has positive health benefits, tastes great, supports local communities and is better for the environment.

Land Stewardship Project

Land Stewardship Project (LSP) organizes Minnesotans to make their voices heard and have an impact on the decisions that affect our food and agricultural system. Whether organizing in local communities and stopping specific factory farms, promoting sound public policy that supports family farms and a healthy environment, or assisting people to get a start farming sustainably, LSP's members set the direction and priorities for the organization.

The LSP's Sustainable Farms, Prosperous Communities Project helps beginning farmers get started using environmentally sound farming systems, supports established farmers transition towards sustainable agriculture, and organizes citizens faced with factory farm expansion in their community.

LSP's mission is to foster an ethic of stewardship for farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture, and to develop sustainable communities. Founded in 1982, we are a membership organization based in Minnesota with about 30% of our membership living in the metro area and 70% in rural communities.

MOSES and the Help Wanted: Organic Farmers campaign

Wedge members know that industrial agriculture has a detrimental effect on the environment and the nation's food supply. They also know that a shift to organic farming would significantly benefit public health and contribute to the well being of the Earth. The soaring demand for organic food by conscious consumers has highlighted the need for more organic farmers in the Upper Midwest. In response, the Help Wanted: Organic Farmers campaign has been launched by MOSES (Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service). Founded in 1996 and based one hour east of Mpls./St. Paul in Spring Valley, Wisconsin, MOSES is widely recognized as the best resource on organic farming in the region. The campaign will provide farmers with information on transitioning to organic agriculture. Farmers, especially conventional farmers, face many practical and structural challenges in converting to organic practices. MOSES needs your help to make sure these farmers get the support they need to "go organic."

Sister's Camelot

Sister's Camelot's mission is to teach sustainabilty while sharing free organic produce and whole foods with neighborhoods in need. Since 1997, Sister's Camelot volunteers have rescued millions of pounds of donated surplus food from organic wholesalers and farmers' markets. We then share the food from a community painted school bus on street corners throughout the Twin Cities. Any inedible food received is composted at local community gardens to create rich, organic soil and renewed city land.

We also have converted a bus into a mobile commercial kitchen, which has enabled volunteers to cook healthy organic meals at community events such as the Midtown Greenway Coalition Picnic, Cry Justice and Barebones Halloween Puppet Shows, as well as an after school cooking program at Folwell Middle School.

We're seeking a grant to obtain a new office/warehouse, convert our buses to run on vegetable oil and to be equipped with renewable energy sources.

White Earth Land Recovery Project

The White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) is a multi-issue, nonprofit Native American organization based on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. The mission of the White Earth Land Recovery Project is to facilitate the recovery of the original land base of the White Earth Indian Reservation, while restoring and preserving traditional practices of sound land stewardship, language fluency, community development, and our spiritual/cultural heritage.

Funding from WedgeShare would be used to restore traditional food systems on the reservation through increased production of traditional and heirloom varieties of Indigenous vegetables. Funding would also be used to increase our "Buy Local" campaign initiative, encouraging local food production, sales of local food products to local establishments, promotion of local foods and strengthening local agriculture systems. This work not only will increase local production of traditional foods, it'll also rejuvenate the local economy through increased production and creation of wealth to community members.

Women's Cancer Resource Center

Women's Cancer Resource Center's mission is to support women in taking charge of their cancer experience. We do not provide medical advice, but rather, offer women the support, information, and resources they need to make informed decisions about their own cancer journey. Our integrative treatment options planning helps women take a holistic approach to treatment­one that blends conventional care with complementary/alternative approaches.

The goal of integrative treatment is to improve health outcomes and quality of life for women with cancer. WedgeShare funds would support holistic health services, which help women create a plan that meets their individual needs and treatment goals. Services include individual/group support, massage, acupuncture and other modalities, and information on healthy food, relaxation, and lifestyle choices. We also offer food preparation support for women in chemotherapy to ensure they have healthy food available when they do not have the strength to prepare it themselves.

Youth Farm and Market Project

The Youth Farm and Market Project will use any Wedgeshare funds we receive in support of our mission to nurture relationships between urban youth and their families, their communities, and the earth around them by growing, cooking, eating and selling healthy food. Within our three main focus areas of Urban Agriculture, Youth Organizing and Cultural Nutrition, we will use Wedgeshare funds to support the following goals:

• To increase youth competencies and qualities needed to be successful in life and work;
• To help youth develop public skills through community building projects;
• To set youth on the road to lifelong health using local, traditional and cultural foods; and
• To provide high quality, culturally appropriate foods for people in low income communities.