MAY 3, 2024 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What would you bring to a cookout? Lentils, rice, hummus and organic garlic bread. — Juliano Sanchez, #174 Charcoal or a soccer ball. Or both. — Jim Clark, #139 Water. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 Ribs. — Shawn Swoffer, #574 Potato salad. — Wayne Sparks, #615 Probably some beef ribs and watermelon! — Pony Bush, #305 Barbecue ribs, mac 'n' cheese and corn. — Derek Allen, #177 An appetite! — Ken Parks, #490 Barbecue sauce — good for vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters! — Monte Smith, #487 Whatever is needed. Soda, chips, potato salad, hot dogs and buns are the classics. — Hosea' Hill, #532 Vienna sausages and crackers. — Denise Shearer, #485 Macaroni and cheese. — Joe Woods, #103 On a hot day? Cold water! — Mike Jones, #113 People. Me, myself and I. — Tony Schohl, #9 I love every year walking through the wonderful W.E. Upjohn Peony CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 Visit the Peony Gardens for some fun in the sun! Garden at the Nichols Arboretum (what I like to call Peonies Park)! I start in the woods on the Washington Heights entrance. With my love for dogs, I am often happy to run into many on their daily walks. As we make our way through the bushes, we come out onto a vista overlooking the rest of the Arboretum. As I wander through the woods, I come out onto the back end of the peony park where I often see wedding parties taking pictures of the brides walking down between the flowers in their big fluffy wedding dresses. Professional and amateur photographers are often there as well, taking many pictures. But what I find so much fun is the number of people who come to admire the peonies for the brief time they are in full bloom. So between April and May this is a fun event for friends and family — a day in the park and fun in the sun! GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3 People’s Food Co-op annual meeting discusses A2 development goals SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor On April 16 the People's Food Co-op had its annual meeting at the Downtown Ann Arbor Public Library and it started with a 45-minute panel discussion. PFC Vice President Conner Levy started the discussion by stating that the primary objective of the PFC downtown development plan was food justice and food accessibility. Ann Arbor City officials who participated in the panel discussion were Lisa Disch (City Council member), Maura Thompson (Executive Director of the Downtown Development Authority) and Jane Dixon (City planning consultant). At the end of the discussion these officials were asked about their shopping credentials at PFC. All of them shopped extensively at PFC; Dixon mentioned that while she was a graduate student she didn't shop there because the prices were too high. Even though PFC is the only grocery store in downtown Ann Arbor, many people do not shop there because of those high prices. Right now, they are far from accomplishing food justice and food accessibility. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shocked the world into submission with its draconian lockdowns, mandatory mask wearing and social distancing reminders, there were already shopping and workplace changes happening. The pandemic only accelerated the pace of these new trends, like working from home at least part of the time and, as they stated in the panel discussion, social spaces outside of business establishments (mostly restaurants, I assumed). A PFC downtown development plan taking these trends into consideration could create a vibrant social life and new type of prosperity. This would make food tap into a different view of what makes for prosperity (that is, outside of the Gross National Product mindset) and possibly even bring down prices if it generated enough business of a social nature.
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