Local food resources

The third Putting Down Roots Sustainability Salon is on April 14th!  The second Putting Down Roots Sustainability Salon focused on food -- growing it, and sourcing it locally.  Afterwards, Maren put together a list of many such local sources:  CSA farms, farmers' markets, grassfed and humanely raised meats and dairy, natural foods suppliers, bakeries, and advocacy organizations.  Although this isn't an event, it seems to have a place here on MarensList.

Frankferd Farms:  Originally a grain mill, now a grain mill *and* a regional organic and natural food wholesale distributor.  You may have purchased their wares at the East End Food Coop, or eaten their ingredients in products from Allegro Hearth Bakery in Squirrel Hill.  Individuals can visit their storefront in Saxonburg, and order for delivery.  .In Pittsburgh proper, the delivery minimum is $250, but folks can group orders with or without a formal buying club, with individual minimum of only $35.  They also put out monthly sales flyers, both by paper mail and online.  I have a few extra catalogues, and Frankferd can be found online at 

http://www.frankferd.com/

Kretschmann's CSA farm (Don & Becky were here on Saturday), with year-round in-town deliveries of herbs, veggies, and fruits, as well as cheeses, meats, locally-roasted coffee, and other produce from other local purveyors.

http://kretschmannfarm.com/

Oliver's fledgeling ranch up in Marshall Township, with grassfed beef, pastured pork, honey, and maple syrup.

http://www.nwoodsranch.com/

Penn's Corner Farm Alliance, a group of local farms with a collective CSA, also à la carte preorder "farm stands".

https://pennscorner.wordpress.com/

Farmers' markets abound;  three that I frequent are at Phipps Conservatory (Wednesday afternoons), in East Liberty (Monday afternoons) and in the Strip (Saturday mornings):  Farmers at the Firehouse, run by Slow Food Pittsburgh and often featuring cooking demonstrations and tastings.  

http://www.slowfoodpgh.com/farmers.html

Not all the farmers' markets are run by Citiparks, but the ones that are will be listed on 

http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/parks/farmers_market.htm

The new Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip is host to many great local producers on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays year 'round:

http://pittsburghpublicmarket.org/

Another enterprise put together by the Slow Food folks is the Laptop Butcher Shop, through which individuals can place orders with local farmers for local pastured, humanely-raised meats, which are delivered via the Farmers at the Firehouse market every so often.  A typical lineup includes goat cheese from Lake Erie Creamery, Wil-Den's Fresh Air Pork, lamb and rabbits from Pucker Brush Farm, meat and eggs from the Farmer's Wife, and wild salmon straight from Alaska.

http://www.slowfoodpgh.com/laptop.html

Joe Rush, who delivers to several locations around the 'Burgh every two weeks, with grassfed meats (beef, lamb, pork, chicken, duck, and turkey), raw dairy, eggs, and goodies like honey, jams, apple butter, maple syrup, and apple cider:

http://www.rushacresfarm.com/

The Burns family's Heritage Farm, a couple of hours east, also delivers to our area, including a stop at the East End Food Co-op.  Fruits and forest-foraging pork (this week, jams and hams), vegetables, grass-fed beef, and pastured poultry:

http://www.BurnsHeritageFarm.com/

Further east but still in Pennsylvania is The Family Cow, which delivers raw dairy, grassfed meats (and nitrate-free cured meats), herbs, produce, and home-canned goods, to Swissvale, Ross Township, and Green Tree.

http://www.yourfamilycow.com/

Also, right across the road from Don & Becky Kretschmann is the Lewis family's farm, with grassfed beef and pastured chickens for farm pickup:

http://www.lewisfamilyfarms.com

Many of these farmers have periodic email newsletters that will keep you posted on what's available as the seasons roll around the year (or in the case of this winter, are skipped entirely).  

You can buy dairy, eggs, and meats from many of these producers at the East End Food Co-op as well as breads from Allegro Hearth and Mediterra, Spring Creek organic tofu from nearby West Virginia, raw milk from Frank White, eggs from The Farmer's Wife, off-grid NuWay Farms, and Blackberry Meadows Farm, beef from Ron Gargasz, lamb and goat from Clarion River Farms, flours from the Frankferd mill, and cheeses from many local dairies.  Many of them, and lots of others, will be at the Farm To Table conference this Friday and Saturday!

Grow Pittsburgh works in many realms to help more people grow more food in our city.  Check them out at 

http://www.growpittsburgh.org

PASA, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, hosts farm field days and networking gatherings through the year and, each February, a fantastic educational conference in State College.  Their Buy Fresh, Buy Local program is another way to connect with local producers.  

http://www.pasafarming.org/

This is just a broad sampling off the top of my head of the many fantastic local food resources in our agriculturally rich region;  I hope it's useful!  I'd love it if you let me know about connections you make as a result.  

We talked a little about gardening during the salon in March;  I'd also be open to hosting more detailed workshops, if there's interest.

Be well, eat local, share food, and grow your own if you can!

-- Maren.

  

Sept 15: Tree Tender course on Washington's Landing

Become a Tree Tender in 2012! Not a Tree Tender yet?  Join Tree Pittsburgh at one of our popular coursesand learn about urban forestry, tree biology, pruning, planting, and tree maintenance basics.  We expect to train our 1000th Tree Tender in our March course!  Could you be him or her?  We plan to celebrate! Register for one of these Tree Tender Courses here, and join nearly 1000 Pittsburghers greening the City, one tree at a time:  Saturday March 10th, Carlow University, Oakland Saturday June 16th, Rothschild-Doyno Collaborative, Strip District Saturday September 15th, Western PA Conservancy, Washington's Landing Tree Tenders was chosen as the "Best Way to Get Your Hands Dirty" by the City Paper in 2011!

July 15-28: Tour de Frack Marcellus bike tour

Activism in Motion...  Welcome to Tour de FRACK (tdf), an action oriented way to explore rural communities and the effects unconventional gas drilling from the saddle of your bike.  Traveling by bike connects you to a place in a way that no other mode of transportation does.  It allows you to see people, land, and even time from a new perspective.  

The bike is only a small part of the story.  This effort is designed to be a change in perspective and a vehicle to pull the national focus towards human tales of fracking while uniting the voices of those who have lived and seen its true dangers.

We are organizing a 14-day bike tour from July 15-July 28, 2012 from Butler, PA (about 45 miles north of Pittsburgh) to Washington DC along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) and C&O towpath (C&O)Along the Way We Will:

• Organize, facilitate, and coordinate with events along the trail
• Explore sites of proposed wells
• Study renewable energy sources along the ride (wind, solar, and water power)
• Point out the continuing damage caused by coal mining (acid runoff, mountain top removal)
• Support local economies
• Deliver personal accounts to the White House, EPA, Congress, and other bodies in DC

Want to join tdf?  Want to tell your story? Want to help organize?  Want to donate?  Want some tdf gear? You can also find tdf on Facebook.

Jun 23: NMRWA's Summer Storm!

Join the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association for their annual benefit event:  The Summer Storm.

Guests can enjoy delicious drinks (including wine and beer), a buffet dinner provided by local restaurants, a raffle with items provided by local businesses, live music by Garden Gate and a capella group, Doubleshot!, and special guest, Brian O'Neill, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  

7-11:30 at Frick Park's Fern Hollow (Lancaster Ave. entrance).  Admission $75;  early-bird special $65 through June 12.  Order tickets through Paypal here or call (412) 371-8779 x119.

Jun 16: Sustainability Salon & Sing

Join us for the Fifth Putting Down Roots Sustainability Salon, another in our ongoing series of monthly enviro-conversational gatherings with potluck food and homemade music.  Following our rousing discussions on solar power, food, wide-ranging topics prior to Earth Day, and trees, this month we'll have another open environmental salon.  We can revisit growing and sourcing food, check in on our rooftop garden and solar panels, learn about green building, regional air quality or the ever-changing situation with Marcellus Shale, contemplate the meaning of "sustainability"... What we talk about will depend in part upon who comes;  that's the beauty of an open-ended gathering like this! 

3-10 p.m. at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill.   Please email me to RSVP (important, even if you know right where we live, or are a maybe, please do so each time -- it helps greatly in several ways) and I'll send directions and/or a trail map if you need 'em.  Be sure to include "salon" in the Subject line, as I receive a ridiculous amount of email every day.  Bring food or drink to share if you can, along with musical instruments if you play.  Check back here for event updates.

____________________

Quite a few people have asked me what sorts of food to bring -- and my answer, as always, is whatever inspires you;  I believe in the "luck" part of potlucks.  Tasty noshings for the afternoon, hearty main dishes or scrumptious salads and sides for dinner, baked goods from biscuits and breads to brownies or baklava -- and/or beverages of any kind.  The more the merrier!  Local fare is always particularly welcome, whether homegrown or boughten.  Dishes containing meat are fine, though if it isn't really obvious please make a note of it.  

And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, don't forget the evening sing -- we typically run the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs, and a fun time is had by all.  Bring instruments if you play, and/or pick up one of ours!  Conversations will continue through the evening as well.

-salon |səˈlän; saˈlô n |:  (historical) a regular social gathering of eminent people (esp. writers and artists) at the house of a woman prominent in high society;  a meeting of intellectuals or other eminent people at the invitation of a celebrity or socialite.

Regular, that's the plan.  Eminent and intellectual people, to be sure -- that's yinz.  House, check.  Woman, c'est moi.  High society, celebrity, socialite?  Not so much.  Salons occurred in 17th-century France, purportedly powering the Enlightenment, and were more recently repopularized by the Utne Reader.  I've long contemplated hosting an ongoing series of conversational salons in this tradition: informal gatherings around the notion of sustainability.  Some will have a featured guest to lead a discussion on a particular topic, others will be open to whatever comes up. 

Jun 16: Tree Tender course in the Strip

Become a Tree Tender in 2012! Not a Tree Tender yet?  Join Tree Pittsburgh at one of our popular coursesand learn about urban forestry, tree biology, pruning, planting, and tree maintenance basics.  We expect to train our 1000th Tree Tender in our March course!  Could you be him or her?  We plan to celebrate! Register for one of these Tree Tender Courses here, and join nearly 1000 Pittsburghers greening the City, one tree at a time:  Saturday March 10th, Carlow University, Oakland Saturday June 16th, Rothschild-Doyno Collaborative, Strip District Saturday September 15th, Western PA Conservancy, Washington's Landing Tree Tenders was chosen as the "Best Way to Get Your Hands Dirty" by the City Paper in 2011!

Jun 16: Photography Walk with John Moyer

You've seen his work in the NMRWA newsletters, email blasts, and calendars, now grab your camera and join John Moyer on a tour of his favorite spots to photograph along Nine Mile Run. He will offer helpful hints and tips for improving your nature photography, no matter the type of camera you use. His photographic documentation of the Nine Mile Run restoration has been published in Civil Engineering Magazine, Western Pennsylvania History Magazine, and Landscape Architecture, and has also appeared in the PBS documentary Liquid Assets. This is a popular event, so you must pre-register! For more information, contact Sara at 412-371-8779 ext. 123 or sarap@ninemilerun.org. 

9:30am;  meet in the Fern Hollow parking lot, at the bottom of Lancaster Avenue.  Non-members: $10 / Members: Free!  Members Register here. Non-members can register online using PayPal via theNMRWA web site.  Not sure if your membership is current? Email judi@ninemilerun.org to find out.

Jun 9: "Koch Brothers Exposed" film screening & discussion

Koch Brothers Exposed is a hard-hitting investigation of the 1% at its very worst. This full-length documentary film on Charles and David Koch—two of the world’s richest and most powerful men—is the latest from acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Rethink Afghanistan). The billionaire brothers bankroll a vast network of organizations that work to undermine the interests of the 99% on issues ranging from Social Security to the environment to civil rights. This film uncovers the Kochs’ corruption—and points the way to how Americans can reclaim their democracy. http://www.kochbrothersexposed.com/about


2:30pm at the Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill, 5801 Forbes Ave.
https://www.facebook.com/events/430796060280171/

Organized with Pittsburgh 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club. This event is part of National Coffee Party Week.


Also, be sure to read the latest issue of the Coffee Party newsletter.  There is a great article about the Wisconsin Recall election.  You can sign up to receive e-mail alerts directly when the newsletter comes out here.

Jun 7: What a Plant Knows

Please join the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden at Rodef Shalom Temple to meet Dr. Daniel Chamovitz, a native of Aliquippa, PA and the author of What a Plant Knows.  Dr. Chamovitz has a PhD in genetics and recently served as chair of the Department of Plant Sciences at Tel Aviv University, where he is currently the director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences.  

6:00 PM - Biblical Garden Tour

6:40 PM - Dr. Chamovitz lecture begins

7:15 to 7:30 PM - Question and Answer session

7:30 PM - Refreshments and book signing

At the Rodef Shalom Temple, 4905 5th Ave. (corner of Morewood).  Admission is free, but reservations are required.  Please call 412-444-4464 by Monday, June 4th to RSVP.

Jun 4: Transition 2:0 film screening

Join us for a free screening of the new In Transition 2.0 movie!  

Chris and Carly (who are in the film and who facilitated the food garden in Wilkinsburg, PA) and Mark Dixon, the filmmaker that filmed that segment will be with us for Q&A after the film. This is an international documentary featuring a local Pittsburgh neighborhood. Come watch and talk with us! Go to www.sustainablemonroeville.com for details!

7:00 PM at the Monroeville Public Library

www.sustainablemonroeville.com

monroevillefoodgarden.wordpress.com

Twitter: SustMonv

www.transitionpgh.org

Friend Schwartz Market, Sustainable Monroeville, and Transition Pittsburgh on Facebook

Jun 3: Breakfast and Bird Walk

Join the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association to bird the Nine Mile Run Valley and explore the seasonal changes in the restoration area on a tour led by Jack Solomon. Carolina Chickadees, Carolina Wrens, Baltimore Orioles, Yellow Warblers, Scarlet Tanagers, Indigo Buntings... they're all possible to see in the watershed on an early June morning! A late breakfast will be provided, but this is one of our most popular events, and space is limited, so be sure to pre-register. For more information, contact Gary at 412-371-8779 ext. 115 or gary@ninemilerun.org.

7:30am-12:00pm;  meet in the Fern Hollow parking lot, at the bottom of Lancaster Avenue.
Non-members: $25 / Members: Free!  ...but you need to pre-register by 3pm on June 1!
Members Register here.  Non-members can register online using PayPal via the NMRWA web site.
Not sure if your membership is current? Email judi@ninemilerun.org to find out.

Jun 2: Clean Rivers Campaign Workshop

Did you know that the largest public works expenditure in our region’s history is about to begin, and that you’re expected to help pay for it? Do you know the difference between gray and green infrastructure?  Come learn the answers to these questions and more, as we explore how you can make a difference by helping advocate for sustainable solutions to our region’s sewer problems.

9:30am at Construction Junction – 214 N. Lexington Street.  For more information, contact Sara Powell at 412-371-8779 ext. 123 or sarap@ninemilerun.org.

Jun 1: Friday Farmers Market Event

Come to the market to learn about Farmers Markets in your neighborhood.  We will have several resources available to find a local market.  Local Farmers Markets who are interested in attending should contact us.  You can RSVP on our Facebook Event Page to get updates.  

12 noon - 4 p.m .at the Pittsburgh Public Market

May 31: Spread (sheet) out at the Green House

An opportunity to expand your skills, and check out the new Pittsburgh Green House at the same time!

As a community service and entrepreneurial endeavor, Mark Dixon (of YERT fame) will be teaching a beginner's spreadsheet class.  He's been working with spreadsheets for so many years he can barely count them (without the help of a spreadsheet? ;-) and would love to share some of that knowledge with interested people in town. Registration is $20 for a two-hour class.

Class is Thursday, May 31 at 5:30pm-7:30pm at the Pittsburgh Green House: 308 N. Sheridan Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15206 (next to Home Depot).

Registration and additional information at: 

http://www.infotangles.com/services/spreadsheets-for-beginners-class

You can also sign up and/or share the event on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/events/322978261104698/

May: Putting Down Roots Plant Sales

Your faithful blogger Maren has many vegetable, herb, and perennial plants for sale -- seedlings and transplants, some quite mature.  Also worm castings and some cool garden tools (the CobraHead, also known as a "steel fingernail").  You may be able to take Maren aside at Sunday's Sustainability Salon, or you can come by for a visit at another time;  just email to set up a time.

Plants include tomatoes (dozens of varieties of large and small tomatoes -- some have flowers and fruit already!), several varieties of cucumbers, summer & winter squash, gourds, pie pumpkins, broccoli, kale, collards, savoy cabbage, red mustard, mizuna, lettuce, mesclun mix, several kinds of basil, flat & curly parsley, thyme, tarragon, raspberries, strawberries, sweet woodruff, sunflowers, jerusalem artichoke, amaranth, dame's rocket, bronze fennel, anise hyssop, ostrich fern, tansy, hosta, black-eyed susan, forget-me-not and, well, I forget.  For most of the perennials, if I run out of specimens in pots then additional transplants can be dug to order.  Some of the varieties can also be seen on my Facebook page, in the Plant Sales album.  I also have CobraHead garden tools (a weeder/cultivator also known as a "steel fingernail"), as well as locally-produced worm castings (generously pooped by Matt Peters's busy worms in Hazelwood).  And lots of advice, if you'd like, to help get your garden going.

   

    

May 26: PRC Composting workshop

Backyard Composting Workshop:
This workshop thoroughly covers the importance of composting, setting up a compost pile, proper maintenance, and ways of using finished compost.

11am – 12:30 pm at Construction Junction in Point Breeze.  Cost is $50 single/ $55 couple and includes one compost bin.  Register here or call Donna at 412-488-7490 ext. 246;  more information on this and other workshops here.

May 26: Share Faire

A Space To Share Goods and Services With Your Neighbors+ Frozen Yumminess
-Potluck Dishes And More

East End Mutual Aid (EEMA) would like to invite you to the East End Share
Faire! East End Share Faire is an event where we can get together as a community
and provide for our own necessities, and have a darn good time doing it. To
participate is simply to attend. Bring things to share that you no longer need!
Share a skill/talent! Come partake in the generosity of others! Just stop by and
say Hi! Don't know what to bring or want to know what others have in the past?
Anything from food, clothes, toys, working appliances, chairs, seeds, comics,
computers, books, and tons of other miscellaneous items.

Too much of our lives revolve around selling our labor and sacrificing our time
to acquire more material things. Some go hungry while food goes to waste. We
grow tired of a possession that could be used or valued by another. We are
taught that everything is scarce and this breeds competition rather than
cooperation. The truth is that we live in a world of abundance. Within our own
communities, our own neighborhoods, the skills and items that we all need
already exist, and much of those are not in use. By coming together and sharing
all of our excesses, we can help provide for each other.

1-5pm. in Friendship Park, S. Mathilda & Friendship Ave in Bloomfield 1pm to 5pm Rain Date: Saturday, June 2 (same time and place).  Organized by East End Mutual Aid.  For more information, contact info@eastendmutualaid.org or feel free to give us a call at 412-385-3362

Common questions:
-Can I attend if I don’t live in the Bloomfield-Garfield-Friend​ship-East
Liberty area?

YES! The event is open to anyone. While our immediate organizational priority
is outreaching to, and working with, our neighbors in the surrounding community
we welcome the participation of anyone who’s interested.

-Do I need to stay with the items I bring? Or take them back with me
afterwards? What happens to the trash?

No, you do not need to take the items back with you afterwards, although if you
would like to, or are able to, feel free! We always assume responsibility for
ensuring that everything brought (or used) for the event is properly disposed of
afterwards. Trash will be bagged and carted off. Items that aren’t claimed
will be stored for use at a future Share Faire, or donated to community thrifts
stores if appropriate. 

-How does this impact the Park?
We have hosted a half dozen Share Faires with a consistent record of respect
for the location and other community members. The space has always looked nicer
upon our departure. By containing the event to one particular area there has
always been ample space for other activities to occur. 

-Will there be blankets? How will items be arranged?
Organizers will bring some blankets and we will attempt to separate items into
different categories.

-Can I sell things?
Intrinsic to this political event is the creation of space that is free of
exchange of money. While it is of course a public space we respectfully ask that
folks respect the event and not engage in selling or barter.

May 25-28: Heartwood Forest Council

Heartwood is a regional network of public forest defense and advocacy grassroots organizations, with member groups in most states where the Eastern Hardwood forests once covered majestic and wild, from the Ozarks to the Appalachians. Each year Heartwood hosts two regional scale events, one held annually over the Memorial Day weekend in a different state each year. This year Heartwood’s 22nd Annual Forest Council will be hosted by the Allegheny Defense Project (ADP), and held at Camp Olmstead (316 4th Ave., Warren, PA 16365).  This weekend conference will focus on the how-to and what-next of state and national forest protection.  Marcellus threats in PA and NY are among the many threats in the Appalachian region, and share many parallels with the Mountaintop Removal fight in southern West Virginia where the Forest Council was held last year, or with lead mining in Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest where Heartwood also has member organizations. Biomass incineration for electric power is a particular threat to our forests and farm soils alike, but discussions of scale come into particular focus on this topic. We want to build on the work done at APIEL and other recent regional conferences, and provide a forum to build momentum in these grassroots movements. Networking across this region has proven to be an effective tool in forest protection, and we are reaching out to you to strengthen that network in the face of these new threats because you already share a part of this movement to build a new vision.

This year’s theme is drawn from the nature of the major threats to our forest region, and explores their impact on both rural and urban life ways. Marcellus drilling, the Seneca bid to take management of the Kinzua Dam Hydro power rights, coal, solar and wind issues, all suggest that we think deeper about energy production and consumption in our society and our daily life, as we prepare to reclaim the structures that have led to such tremendous inequity around the globe. The primary focus or goal of the weekend is to share skills and provide training for activist Forest Watch, and coordinate local and regional forest protection and advocacy. Speakers this year will include Thomas Buchele, the Clinical Professor of Law and Managing Attorney, Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center ("PEAC") at Lewis and Clarke Law School who has fought for the protection of public lands for more than 25 years. Past attendees and featured speakers have included Woody Harrelson and US Congress Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), both champions of public forest protection among the hundreds and dozens who stop timber sales every day with letters, appeals, litigation and direct action.

One of the outcomes from the Forest Watch agenda in the program is a monthly Pittsburgh outing to Marcellus permit sites on nearby state forests, game lands, and parks, monitoring and commenting on the Permit from the beginning of the process, and alternating regular meetings with day-trip outings to collect on-the-ground data, and rescuing some of the plants from these threatened sites. Volunteers with computer mapping skills will be needed to incorporate data into strategic and interactive formats.

More information and a solicitation for participating organizations can be found here.  If you are interested in hosting a workshop topic or have any questions about Heartwood or the upcoming Forest Council, please contact HW Board Member and Pittsburgh contact Matt Peters at 412-320-0739 or mattnedludd@gmail.com .

May 24: An Evening with Seamus McGraw at WYEP

     Join author and journalist Seamus McGraw for a discussion of his new book, The End of Country , which explores the Marcellus shale gas industry's impact on rural life.  Tom Brokaw calls the book "a cautionary tale... required reading for all those tempted by the calling cards of easy money and precarious peace of mind." 

Jennifer Szweda Jordan, host of The Allegheny Front, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Pipeline editor, Erich Schwartzel, will moderate the evening with McGraw, following his readings from the book. Award-winning science reporter Reid Frazier, who covers gas drilling for The Allegheny Front, will be on hand to discuss the book and the ongoing impacts of Marcellus development. There will be opportunities for audience questions.  Copies of McGraw's book will be available for purchase and signing.

6:30-8 at WYEP Community Broadcast Center on Pittsburgh's South Side (67 Bedford Square, Pittsburgh 15203)  The event is free, but please RSVP .

May 23: Call-in day for education funding

This is our last chance to make our voices heard loud and clear in the Governor's Office and in the State Legislature. We need all of you to participate in the statewide call-in day for public education funding and convince everyone you know to participate. The Call-in Day and flyer published on Yinzercation is pasted below so you can easily circulate it via email to friends and colleagues. 


Q. I've already called my representative and the Governor; they know how I feel. Why should I call again on May 23rd?
A. We need to keep the pressure on, especially now while the Governor’s additional $100 MILLION in proposed budget cuts to public schools are under consideration. (That’s on top of the continuation of the $1 BILLION in cuts our schools suffered last year.) It’s not like voting: you can, and should, call your legislators more than once! When we participate in these call-in days scheduled by our friends at Ed Voters PA, we add our voices to a state-wide movement – there’s a real multiplier effect when we all do this together on a single day. Legislators hear us!

Q. But my legislator is already supportive of public education. Why should I bother him (or her) about this?
A. Even if your representative generally supports public education, we want her (or him) to take a more active role – especially during these next few critical weeks. You might ask your legislator to become a public education champion. And it doesn’t hurt to let them know that we “have their back” on this issue. We will never see sustainable dollars put back into our schools unless our legislators take this issue by the horns.

Q. Phone calls seem so simple. Is this really working?
A. Yes! Legislators and others in Harrisburg tell us that they are hearing from parents in numbers they have never seen before. Our other actions are important, too (rallies, letters, face-to-face meetings) – but these call-in days are an opportunity for all of us to speak up and be heard directly by our politicians. They are listening!

Q. What should I tell them?
A. Give a couple examples about how these state budget cuts are having a devastating impact on our school. At Colfax, we:
• Lost our after-school and Saturday tutoring program for struggling students
• Had to layoff paraprofessionals (adults in classrooms) and custodians
• Have larger class sizes and no more supply or text book money
• Will lose our Parent Engagement Specialist, our Gifted Education teachers, our instrumental teacher, and possibly our librarian next year

Q. Where should the state find money to pay for public schools?
A. We need our legislators to find a sustainable way to support public schools, using an equitable formula (like the one recently abandoned by Governor Corbett). It’s a matter of priorities. Here are some suggestions for sources of revenue:
• Close the Delaware Loophole, one of the single largest forms of corporate welfare
• Tax Marcellus shale (even the drilling companies have said they’re willing to pay)
• Eliminate the bonus depreciation rule passed by the Revenue Department last year without a legislative vote (cost us $260 the first half of this fiscal year alone)
• Repeal the sales tax exemptions for things like coal ($120M) and candy ($90M) which essentially give away state revenue

Gov. Corbett:  717-787-2500

Rep. Frankel:  (717) 705-1875 or (412) 422-1774
PA House District 23: Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze (South), Greenfield, Park Place (west of Braddock), Regent Square, Shadyside

Sen. Costa:  (717) 787-7683 or  (412) 241-6690
PA Senate District 43: Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze (South), Greenfield, Park Place (all), Regent Square, Shadyside

Rep. Preston:  (717) 783-1017 or  (412) 361-3692
PA House District 24: East Hills, East Liberty, Highland Park, Park Place (east of Braddock), Point Breeze (North)

Sen. Ferlo:  (717) 787-6123 or (412) 621-3006
PA Senate District 38: East Hills, East Liberty, Highland Park, Point Breeze (North)

Find your legislator at: www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator

1. You will be speaking to a staff member. Introduce yourself and identify yourself as a constituent. For example: “Hi this is _____, I am a constituent of Representative _____, and I am calling because I strongly support public education and I am very concerned about the impact of budget cuts on my school, and on our community.”

2. In your own words, say something like the following (pick a few points):
• Stop these drastic budget cuts! The $1 BILLION cut last year was devastating to our district and we can’t lose another $100 MILLION.
• I am concerned / outraged / distressed that (give examples, see list on reverse)
• Every kid must have an opportunity to learn and good schools make stronger communities; education is a human right.
• Education is my top priority issue as a taxpayer and voter – a responsiblecommunity with strong values educates all of our children and makes it a priority.
• We can find the money to pay for schools. It’s just a matter of priorities.

3. Let them know you plan to follow these issues and see what happens. For example: “I am interested in the Representative’s position on these cuts and would like to hear back about it. My email address is …. Thank you.”

Phone Tips
Be really pleasant to the staff. They take a lot of calls, often from people who are upset about things. Think of it as a conversation you might have at work or a meeting: keep the tone professional and courteous, make your point about the issue.

Try to sound like yourself. It is okay to prepare notes to remind yourself what you are calling to say, but try not to read something. Share your sincere personal opinion and your reasons for it, in your own words.

Keep it short: a 2-3 minute call is usually plenty to say WHAT you SUPPORT (or oppose), WHY, and to give your contact information and ask for a response.