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	<description>Eat Local and Eat Well</description>
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		<title>Who Needs a Loser to Win?</title>
		<link>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/03/30/who-needs-a-loser-to-win/</link>
		<comments>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/03/30/who-needs-a-loser-to-win/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 30 Mar 2013 17:02:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Thinking Out Loud]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.boxcargrocer.com/?p=1973</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When we were little our parents encouraged us to read by giving us money for each book we completed. Fiction earned us $1.00 per book. Math workbooks garnered $0.05 per page. As siblings, we became competitive during the summer months, gorging on books in anticipation of a payoff. We did not receive allowances for doing chores like our other friends did. Household labor was expected  of us as co-residents of the same house. But the books. We devoted hours to reading stories and going on mental adventures. There was a healthy competition to it as we challenged each other to see who could get to the next level in the math workbooks. Then to see who would get through the stack of library books first that would enable us to spend our loot. The interesting thing was that even though we competed to see who could finish first, the outcome was the same. The same rate was paid for finishing the same amount of pages. At the end of the day we both won. We both benefited from the same dollar bills and expanded minds. It was a healthy competition. There were no losers. The investment in our early literacy paid off as our parents sent us off to Columbia University and the University of Denver – more investment of course, but well worth it. Rewarding our minds and expecting our labor turned us into self-sufficient adults who have had the ingenuity needed to weather all the economic downturns that our generation has had to withstand. I think of this because of all the commentary that is being thrown about because of the new stadium slated to move into downtown Atlanta.  Everybody loves to find the loser.  People have been hardwired to think that there cannot be a situation where everybody wins. And when there is, people want to argue about who wins more, forcing a loser where one might not really exist. The Boxcar Grocer stands in one of the main communities that will be most affected by the construction of the new stadium. And everybody is abuzz looking for who is going to lose the most. Is it Castleberry Hill? Is it Vine City?  Is it English Avenue? Is it the children, the homeless, the streets, the schools? Why is the mindset that the man with the largest check is the only one who benefits? We are in a new era. An era where we can reach beyond restrictive illlusions and see the abundance of resources and possibilities that are available when people work together – through public/private partnerships – in the best interest of the common good. Although we are all shaped by history and should study it accordingly so as to not make the same mistakes twice, there are different players in the game and multiple ways to think about how everybody can stand to benefit from the outcome. By looking at the multiple ways that community can be engaged and inspired, we can envision a possible future in which the new stadium can enable the Atlanta community to move towards a new self-sufficiency. The synergy created by such a grand project in conjunction with the transit gulch and positive people working together has the ability to radically transform downtown Atlanta in a way that will allow more winners than we think possible. If there is one thing history has consistently taught us it is that pitting groups against each other makes for great news and lousy cities. Solutions abound whereby we all stand to benefit from this new vision of downtown Atlanta. Now, let’s all put in a little personal sweat equity on the blocks where we live and use our mental energy to offer up the best solutions to growing healthy communities when we come together and not focus so much on all the negative ways that a project could possibly go awry.]]></description>
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		<title>Boxcar Goes Tech</title>
		<link>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/03/13/boxcar-goes-tech/</link>
		<comments>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/03/13/boxcar-goes-tech/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:52:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Thinking Out Loud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andia Winslow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boxcar Grocer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food access]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kevin Curry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South by Southwest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SXSW]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.boxcargrocer.com/?p=1940</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After five fast-paced days in Austin, Texas spending time with some of the most innovative people in business, I&#8217;ve returned to Atlanta totally inspired and with a clearer vision of the potential reach of Boxcar. I&#8217;m not kidding when I say it&#8217;s like my mind just exploded from the sheer electricity of being at South By Southwest. For those of you who do not know what SXSW is, here is a little glimpse into the world that converges upon Austin every March: Particularly of interest to us was the Blacks in Technology House where we hobnobbed and presented with people doing amazing things involving health, technology, and food. From Chef Bryant Terry and the Grits &#38; Greens panel to the Food, Faith and Fitness panel featuring Fit Men Cook&#8216;s Kevin Curry and Andia Winslow. We have to start thinking collaboratively and understand how technology can help us get more people to understand and control their own health.]]></description>
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		<title>An Honest Look at Health</title>
		<link>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/02/12/an-honest-look-at-health/</link>
		<comments>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/02/12/an-honest-look-at-health/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:40:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Thinking Out Loud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alison Cross]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alphonzo Cross]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boxcar Grocer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.boxcargrocer.com/?p=1902</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Our parents were very open with us. Although we were taught respect and when to stay out of grown folks’ business, at our own dinner table nothing was off limits. From an early age, we talked about everything in a very matter-of-fact, nonjudgmental way: from anonymous patients who were ill or dying in the hospital where my mom worked, to mental health and substance abuse issues of family members and friends, relationship issues between our parents and other family members, ridiculous stories about pilots and customer behavior at the airline where our dad worked, and whatever happened to be the issue that had Mike Wallace popping up in peoples’ faces on 60 Minutes (one of the few shows we were allowed to watch as kids). There is a level of sensibility that we learned early on from our parents being this honest with us. There were few things that were not met head on, conversationally, as we grew up. It taught us at an early age that we really have nothing to hide from ourselves or others. As we grow older, we understand more fully what a wonderful gift not feeling ashamed to talk about any aspect of ourselves or our lives is. It paved the way for us, as adults, to be honest with ourselves. This type of honesty means very little accumulation of emotional or physical baggage, the type that can lead to a deterioration of health over extended periods of time. Health is one of those aspects that require complete honesty. And yet, health is so complex in some ways that it is sometimes difficult to grasp how to get started on the road to improvement. Tech evangelist Adria Richards recently shared on her blog how important the actual lackof food was in her childhood and how much stress it caused. Total health comprises mental, physical, and spiritual integration to be complete. Honesty is the first step towards healing any aspect of our bodies. Are you healthy? Do you do things that you feel as though you have no control over? Are you at risk for long-term disease? Do you drink or use drugs as a way to escape from a life you feel you have no control over? Do you feel as though you spend more time defending your body than taking care of it? Food is probably the easiest place to begin to heal and better understand one’s health. Making decisions about food that involve what you are eating, when you are eating it, and how much you are eating can be the first step towards opening up to the type of change it takes to heal an entire body. Making proper food choices that involve portion control, more vegetable and fruit consumption, and less sugar intake is a wonderfully productive way to engage the brain and become more energized. Being honest and fully conscious about how we use food and how we live our lives is of the utmost importance. Are you overeating or undereating as a coping mechanism? What underlying issues are you not talking about that lead to using food in an unhealthy way? Are you living with integrity? There are reasons behind the choices we make in life. The more familiar and honest we become with those reasons, the more control we have over our own lives. Holding people to higher standards is not an easy task and yet, you need to do that for your yourself, as well as your friends and family, as uncomfortable as it may be at times. We are all familiar with rebellion. It is the act of going counter to the best advice from our parents only to find out in the end that their knowledge would have saved time and energy spent cleaning up messes that did not need to be made. Remember that neither McDonald&#8217;s nor Wing Stop will be paying for your healthcare bills down the road. Spend less time getting angry with yourself or others who hold you to a higher standard. Spend more time integrating those parts of yourself that have been hiding in shame, that need to be cared for and brought into the light, that need to be acknowledged and healed so they have diminished power over you. The time is now to take full control of your life, your body, your health.]]></description>
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		<title>Grow Our Children, Donate Time</title>
		<link>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/01/28/grow-our-children-donate-time/</link>
		<comments>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/01/28/grow-our-children-donate-time/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:42:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Thinking Out Loud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boxcar Grocer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[community development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.boxcargrocer.com/?p=1895</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a commercial landowner we are ambivalent about the effectiveness of the property taxes we pay each year to Fulton County and City of Atlanta. What do the schools around our land have to show for the $22,000 check we write each Fall? What do our sidewalks and streets have to show? What is the value of the education those children are getting in our public schools? What use are the facts they are forced to memorize and regurgitate for the purpose of tests? How valuable is a young adult with a high school diploma coming out of the public school system here? As a business owner looking for employees I can tell you: not much. We believe only our communities can fix our schools. Money itself is never the solution. We believe public-private partnerships should be starting in the school halls. Not in the way that it is talked about now where there is this feeling that if schools are privatized, they will be successful. Or that corporate donors are sought out when its time to fundraise once a year. I’m talking about in a real community sense. Partnerships. Expectations that businesses that are utilizing resources and making money in those communities should be giving back within that county should be enforced. Those businesses and civic leaders in the districts and counties within which the schools sit should be tasked to share their knowledge with the children. With elementary school children. Middle school children. And high schoolers. Why isn’t that a mandate? Children need to learn. Business owners have knowledge. Why is that not put on the table as an enforceable part of the solution? In return, children should be welcomed to walk through the doors of local businesses to learn whatever knowledge that business has to offer. Alphonzo and I learned so much on the many days we walked through the halls of Washington Hospital after school waiting for our mom to get off her shift as a nurse. As a teenager, I volunteered as a candystriper at St. Luke&#8217;s Hospital in San Antonio where she worked. In nurses we saw leadership, honesty, commitment, kindness, and wisdom. In doctors we saw steadiness and knowledge. In patients we saw fight, determination, fear, and inspiration. In the chaplains we saw faith. We saw illness and death early and often and, as a result, as we grew to adulthood we learned not to fear it. We learned so much. At San Francisco International Airport, we learned leadership as we watched our dad delegate responsibility as a manager for the domestic terminal. As we watched him move from gate to gate talking to passengers we learned social skills, we learned how to calm excited people down, we learned about time constraints and taking personal responsibility (when the plane leaves, it leaves, no matter how important you think you are), we learned structure, we learned how to work with team members, and considering his 30+ years working for United, we learned what dedication was. More than anything this type of exposure taught us possibilities. I am not the first to admit that I have no idea what to say to kids half the time. My brother and I speak to them the same way we speak to adults. Like they are fully actualized humans. Because somewhere inside of them, they are already. They may not understand everything consciously yet but they have a better grasp on reality than most adults and an honesty that allows them to learn. And feeding that energy with something positive, showing them that the community cares enough to turn their attention to them for an hour or two to share not what comes out of books but what comes out of experience, that is where change is made. That is how we move forward. Cultures used to have oral traditions that passed down knowledge from one generation to the next. Not we have tv. This is not acceptable. HABESHA Works is a wonderful program that understands this necessary partnership through and through. They have brought their children to our store to ask us questions, to learn about food, to learn about business, to learn whatever it is we have to share with them. They are in our community and we have a commitment to make time for those young minds and even if it is just for 30 minutes or an hour, they get our full attention because we care what happens to them. As a result the kids that go through that program are some of the sharpest young minds I have ever met. For 11 years they have been teaching and growing a generation of leaders. Please help support them as they celebrate their anniversary this Friday. The more they know, the more they grow. We owe it to our children for businesses to be engaged with schools.]]></description>
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		<title>Gettin Dignified!</title>
		<link>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/01/07/1887/</link>
		<comments>http://www.boxcargrocer.com/2013/01/07/1887/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:19:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Thinking Out Loud]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.boxcargrocer.com/?p=1887</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Within this culture, I hear people talking about dying with dignity. I seldom hear people passionately talk about living with dignity. Boxcar grew out of the realization that living with dignity is about more than an attitude, it is a way of being in the world and it is very important. Living with dignity is what every individual deserves the right to do, and by extension, what every neighborhood should have the opportunity to do. Within a dignified neighborhood there is healthy food, there are centers dedicated to spiritual growth and support, there are positive teachers, productive schools (you can have one without the other you know), there is a sense of family, of connectedness regardless of socioeconomic position. Neighbors look out for each other. Businesses contribute to the economic vitality of the pace. People thrive. Being dignified means being fully alive. We bring this up because you may notice that we call our new indoor farmer’s market the Castleberry Hill Farmer’s Market. We claim the title of hosts because this farmer’s market is about the entire community. About making sure farmers and local producers have a place to sell their produce during the winter months when the outdoor markets fall off. About making sure that, especially during flu season, people are able to stave off illness by having access to the freshest, most nutrient dense foods that have traveled less than two miles to get here. Boxcar was never about a single store. It is about change. It is about expansion. It is about planting seeds in the world that will grow into healthy prosperity and enrich the entire nation. We are creating community one recyclable grocery bag at a time. People wonder how we’ve gotten so much traction in the one year since we’ve opened our doors. Us. Two urbanites who knew nothing about food before we started this. It’s because our business plan never stopped at the threshold to our business. Our business plan incorporated building community. It’s why Alphonzo spends so much time cultivating the Merchants Associated Team of Castleberry Hill (MATCH). It’s why we invite partnerships with new businesses like OmPoint Yoga who will be giving yoga classes in our rear studio starting tonight at 6pm. It is why we ride our bikes when we can and visit our neighbors. It is why we are here. Commit to living with dignity. Be alive. Pay attention to your community. And, as always, eat local and eat well.]]></description>
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