Local Businesses Participate in Tree Planting Program

by

Photo above of volunteers planting trees is from SOUL NOLA’s Facebook page.

*

Volunteers planting trees in front of Terranova’s
photo by Tommy Lewis

Both Terranova’s and Cafe Degas participated in the November 4, 2017 tree planting organized and sponsored by the group Sustaining Our Urban Landscape (SOUL) founded by Susannah Burley.   Faubourg St. John neighbors at  2816 Grand Route Saint John, 2934 Grand Route Saint John, and 2832 Ponce de Leon also received free trees.

What is SOUL?

“It’s an acronym for Sustaining Our Urban Landscape, and the idea is to work neighborhood by neighborhood to help residents form a strategic plan to reduce dramatically the amount of stormwater that goes into catch basins and the drainage system,” said Burley, who also holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture from LSU.   Quote from an article by Stephanie Bruno which you can see here:  https://soulnola.org/news/

Everyone knows money doesn’t grow on trees nor does it grow for trees.  If you would like to donate to help put more trees in the neighborhood, please contact Susannah Burley at:  (504) 616-6888 or you can donate to SOUL online at the Trust for Conservation Innovation’s website.   Learn more about donating to SOUL online at:  https://soulnola.org/donate/ or just call Ms. Burley at (504) 616-6888

Cafe Degas participated in SOUL’s November 4, 2017 tree planting
Terranova’s participated in SOUL’s November 4, 2017 tree planting

Photos above of trees by Cafe Degas and Terranova’s are by Charlie London
***
Photos below are from SOUL NOLA’s Facebook page

Jacques Soulas was very happy to receive trees next to Cafe Degas
Volunteers gather at Terranova’s to help plant trees
Lots of opportunities to help during the tree planting. These folks helped by delivering trees. They are pictured next to Cafe Degas

Help Feed New Orleanians – Buy Capstone Honey at Terranova’s

by

HELP FEED NEW ORLEANIANS

CAPSTONE is a non-profit in the Lower 9th Ward. Capstone is a small non profit that has taken previously blighted or vacant lots in the Lower Ninth Ward and developed them into productive gardens and orchards. Located in part of a food desert, Capstone grows and provides food at no cost to those who need it. Capstone also assists others in starting their own gardens or allows others to garden on their lots when space is available.

Your hive adoption and donation supports their mission to grow food on previously vacant lots and share it with those in need. It also supports other Capstone programs which empower others to grow their own food.

honey-capstone4textCAPSTONE Raw Honey is made from an assortment of local floral varieties. Capstone never feeds their honey bees high fructose corn syrup.
Capstone Raw Honey is only put through a strainer to ensure it retains all of its natural goodness. It is never ultra-filtered, heated, or diluted with high fructose corn syrup.

Each harvest is kept separate and each jar labeled showing the month and year of harvest. Each floral season gives our honey a unique color and flavor. It also contains different pollens from the different times of the year if you are using it for allergy relief.

terranovasWhen you think of a business that is always helping the neighborhood, who do you think of?

Terranova’s

When you think of a business where they try to make you leave with a smile, where do you think of?

Terranova’s

So, naturally, when you think of a business that would support a non-profit with the sale of honey, what business do you think of?

Terranova’s

Go buy some Capstone Raw Honey at Terranova’s today!

Terranova’s Superette  |  3308 Esplanade Avenue  |  New Orleans, LA  70119

***

Your donations of time, supplies, or money to Capstone will help make their projects successful.

If you would like to donate your time as a volunteer or arrange for your group to volunteer please contact Capstone and they will be glad to work with you.

If you have supplies or materials you would like to donate to Capstone please contact Capstone and they will make arrangements to accept your donation and utilize it to help our community. Some examples would be gardening tools, plants, seeds, construction tools or rebuilding materials.

Capstone is a 501 (c) (3) non profit and will gladly accept your financial donation.
You will be issued a non profit receipt to use as a tax deduction if you wish.
 
 
 

Capstone accepts PayPal

You may mail a check to:
Capstone118, Inc.
1641 Deslonde St.
New Orleans, La 70117

Capstone is a small non profit that has taken previously blighted or vacant lots in the Lower Ninth Ward and developed them into productive gardens and orchards. Located in part of a food desert Capstone grows and provides food at no cost to those who need it.
http://www.capstone118.org/

Local Businesses Provide More Than Just Goods

by

fsj-bastille-2014
The old phrase “use it or lose it” applies especially to neighborhood businesses

Shop at your neighbors’ businesses on Ponce de Leon and Broad. Keep your money working for you right here in Faubourg St. John.
After a long day of shopping locally stop in, say hello to your neighbors and have a drink at…
https://fsjna.org/2011/09/drinks/

LIVING IN A NEIGHBORHOOD—even the swankiest one—with no grocery, coffee shop or other businesses is like wearing a nice new suit of clothes without shoes. It looks great, but you’ve got no place to go. Local shops, preferably within walking distance, are the soul of any community, the place where you bump into your neighbors and get that satisfying sense of belonging.

These neighborhood hang outs don’t need to be fancy or charming. Sometimes their idiosyncratic character is the best expression of your neighborhood’s true personality. A funky, messy junk shop run by a lovable eccentric can be more welcoming than a charming-as-can-be tea shoppe or nostalgically-correct soda fountain. A laundromat with comfy benches out front can become a kind of town square that attracts people.

In many small towns, an ice cream shop is the hot spot for teenagers, while other folks in the community wander down to the gas station to drink pop and tell stories. In a lot of African-American neighborhoods, the barber shop and beauty parlor are the social hubs. These places may not sound like your idea of an exciting time but, to the people who live there, such businesses are as important as sidewalk cafes are to Parisians.

IN OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, MANY FOLKS CREDIT A BOOKSTORE WITH HELPING HEAL THE CITY’S PRIDE after a vicious anti-civil rights riot erupted in the 1960s. Square Books, right on the courthouse square, restored many people’s faith that this was a caring, civilized community. It also helped revive the sagging downtown.

“What tends to get lost in the argument over the future of independent stores is that the dangers posed to them by superstores and on-line sellers don’t just threaten some quaint form of distributing goods,” writes author Rob Gurwitt about Square Books in Mother Jones magazine. “They imperil the fabric of our community life. Real-life stores—their place on the street, the people they draw in, the presence they cast in the community at large—help define their neighborhoods.”

It’s no secret that local businesses almost everywhere are under siege from mega-malls and big box retailers. Everyone who cares even a little about their neighborhood should make a commitment to patronize local businesses, even when bread or duct tape or CDs can be had cheaper by driving to a national chain store. Vote with your pocketbook to keep your community vital. Indeed, you might even find yourself ahead economically with the money saved on gasoline and unnecessary purchases you would never have made if you hadn’t gone into the big box. And, you’ll be way ahead in terms of community spirit and social enjoyment.

THANKFULLY, SMALL NEIGHBORHOOD STORES ARE BEGINNING TO FIGHT BACK WITH BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS. This is a well-proven model where local merchants work together to spruce up commercial streets by adding nice landscaping, fixing up the storefronts, improving the lighting and other amenities. They also cooperate on advertising campaigns, special neighborhood events, shared parking facilities, and other improvements.

Many merchants are banding together in an even bigger way by joining Independent Business Alliances, which draw public attention to the numerous benefits of locally owned businesses (how often do Wal-Mart and Home Depot buy uniforms for the local little league team or sponsor an art fair?) and by lobbying political officials and the media to take note of unfair economic tactics wielded by big retailers. The first IBA began in Boulder, Colorado in 1997 and within two years involved 150 local businesses. There are now IBAs in more than 20 communities—stretching from Corvallis, Oregon, to Greenville, South Carolina— and a national group, the American Independent Business Alliance, based in Missoula, Montana.

IN HARTLAND, A VILLAGE IN THE DEVON COUNTRYSIDE OF ENGLAND, a community school took over management of the Happy Pear green grocer and market when it was about to close. It offers students a wonderful lesson in business management and sustainable economics. And, local townspeople won’t have to drive many kilometers for fresh and organic food. This is just one example of a growing number of community initiatives to preserve and promote essential local shops. In another English village, Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire, 60 percent of residents pledged between five and five-hundred pounds ( $10-1000) to save and refurbish their general store (village shop in the British parlance), with townspeople doing most of the work. It is now community-owned with any profits going back to village itself.

IN THE SEATTLE SUBURB OF LAKE FOREST PARK, RESIDENTS RALLIED AROUND A UNIQUE, REDEVELOPED MALL that was envisioned as a community center as much as a retail outlet. Third Place Commons features a superb bookstore as well as a food court featuring local restauranteurs and a stage for nightly music and performances. It has become such a beloved local hangout that regular customers formed Friends of Third Place Commons, a non-profit group to help keep the place thriving.

Resources: “Square Books”:www.squarebooks.com “American Independent Business Alliance”:amiba.net “Friends of Third Place Commons”:www.thirdplacecommons.org

Terranova’s at 3308 Esplanade

by

Terranova Brothers Superette | 3308 Esplanade Avenue

In the video above, Tom Fitzmorris interviews Karen and Bennie Terranova.
***
Article by Ian McNulty

Terranova’s Supermarket isn’t well known as a place to pick up a sandwich, and that’s fine with Benjamin “Benny” Terranova and his wife Karen, who run the Faubourg St. John grocery and meat market along with their son Anthony and his wife Jennifer. After all, the shop sells only muffulettas and only has them at all on Saturdays, when Benny comes in at 4 a.m. to slice the meats and ladle the olive salad. He makes 10, which he cuts in half, wraps in plastic and stacks by the cash register in front and along the butcher counter in back. It means an early start to a long day at the grocery for what amounts to the possibility of only 20 sandwich sales. But there’s more going on here than simple math.

“This was my late father-in-law’s idea. Eighty years old and he always wanted to do new things,” says Karen, referring to Anthony Terranova Sr., who died last year. “Now we have to keep doing it or else I’m afraid he’ll come back and haunt us.”

Terranova’s Supermarket has been in business on Esplanade Avenue since 1925. Anthony Sr.’s father opened it in the building next door, which now houses the Spanish restaurant Lola’s, and he moved it during the Great Depression to its current location. Benny grew up in the apartment upstairs from the store, and his mother Lorraine still resides there.

To compete with much larger grocery stores, including the various markets that have occupied the spot just across Esplanade Avenue for many years, Terranova’s cannot afford old-fashioned practices. But there is a family devotion that is essential to the place. It explains why a token supply of muffulettas materializes on the butcher counter, altar-like, each Saturday. And it helps explain why this is the neighborhood market for many people who live nowhere near the neighborhood.

The family food traditions of Terranova’s have become the traditions of its customers, and that’s never more evident than during the run-up to the holidays when so much attention turns to the kitchen. For many, Terranova means roasts crammed with artichoke dressing, stuffed pork chops, T-bone steaks and calves’ livers arrayed with reverential order and care on sheets of green butcher paper. But most of all, for those in the know, the word Terranova is so synonymous with great sausage that it might as well be the English translation of the Sicilian family’s name.

Long before he convinced Benny to take on the early-morning muffuletta shift, Anthony Sr. passed down a hands-on inheritance of sausage-making. His sausages include Italian, redolent with fennel; hot, seething with garlic; and green onion, sweet and herbaceous.

“I got broken in to this place by the sausage, now I’m hooked,” says Darryl Geraci, a regular customer who was visiting one recent morning.

On this particular day, Geraci clears out the shop’s entire sausage selection in one fell swoop, and that still is not enough. He’ll be back for more in the afternoon, he says, after Benny and Anthony have a chance to restock.

Terranova’s maintains a small inventory of everything. Karen attributes that to the financial imperative to run out rather than throw out. It also means perishables are especially fresh, and this applies to sausage as well as satsumas and parsley.

So no sooner has Geraci toted all the sausage out the door than Benny and Anthony start another batch. The sausage begins as slabs of raw pork, which they bone, cut and grind in-house. Benny is in charge of the seasoning, and the composition is a secret he keeps not only from curious customers but also from his son. Anthony, 25, has worked in the store since he was a kid, but he is still kept in the dark about the essential recipes of the family business.

“You got to be ready for that,” Benny explains. “You can’t just throw things in there, modify them, because this is our calling card, people know us for this.
“You’ve got to earn it,” Benny says quietly, before switching the conversation, with no discernable segue, to his ongoing complaint that Anthony has no children yet. “He’d rather get another dog,” the father says, eyes rolling.

Benny operates a machine that uses water pressure to push the filling into casings. Anthony twirls the coiled length to create links, which he packs into trays for the display case, where another regular turns up just in time to find a freshly stocked butcher counter.

At the front register, Karen points out customers who first came to the store in school uniforms years back and now bring in their own children. She grew up just a few blocks away and remembers shopping here as a child, long before she met her future husband and joined the family.

“We’re making a living, but it’s more than that,” Karen says. ‘You see people come in looking upset, worried. And when they leave, they’re smiling just because I guess people were nice to them, treated them like people. It’s like you’re putting something else in their bag besides the groceries.”

Terranova Brothers Superette | 3308 Esplanade Avenue | New Orleans
Phone: 504-482-4131

Magical Mystery Tour

by

photos by Charlie London

Just in time for Jazz Fest, large photos of faces appeared recently at Terranova’s Superette at 3308 Esplanade. The posters were put up by Frank Relle on Monday, April 23rd. The posters are a promotional effort for Team Gleason.

Frank Relle says,
I was standing in the checkout aisle at the grocery when Steve told me he had been diagnosed with (ALS) Lou Gehrig’s disease. I assume he saw the color leave my face because in true Steve form he put things in perspective reminding me, “We all have limited time” and encouraging me to, “get busy living”. I didn’t know what to say, how do you respond when your friend tells you he has a terminal illness? What do you do?

Following Steve’s lead with his creation of TEAM GLEASON whose mission is to inspire, act, and learn; I decided to photograph an Inside Out Project in honor of Steve, Michel, Rivers and their countless supporters.

The idea of the project is to put on your best face and to “get busy living”.

The photographs will be posted on the walls around New Orleans in late April, 2012.

For more information visit:

www.teamgleason.org

www.insideoutproject.net