Farm Market Celebrity Spotlight: Lauren Todd
What she does: She’s the manager of Weavers Way’s Henry Got Crops Farm Market at Saul High School. And also works in produce at the Chestnut Hill store, and at Next Door, which she helped open. “I feel like I’ve always been all over the place in the Co-op, which is fine because I can learn how all the departments work, kind of be a Jack of all trades . . . Jack . . . Jill . . . Jacqueline?”
Since when: June 9 “is exactly my four-year anniversary.”
Lives in: Mt. Airy.
But she’s from . . . “Born in Media, spent most of my life in Lafayette Hill, then my parents moved to New Hope, then to Lancaster. My dad is a pastor. He was pastor of Messiah United Methodist Church just up Germantown Avenue.”
How did she get into the produce thing? “I’ve always been sort of passionate about food. I love to cook. My family was a part of a CSA in Lancaster, so that was my first experience of working with very local food, very farm-to-table. Living in Lancaster, being able to shop at Central Market and all the farmers markets, it’s just really awesome.”
How did she end up at the Co-op? After she graduated from Boston University with a degree in fine arts, “I needed a job to be an artist, so of course I started working at Starbucks.” When she moved to Philadelphia, and the Chestnut Hill Starbucks, five years ago she became a working member at Weavers Way. “So I was a working member before I started working here.”
Tell us about the art. “I feel a little out of practice. I just finished a graduate program at Eastern University in urban studies, with a focus on community arts, so I’m trying to figure out ways I can use my art for social good.”
A little Co-op love: “I’m a member of the Food Justice Committee. I’m very interested in food waste, I did my graduate thesis on that topic. . . . I feel really good about the very little food we waste at Chestnut Hill — stuff goes to the kitchen, the food banks, then compost as a last resort.”
A little Henry Got Crops love: “Mustard greens are my obsession right now. I’ve gotten so many customers excited about them right now, it warms my heart.”