Once upon a time, the front stoop was a sort a low-pressure way to take the first step.
of open-air living room where people could For $10, the kit includes a stack of invitations
see what their neighbors were up to and exchange to the bodega party (to be held at any courageous
gossip and news. These days, city dwellers are so neighbor’s home), a 44-page cookbook of recipes
mobile that only the rare bird can name the people using corner-store ingredients, a silk-screened
who live next door, much less down the street. The reusable shopping bag, and bodega-style flags.
2008 election proved the power of community, but Summer Powell, the graphic designer on the
how do we take that beyond politics? project, says the kit’s design was “inspired by all the
Enter the Neighbors Project, started in 2006 by great visual language you see at corner stores that
Kit Hodge and a group of friends dismayed by the practically explode with hot colors and graphics.”
lack of a sense of community in their neighborhood. The cookbook was initially planned as a pam-With their “Neighbors Checklist,” outreach projects, phlet, Hodge explains, but “we got such a great
and charming, tongue-in-cheek instructions posted response from the food bloggers that we ended up
on instructables.com, the group encourages you to expanding the cookbook to include many more
get to know your neighbors. Their how-tos teach the recipes,” including one from chef Daisy Martinez,
ins and outs of getting a tree planted on your block, host of Daisy Cooks! on PBS. “Daisy grew up going
urging trick-or-treaters to stop by your apartment on to bodegas, so we felt really lucky to have her
Halloween, or inviting your neighbors to a party. donate a recipe and essay on bodega culture.”
The latter idea is the basis for the group’s newest The goal is to get fans of the Bodega Party in a
undertaking: the Bodega Party in a Box. The kit was Box to create a new wave of bodega culture as they
inspired by the group’s Food and Liquor Project in incorporate their local corner store into their lives,
Chicago, which aims to bring fruit and vegetables and use it as more than just a place to grab a roll
into areas where it’s a struggle to access produce. of toilet paper or last-minute bottle of wine.
“The project found that one of the main obstacles “Great independent corner stores are important
to widespread sales of fresh produce in corner to our neighborhoods,” says Hodge. “They tend to
stores is that many residents simply don’t think of be where most people in the neighborhood meet
their corner store as a place to buy fruit and veg- and mingle.” Who knows, maybe the corner store
etables,” says Hodge, 30. “So we came up with the is the new front stoop. ×
Bodega Party in a Box because it seemed like a fun,
appealing way to inspire many more people around » Neighbors Project: neighborsproject.org
the country to take a new look at their corner store.”
If meeting your neighbors sounds a little scary, a
Arwen O’Reilly Griffith is staff editor at CRAFT and MAKE
party centered around your common bodega is magazines.
Photography by Dana Davis
