The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op www.sacfoodcoop.com/ is helping the "slow money" movement -- a grassroots effort modeled on the Obama campaign's effort to get small donations ($5 in this case) to help seed a new economy.

SNFC General Manager Paul Cultera told the Co-op's Board of Directors at its meeting Tuesday night that he recently spoke at the first Slow Money conference, which attracted more than 450 attendees from 34 states and six countries. The Slow Money effort, he said, is modeled on the "Slow Food" movement, which promotes local farms and keeping money in the local economy. Its goal, he explained, is to link Americans together to fund local food systems, improve health, reduce environmental impact, support tens of thousands of small food enterprises across the country and take control of our money in radical new ways.

TIME  recently featured the Slow Money movement www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1921889,00.html. According to the magazine, "Slow Money differs from traditional socially responsible investing in that the partnerships are deeper, as the Alliance works to build not just a firm's profitability but also supportive structures. For example, rather than just lending money for, say, a farmer's barn, they would look at the farmer's other infrastructure needs, such as storage, retail outlets, transport to markets, etc. Also, inherent to the model is the notion that part of the 'return' is the social and environmental benefit a company represents."

Cultera noted that there's a drive this week to get 5,000 people nationwide to chip in $5. Those contributions will be matched by an additional $1 by friendsofslowmoney.com/.

Can your five bucks make a difference? The Slow Money folks seem to think so. For more information (and to watch a video), click www.slowmoneyalliance.org/

(Full disclosure: I serve on the Co-op's Board of Directors).