Mike Azzara is the Outreach Coordinator at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey, and was a member of our 2004-2005 BLAST Cadre. This entry was originally posted to Comfood, an email list focusing on community food security.

Last night, I attended the Baum Forum on School Food (in NYC), during which we heard from some of the real leaders in movement (with a focus on the School FoodPlus Program in NYC, developed by Toni Liquori). It was a great event! But even in it’s 2 hour length, there was only enough time for a few questions after each of them had spoken. And since I had less of a question and more of a contribution, I thought I’d hold onto it and share it here.

My main thought stems from one of the audience members, who was adamant about the fact that focusing on changing school food is great but that it’s only a piece of the puzzle…we still need to reach/teach our adults/parents about the importance of cooking fresh, healthy foods for their children. When comments like these are made, it often makes the task ahead of us (truly changing our country’s purchasing, living, eating practices) seem quite insurmountable. How do we reduce obesity? How do we change the eating habits of our young people? How do we ensure healthy eating at home? How do we ensure access to healthy, fresh food for everyone? How do we…? THE LIST GOES ON.

And so, I just wanted to share my philosophy… it is a philosophy (and a practice) that I cannot take credit for, as I learned it from the many great people that have come before us like Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder and Mahatma Gandhi…and that is the importance of FOCUSING OUR EFFORTS IN A PLACE.

Yes, true change requires our energy at both the policy and the ground level (at NOFA-NJ, I get to do both!), but I truly believe that we must all (as Gary Snyder says) “pick a place and dig in.” A phrase that I now use is “Look around and get to work.” Or even better, “it all starts here.” As a psychology major with a focus on environmental behavior change, I know that this makes sense also because SOCIAL NORMS IN A COMMUNITY are one of the most influential factors in changing our behavior.

MY STORY is that after going to school in Vermont and farming in both Italy and Vermont, I have returned to my hometown of Lawrenceville, New Jersey (for good) to create a sustainable, community-based food system. For starters, people know me here. The principal at the high school is my 6th grade art teacher. The Director of the Neighborhood Center is my old baseball coach. They trust me, and are open to my new/old ideas regarding food.

And I know them. As many of us know, understanding the population and it’s problems is the key to finding the right solutions.

But most importantly, focusing on a local scale keeps me optimistic because I see positive change every day. Seeing the excitement of elementary school students this morning while cutting basil at our school garden and making pesto and serving it in the cafeteria…I have no doubt we are on our way. The great thing is that parents and teachers see it too! The kids are telling them at home that the salad’s not as good as Mr. Mikey’s. Talk about building a demand for fresh foods. And the food service staff sees the kids eating it too! Now, they’re interested and excited to see the garden! “How does basil grow? How do you make pesto?” Not to mention, the local foundations are seeing their contributions at work and wanting to give more.

At the local scale, we also achieve breadth & depth. I see these same children every Sunday at the new Lawrenceville Farmers Market that we started this year. There the children get to meet the farmers in our town and the parents get to learn from our local chefs about how to prepare all of the fresh foods available and most of all, we’re coming together around food. People are having dinner parties with all these fresh foods! And we’ve started a FOOD CLUB at the high school in town, where we’re gardening and cooking and taking tours out to our town’s farms and food businesses. And the restaurants are serving foods from our farms, to be highlighted this year with the 1st Annual “Taste of Lawrenceville.” And we’re preserving farmland. And we’re supporting our farmers. This year, one of our newest organic farms is receiving the town’s “New Small Business Award.” We’re also at the Lawrence Neighborhood Center, educating low-income youth through garden and cooking education. That’s actually where I started, 3 years ago on my day off from the farm. We’re also starting more community gardens in the town and pretty soon, I just know the farm-fresh foods will be served in all of our schools (and our homes).

Because we’re coming at it FROM ALL ANGLES. And we’re friendly. And we’re having fun. And we’re in it for the long haul. We’re not forcing anything on anyone. We’re taking it slow, we’re focusing on positive results and we’re really changing a town’s consciousness about food. And then maybe the county, and then the state. In my opinion, focusing locally (where you already know people or CAN get to know people) is one of the best ways (or maybe the only way) for true, sustainable change to occur.

It requires hard work and energy and LOVE but basically I’m saying, WE CAN DO THIS.