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Lots of articles mentioning The Food Project have appeared in the past few weeks:
Teenagers dig in at farmers market - Boston Globe
Boston group turns to farms to fight fat problem - Reuters
Gardens in the hood - Grist
Tour De Farm - Weekly Dig
Farming the Concrete Jungle - In These Times
Growing our local food connections - Gloucester Daily Times
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Hi! I’m Addie, an Urban Education and Outreach Intern. Here in Roxbury we’re all very excited that today kicked of the first day of our 3rd annual Eat In, Act Out week. While the main event of the week is our 7th annual Day of Action, this whole week is full of events we’d love for you to check out!
In case you’ve never heard of Eat In, Act Out week or the Day of Action, I’ll let you in on the details. The BLAST interns started the Day of Action 7 years ago. They decided that the best way to “Act Out” about local food was to take it to the streets… and bring carrots with them. So for the last 7 years we’ve been heading to Copley Square on the first Wednesday of August to hand out carrots and talk to people about eating local. We also have taste-testing and a display of what grows in Boston.
3 years ago the day went national and became a whole week, Eat In, Act Out week. Now every year organizations around the country host their own events encouraging people from their community to go loco for local. San Diego Food Not Lawns is hosting a week of workshops, an edible bike tour, a tomato test at their city hall and a community dinner. Evergreen Community Gardens in Seattle is having a celebration of local food and art. Growing Green Youth in Buffalo is hosting a barbeque complete with skits on local food and youth-led tours. These are just a few of the many events that members of our national community are hosting. To see all the events check out this handy map with all the details.
That brings us up to this year, our first year hosting the week as Urban Education and Outreach interns (a merger between BLAST and Urban Education Internships). This year not only will we return to Copley Square but we will also be working with North Shore interns to have Lynn’s first ever Day of Action. Whether in Boston or Lynn we are all pumped to talk with members of community and spread the word about local food. Other events we are hosting include one time guerilla farmer’s markets at Boston Medical Center and the Bowdoin and Geneva neighborhood in Dorchester as well as a potluck dinner on our Urban Learning Farm.
If you can’t make it to any events, or even if you can, you can always be a part of the week by Eating In. Here at The Food Project we’re keeping logs and having a competition to see who can eat the most local food. We encourage everyone to have their own contest, between your family, your friends, your co-workers or anyone else who’s interested. In addition we encourage you to post a pledge here as a comment saying how much you can spend on local food this August. Last year, with the help of multiple organizations, farmers markets and of course lots of individuals, we recorded a total of $24,070 pledged to be spent on local food in August. It doesn’t have to be enough, all we ask for is some commitment to eating local. With your help maybe we can raise even more this year!
Even if you just buy one local apple, you’re eating in. Even if you just tell one friend, you’re acting out. So please this week, this month, this year find every opportunity to Eat In and Act Out.
And remember to check out the map for events near you.
Have great day!
Addie
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Here’s two articles discussing the “Food Policy: Addressing Social Justice in the Sustainable and Local Food Movements” panel discussion at Yale University, at which The Food Project presented:
YSFP sustains speaker series - from the Yale Daily News
Equal opportunity organic - from Grist
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We still have spaces available for most of our summer CSA shares, including our Farm Shares and Box Shares. Click on the links for info and applications.
Note that our Cambridge box share pickup location is full, but we still have spaces available for our Arlington and Jamaica Plain pickups.
Not even sure what a CSA is? Check out our Community Supported Agriculture page for more information. For an idea of what owning a CSA share is all about, you can read past issues of our CSA Newsletters. Issued once a week during the growing season, they offer cooking tips, recipes, and news from the farm.
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Do you want your own garden? Build-a-Garden is a new program at The Food Project designed to get more people to grow their own food in Boston. We will build you a raised bed garden and plant it with vegetables.
The program will provide you with:
–A raised bed garden including soil and compost
–Seeds and transplants
–Your own Grower’s Manual
–Trainings and drop-in days on our Urban Learning Farm at Shirley Place, Roxbury MA
For more details, please download this brochure (PDF).
You can also download an application:
English application (PDF)
Spanish application (PDF)
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People’s Grocery, Alameda Point Collaborative/Growing Youth Project, Berkeley Youth Alternatives, Farm Fresh Choice, Literacy for Environmental Justice, and OBUGS, did a joint event on July 31. As the culmination to the Urban Rootz Food and Justice Camp, the youth put together a presentation/outreach event that took place in front of Oakland City Hall from 12-1. The youth performed a skit about local food, dressed up in vegetable costumes, handed out flyers, read poems, made 6-10 posters with great info on them about buying local, food justice, and the state of agriculture, and gave out yummy local produce from some of our gardens.
–Kate Casale, Alameda Point Collaborative
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Do you believe that food can be a force for positive social change? Do you have the photos to prove it? Submit your best pictures to reap/sow and help us to illustrate the world you wish to create. Our revolution might not be televised, but it is being photographed!
Entries will be featured in a photo gallery in an upcoming edition of reap/sow. Photographs must be submitted with a short caption that (a) identifies the photographer and location of the photo, and (b) briefly explains what the photo means with a sentence or two, a quote, or even a short poem.
We’re looking for photos that show the many aspects of this movement: the inspiration, the humor, the unexpected, the creative, the joy, the sweat, and the beauty. Photos will be judged in these categories. We welcome submissions by people of all ages, although all photos must be by, for, or about the youngest generation-those 30 and under. If you are over 30, your photo should feature youth and young adults or you should explain in your caption why your photo is one that you want young people to see. There is no limit to how many photos one person can enter.
Email photos, contact info, and caption to Rowan Dunlap at by February 20, 2007. Please include your mailing address so your prize, Wil Bullock’s Time for Change CD, can be mailed to you.
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A full slate of information about the 2007 conference has been posted. Click here for descriptions of the workshops and tours, directions, registration information, and more!
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LETTER TO THE FOOD PROJECT COMMUNITY FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PAT GRAY
Dear Friends,
I am writing you today to announce my resignation as the Executive Director of The Food Project (TFP) effective December 31, 2006. Working at TFP for fifteen years has been a privilege. I am forever grateful to have had this opportunity to be present at the birth of an idea and guide its growth and development to this stage, where it is now a national leader in its field.
We are most fortunate at this time to have Susan MacDougall serve as Interim Executive Director while the Board of Trustees conducts a search for the new executive director. Susan has an impressive track record of achievement in nonprofit management and youth development, having served as Managing Director at Squashbusters in Boston for seven years. This year Susan and I worked side-by-side with the youth, staff, and the Board of Trustees to create our new five year plan. I have complete confidence in her ability to keep TFP’s culture strong, its vision and mission front and center, and its programs high quality.
The Food Project has accomplished a lot in fifteen years. It has provided employment and training programs to 750 teens and has grown 1.5 million pounds of food for residents of the city and suburbs. The Food Project is the national model for engaging the next generation in food systems work. This is a strong record upon which to build.
I am especially proud of the community of youth and adults we foster. There is a terrific sense of energy, purpose and joy throughout. Our different backgrounds and perspectives enrich our conversations and our lives. One of my great pleasures is knowing that the youth are not the only ones who have grown and developed through The Food Project experience; we all have. I leave a better person for having been a part of this experience.
I extend heartfelt thanks to all the youth, staff, trustees, donors, volunteers, peers, partners and collaborators, friends and family who have made The Food Project the success it is today. We are all part of TFP’s story and we all can be proud of its accomplishments.
Thank you for your support, advice and friendship, and I hope that you will continue to support the terrific work we do with and for youth,
Pat Gray
Executive Director
LETTER TO THE FOOD PROJECT COMMUNITY FROM BOARD CHAIR KATE DEYST
Dear Friends:
After 15 years of living and breathing the mission of The Food Project, Pat Gray has announced that she intends to leave her position as Executive Director at the end of 2006. Pat has been a staff member of The Food Project since its founding in 1991 and its Executive Director since 1995. Eleven years later, both Pat and the organization are recognized nationally as leaders in helping people achieve personal change through growing healthy food and establishing local food systems. Together, Pat and The Food Project staff and board have recently completed an updated five-year strategic plan that will carry the organization forward. Pat is not retiring. She has decided to pursue new opportunities and we look forward to ongoing collaboration with her as she takes on these new projects.
The Food Project’s Board of Trustees has activated a search committee which is moving thoroughly and efficiently to find a new leader and will provide regular progress reports to our constituents. While we will miss Pat’s leadership and vision, we are confident in the future of The Food Project. The organization has a strong growing continuum of programs, and a strong team of senior staff and Board leadership in place. We look forward to bringing on a new leader who will build on this solid foundation and help us achieve our ambitious goals for the future.
Best wishes,
Katherine A. Deyst
Chair, Board of Trustees
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See below for a segment on The Food Project, taken from the ArtShow 2 Grow DVD. It’s a great 12-minute introduction to our work, in the words of staff and youth both past and present!
