There’s a moment when you realize why you come to a conference. The personal connections lead to information and the workshops, well, they lead to information too. Today’s most interesting workshop topics were Reinventing Food Distribution without Reinventing the Wheel and Fresh, Local Food for ALL: Increasing Access to and Diversity Within CSA. We chose [...]
Sitting on the morning panel, Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, a member of Blue Cross of Texas, whose name has been mentioned as a possible Surgeon General – and we can see why. A healthy food system leads to healthy people. He discussed the educational attainment component. Studies show that those who complete 1 year of college [...]
“I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” e. e. cummings – quoted by Wayne Roberts at the Food Policy Council Morning Plenary
Preliminary to the 13th Annual Community Food Security Coalition Conference was a gathering of the Food Policy Council “From People Power to Public Policy: A Gathering fo Local and State Food Policy Councils.” We’d been asked at the end of the day to reflect on our “aha” moments. What did we learn? What was significant? [...]
I’m thinking about the last few days and have so much to tell about, such as the “Notes Toward the Definition of Urban Ecology,” a lecture by David Thompson, Director of the Chicago Center for Urban Ecology, or: “CCUE” (Cee – Cue), given at Belmont Library. The lecture was organized by my friends over at [...]
Today the Hull-House Kitchen Re-Thinking Soup served sweet potato soup. Creamy, delicious and a perfect misty, mid-day meal. Tara Lane, the kitchen manager gave a great description of the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. A yam has sweeter flavor and a brighter orange color – coming off a tropical vine and can grow as [...]
Thursday, October 1, I had the privilege to attend an afternoon panel discussion at Northeastern Illinois University, featuring Gary Cuneen, Founding Executive Director of Seven Generations Ahead; Lucy Feliciano-Gomez, Lead Health Organizer for Logan Square Neighborhood Association; Orrin Williams, Center for Urban Transformation; and Frances Moore Lappe (and here, I’ll need to learn how to [...]
I engaged in the Advocates for Urban Agriculture (AUA) pot luck annual membership meeting Wednesday evening at the Garfield Conservancy. Part of the evening was spent in individual groups discussing what the future of AUA is to be, and much of our group’s discussion surrounded around how to improve web communications. How to gather e-mail [...]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released a report indicating that a “Majority of Americans not Meeting Recommendations for Fruit and Vegetable Consumption.” From the press release: “The Healthy People 2010 objectives aim for at least 75 percent of Americans to eat the recommended two or more daily servings of fruit, and for [...]