3 cool food-related events in the near future

[DC Food For All]

4/10 Volunteers needed for workday at Marion St Garden

We had an amazing turnout last month for the (first) volunteer work day at City Blossoms' Marion Street Garden! The shovels and clippers came out and the transformation from overgrown lot to community-powered green space began.

But there is much work still to be done! And the DC Food For All would like to continue to offer our support. On Saturday, April 10, starting at 11AM, we will have a second workday on Marion Street NW and we'd love to see you there!  Please RSVP for the garden day here. And send any questions to DCFood...@gmail.com

This time around, we are going to build some of the structures planned for the space and fill out some more of the sections of the map (on left). We will be using power tools and regular non-electric tools too. More specifically here’s what we will be doing:

 

*more sheet mulching

*constructing raised beds with the help of Youth Build Public Charter School,

*setting up the back fence

*leveling out bumpy areas

*painting

*and hopefully some planting!

 We need and happily accept donations of:

*cardboard

*perennial plants such as salvia, echinacea, coreopsis, and more (email for a more detailed list)

*organic compost and aged manure

*tools (hand tools, long handled shovels and forks)

*wood panels (for art projects)

*snacks for hungry volunteers

 

 

 

 

Thanks and hope to see you there!

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Movie Showing: Food Inc.

Time: April 13, 2010 from 7pm to 9pm
Location: Emergence Community Arts Collective
Street: 733 Euclid St NW
City/Town: Washington DC
Website or Map: http://www.ecacollective.org/
Phone: 518-859-4230
Event Type: movie, showing
Organized By: Shannon Brescher Shea
We will be showing the movie Food Inc., with free popcorn and a discussion following!

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary, Food, Inc. lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

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Food Access Solutions: Urban Agriculture, Local Food & Community Development

Time: April 16, 2010 from 10am to 2pm
Location: The ARC
Street: 1901 Mississippi Avenue, SE
City/Town: Washington DC
Website or Map: http://www.thearcdc.org/conta…
Phone: 202 321 6206
Event Type: forum, symposium, panel
Organiz ed By: Carl Rollins

What: “Food Access Solutions: Urban Agriculture, Local Food & Community Development”

When: Friday April 16, 2010 from 10 am to 2 pm

Where: THE ARC, 1901 Mississippi Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20020

* Registration required!--
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHc3YTJfUVNGTzFQMkxEZGt1X1VVQUE6MA
(P.S. If the link becomes broken due to line spacing, copy and paste the entire link-text into your browser address box).

Post-panel reception begins at 1:15, appetizers will be served!

Issues to be discussed: Food access in low-income DC neighborhoods, acknowledging work being done under the radar, the dire health consequences of failing to act, community food security trends nationally, the difficulties in bridging cultures, and the possible creation of a DC food policy council.

Who’s Participating? More on what we’ll be talking about? SEE BELOW

PLEASE JOIN US !!! PLEASE DISTRIBUTE TO YOUR NETWORKS!

More detailed information follows:

Event Description:
An umbrella group of urban gardening activists (Rooting DC and DC’s Field to Fork Network) will be convening a community food security panel discussion East of the River in Washington, DC on April 16th from 10 to 2. This location was chosen because Wards 7 and 8 are some of the areas in the nation’s capital with the least access to supermarkets or other means to acquire healthy and affordable food.

There will be two panels: one with a national focus and the other local. The health impacts of food deserts will be discussed and multidisciplinary solutions examined. The goal is to study best practices elsewhere to educate those working on these issues locally, inform policymakers and planners about food access solutions they may not be aware of, and create synergies for possible future collaboration amongst people working on the same issues from different angles.

We seek to jumpstart a unified effort to transform what we have now into a progressive local food system. We had 500 people at our event in February, and we want to maintain the momentum!

Confirmed Panel Participants:

National
· Cheryl Danley (CS Mott Group for Sustainable for Sustainable Food Systems, Michigan State University)--moderator

· Robert Egger (DC Central Kitchen)

· Michael Heller (Clagett Farm)

· Carolina Valencia (Social Compact)

· Malik Yakini (Detroit Black Community Food Security Network)

· Maurice Smalls (City Fresh, Cleveland,OH)


Local

· Andrea Northup (DC Farm to School Network)—moderator

· Alexandra Ashbrook (DC Hunger Solutions)

· Vinnie Bevivino (Engaged Community Offshoots)

· Dennis Chestnut (Groundwork Anacostia)

· Che Axum (Food & Earth Systems International)

· Tambra Stevenson, MS (MWPHA)






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