From Food Day to Food Sovereignty

Food Day festivities were a whirlwind of Tallahassee's food movement.  From the New Leaf Farm tour to video screenings, garden open houses, the community gardens tour, the Youth Symposium on Hunger and Food, Food-O-Rama at Kleman Plaza, the Sustainable You conference, and the "Florida Grown School Lunch Week Kick Off" at the capital, Food Day revealed many of the organizations and efforts amidst the food movement that largely go unseen, especially the Tallahassee Food Network.

On Food Day proper, Oct 24th, I exhibited in the capital courtyard with the aid of my "truck farm," which was picked up by WCTV.  (As an aside, I'm working with a team of Frenchtown Youth to manufacture and sell the garden buckets you can see in the below picture, which are improvised earth boxes (which retail $60, empty).  We'll be selling ours, filled and planted for $25-$30.)

The same day, I taught a workshop at Sustainable You called "Food and Community Gardening 101." Also the same day (at the conference) Ms Miaisha Mitchell (of the Frenchtown Revitalization Council) and I received proclamations--as Co-Founders of the Tallahassee Food Network-- from the City and County establishing Oct 24th as Food Day.  I'll have to post the eloquent language in a future post.

So where do we go post Food Day?

Alas, before I could sufficiently pursue answering that question amidst the Tallahassee Food Network, two things required my more immediate attention.  #1: Business at hand and #2: An educational trip to California. 

Immediately following Food Day, I took a trip to Tampa to build and plant a couple raised beds for my cousin.

Fortunately, I ordered too much compost, so in finding a way to "get rid of it," I got the opportunity to visit Seminole Heights Community Garden in Tampa where my cousin is a working member.

Back in Tallahassee, just before my departure for California, Wendell (my co-worker) and I installed a micro irrigation system for the food garden at The Space at Feather Oaks. (look for the white raisers in the middle of the beds):

I also promised mention of my trip to California and the conversation of Food Sovereignty at the Community Food Security Coalition Conference, but given the length of this post, I'll have to do that in a follow-up.