What follows is a paraphrase of the presentation about emergent movements and asset-based community development that I gave at the COPE (Childhood Obesity Prevention Education) Coalitionmeeting on Tuesday evening, 4/30/2013. COPE is a comprehensive coalition of public and private sector agencies, organizations, institutions, and individuals in our capital city working to address childhood obesity....
Amidst the growth and details of plants, gardens, recipes, farmers' markets, kids' gardens, workshops and the like, I am sustained by encountering and re-encountering a few of my food movement role-models. Let me introduce (or re-introduce) you to three people/organizations that I draw on regularly.Last Thursday evening, I joined the FAMU Environmental Sciences Student Organization for a...
In partnership with a group of young folks in Frenchtown calling themselves iGrow, I'm increasingly exploring urban farm possibilities.As we investigate possibilities, partnerships, land, business accounting, marketing, proposal pitching, and the works, we're manufacturing and selling iGrow Garden Buckets as a joint venture to raise seed money.Amidst the conversation, we've been talking about...
This past week I was in Oakland for the 15th annual conference of the Community Food Security Coalition. With the Oakland's rich history of food justice work rooted in the Black Panther's Free Breakfast for School Children Program(that gave rise to the nation-wide free and reduced lunch programs), the Occupy Oakland movement centered just around the corner, and a gathering of 1100 folks from...
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...