Chattanooga Market announcement:

Benwood Foundation program Gaining Ground teams up with participating area restaurants to feature a week of meals with locally sourced ingredients.     Make reservations at any of the above listed eateries and savor the local flavor.     Or to RSVP, click here.

The George T. Hunter Lecture Series sponsored by the Benwood Foundation in partnership with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga schedules renowned food advocate and author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma to speak on April 19th, 2012.    Here’s more from the press release:

Environment: Michael Pollan

April 19, 2012 • Tivoli Theater • 7p

This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6pm. Seating available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

For the past 20 years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect – with a focus on food and agriculture. He is the author of the bestsellers In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which was named one of the 10 best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. It also won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Pollan’s previous book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, was also a New York Times bestseller, received the Borders Original Voices Award for the best non-fiction work of 2001, and was recognized as a best book of the year by the American Booksellers Association and Amazon.com. PBS premiered a two-hour special documentary based on The Botany of Desire in fall 2009. His most recent book is Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, which was an immediate #1 New York Times bestseller upon publication; an expanded, illustrated edition of Food Rules will be published in November 2011.

In 2009 he was named one of the top 10 “New Thought Leaders” by Newsweek magazine. His essays have appeared in many anthologies, including Best American Essays (the 1990 and 2003 editions), Best American Science Writing (2004), and the Norton Book of Nature Writing. In addition to publishing regularly in TheNew York Times Magazine, his articles have appeared in Harper’s (where he served for many years as executive editor), Mother Jones, Gourmet, Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Gardens Illustrated, and The Nation. Michael Pollan was chosen by Time Magazine for the 2010 Time 100 in the Thinkers category.

Pollan’s lecture is entitled: In Defense of Food: An Omnivore’s Solution. 

Gaining Ground supports local food producers and consumers.    They invite Chattanoogans to enjoy meals from area restaurants serving food harvested within 100 miles of home.   Here’s more about Gaining Ground’s Inaugural Harvested Here Restaurant Week from their facebook page:

It’s here! Enjoy Chattanooga’s first Harvested Here Restaurant Week from October 17-23! Local ingredients will shine at participating restaurants where you can savor a prix-fixe lunch for $15 or dinner for $35. Current participating restaurants include: Back Inn Café The Blue Plate The Broad Street Grille Easy Bistro The Foundry GOOD DOG Lupi’s Pizza Pies Niko’s Public House St. John’s Restaurant St. John’s Meeting Place Table 2 Taco Mamacita Tony’s Pasta Shop & Trattoria 212 Market Urban Stack Burger Lounge Please contact each restaurant for reservations and menu details. Restaurant Week menu specials do not include tax, tip, and alcohol. No advance tickets or coupons needed, simply visit the participating restaurants and enjoy your meal!

]]> http://wutcana.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/chattanooga-farmers-markets-celebrate-national-farmers-week/ Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:50:24 +0000 Around & About Chattanoooga http://wutcana.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/chattanooga-farmers-markets-celebrate-national-farmers-week/

Representatives from the Main Street Farmer’s Market say:

August 22-28 is Farmers Market Appreciation Week

From the press release:

Environmental Leader, Dr. Vandana Shiva, is Final Speaker in 2010-2011 George T. Hunter Lecture Series on April 26, 2011

Chattanooga, TN – Dr. Vandana Shiva, world-renowned environmental leader and sustainable food advocate will be the final speaker of the 2010 – 2011 George T. Hunter Lecture Series on April 26, 2011. The topic of Dr. Shiva’s lecture will be the social and environmental impacts of our global food system.

The lecture will begin at 7pm in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall located inside the Fine Arts Center on the UTC campus. All lectures in the series are free and open to the public. Seating is limited and is on a first-come first-serve basis.  Overflow rooms with live streaming video of the lecture will also be provided.

This year marks the third annual George T. Hunter Lecture Series, which is sponsored by the Benwood Foundation, in partnership with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Ochs Center, and CreateHere.   Each year, four speakers are chosen to represent each of the Benwood Foundation’s focus areas – arts and culture, community development, education, and the environment.

“Dr. Shiva is a highly respected advocate for sustainable agriculture and environmental protection,” said Corinne Allen, Executive Director of the Benwood Foundation. “She brings a global perspective to many of the food and environmental issues that we are working to address here in Chattanooga.”

Realizing the need for significant changes to Chattanooga’s food system, in 2010, the Benwood Foundation launchedGaining Ground, an initiative to support the growing local and sustainable food economy in the Chattanooga region. Working with partners such as the Chattanooga Area Sustainable Farmers’ Cooperative, Chattanooga’s Slow Food chapter, Crabtree Farms, Hamilton County Department of Education, local schools, farmers’ markets, and others,Gaining Ground is dedicated to supporting the transformation of not only the economy of Chattanooga’s local food system, but also the culture in which it is rooted.

Jeff Pfitzer, the Director of Gaining Ground, stated “It is our hope the Dr. Shiva’s visit will bring further attention to the value of supporting local and sustainable food production. We have been working with our community partners to organize a series of events around Dr. Shiva’s lecture that will provide a chance to learn more about Dr. Shiva’s work and ways to get involved with sustainable food issues at the local level.”

Photo found at Top People.

Vandana Shiva Biography:

Born in India, Dr. Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned author and leader on environmental, sustainable food, and social justice issues. Her parents were staunch supporters of Mahatma Gandhi, and he remains a profound influence on her thought. Echoing Gandhi, she says, “I have tried to be the change I want to see.”

Shiva is a current Vice President of Slow Food International and a recipient of the United Nations Global 500 Award. She is a strong advocate for celebrating cultural and biological diversity, local and sustainable food issues, and protecting the rights of women around the world.

Dr. Shiva is a founding Board member of the International Forum on Globalization and has addressed the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle, as well as the recent World Economic Forum in Melbourne.  Time magazine recognized Shiva as an environmental hero, and Asia Week has called her one of the five most powerful communicators in Asia.  She is the recipient of the Earth Day International Award, as well as the Right Livelihood Award: The ‘Alternative Nobel Prize.’

The founder of Navdanya “nine seeds,” a movement promoting diversity and the use of native seeds, she also set up the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology in 1997.  Its studies have validated the ecological value of traditional farming and been instrumental in fighting destructive development projects in India.

Before becoming an activist, Shiva was one of India’s leading physicists.  She holds a master’s degree in the philosophy of science and a PhD in particle physics.

She is the author of more than 300 papers in leading scientific and technical journals, and her book-length publications include:

Ecology and the Politics of Survival: Conflicts Over Natural Resources in India (1991)
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply (1999)
Tomorrow’s Biodiversity (2000)
Patents, Myths and Reality (2001)
Water Wars; Privatization, Pollution, and Profit (2002)
Globalization’s New Wars: Seed, Water and Life Forms (2005)
Breakfast of Biodiversity: the Political Ecology of Rain Forest Destruction (2005)
Earth Democracy; Justice, Sustainability, and Peace (2005)
Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed (2007)
Soil Not Oil (2008)

Gaining Ground, a Benwood Initiative invites the public to hear Vandana Shiva:

Dr. Vandana Shiva will speak in the Roland Hayes room of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on April 26^th as a part of the George T. Hunter Lecture Series, sponsored by the Benwood Foundation. The lecture begins at 7:00 p.m. and is open to the public free of charge.

Gaining Ground has this to say about India’s Slow Food pioneer, Vandana Shiva:

She is one of the most brilliant and most outspoken advocates for a clean and just food system in the world today.  She was born to a farmer and trained as a quantum theory physicist.  She defends the rights of third world women and makes her own yogurt.  She critiques the World Bank and gets excited about urban gardening.  And she is coming to Chattanooga on April 26th.

As a pioneer environmentalist, Vandana Shiva routinely speaks about the impact of industrialized food systems on the world’s poor, the threats of genetic engineering to global biodiversity, and the innumerable benefits of organic farming.   While these issues are readily discussed by many other activists and thinkers in the world today, Dr. Shiva’s academic background in hard science coupled with her personal connection to traditional farming practices give her a unique take on these topics that is at once insightful, informative, and compelling.  Not many scientists can speak spiritedly about the impact of genetically modified food on the world’s poor or the importance of communities to global health.

As an advocate for civil rights, she is heralded as one of the most articulate spokespersons for the value of bottom-up, citizen-led change.  She believes that authority should be questioned and held accountable for its actions, and that communities flourish through people-centered processes.  “Authentic democracy, like plants, grows from the ground up,” she claims, “and it is fertilized by people’s participation and people’s concern.”   When asked about the most effective way to initiate change in a community, she says, “Start a garden.”

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

The Hamilton County Department of Education in collaboration with Coordinated School Health offers Chef Night demonstrations and taste-testings for children and their families from four area schools:

Chef Night is an event where Local chefs will come to selected schools to demonstrate how to prepare healthy food.

This event will take place in the school cafeteria with Local Chef’s preparing healthy food. Multiple booths will be set-up with Healthy Education information and, a Dietitian.

Fun games, face painting, and door prizes give away will be available.

The Chef Nights at area schools are made possible by a grant from Gaining Ground, a Benwood Initiative:

The Benwood Foundation seeks to stimulate creative and innovative efforts to build and strengthen the Chattanooga community.

Coordinated School Health is providing the educational component for the Chef Nights collaboration:

“The mission of Coordinated School Health is to improve students’ health and their capacity to learn through the support of families, communities and schools.”

CSH Model:

The CDC’s Coordinated School Health (CSH) model is a systematic approach that ensures that a school community effectively links health with educational success. Although these components are listed separately, it is their composite that allows CSH to have significant impact. CSH is implemented in a way that fits the unique needs and resources of each school community. The eight components of CSH are:

• Health Education
• Health Services
• Counseling, Psychological and Social Services
• Physical Education
• Nutrition Services
• Student, Family/Community Involvement
• Healthy School Environment
• Health Promotion for Staff

Listen to the Story:

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

The above photo is taken from eatingwell.com in it’s recipes for slow food section.

UTC Professor, Tricia King teaches a class called, “Applications of Sustainability” and graduate student, Ashford Rosenberg says King’s class raised her awareness to the need for Slow Food grown close to home.

Professor King, with the help of the Benwood Foundation’s Gaining Ground Initiative and UTC opened a chapter of Slow Food on Campus .

Ginny Richardson, a Graduate student in Environmental Science at UTC says that in reading about Slow Food she realized that food consumers are not just consumers but also co-producers of food.     “What we choose to buy is making the determination of what food is going to be grown in what quantities.”     Richardson works on William’s Island Farm and stresses that supporting sustainable, local food production is about the environment but also encompasses health, economics and our cultural heritage.

The above photo was taken at William’s Island Farm.

Professor King says that a few universities across the country are paving the way for locally-grown produce to be served on their campuses and that around 30 colleges have Slow Food on Campus.

UTC’s Student Government approved Slow Food on Campus last Spring.   The organization has partnered with local farmers to provide food for campus events in hopes of gathering people around “good, clean and fair food.”

Slow Food on Campus is offering a “Fall in Love with your Food,” Valentine’s Day give away of a $50 gift certificate to any one of the area restaurants serving local food as listed in the Taste Buds Local Food Guide.    All students who sign up for Slow Food on Campus between now and February 8th will be entered into the drawing.      Sign up at the above facebook page or at UTC@slowfoodusa.org.

Slow Food is an international movement started in Italy, here’s more from Slowfood.com:

Slow Food USA seeks to create dramatic and lasting change in the food system. We reconnect Americans with the people, traditions, plants, animals, fertile soils and waters that produce our food. We seek to inspire a transformation in food policy, production practices and market forces so that they ensure equity, sustainability and pleasure in the food we eat.

Listen to the Story:

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_185710.asp

Hamilton County Schools Supt. Jim Scales on Wednesday told members of the Hamilton County Council of PTAs that parents should not be too dismayed by upcoming low test scores. The topic was “Moving Towards Excellence” as he spoke to the 27 members present, each representing various schools throughout the county.

“We have the knowledge, we have the skills and we have the will to do what is right for our children.”

Then why in-the-hell aren’t you using them!

“Moving Towards Excellence?” Move Jim Scales Towards the Exit Sign with the Swinging Door!

Harry Statel

http://harrystatel.wordpress.com

If you liked this post, please submit it to Facebook, Digg, share it on Twitter, and email to your friends. Thanks.

The Center for Disease Control has developed a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP) to encourage healthier lifestyles in the youth of America.  CSHP centers on 8 components which include health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, counseling and psychological services, healthy school environment, healthy educators and staff, and community involvement.  In Hamilton County, integrating all of these components is the task of Russell Cliche and will depend on collaborations and partnerships within the school system and in the community

The Director of School Nutrition, Carolyn Childs, is working with Cliche to promote improved nutrition by incorporating more fresh fruits and vegetables into student diets.  Gaining Ground initiated by the Benwood Foundation is helping to fund this program which includes bringing fresh produce into the classroom and not just the cafeteria.  Students will get to sample fresh produce, learn about the nutritional impact of the food, and also learn how to bring this information home so they can continue to enjoy local fresh produce.

Bringing in the families is crucial to integrating these foods into the home environment.  The Coordinated School Health and School Nutrition offices will be hosting Chef Nights in certain schools across the county to demonstrate how to prepare and cook meals using fresh produce.  Information will also be provided specific to each school location on where to purchase these foods.

According to the Tennessee Department of Education, healthier students perform better academically and these programs are designed to improve student and school performance all across the state.

Listen to the story.

The Chattanooga region’s guide to locally grown and locally crafted foods.

The TasteBuds Local Food Guide connects consumers with farms, farmers’ markets, restaurants, food artisans, and others that grow, craft and support local.

Crabtree Farms says this about buying locally-grown produce and meats:

Purchasing food from a local farm is not only a fun experience, it ensures:

1. You are getting the healthiest food available with more nutrients than food that travels long distances
   On average food travels 1300 miles from farm to table over 7 to 14 days

You are reducing your carbon foot print, by limiting transportation of your food, saving oil and reducing greenhouse gases You are keeping your spending dollars local, helping to grow the Chattanoga economy You are supporting fair farming practices by paying the farmer 100% of the food dollar
On average farmer’s receive less than 10% of the food dollar

This year’s food guide is supported by a Gaining Ground grant funded by the Benwood Foundation.      The following excerpt from an article by the Chattanoogan highlights Benwood Foundation’s efforts to support local food and our regional economy:

Gaining Ground is helping create and develop a sustainable, vibrant, cohesive and distinctively Chattanoogan foodscape through grants, coordinated efforts and public awareness. Commissioned by the Benwood Foundation to help increase demand for, production and consumption of local food, Gaining Ground is helping our region view food in new ways. For more information, contact:Jeff Pfitzer, program director, Gaining Ground, Benwood Foundation, at (423) 785-4231 or at gainingground@benwood.org.

Th Ochs Center study is quoted here about the benefits of local food:

In fact, growth of the local food movement has progressed far enough to prompt broader interest in supporting its development both for health and environmental reasons, and for the benefit to the region’s economy. The Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies, for example, found in a 2008 survey that a five percent increase in consumption of local food would translate into a $100 million impact on the local economy — and help staunch the sad but steady loss of local family farms.

Here’s more from the same opinion times piece written in December  2009:

Crabtree Farms, one of the area’s first community gardens, also confirms both growing interest in the local food movement and the economic value, in addition to health and environmental values.

Developing the local food industry into a viable, healthy alternative for a larger market area, however, yet requires some organizational aid to local farms to help them meet and match the needs of potential customers.

Toward that end, the Benwood Foundation has recently issued a competitive call for projects that would work to increase the number and capacity of local growers and producers. The foundation, advised by a panel of national food-system reform experts, will award up to $250,000 in grants to individuals or groups over the next three years to advance innovative and collaborative ways to advance the local food economy.

Benwood didn’t come to its grant program without diligent research on the value and potential of a stronger local food industry. The foundation organized focus groups to scope out issues in the local food economy, visits to cities that have established local food industries, and interviews with growers, producers and distributors to learn the needs and potential of a local food movement.

A revived local food industry, Benwood reasonably believes, would have multiple benefits. Foremost, it would reconnect area residents with fresher, healthier foods. That would improve health and simultaneously mitigate the downside of the giant agri-business culture that now stocks grocery stores with foods transported an average of 1,500 miles. Collecting, storing and shipping foods collected from big farms all over the country, and the world, retards freshness, uses immense amounts of fuel and energy, generates immense pollution, and allows more preservatives, chemicals and pesticides to find a way into our foods.

Reporting:  Monessa Guilfoil

Listen to the Story with Crabtree Farm’s Melanie Mayo and Gaining Ground’s Jeff Pfitzer:

by Julie Steele

Gaining Ground, Chattanooga’s coordinated movement to advance the local food system has awarded more than 195 thousand dollars to four projects designed to boost the production and use of locally grown food in the Chattanooga area. The director of Gaining Ground Jeff Fitzer discussed the four winners of the food ideas competition yesterday on around and about and the mission of Gaining Ground.  Gaining ground will offer assistance to all four of the proposal teams. Those selected were the Main Street Farmer’s Market, the Chattanooga Chef’s Collaborative, the Sustainable Regional Farmer’s Cooperative and Dixie Produce.

Listen to story

The local Benwood Foundation, which was founded in 1944, recently established a new “Gaining Ground” initiative and has pledged a 3-year, $1.65 milllion budget to it to help further the cause of a sustainable local food economy.   Gaining Ground recently sponsored a “food systems ideas competition” among local food growers and local food advocates to help promote the concept of healthy and fresh local foods.   

20 local submissions were reviewed by a jury of nationally-renowned food economy experts and four winners were chosen to receive grants for their projects.   The four winners include the following:

1.   Main Street Farmers’ Market:  this project supports the market’s growth and development  as a viable and profitable marketplace for local farmers;

2.   Chattanooga Chefs’ Collaborative: project proposes to increase the awareness of seasonal and locally-grown food to chefs in the Chattanooga region;

3.    Sustainable regional farmers’ cooperative–this project proposes to create a collaborative organization for Chattanooga-area farmers to help boost production and profitability of locally-grown food.       As part of this project, the cooperative will study the feasibility of developing a broad public cooperative, an on-line sales and distribution network, and acquisition of a mobile, certfied poultry processing facility;

4.   Locally-grown food packaging and distribution support: this project proposes to improve both warehousing and distribution opportunities for local farmers, in order to help local farms access larger markets.

I think all of this information is very exciting and I have already sent an email to the head of the Gaining Ground initiative to tell him I want to help in anyway I can to get the word out about these projects.   I am also interested in a project to try to make schools buy more local and fresh seasonal foods.