Slow Food First Coast Meeting Minutes
May 2009 from Slow Food First Coast
Minutes from Slow Food Meeting, 26 May 2009
Meeting was called to order by Richard Villadóniga at 6:35
General Items:
Richard announced that after consulting with some of the founding members of Slow Food First Coast, some of the proceeds from our successful Movie and a Meal Night (held in March) would go toward the purchase of one of Jim Quine’s photos from the Faces of Farming Exhibit. The photo will be donated to the town of Hastings, for display most likely in the town’s library.
We finally have a Slow Food First Coast website www.slowfoodfirstcoast.com thanks to Amy TerKeurst, who contacted Richard and offered her services to set up and maintain the website. Richard thanked Amy for her contribution of time and energy to the group. Check out the website…it’s a work in progress!
There are 2 events coming up to be held in conjunction with the St. Johns County Agricultural Center under the leadership of David Dinkins.
The first event will be an Awards Night held on November 19, 2009. At this time several awards, including the Spirit of Slow Food Award, will be given. The Spirit of Slow Food Award is given to someone in the community that exemplifies the principles of Slow Food and who has made contributions to the local organization and/or community. Last year’s recipient was David Dinkins.
The second event, a Local Food Exposition, will be held on November 21, 2009. It will be an all-day affair featuring local food purveyors including small family farms, artisanal food producers, CSA’s and others. Richard encouraged members to attend and help out where they can in organizing the event. More info on how to help in the Fall.
The Florida Agricultural Museum and the St. Johns County Cultural Council have both contacted Richard to ask if Slow Food First Coast would be interested in joining forces at either venue to collaborate on a project. Both organizations are open to ideas and suggestions. The event(s) would be held no earlier than the Fall. Email Richard with any ideas and he will pass them on.
Richard reported on a Slow Food in Schools program that has been recently launched with South Woods Elementary School (in Hastings). He said that he and David Dinkins had met with Brian McElhone, SWES Principal, to pitch the idea of serving students fresh produce from local farms several months ago. Since then, the Barnes Farm has become SWES’ partner and supplied the school with squash, cantaloupes, cucumbers, and other fresh produce on a regular basis. There has been a positive reaction from all concerned (students, cafeteria workers – who have to adjust their way of preparing food—and parents). Students are gaining an awareness of where food comes from and how it gets to their plates. Richard and David are hopeful that this pilot project will expand to other schools in the county to not only include partnerships with local farmers, but also school based gardens. A number of Slow Food members have expressed an interest in forming a Slow Food in School Task Force and when this pilot program at SWES is complete, the Task Force will meet and decide how Slow Food First Coast can most make an impact on local schools.
Richard announced that he had asked member and Master Gardener Guerry Bradley to be his co-leader and that Guerry had agreed. Guerry is an outstanding Slow Food member who has energy and enthusiasm and can help organize projects.
Bill Hamilton shared that members Michele and Guy Van Doren are looking to sell their orange grove and would love for a young couple passionate about local, organic foods would come forward as interested buyers. They can be reached at gvandoren@comcast.net.
Panel Discussion on Food Justice:
Richard introduced Bill Hamilton, Parish Jones, Kathy Guevara and Sandy Newman who formed a panel to discuss food justice issues in our community / area.
Slow Food First Coast founding member Bill Hamilton addressed the group first and discussed the Immokalee, Florida situation with the tomato industry. Bill attended a conference in Immokalee in April at which time several conditions affecting the farm workers were addressed. Among the conditions discussed at this conference were:
- A Minimum Fair Wage
- An end to traditional forms of worker abuse
- Worker empowerment.
- Worker safety
A highlight of the conference came when the conference attendees contacted Governor Crist’s office and spoke to an aide. Shortly after that, Gov. Crist sent a letter to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) expressing his support of the organization in their quest to end “21st century slavery” and his commitment to ending injustices of this sort in Florida. He also supported CIW’s campaign for Fair Food, and the improvement of safe working conditions for the farm workers.
Parrish Jones spoke next on the topic of Café Justo (Just Coffee), a coffee grower cooperative in the State of Chiapas in Mexico. He shared pictures and spoke about the goal of the group, which is to develop a company that provides economic incentives to keep residents on family lands. The coffee produced is an organic Arabica coffee. Parrish discussed the best growing conditions of coffee plants (on steep mountainsides, shaded by trees) and stated that the roasting and packaging of the Café Justo coffee is done in Mexico, allowing many of the workers to stay in their own country, rather than immigrate illegally into the USA. He also addressed the importance of Fair Trade items as a way to improve worker and environmental standards.
Kathy Guevara works with the St. Augustine Diocesan Office of Justice and Peace. She brought two books with her that she recommended as must-reads for anyone concerned with food justice. These books are: The End of Food by Paul Roberts and The Way We Eat – Why Our Food Choices Matter by Paul Singer and Jim Mason. Kathy spoke about how she has changed her views on purchasing and consuming foods and food justice (buys veggies from a CSA, supports Cognito Farms, etc). She also talked about Waste Not Want Not, an organization made up of volunteers whose mission it is to gather left over / discarded food items from local business and distribute these items to charitable organizations for distribution to fight hunger.
Sandi Newman is the regional director of the Society of St. Andrew (www.endhunger.org), a hunger relief organization, which uses gleaning as a way of fighting hunger. Sandy said that we grow enough food to feed everyone in the US and yet we have people going hungry. Gleaning uses volunteers to gather produce from farmers' fields and orchards after the harvest. These “leftovers” go to food pantries in the area, such as Sulzbacher Center (which is the only place in Northeast Florida that serves 3 meals a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to anyone who is hungry), and the Clara White Mission (which serves between 400-500 meals a day to the homeless and low – income individuals). Sandi is looking for volunteers to help out with gleaning and can be reached at sandinewman01@gmail.com.
Richard thanked the panel members for their time and input and opened the floor to questions from the audience. One of the topics addressed in the open floor discussion was Richard’s call for Slow Food members to become more active in food justice and youth issues. He reminded members that we have already taken part in such activities as sponsoring two underprivileged families with CSA memberships through Habitat for Humanity, as well as raised funds for Loretta Smith’s annual Feeding of the Masses banquet in Hastings. A Slow Food First Coast gleaning day is something that can be organized easily and is an effective program that could be done quarterly. Richard also encouraged members to be a part of the Slow Food in Schools program in the Fall. Additionally, the group needs to find a way to address the County Commission with our concerns and goals. He also asked that members email him with any other project ideas. The goal is for members to be able to make a difference in our community.
The meeting was adjourned at 8 p.m.