Food in the News: 'Victory' in the White House and on College Campuses

In a recent NYTimes article it was declared official that the Obamas will be breaking ground on the White House lawn, and planting a 1,100 sq. foot victory garden. This is, no doubt, in response to the Eat the View campaign and others like it that have working tirelessly to reinstate the practice of keeping a victory garden. The tradition of keeping a garden at the White House is not a new one, and in fact has a long history stretching back as far as founding fathers John Adams and, of course, Thomas Jefferson, notorious kitchen gardener and viticulturist in his own right.N ever before, however, has the planting of a vegetable patch at the White House been more symbolic. With environmental, economic, and health crisis looming, the First Garden is demonstrative of what each American could do locally her or himself to contribute and be part of the solution to these nation-wide crisis.

In a similarly related article on Campus Progress.org, which features our very own Annabelle Ho, Brittany Peats discusses what students are doing to become part of the solution, including running on-campus, student-led farm and garden initiatives as well as working with dining services to change the food consumption habits of their universities.

If there's anything to be learned from reading the news of this week, it's that if foodie activists continue to have it their way 'V' will soon stand not only for 'Victory,' but for 'Victory Garden'!

March Happenings

There are lots of good events coming up for the remainder of this month!

March 15-20 & March 22-27: Restaurant Week Boston
What's better than supporting your local restaurant, while at good prices?! Participating resturants will offer 2-course lunches $15.09, 3-course lunches for $20.09, and 3-course dinners for $33.09. When diners use their American Express Card at participating restaurants, $.25 per transaction will also be donated to Community Servings! Read more about restaurant week and find out which restaurants are involved here.

Wednesday, March 18, 6 pm: Designing the Urban Ark: Biodiversity and the Future of Cities.
Can future cities support both biodiversity and healthy human populations? And how will climate change alter the context for humans’ relationships with other species?
Dr. Kristina Hill will outline a vision for biodiversity and urban planning based on human self-interest, development conditions, climate change , and lessons learned in other regions of the U.S. Located at Harvard's Geological Lecture Hall at 24 Oxford Street. Free and open to the public! Get more info here.

Monday, March 23, 7:30 pm- SFBU Meeting and Potluck!
Bring a dish to share if you can, and don't forget to bring your own plates and silverware, so we can cut down on waste! Location: Fuller Building (808 Commonwealth Ave.), rm. 117. Entrance is on Essex St.

Thursday, March 26, 7-9 pm: Food Locavorism event at MIT (Location: Building W20-Rm 306)
"Eat locally" has become the new moral mantra for citizen gastronomes concerned about global warming, corporate agriculture, and the dissolution of community...But how much do food miles matter?...Is buying "local" necessarily ethical, or is it more complicated than that?..."
Speakers will include David Pimentel of Cornell University, Susanne Freidberg from Dartmouth College, Steve Johnson of Rendezvous Restaurant, and moderator Steven Shapin from Harvard! Free and open to the public. Get some more details.

Friday, March 27, 6 pm: Henry Ford, Colonial Kitchens, and the Performance of National Identity

Lecture by Abigail Carroll. However, RSVP is required: call (617) 353-9852. Located at BU's Gastronomy building, 808 Commonwealth Ave., rm. 117. Also free and open to the public! Read more information here.

Photo:
© http://www.foodfreak.de/

Northeast Real Food Summit-2009

This past weekend 8 members of SFBU joined over 300 college and high school students from more than 60 northeastern schools to learn, network and stratagize around food justice at The Real Food Summit in Amherst. The Northeast summit was one of 5 regional summits organized by the "Real Food Challenge" which is a project of The Food Project, the California Student Sustainability Coalition, and their partners. We joined other like-minded students to brainstorm new ways to get fresh food in dining halls, more campus gardens, or more critical food-related curricula, making our schools invest in healthy, community-based, fair, and environmentally sound food for all.

“Our food system affects the future of our country, from health to climate change to the economy,” says Anim Steel, Director of National Programs at The Food Project, and co-coordinator of the Real Food Challenge. Our current food system is like the Titanic. We have a huge system that's chugging along, but where is it going? We're headed towards a huge iceberg that includes the global food crisis and climate change. But like the Titanic, all it takes it a small part of the system, a rudder as such, to turn this ship around.The Real Food Challenge has set an ambitious national target for colleges and universities to meet: purchase 20% “real food” by 2020. Led by students themselves, the campaign believes that with collaboration, commitment, and collective action, it will be possible to turn around the university food service industry. Students have the potential to be a huge driving force, and not just consumers of Real Food. 4 Billion Dollars a year are spent for food in dining halls, which means we have a huge buying power, and the potential to turn this ship away from the iceberg. As Anim said, “The younger generation has the largest stake in the future, so they should have the loudest voice in shaping our food system. That’s what this summit is about.”

Workshops included "Building Food IQ and Sharpening Your Sound Bytes" by Dr. Susan Rubin, the founder of Better School Food, during which students learned, among other things, that the sweetener high-fructose corn commonly found in commercial foods has been indicated to be contaminated with mercury. Suggested reads included The End of Food by Paul Roberts and recommended movies included The Real Dirt on Farmer John and F.L.O.W.. Meanwhile, students discussed The Farm Bill and the Northeast with Simmons faculty member and NESAWG consultant Larry Dixon. Although improvements to the Farm Bill can always be made, students recognized some of the positive changes in the U.S.- including the transition of the Food Stamp Program to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Dixon explained the provisions within the Farm Bill, such as value added grants, which students can utilize in order to get Real Food to their dining halls and gardens on their campuses. Though the Farm Bill has been passed for the next five years, there is room for on-going input in terms of where funding from the bill is allocated. NESAWG, the North East Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, is attempting to make funding more accessible by providing support and educational resources regarding the Farm Bill, which can be especially beneficial for university students who want to see change on their campus but might need funding to make it happen.

As well as attending other groups' workshops, Slow Food BU was asked to participate in a workshop held by Julia Middleton, Director of Youth Programs for Slow Food USA. Doing so provided us with the opportunity to share with other Slow Food members and would-be members our own ideas about running a successful Slow Food On Campus chapter, as well as to learn about the exciting things that other SFOC chapters have been doing.

Despite the Summit ending early due to the impending snow, it was a great success and lots of fun! Thanks to all who came from BU and a BIG thanks to the RFC organizers!

Kombucha Demo and Campus Kitchens

Slow Foodies gathered together for a potluck and Kombucha Brewing Demonstration this past Tuesday. The menu included a beautiful vegan chocolate beet cake, curried chick peas, and vegan protein power bars. On the drinks list, there was fresh, lime, grapefruit, and chokecherry flavored kombucha.

The basics of brewing kombucha tea were explained. This fermented tea is made with a SCOBY, or a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Also known as the "elixir of immortality, kombucha tea has been claimed to cure various ailments such as cancer, and is said to have detoxifying effects and probiotics, which are good for the digestive system. Read more about Kombucha tea and the demo here!

We also had two visitors from the Campus Kitchens Project! The CKP has various programs on college campuses, some of which take leftover food, prepare it, and serve it to those in need. They are hoping to start something up in the Boston area, and SF hopes to work with and support the CKP in the future.

Something else we're excited for: the 2^nd Annual NE Real Food Summit is this weekend! Look for a recap from us in the next week or so.

What's Valentine's Day Without Chocolate?

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Cambridge Naturals in Porter Square will be providing organic and fair trade chocolate samples this weekend! Theo chocolate samples will be offered on Friday, February 13, from 1-5 pm, and Somerville's own Taza Chocolate samples will be available on Saturday, February 14, from 1-5 pm. Look at Cambridge Naturals' website to find out more!

Share Your SKILLZ!

Do you make a mean sauerkraut? Willing to share your babushka's secret borscht recipe? Have any hints about sustainable living that you'd like to enlighten us with? How about soap making talents?

This semester SFBU would love to incorporate more skillshares into out biweekly potlucks, and we would love suggestions/offers for them!! So if you have a skill, or want to do a workshop on a special topic, shoot us an e-mail!! slowfood@bu.edu

P.S. If you're looking for something to do this weekend, don't forget the Movie Screenings by SlowFood Boston. See the Calender for more details!! And stop by our next potluck meeting on February 17th!!

Dining at Green U

Read the article Dining at Green U, which talks about Kelly Dunn and sustainability efforts at BU, released today in The Boston Globe!