Highlights from Banana Festival in O’ahu
By Laurie Carlson, Slow Food O’ahu This past November, The Banana Source, Hawai’i SEED, Slow Food in Hawai’i and Waimea Valley hosted the inaugural Mai’a Ho’olaule’a / Banana Festival on the North Shore of O’ahu. Over 1,600 people...Slow Food Columbus Highlights Local Foods, Producers, and Chefs with Annual Event
By Makiah Josephson, Slow Food USA Communications Coordinator Slow Food Columbus hosted their fourteenth annual Shake the Hand that Feeds You dinner on Saturday, Oct. 22. They were thrilled to return to the site of last year’s dinner, Lasting Impressions Event...Celebrating Juneteenth with Farmer Chippy in Baltimore
Slow Food Baltimore’s second event of the year celebrating Juneteenth was held on June 18. They partnered with Farmer Chippy’s Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm, a black-owned urban farm in Baltimore. … The event was attended by over a hundred people, mostly from the Park Heights neighborhood, but folks from St. Vincent’s church and other Slow Food Baltimore friends also came out as well. It was a wildly terrific event!
Mutual-Aid Style Share a Seed Program Flourishes in DC
When the pandemic hit and seeds were scarce, Reana Kovalcik, Founder of Share a Seed and Slow Food Southeast Regional Councilor, worked with Slow Food USA to pilot a model for sharing seeds and growing resources at the community level. “Share a Seed is a mutual aid-style program,” Reana explained. “I wanted to find a way to democratize seed access, grow community, and redistribute resources at a time when scarcity was all around us. Mutual aid networks are a great way to do that kind of resource and skill-sharing without barriers to access.”
A food bank garden and community garden help alleviate food access issues in Lake Tahoe
The SFLT Food Bank Garden has grown exponentially each year; in 2021, they were able to feed over 75 locals each week with 388 pounds of culturally appropriate food for a predominantly Latinx recipient base, with the help of over 850+ volunteer hours. The garden also recently gained a full-time garden manager, which has been crucial to the current success of the garden. To fund these operations, SFLT has hosted several fundraisers, auctions, and applied for various local grants through community foundations.
