Farming in a new land

Slow Food chapters support and learn from refugees, immigrants and new citizens.

Written By Deirdra Stockmann, Slow Food USA volunteer and former leader with Slow Food Huron Valley

Growing food has long been part of the livelihood and survival of immigrants to the United States. Still today, as they work to make their way in a new place, many migrants find community and economic opportunity in food production. Recently, two Slow Food chapters – Slow Food Minnesota Twin Cities and Slow Food Dallas – have allied with local non-profits to support the agricultural efforts of refugees in their region. The partnerships, so far, have raised funds, expanded community gardens, promoted markets, and shared many memorable meals.

Slow Food Minnesota and the Minnesota Food Association
When Jane Rosemarin began her term as the Slow Food Minnesota leader a few years ago, she wanted to broaden the scope of the chapter’s activities. Anchored in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Slow Food Minnesota was the first of four chapters in the state. Since the chapter began in 1999 it has focused on connecting farmers and consumers, taste education, and to a large extent, sending area farmers and chefs to Terra Madre.

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Q&A with Margaret and Salem Neff

The second installment in our “Food and Farming Spotlight” features Slow Food Piedmont Triad’s leader, Margaret Norfleet-Neff, and her daughter and the chapter’s youth leader, Salem Neff.

Written by Slow Food USA’s PR & Marketing Manager, Emily Walsh

Symbiosis between a mother and child begins at infancy when the child still depends upon them for survival and it usually starts to taper off as the child becomes more self-sufficient.  But by the time the child reaches adulthood, they and their mother, while still close, are often living separate lives that are independent of one another in many ways. 

I wanted to preface the following transcript with this idea because I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Margaret Norfleet-Neff and Salem Neff, and they truly have one of the most special parent-child relationships I’ve ever encountered.  In addition to sharing the same life passion—enjoying and connecting others with Good, Clean and Fair food—they work together.  And while we all know working with family has a reputation for being a bad idea, this mother-daughter duo seems to know the secret.  Always ready to jump in and help the other finish their sentences, they are seemingly as comfortable challenging the other to think about things differently. 

In addition to their work with the local Slow Food chapter (Slow Food Piedmont Triad), Margaret and Salem own Beta Verde, a local food project that plays a variety of roles in Winston-Salem’s (North Carolina) food and farming community.  From planning farm-to-table events, to partnering on research and the development of new food and agricultural initiatives, to specializing in preservation of the season’s harvest, the project promotes Slow Food and makes more people more aware of the story behind their food.  They’re also market managers for the Old Salem Cobblestone Farmers Market, which U.S. News and World Report recently voted one of America’s 11 best farmers markets.

So without further ado, please meet Margaret and Salem!

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Bento Box Lunches For Kids

The Japanese bento box is a cultural food tradition that is perfect for packing a lunch, but also packs flair and color that kids love!

Written by and originally featured on The Huffington Post’s Kitchen Daily

We all know school cafeteria school lunch isn’t something to look forward to, and mom’s packed lunches aren’t always the cat’s meow, either. But imagine a lunch so great that it would be the envy of the entire cafeteria. The Japanese bento box, compartmental by nature, is the perfect box to pack lunch in. Not only that, but there’s a tradition in Japan of decorating the food in a bento box to look pleasing to the eye (called “kawaii”)—which, of course, is perfect for kids.

These bento box lunches from our blogger friends are designed for kids. Okay, so they may require some extra time to assemble, but at least you know your kids are eating a healthy lunch made with love and care (let’s hope they’re not trading them for bags of chips). Kids deserve a better, more fun school lunch and these bento boxes guarantee just that.

What do you think of bento box lunches packed for kids? Let us know in the comments.

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15 Innovations Making School Lunches Healthier and More Sustainable

Back to school time! The biggest change most students will see will be on cafeteria trays. Check out these 15 innovative ways schools are making lunches healthier.

Written by Seyyada A. Burney, Nourishing the Planet

As summer draws to a close, it’s time for kids to go back to school. Sadly, this often means a return to terribly unhealthy school lunches filled with fried chicken, pizza pockets, sugary drinks, and high-calorie snacks. School food can jeopardize the health and well-being of America’s next generation, but fortunately, it’s also the best place to start addressing the obesity epidemic—one in three children is obese or overweight, increasing the risks of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver problems later in life. This needs to change.

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) feeds 32 million kids every year and is expanding rapidly as more families qualify for free or reduced-price meals. These lunches represent the primary source of nourishment for many children, but few schools have the facilities or the know-how to prepare fresh food—only the ability to reheat froze, processed foods high in sodium and fat. Even cafeterias that serve more fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are often forced to subsidize programs using vending machines and snack bars loaded with sugar and high fructose corn syrup due to fiscal deficits and a lack of student interest.

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Wisdom from a New Generation of Farmers

Thoughts from 2 Colorado farmers looking to help bring down the average age for farmers & open up more opportunities for a new generation of growers.

Written by Aylin Saribudak, Real Time Farms Food Warrior

The average age of the American farmer is currently 57, which worries many who are watching the U.S. food system. Luckily, Remy Van Grack and Maya Osterman, of Lindenmeier Farm, are part of a new generation of farmers determined to roll back that number. They generously share their time with me to offer some of their philosophy, experience, and advice for those interested in how to get started in small-scale agriculture.

Maya feels that farming enables herself and Remy to effect positive change on a personal level. According to Maya, small-scale organic and sustainable agriculture has become increasingly popular over the past few years for many reasons. She feels it is good for the local economy and culture, comparatively positive for the environment and community health, and small-scale agriculture helps with food security. Food security is a serious issue – a handful of multi-national corporations increasingly control the food system.

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Time for Lunch*

Lunch is Jerusha’s favorite meal of the day. It could be yours too and it’s not as hard as you may think!

Written by Jerusha Klemperer, Director of Communications for FoodCorps & former Associate Director of Campaigns and Projects for Slow Food USA

As I’m writing this, I’m eating lunch. Lunch is a favorite meal of mine, because it’s almost always something I’ve cooked myself. I live in a city, and live the kind of life in which dinner out is a frequent occurrence. But lunch is my respite from all that.

When I worked at Slow Food USA I was part of a terrific lunch coop with some other staff members, which meant that I ate home cooked meals every day for 9 months: everything from pernil to cabbage dumplings to gazpacho.  We got our recipes from old favorite cookbooks like Bloodroot, from terrific online recipe communities like Food52, from favorite food blogs like 101 Cookbooks, and from family recipes passed down from our parents. Sometimes we were just making stuff up. I loved it all because it made lunch special, which is something I am still trying to maintain, despite no longer being part of a coop.

I work at FoodCorps now (Slow Food USA is a founding partner), where our service members around the country spend their days trying to make school food—and school lunch in particular—healthier for children. What better example can I set than to make my lunch fresh, healthy and delicious, too?

So today it’ s day 3 of rice from a recipe I invented to use the corn and scallions from my CSA; and a crustless quiche with quinoa and kale, from a recipe that caught my eye on Food52 (and that could use up various bits and bobs languishing on my refrigerator shelves).

It’s worth mentioning (humblebrag alert!) that the corn stock I used was in my freezer from LAST SUMMER when I boiled all my used corncobs, made stock, and smugly stuck it in my freezer for “the long, hard winter.” It is now August. Ack.

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Perennial Plate: A New Spin on Camp Food

We’ve teamed up with Daniel Klein and the folks over at Perennial Plate to deliver monthly video stories, our second dispatch features a truly unique youth summer camp.

The Perennial Plate is a fantastic documentary series that explores socially responsible, sustainable and adventurous eating across the U.S.  Slow Food USA has a video content partnership with Perennial to showcase one of our favorite films every month.

This Month’s Perennial Plate Feature: Youth Farm

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An Apple for the Teacher

Back to school time. Planning on picking up an apple for your teacher’s desk? Ever wonder where this tradition came from? Have you thought about what apple to bring? Read on…

Written by Kelley McCrudden, Slow Food USA intern

With children all over the country heading back to school this month and next, what better way to start the year off than by giving an apple to the new teacher in your life?

The origin of gifting an apple on the first day of school is a bit of a mystery. Many believe the practice stems from the role of the apple as a divine food or source of immortality from ancient Greek mythology, while others link the apple to the lesson of right and wrong through the story of Adam and Eve. Some say it began in early colonial America when teachers were paid with the fruit and other foods in exchange for lessons. Provided that apples were some of the hardiest fruits grown in New England- often stored in cellars through the winter months- apples may have naturally become the most prevalent form of compensation.

Regardless of which story you choose to believe, it’s easy to see that giving an apple away is a smart decision. Not only are apples a healthy (only 80 calories) and a tasty treat, they are in season this time of year and will be coming to grocery stores throughout the country in mass quantities.

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Archive of Taste: The Appalachian Food Storybank

Preserving local food culture is more than just soil & seed. Slow Food Asheville’s Appalachian Food Storybank proves that it’s mainly about people.

Written By Deirdra Stockmann, Slow Food USA volunteer and former leader with Slow Food Huron Valley

The hills of Southern Appalachia and the people who live there have long been shaped by their foodways – the cultural, economic and geographic paths that weave people and land together. And those green hills have listened silently as generations have passed down recipes, farming techniques and stories about growing and eating together. People, of course, have listened to these stories as well, but most of them have never been recorded, some have been lost, and countless tales and tricks of the trade reside only in the minds and memories of the region’s elders.

In 2011, Slow Food Asheville created the Appalachian Food Storybank as a way to “acknowledge, honor, and archive Appalachian heritage foods and foodways in order to promote the preservation of diverse local knowledges, natural resources, and food biodiversity.” In less than two years, the program has established a committed group of volunteers, built partnerships with other organizations, and created an enthusiastic buzz among local media and area residents eager to help preserve their own local history.

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Q&A with Gabrielle (Gigi) Di Bernardo

The first installment in our “Food and Farming Spotlight” features 10 year-old leader, Gigi Di Bernardo on how youth are improving the food system.

Written by Slow Food USA’s PR & Marketing Manager, Emily Walsh

As part of a new monthly series here on the blog—“Food and Farming Spotlight”—we will be speaking with Slow Food leaders and members, and food movement personalities alike.  This month, we sat down with Gabrielle (Gigi) Di Bernardo.

In a world where fast food chains spend $300 million on youth-targeted marketing per year and where for the first time since the early 1800’s, youth are expected to live shorter lives than their parents, it is hard to not feel like the next generation is powerless to defend itself. Despite the challenges though, more young people every day are taking a stand to improve food and farming.

The unbelievably articulate Birke Baehr from the East Coast immediately comes to mind and how the 11-year-old’s wise-beyond-his-years food production commentary earned him a speaking spot on a TEDx event. Or 12-year-old Mason Harvey from Oklahoma, who after being bullied for years, convinced his family to start eating well and exercising. He lost 85 pounds and is not only feeling better, but is happier at school. And most recently, there was 9-year-old Martha Payne from Western Scotland, who spurred quite the media frenzy. Shortly after she began posting pictures of the unappealing, non-nutritious lunches being served to her at school, her blog was shut down by local officials. However with the public outcry that ensued from food personalities such as Jamie Oliver, it was not long before the ban was lifted.

But how about the young people making moves in our own, Slow Food community? I would like you to meet 10-year-old Gabrielle (Gigi) Di Bernardo, who recently received a proclamation from Temecula, CA’s mayor for the food education and environmental work she is doing there. Gigi is the daughter of Leah Di Bernardo, co-leader of Slow Food Temecula and as Leah will proudly tell you, she is a bright little girl with her own big thoughts on food. But I think you will agree when you read the below transcript that her thoughts truly speak for themselves.

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