non-profits
Glynwood: Because, Farming, Food & Community Matter
by Leslie Boden The Glynwood Center, a Food Systems Network member in Cold Spring, NY, is working to build a thriving regional food system by reviving farming and revitalizing farm communities throughout the Northeast. Filmmaker and FSNYC member Sara Grady’s beautiful new film about Glynwood illustrates the challenges—high costs, low profits, land use development pressures, and inadequate infrastructure among them--that Hudson Valley farmers face, as well as the value that farms bring to their own communities, and the tremendous importance of those farms for an environmentally sustainable regional food system. Glynwood, it becomes clear, plays a critical and respected role in empowering communities to support farming and conserve farmland. Glynwood recently announced the 2009 recipients of its Harvest Awards, which honor farmers, organizations, and businesses from across the United States for innovation and leadership in sustainable agriculture and regional food systems. For more information about Glynwood and this year’s award recipients, click here. Glynwood Vision Statement: "Glynwood envisions a revival of farming and a revitalization of rural communities throughout the Northeast. We foresee harmonious working farmscapes supporting energetic local economies and vibrant communities. We anticipate that consumers throughout the region will have ready access to fresh, healthful food produced by local farmers who practice good land stewardship and environmentally sustainable agriculture. We intend to continue exerting thoughtful and energetic leadership in helping communities to realize this vision." For a higher quality viewing experience, visit Sara's website: http://www.saragrady.net/glynwood.php
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Back to School Brings "Time for Lunch" Grassroots Campaign
Posted by Lynn Fredericks, FamilyCook Productions
When the issue of making a healthy school lunch available to public school children comes up this fall for congressional reauthorization of the USDA legislation known as Child Nutrition, a more grassroots ‘citizens’ campaign has also been unleashed by Slow Food USA.
Slow Food NYC's Harvest Time Program Steers Aspiring Mechanic From Cars To Cooking
Posted by Kerry Trueman, Eating Liberally
Cars and fast food are partners in crime when it comes to undermining America's health. Our favorite mode of transportation deprives us of exercise, while our dependence on quick, cheap convenience foods cheats us of nutrients. We reportedly eat nearly a quarter of our meals in our cars, a practice that baffles folks in countries where taking time out to share a real meal with friends and family is still the norm.
But our landscape is changing, literally, and I found evidence of a nascent rebellion against our car-centric cuisine in a 
rather ironic place: the grounds that surround Automotive High School in Brooklyn. I first noticed squash vines growing outside the auditorium at this vocational high school in Williamsburg back in June when I attended a screening there of No Impact Man hosted by Rooftop Films.
I was intrigued, but had no idea that Automotive High School's edible landscaping was inspired by the school's participation in Slow Food NYC's Harvest Time program, whose mission is to create "a meaningful relationship between young people and their food and the environment by providing hands-on experiences, community engagement, and the enjoyment of good, healthful food."
ROC at a Hard Place
Posted by Ed Yowell, Slow Food NYC
On July 7, 2009, Restaurant Opportunities Center New York held the first annual “Exceptional Workplace” restaurant awards breakfast honoring restaurants for taking the “high road” in their employee practices.
Some of you will know ROC-NY as the non-profit, advocacy organization born in the aftermath of 9/11 to help restaurant employees who lost their jobs as a result of the attack. After 9/11, ROC-NY, while not a union, went on to advocate for fair and legal treatment of restaurant workers by conducting notable studies of the NYC restaurant industry; founding Colors, the worker-owned, cooperative restaurant and restaurant job training facility; and negotiating resolutions and winning court cases regarding some restaurants’ illegal employment practices, from unfair compensation practices to discrimination and harassment. A significant portion of ROC’s formative years were spent on picket lines.
ROC is now complementing this work with another approach, built on the concept that a well-treated work force helps make a successful business.
Behind the Story: An Interview with Doreen Wohl, West Side Campaign Against Hunger
Posted by Mark Foggin
Foggin: When I was asked to visit the West Side Campaign Against Hunger’s emergency food program at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Certainly not aisles of stocked shelves nor checkout counters. I didn’t expect to see people with shopping carts picking their way past one another in the aisles. But that’s exactly what I found. It felt like a small supermarket. And the people in it seemed just like shoppers I might find in my local grocery store. There wasn’t much around that screamed out “food pantry.” And that’s just the way Doreen Wohl likes it. Doreen Wohl arrived at West Side 16 years ago. And while the program was well intentioned, she saw a lot of things that struck her as not quite right about West Side’s approach to emergency food.
Wohl: When this program was founded in 1979, it was a traditional pantry where church members packed bags and they were handed out to people. For the most part, the bags were the same size, regardless of household size. And it was a very uniform bag with a set of list of food: tuna fish, macaroni & cheese, peanut butter & jelly, canned beans, canned vegetables, canned fruit, rice, pasta. Customers were handed a bag. I saw them looking through them and exchanging items. And they were told, “No please don’t do that. Please take your bag and leave.” But what they were doing made sense because they basically know what their family needs. They know what they have at home, they know their health conditions, and they can make the best selections.
Reflections on the First Annual Gathering of the Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative
Posted by Jeff Heehs
Dismantling racism in the food system, within and by way of sustainable food projects, was the focus of a gathering of around 150 community food activists from all over the U.S. and Canada from September 18 to 21 in Milwaukee. Group trainings and discussions provided “safe space” for participants to share a challenging, emotional process of understanding and confronting racial privilege and oppression in ourselves and our communities, amid workshops and talks on food justice and sustainability initiatives.
The conference was the product of planning by the Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative (GFJI), an outgrowth of activities initiated within the Community Food Security Coalition. Milwaukee’s urban farming non-profit Growing Power organized and sponsored the event. Just two days after the conference adjourned we were all thrilled by the announcement that Will Allen, the towering founder of Growing Power and host of the Gathering, was named recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant for his pioneering work in urban agriculture and community building.
Prior to the main gathering a core group of facilitators attended an intensive leadership training program on interpersonal methods to understand and challenge racial inequities in general and in the food system. These facilitators then conducted workshops, called Dismantling Racism 101, for others attending the Gathering. Using techniques of non-verbal interaction resembling games or silent theater among mixed groups, followed by open discussion, the workshops were a powerful, revealing experience.
Other workshop leaders presented on topics including:
- projects promoting food sovereignty and self determination among groups of Native Americans, immigrant farm workers, rural latino communities, urban communities of color and others
Hot Bread Kitchen Kneads with Social Vision
Posted by Ed Yowell, Slow Food NYC
FSNYC member Jessamym Waldman is a woman who puts her bread where her politics are. Jessamyn is the Founding Director of the not-for-profit Hot Bread Kitchen. I chatted recently with Jessamyn about Hot Bread Kitchen and why and how it got started.
Ed: For those of our readers who have not met Hot Bread Kitchen by discovering and enjoying the breads, what exactly is it?
Jessamyn: Hot Bread Kitchen produces artisanal breads “kneaded with a social vision”, I like to say. We help immigrant women, who have come from places as diverse as Mexico, Afghanistan, and Togo, to turn their traditional baking skills into commercially valuable careers. That, in turn, can lead to jobs in the City’s baking industry and launching their own micro-enterprises.
E: How did you come up with the idea for Hot Bread Kitchen?
J: Hot Bread Kitchen is the product of my great passions; baking, social justice, and immigration advocacy. First, I am the great-granddaughter of an immigrant Polish baker, so I guess flour is in my DNA. And, I have been baking part-time at Daniel (restaurant). But most importantly, I’ve worked as an immigration advocate at several international organizations, including the UN. I guess I’ve collected an unusual set of qualifying credentials: a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia (University), where I specialized in immigration policy, and a Master Baker certificate from the New School. What else could I do?
E: But why pick baking as a way to help new Americans?
