New Ideas and Opportunities

Hello everyone,

 

I am sending out the update early this week because I will be out of the office this Friday and Monday. I am traveling down to PA to visit my alma mater--Dickinson College. Anyway, this week was a busy one!

 

• Farm to School/Institution meeting took place on Saturday.
• Panel discussion was on Tuesday night. We had a great turnout (around 130 people!) Thank you to our panelists, everyone who helped organize the event, and everyone who attended. Key take-aways: SUNY Delhi can really set an example for the community by buying locally in a big way. We should do a better job of publicizing our progress and small successes. Communities can make it possible for low-income people to have access to local food if we are willing to work hard and connect the dots.
• I am going to be meeting with the students who are going to be working on the WIC project this Monday.
• Met with Lonny and Liz Schaefer of Catskill Cattle. Attended a Farm Bureau meeting with them. Then I took them to meet John Ford and he ordered some beef from them.
• Talked with Michelle Premura from the Turquoise Barn about the possibility of setting up a summer internship. She does raw foods cooking with what she grows on the farm. Who on campus would I talk to about setting up internships?
• Talked with Tom Recinella and he is going to give me a list of the culinary depts. special events and local products they would like to use for these events.
• A student with restaurant experience is going to work with me on the restaurant project as part of a service learning requirement for a class. Our goals are to survey restaurants in Delaware County to figure out what they are (or aren't) doing to buy local, help those who are open find ways to use local products, and write up a "Best Practices" manual based on the information we collect.
• I received more information that Peter Grannis (Maines) about their local program. I plan to call the farms that work with Maines and get information about the process from their point of view.

Enjoy the warm weather!

Mary