Lots of Meetings and Networking

Hello everyone,

 

Sorry the update is late this week. But since my inbox didn't fill up with angry emails complaining about not getting the weekly update on Friday, I assume that you're not too upset.

 

• Spent some time last week preparing for the Pure Catskills Farm to Market Connection Conference. Which was this past Sunday, the 27th. I had a tradeshow table set up displaying the progress SUNY Delhi and CADI have made with buying local and past programs the Food for Thought committee has sponsored. I tried to connect with more farmers for us to work with. Elizabeth Sova, Ulla Wadner, and culinary student Phil Ricciardi attended the conference as well. The conference gave me some new Farm to Table ideas to look into.
• John Ford and I met with Gary Domalewicz--marketing specialist from the NYS Dept. of Agriculture & Markets. He is going to help us do a better job of promoting the fact that we buy local by supplying some posters, banners, etc.
• Amber Tatnall and I met with Sue Dapkins and Chris Jones of Delaware Opportunites to discuss plans for the WIC survey project. They gave us a lot of useful information about the WIC program. We decided that the best way to do the one-on-one interview with the WIC participants is to conduct them at the WIC outreach sites. We hope to go to the outreach sites in Delhi, Hobart, and Walton.
• I am still getting responses from people about their past involvement with Farm to School projects, etc. I am going to try and compile and summarize these answers.
• Both Maple Shade Farm and the Turquoise Barn are interested in having students for internships. Lucky Dog Farm is also interested in having student volunteers.

Happy Monday,

Mary

Junk Food Science Pictures

Lorna Herman was kind enough to take some pictures at the "Junk Food Science" presentation. Here are a few of them. Thank you Lorna!

Junk Food and Good Beef

Hello!

I have added several people to this mailing list. In short, my AmeriCorps assignment is to increase consumption of locally grown food in Delaware County. I send out an email each week to let people know about the projects I am working on. Please email me back with any questions, concerns, or suggestions. Thank you!

--"Junk Food Science" was a success. Thank you to all involved. We had about 90 people attend.
--Chobani tasting was on Wednesday. The students seemed to enjoy the yogurt.
--Wrote an article about what has been going on at SUNY Delhi and submitted it to the New York Farm Bureau
--Sent an email to those involved in Farm to School projects asking about the projects they have been involved with and any barriers they encountered. I will compile this information and send it to everyone on this list.
--Spoke with Gary Domalewicz from the Department of Agriculture and Markets. He told me they have lots of resources for Farm to College projects. I will be meeting with him next week to talk about opportunities for SUNY Delhi to do more.
--Ulla Wadner told me that they use ground beef from Catskill Cattle for everything except hamburgers. The last order was for 500 lbs of ground beef! This is a huge accomplishment. Thank you to CADI and Catskill Cattle!
--More WIC project planning. Going to meet with Sue Dapkins of Delaware Opp. to talk about the project and what suggestions Delaware Opportunities has.

Enjoy the weather while it lasts!
Mary

Research and Raindrops

Hello-

 

I'm so glad the sun finally came out today! All I can say is, I can't wait until spring.

• Talked with Lonny Schaefer of Catskill Cattle about the local dinner. He said they would be glad to work with us and gave me a timeline of when we would have to have things ordered by, etc.
• I contacted Terry Hannum about writing an article about the dinner...both to get the word out about it and also to let farmers know it is happening so they can get involved. We are going to set up a time to meet.
• Had a WIC project meeting with Amber Tatnall and her students on Wednesday.
• Culinary dept. will not be able to participate in the Summer Arts festival in Delhi because there are no students around August 6th.
• Gave the information from my database to CADE in Oneonta
• I did a webinar on the Food Safety Modernization Act. If anyone is interested I can get you the powerpoint slides.
• I researched the farms that work with MAINES. They are all pretty big operations that make $500,000 to 1 million dollars a year.
• Elizabeth Sova and I are going to have a tradeshow table at the Pure Catskills Farm to Market Connection conference on March 27th.
• The next FFT programs are next week. "Junk Food Science" at 7pm in Okun Theatre on March 15th and a Chobani yogurt tasting downstairs in Farrell on March 16th from 11-3. Phil Ricciardi--a culinary student--is also going to attend. If you want to go there is still time to sign up, and I have two (or three if we squish) more seats in my car.
• Elizabeth made a DVD copy of the panel discussion. If you would like to see it, let me know and I can bring it to you.
• About 20 out of the 70 Restaurants that have been contacted about the buying local suvery are interested in participating. There are still more to call, but this is actually a better response than I was expecting!

Thank you for all of your support!!

Mary

A Quiet but Productive week

Hello-

 

It has been a quiet week because of the break, which allowed me to get some of my tedious work done.

 

• All of my contacts have finally been compiled into a database. The information in this database can easily be exported into excel sheets and shared. I have sent all of my contact information to Sonia Persichilli of Farm Catskills for their records. I will keep the database updated as the year progresses.
• I have finished the flyer for "Junk Food Science" (March 15th at 7 pm in Okun Theatre). Should be a really fun event!
• Last week I sent out information about the upcoming Farm to Market conference hosted by Pure Catskills. I am thinking of running a tradeshow table. I think it would be a great to let people know what SUNY Delhi is doing and to make connections with farmers, distributors, etc. I would love it if 1 or 2 people from the FFT team would work with me on this and attend the conference with me. It is March 27th in Liberty NY. It fills up quickly so let me know ASAP if you want to be involved! Here is the detailed info:

         

Farm to Market Connection

Sunday, March 27, 9 am to 4 pm

CVI Building, Liberty, NY

Registration with lunch: $25

Online registration:  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1308195849

Or mail a check made out to "WAC' to 44 West St/Walton. NY 13856

Get the growing season off to the right start with the Farm to Market Connection.  This full day networking and education conference will gather farm and food business people from the Catskills, Hudson Valley and metropolitan region.  Topics will include connecting with consumer buying clubs, whole carcass marketing, increasing sales for farmers' market vendors, state and regional food policy, financing business expansion and growing local grains. 

 

 

• For the local dinner I really want to ensure that ANY farm that wants to be involved has the chance to be. So far, the outreach methods I plan to use are: see if I can get an article about it in Delaware County Times or the Farm Bureau newsletter, send out email to my farm contacts and see if Pure Catskills could send out something to their list. Suggestions for effective outreach?
• I am thinking of doing some sort of needs-assessment of SUNY Delhi's kitchens. I want to make sure they have the capacity to be dealing with (cleaning, chopping, etc.) local produce. If it gets to be large quantities on a regular basis, this is something we will have to think about.

Enjoy the weekend!