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!

Oh Delhi...

Hello,

 

After spending a sunny and snow-free weekend in PA, I am wondering whether it was a good idea to come back to Delhi...especially after the weather we've been having today! Even though the college is on break next week, I will be in my office so feel free to call or email me.

 

Here is what went on this week:

 

• Had 2 planning meetings with Amber Tatnall and the involved students about the WIC project. We are in the stage of drafting interview questions and thinking about ways to get participants.
• Michelle Premura and Prof. Jack Tessier have been in contact about student internships at the Turquoise Barn. She also wants to have Hospitality and Culinary students, so I will be talking to those departments.
• Met with Chef Jay and Ulla about the Local Dinner in the fall. Jay will write up a menu over the break, and then I will work on finding sources of the food.
• Campus FFT meeting is this afternoon. Among other things, we will be discussing our next program: a collaboration with Counseling and Health services called "Junk Food Science."
• I have been working heavily this week on a database that archives all of the people I have been in contact with during my time here. What projects they have been involved with, future ideas for collaboration, contact information, etc. Feel free to suggest fields/info that would be useful to have in the database.

Have a great weekend / break! Safe travels.
Mary

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

Food Policy and Leaky Roofs

Hello-

 

I hope everyone had a good week and stayed warm. Here is the update.

 

• Video the of discussion that occurred after the screening of FRESH is uploaded on the Farm to Table blog. Thank you Matt Juba for being a willing videographer!http://vistasunydelhi.blogspot.com/2011/02/fresh-discussion-video.html 
• I didn't get to meet with Rachel Pollen to talk about the arts festival because she had a leak in her roof and has been busy taking care of that. Probably will be able to meet next week.
• Talked more with Peter Grannis from Maines about the details of their partnerships with NY farms. If you want more information I can forward you the email from him.
• Farm to School/Institution meeting is happening this Saturday from 1-4 in Farrell 211. Parking lot "K" has been reserved for participants.
• Being Green, Making Green panel discussion is THIS TUESDAY, February 15th at 7 pm! Hope to see you there!
• To gauge student interest in the possibility of volunteering on farms, I sent out an email to all the club advisors asking them to mention it to their students.
• The idea of having a hoop house on campus is being put on hold because of financial reasons. Thank you to Jack Tessier and Birgitta Brophy for all of their hard work researching this idea.
• I have been doing some research on Food Policy Councils. This may be something to think about for the future. Perhaps a local one could be formed or we could think about trying to get a spot on the FP council in NYC. Here is a website with lots of good information about what Food Policy Councils are and the benefits to having one. http://www.foodsecurity.org/FPC/