foodNow! Request to Growers
For the past year, local food advocates and community volunteers have met to create a major event to raise awareness and money for local, healthier eating in the greater Kansas City area. We want to bring positive food choices to a new and wider audience that is interested but not yet involved in the local food movement. To achieve this, the event will create a thought-provoking interaction between the rural and urban heritage of Kansas City. We also think it is important to attract national attention to the event and to the value Kansas City brings to food.
Out of these gatherings has come foodNow, an unique food event. The atmosphere of the event will be fun and creative. We are having it at a location that brings the farm to the city. The event will be at 1300 West 13th Street in the West Bottoms. The roof of the Stowe Hardware building will hold the silent auction and cocktails. We will dine in the street on an all local food, plated, coursed dinner at one long table. The date is Saturday, August 28th, 2010. Our goal is 300 attendees.
This year’s proceeds will benefit the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, the Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition, and the Kansas City Community Gardens.
Help us raise awareness for all you do for local, healthier eating. We invite you to participate in the foodNow event. We need local food, growing displays, and your support.
Our goal is to only serve local food at the event. Any amount of food contributed for the event will be accepted with gratitude.
We would love to fill the area with growing plants. We are asking for growers to contribute creative planters out of containers or recycled items you have, which we can use for display and to auction off in the silent auction.
Please go to www.foodNow.org, click on “growers,” and commit to helping in the success of foodNow!
If you have any questions, please contact Jane Zieha at either contact@foodNow.org or 816-221-7901. Thanks in advance for your support and help with raising awareness of Kansas City’s local food movement!
IAP2 TRAINING IN KANSAS CITY
Certificate in Public Participation training will be held in August
One KC Voice, a citizen engagement program at the Mid-America Regional Council, will host the International Association of Public Participation’s (IAP2)signature Certificate in Public Participation training program in Kansas City Aug. 2 through 6.
The IAP2 certificate program is recognized as the global standard in the field of public involvement. Professionals who work in public policy, public involvement or stakeholder relations — as beginners or advanced practitioners — will find this program valuable.
The program is made up of three distinct courses: Planning for Effective Public Participation ($700), Communications for Effective Public Participation ($350), and Techniques for Effective Public Participation ($700). Discounts are available for early registrations. Full descriptions of each course can be found on the IAP2 training calendar. Upon completion of all three classes, students will earn a Certificate in Public Participation from IAP2.
Dates + Times
Monday, Aug. 2 through Friday, Aug. 6
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily
Place
Mid-America Regional Council, Broadway Room
600 Broadway, Suite 200, Kansas City, Mo.
Map
To Register
Download the registration brochure from this page, complete the attached form, and:
- Fax it: 303/423-1821
- Mail it: U.S. Training Consortium, c/o Melissa Sparlin, 6732 Zinnia, Arvada, CO, 80004.
- E-mail it: 4participation@gmail.com
Growing Growers workshop next Monday!
***OPEN TO THE PUBLIC***
Growing Growers workshop: Post-Harvest Handline
When: Monday | May 24, 2010 | 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Map powered by MapPress
The workshop will cover both food safety and quality considerations to help vegetable growers keep their produce safe, fresh and tasty. The program will include a presentation on GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices), a system that provides a great framework for reviewing on-farm food safety. We’ll also cover the different storage requirements (temp, humidity, etc.) of different vegetables and discuss storage options for smaller growers.
A tour of Spring Creek Farm in Baldwin City will follow.
Please see the flyer (Word document) for more information.
If you have any questions or would like to pre-register, contact Laura Christensen at the e-mail address or phone number below.
Katahdin hair sheep having a nosh (Parker Farms)
After all this rain and these dark, cloudy days, are you just aching to spend some time outdoors on a fine Saturday evening? …on a farm? …with fellow local-foodies? …and chickens, pigs, sheep, and cows?
Well then, come on out to the farm of Tom and Paula Parker and family in Richmond, MO! This Saturday at 4:00 p.m., the Parkers will be hosting a potluck grill-out and farm tour for their CSA members as well as anyone who would like to learn more about sustainable, grass-fed livestock farming in a beautiful setting.
Sensible shoes that don’t mind tripping through mud are highly recommended. You’ll want to bring a side dish to share, reusable plateware/cutlery for your party, and a lawn chair or two. Musical instruments are always welcome! Your happy hosts will provide the grilled meats.
The event is open to the public; the Parkers simply request that you RSVP before Saturday so they know how much to put on the grill: parkerfarms@peoplepc.com -or- (816) 470-3276.
MAP TO PARKER FARMS:
Rain rain, go away (for a while)
CSA season is beginning this year with a sloshy, thunderous start thanks to this week’s nearly-constant rain and terrific thunderstorms and microbursts. Several of our CSA members gained a story to tell around the water cooler about how they picked up their first share this week in a rollicking thunderstorm, dodging bucket-sized raindrops and pea-sized hail, with great bolts of lightning sizzling past and raising the hair on the napes of our necks. All for the love of good food and social justice!
Several of our Coalition farmers report that the rain and cold temperatures have caused some veggies to stall their growth — they’re apparently waiting for better conditions. Much haste has been made to dash out between downpours to protect the crops with row-cover and mulch, which hopefully will do the trick. The good news? No early-summer heat to cause the brassicas to bolt! More good news: summer diets will get a great boost from the plentiful lettuces and greens which are loving this weather! :)
If you had a CSA pick-up this past week, share your story! The KCCSAC board will vote on the best one at our next meeting, and the winner will receive a copy of Seasonal and Simple: A Guide for Enjoying Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, a wonderful book created by our friends at the MU Extension and a great aid to figuring out what to do with that CSA share throughout the season! It’s organized by season, with loads of the fruits and veggies grown in our area; each veggie’s pages contain nutrition information, storage and cooking tips, recipes, and gorgeous color photos. We look forward to reading about your CSA adventures!
Welcome to our new website!
I am so excited to announce the launch of the Coalition’s new website! It will now be much easier to share news, stories, and important information with our CSA community. We’ve added a calendar, which will contain information regarding CSA distributions, farm events, workshops, and all manner of things which may interest our CSA community. We’ve also enhanced the resources section, with more being added every day. AND, to accompany our website’s new ‘do, we are also hosting our very first contest and giveaway! See the next post for details.
As a coalition of both eaters and growers, we welcome all in our community to share tips, ideas, and resources which we can post here. We will try our level best to keep up with all the vast news sources out there and keep our readers informed, but if you have an idea or see something shareable, please send it along!
So please have a look around and make yourself at home. We look forward to reading your thoughts and comments, and to a future of greater community participation in Kansas City’s CSA Coalition!