This February, New Entry staff (Jennifer, Eduardo, and Erik) enjoyed an evening of Community Conversations at the Cabot Theater for an event titled: Food Fight! Explore Our Food System and Your Role In It. This event, organized by our local partner, Green Beverly brought together over 312 registrants and received so much positive feedback. New Entry was joined by Root Northshore, one of our long-time food access partners, who used New Entry's Food Hub farmers' crops in the delicious meal and rice bowls that nourished us at the event. Our New Entry hot sauce was also a popular condiment. One of our course graduates, volunteers, and long-time partner Kim Gregory of Kim's Pure Pastry distributed delicious apple pop tarts made with local apples.
The program consisted of a conversation between two apples sharing their food journey across the food system. Our Director, Jennifer Hashley was a featured speaker who provided an overview of the food system, how it works, the farmers' share of the food dollar, opportunities and constraints for our local and regional food system, and ways to take action. Two of our incubator farmers, Siedric White and Anna Pierce-Slive of Revival Road Farm shared their story of pursuing the dream of farming and some of the joys and challenges of growing food for the community. We also heard from Salem Pantry around creative food access models, and from the Salem Food Policy Council about actions taken at the local and state level to help create a more robust and resilient food system.
Following a stellar line-up of speakers on various themes in the food system - all with transitions narrated by local school youth and the noted “apples” describing their travels from near and far - a panel discussion followed which allowed the audience to ask questions and learn more about how they can take action and get involved in the food system. Jennifer participated in the panel and greatly enjoyed the many questions posed by Beverly youth, such as, “Do you have to fill out a form and sign up to be a farmer?” among others! The event was beneficial to New Entry's Food Hub as we had over a dozen sign ups for our CSA share program after the event, thank you to those who registered and put their learning into direct action.
Here is a link to the full recording of the event in case you missed it and would like to explore what you can do to engage in the local food system.
Check out the event photos taken by The Cabot and a Green Beverly volunteer.
Green Beverly also created a curated list of action steps and ways to find more information for community members to get involved in thier local food system. Visit the webpage here: https://www.greenbeverly.org/foodfight for access to all the resources and actions shared at the event, as well as the North Shore Farm and Food System community survey (open to all to respond).
Some quotes and high praise from the event:
“Blown away–amazed at the number of people.”
“Food was amazing.” “It was a spectacular event.”
“An event that entertained for over an hour.”
“Bringing the community together was amazing.”
“Thanks so much for a wonderful informative evening. Hopefully it's just the beginning.”
“I was so impressed with the organization and engagement. I am happy to see this movement growing in our community and I look forward to being part of it!”
We hope this event inspires action and offers opportunity for ordinary citizens to take an active role in supporting your local farmers and teh greater local and regional food system. We all eat and we all have the power to shape our food choices each day! Feel free to reach out to New Entry for other ways you can get involved (volunteer with us; join our New Entry CSA program; purchase a license plate for your vehicle; and make a gift today!).