EAT Local News and Events

EAT Minutes from October 2009

EAT Minutes October 2009

October 28, 2009 at 12:30 pm,

Van Tassel Room 5006, WVC Campus

 

The monthly meeting facilitated by Joan Qazi began at 12:35pm and ended at 2:00 pm.  Next meeting is Wednesday December 2nd from 6:30pm to 8pm in the Wenatchee World Conference Room, behind Farmhouse Table Produce Market.

 

Members Present: Michel Wiman, Kerry Steffan, Sandi Bammer, Tony Davis, Nadine Lehrer, Mike Cochran, Jim Allyn, Mike Brogan, and Joan Qazi.

 

Dates to Watch For:

• Local Food Summit in Okanogan:  Friday, November 6, 2009 at 6pm

IRIS Regional Food Assessment report will be shared at this celebration

• Some Enchanted Eating:  Friday, November 6, 2009 from 6pm to 10pm at the Wenatchee Community Center with local foods dinner and dancing.  Tickets are available at Farmhouse Table and the Kitchen Sync.
• Tilth Conference at Yakima Convention Center, November 13 to 15^th

Organic and Sustainable:  The Common Ground, new workshop series in Spanish

• Local Harvest Dinner at Sleeping Lady:  Sunday, November 15^th at 5pm

with Chef Ken McDonald and KOHO’s Isaac Kaplan-Woolner

• EAT helps host ‘King Corn’ at Wen. Valley Museum: Tues, Nov. 17 at 7pm  Come view this funny, compelling film about how corn is at the basis of our food system and support EAT & CFC which will have information tables there.
• IRIS Success Summit in Pateros:  Wednesday, November 18^th, 9am to 3pm

EAT will be represented in the morning by Joan and the afternoon by Nadine.  Researchers will report on IRIS regional food assessment and recommendations.

 

Treasurer’s Report: Current balance is $2469.86 which includes the $500 check from NW Farm Credit Services to buy a mini roto-tiller and loading ramp for the area school gardens.  EAT has also deposited the $2000 awarded from Wenatchee Valley Medical Center as a sponsor of the 2010 EAT Seasonally Calendar to cover printing costs.  Thank-you cards for NW Farm Credit Services and Wenatchee Valley Medical Center were signed and will be mailed to these funders.  Thanks Sara and Vaishali for this!!

 

Announcements:

• Thanks to Tony Davis for acting as minute-taker this month!

• EAT needs someone to staff the informational table at King Corn on November 17^th.  Sandi Bammer volunteered to help.  Joan will get the materials to Sandi ahead of time.
• EAT would like to market the Farm to Table directories at Some Enchanted Eating and at Washington Tilth meetings this month.  Michel and Nadine volunteered to find out if this would be possible.

 

Committee Reports:

• Community Garden Committee: 

The city of Wenatchee is putting in sidewalks, so some of the garden building has been delayed.  They are considering installing a fence on the west side of the garden since there is not much to stop anyone driving over the garden plots.  EAT will help organize a monthly community gardener educational forum.  We hope to feature Jerrilyn with her garlic growing knowledge for the first educational evening with community gardeners possibly by November 16^th.  All are welcome to support this EAT-led effort.

 Mike Brogan’s community garden had a successful first season with a dozen farmer-gardeners who are now cleaning up for the season.

·         School Garden Committee:  We discussed the mini rototiller for sharing amongst the gardens.  Mike suggested that when schools are not using the rototiller perhaps it could be loaned out (with small rental fee) amongst the gardening community.  We would need to draw up a liability rental form to be signed before releasing the rototiller.   Foothills had its school garden clean-up and planted winter rye and Austrian peas.  Oly was able to film at Newbery’s garden clean-up.  Sunnyslope will also be cleaning its garden soon.

• Farm to School:  EAT is working with the Agro-Forestry group out of WWU to host the February 25, 2009 Farm to School conference in Wenatchee, so that we can move forward on getting more locally grown produce into our regional school food service.  Possible locations include Sleeping Lady Resort; Chateau Faire Le Pont, or the Wenatchee Valley College.  We are waiting to hear back from the College before we make our decision.  Funding for local food catering will be needed.  Suggestions for panelists are also being solicited.
• Community Food Assessment (CFA):  Executive report release has been postponed, it may be available for our December meeting.
• EAT Calendar:  We finalized the monthly themes and each person agreed to send recipes, fun facts, and photos (if they have them) to Joan ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) for formatting into the calendar.  Mike Cochran volunteered to help format these as long as the earlier publisher program will align with the EAT copy.  A photo contest might be fun to include in this calendar for the 2011 calendar.  We are aiming for a Thanksgiving printing now that we have costs covered by our calendar sponsor, the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center—hooray!

 

Follow-up on Topic(s) that were discussed in this meeting:

• PLEASE send your recipes, fun facts and photos for the calendar, asap!
Farm to Table directory marketing
Next meeting is 12/02/09 to avoid Thanksgiving conflicts at end of November

 

Committee Sign-up:

• Leadership Committee:  Convener Joan Qazi; Treasurer Rich Colson; Secretary open position, rotating minute taker (please consider helping with this for one term); Webmaster Ben fields; Media/Communications Kim Langston; Fundraising Vaishali Bhide; Calendar Michel Wiman; Directory Amy Simonson.