EAT Minutes June 2008

June 25, 2008 at 12:30 pm, WVC Van Tassell Room 5006

The meeting began at 12:30pm and concluded at 2pm. Next meeting is July 30, 2008 from 6:30-8pm at Farmhouse Produce (hopefully).

Members Present:

Joan Qazi; Angela Schaub; Vaishali Bhide; Jen Crawford; Sandy Bammer; Jim Allyn; Nadine Lehrer; Marcy Ostrom; Michel Wiman

Dates to Watch For:

  • Paul Roberts was on NPR/featured in National Geographic…Paul Roberts, author of “The End of Food”, will have a book signing on June 28th at 6:30pm at A Book For All Seasons. This is a ticket only event with refreshments catered by Pretiola’s. They have asked for help from EAT in serving refreshments.

Treasurer’s Report:

$3,413.02 is the current balance.

New Business:

  • Welcome to Sandy Bammer! She is from Bellingham and would like to become more involved in local foods here in Wenatchee.
  • A Quincy area farmer needs help with mulching tomatoes this week. Interested people can meet at Sherry Schneider’s home at 9:30am, Thursday, June 26th. Please call her at 665-4102 if you would like to help.

Committee Reports

  • CFA Joan talked about the calendar project. It was decided that the calendar will run from September 2008 to December 2009. Each month will also feature a data point from the CFA which will be provided by either Joan or Michel. Michel would like to have all submissions of seasonal photos, recipes, farmer bios, or points of interest related to the photo turned in by July 15, 2008 with a target publishing date of mid-August.
  • Consumer Education City of Wenatchee has contracted with EWU for a community indicators website for Chelan and Douglas counties, plus Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Chelan, Leavenworth and Cashmere. Indicators include environmental, economic, education, health, etc. Site will follow trends. Website should be ready in November. Beth Stipes from the Community Foundation is the contact for the project. EAT will want to work with EWU since information on site could overlap with Food Atlas. Joan suggested that environmental indicators include acreage in IPM or organic certified as well as the possibility of food waste composting.
  • Grant Work There are two nation wide grants available for school gardens.
  • School Garden Committee Foothills Middle school: 1 ft high fencing material was purchased at Lowes to border the garden with, along with a garden hose and two buckets. A call in to the store manager, Kevin Weeks, was made to purchase the items at a discounted price. The salad greens are also ready to harvest. Joan suggested that these could be sold at the farmer’s market. John Newbery Elementary: 10 children were certified as Junior Master Gardeners. Their salad greens are ready to harvest and will be sold at the Kid’s Day at The Farmers Market. Sunnyslope Elementary: They are excavating their garden at the same time as the soil remediation project. Columbia Pavers was not able to donate pavers at a discounted price. Teacher’s School Garden Resource Guide: A school in Port Townsend has asked for a copy of the resource guide. A school garden is being built in George and was interested in what Wenatchee has done with their gardens. Joan shared another resource “Teaching Organic Farming and Gardening: Resources for Instructors. It is downloadable from the site. Marcy also has a hard copy of this guide for borrowing. Angela is working on getting our Resource Guide saved in a PDF format so that it can be uploaded onto the EAT website. Harvest in Action: It was explained that Harvest in Action is Washington State’s version of Harvest of the Month (California’s nutrition education program for fresh fruits and vegetables). Angela stated that she has collected recipes from Scott Parsons and Amy Ellings. Vaishali volunteered to help Angela with formatting and editing. Amy has also supplied graphics and nutrition information.
  • Community Gardens Green composting systems: Clean Green Waste spot in Dryden. Dave Bremmer, construction owner, is looking for construction (concrete) recycling source. He is also handling the Sunnyslope remediation project. Douglas County did not grant permit for recycling center. Dave stated that it is more of a county issue rather than city. Betty Palmer would like to help focus on green compost system in our region. Jim Allyn shared that the pastor at Columbia Groves recommended that the soil be remediated before initiating a community garden there. Judy Preston had also been following up on another possible church garden.
  • CSA Michel reported that Farmhouse Table CSA is doing very well. Their main issue is meeting the demands of on-the-spot purchases. Additional items being sold are goat’s milk, local sheep cheeses, local honey, salsa, free-range eggs. They are looking for volunteers to help with boxing up CSA shares on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
  • Website No updating took place.
  • Media No updating took place.
  • Farm to Table The first workshop took place in the Spring of 2007 for buyers (restaurants, public institutions, grocery stores) and producers (farmers). Monday November 17, 2008 from 9-3pm at Wenatchee Community Center is the date of the next one. This facility has a main room with smaller rooms, which will be conducive to holding break out sessions. Last year’s main issue that arose out of the conference was distribution and storage. A “Save the Date” postcard for previous attendees and new attendees this year will be sent out. Joan stated that planning should begin now since Cascade Harvest grant monies need to be spent by June 30th. Calls to Pretiolas and Healthy Gourmet were made to procure possible catering of refreshments. Other catering suggestions included Cellar Café and Dee/KC Cummings. Joan asked for additional names or business suggestions that would be interested in attending this year’s workshop. Joan and Marcy met with Nancy Warner of IRIS (now associated with Natural Resource Conservation District) recently. Initiatives are Healthy Rural Lands (working with Washington Biodiversity Council to help establish recommendations); The Nature of Place in North Central Washington; Local Food Systems (developing economic remuneration model for habitat farming project in the Entiat River watershed; organizing stewardship success workshops and field trips that highlight positive outcomes and provide training in innovative land stewardship practices). They would like to invite EAT to attend a network development meeting on Sept 23, 2008 meeting. This group could be a possible funding source for the Farm to Table.

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

  • Calendar Pages need to be sent on to Michel at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Committee Sign-Up:

  • Working Group Chairperson Joan Qazi; Meeting Facilitator: Joan Qazi; Minute Taker: Angela Schaub; Treasurer: JoEllen Colson; Webmaster: Dave O’Connor; Newsletter: Fran Taber; Media Diva: Kim Langston; Fundraising: Scott Parsons
  • Community Food Assessment Chairperson Joan Qazi; Billie Jo Ellis; Fran Taber; Colleen Donovan; Kim Langston; Judy Preston; Angela Schaub (Data Analysis); Marcy Ostrom; Laurie Riegert; JoEllen Colson; Consuelo Coronel
  • Consumer Education Chairperson None; Kim Langston; Billie Jo Ellis; Shawn Hansen; Joan Qazi; Ginny O’Kelley; Laurie Riegert; Judy Preston
  • Community Garden Chairperson None; Jenn Crawford; Sharlynn Cobaugh; Kim Langston; Shawn Hansen; Dawn Fisher; Michel Wiman
  • 501c3 Exploratory Chairperson Angela Schaub; Angela Schaub; Fran Taber; Colleen Donovan, Sharlynn Cobaugh;
  • Edible Schoolyard /Farm to School Chairperson Angela Schaub; Angela Schaub; JoEllen Colson; Joan Qazi; Scott Parsons; Dawn Fisher
  • Farm-to-Table Chairperson None; Fran Taber; Marcy Ostrom; Bill and Vonnie Smith; Michel Wiman

NCW Food Events