Welcome!
The Food Security Roundtable is a network of farmers, community organizers and community members. We are working to strengthen connections between folks living and working in urban and rural areas, and build grassroots relationships throughout the northeast to establish a more stable, democratic, and just food system.
The 2nd Annual
Winter Roundtable
Franklin Patterson Hall, Hampshire College
893 West St. Amherst MA 01002
February 27th & 28th
Farmers, organizers, and community members from around the Northeast will be meeting to get to know each other, share our collective resources, and work on our fixing our food system.
Join us!
This is an opportunity to meet other people from around the Northeast who work in the world of building a better food system – farming, dismantling racism in the food system, distribution, coops – putting the food system back in the hands of the community.
This is a chance for farmers, between growing seasons, to meet each other and people in their local and regional communities to build on common ideas. But it isn’t just for farmers. We want everyone to have a chance to meet each other. We want everyone to leave with a sense of who each other are, what everyone needs, what everyone has to offer, and what people want to do. This is an opportunity for anyone involved in growing, distributing or eating food to plug into making our food system more stable and just.
We need a better food system.
What is this meeting about? That is up to all of us attending. We are working on building a regional network to support and further develop the Good Food, Food Sovereignty, & Food Justice Movements. Whatever you want to call it, what should our network do? We’ve got some ideas, you’ve got some ideas. Let’s work together.
Partners
- Local Food Initiative – Mothers On the Move -
-The Food Security Roundtable -
The Winter Roundtable Schedule:
Farmers and Neighbors Unite for Food Justice
This event is not your ordinary conference. The presentations and organizing sessions we are putting together are geared to helping folks come up with solutions to a common problem: an unstable and unjust food system. We are working with communities to build an understanding and a method for taking back control of the food produced and consumed in our towns and neighborhoods. There is no audience, we are all a community working together to change the food system and drawing on all our considerable knowledge and experience to do it. Here’s the plan for the weekend:
Saturday
9 – 10:30 Registration & Continental Breakfast
10:30-11 Intro
Schedule and Conference Goals
Food Justice Movement Building in the Northeast: A brief overview of the Food Security Roundtable
11-11:30 Why we need a Food Justice and Food Sovereignty Movement: Wanda Salaman and Gianni Ortiz
Wanda Salaman, the Director of Mothers On the Move, a community based organization in the South Bronx, will discuss the food system needs and the essential role of the underserved neighborhood in the Food Justice Movement.
Gianni Ortiz, Educational & Outreach coordinator, Real Food Campaign. If farmers aren’t winning and consumers aren’t winning, who is? Why our industrial food system is collapsing and taking all of us with it.
11:30-1 Meet the Neighbors – People talk and participate in exercises with others from their regions to get a sense of the needs and resources in their local areas.
Barnraising: Everyone passes a pen and small notepad around in a circle. Each person states one thing or service they need and if anyone has that thing or knows where/how to get it the person requesting it writes down the contact info of the person offering. Then onto the next person. (Examples of requests might include babysitting, help with grant writing, a good diesel mechanic, someone who knows how to do something awesome, etc.)
Dialog and Networking: What are the interests, other needs and resources in the room? People will discuss and prioritize their needs and food system goals.
1pm – 2:30 Lunch – Good food from local farms and purveyors.
2:30 – 4:30 Workshops
Urban to Rural Exchange: Stable food systems for and by working people. Wanda Salaman, Director of Mothers on the Move in the South Bronx, and Henry Harris, Regional Coordinator of the Food Security Roundtable, will discuss the need and method for building partnerships between farmers, urban community based organizations, and other working people as a basis for a sustainable food system.
Victory Gardens Project: VGP Co-founders Carol Dove and Michael Vernon will lead a discussion about the connections between farming, food, the prison-industrial complex and supporting political prisoners and their communities.
Dismantling Racism in the Food System – Activities and Dialog: How racism plays a central role in our food system and what we can do about it.
Affordable Good Food – Richard Berkfield, organizer of Post Oil Solution’s Food Security Project will start a discussion and strategy session about how to make farm products accessible to lower income people. Richard will share insights on a market project he started with Amy Frost from the Food Security Roundtable in Vermont.
7pm Food Justice Community Potluck (details TBA)
9pm: DJ Dance Party at the old Dynamite Records! 71 Market Street Northampton
Sunday
9-9:30 Intro to Working Groups: Organizers from the Food Security Roundtable will briefly introduce their projects. People can find out more and plug in during the Organizing Meeting @ 12:30.
9:30-10:30 Panel – Farming for the Movement: Farmers Amy Frost and Dafina Jacobs will host local and northeast regional farmers to discuss how and why they are farming for a better food system.
10:30-12:30 Workshops
Dismantling Racism in the Food System - Activities and Dialog: How racism plays a central role in our food system and what we can do about it.
Food Justice Planning – Next Steps: People will discuss what sort of work they want to do and how, and concrete steps for moving forward with building the just food system they want to see.
Access to Land – Alice Flood, New England Small Farms Institute. Alice has worked on new farm development projects with the New England Small Farms Institute. Land is of course a central issue for small and new farmers. We will discuss models and resources for farmers looking for land to establish new farms.
12:30 – 2:30 Lunch & Food Security Roundtable Organizer’s Meeting (optional): We will be hearing updates from FSR local chapters and working groups and organizing their ongoing work as a regional food sovereignty network. This is a great time to plug in to some projects or understand more about what the Food Security Roundtable is doing around the Northeast.
Requested $20 donation for the weekend ($10/day, includes lunch)
Everyone is welcome! No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
If you would like to come please RSVP to contact@foodpower.org, or call Kristin at 646-425-1311.
*A short statement of interest – What do you want to see at this forum? What do you need to do your work better? What do you have to offer?
*A brief personal or organizational bio, including where you are located, so we get a jumpstart on who you are and what you are doing.
*Do you have any special needs?
*Do you need childcare?
*Do you want/need a cheap place to stay? What kind of requirements do you have of housing (is floor space enough or do you need a bed?)
*Or, if you are from the area, can you house people?
*Could you give someone a ride? Do you need a ride?
Try Ridebuzz: http://www.ridebuzz.org/events-group/food-security-roundtable-6025.html
*If you are interested in helping volunteer to set-up, clean-up, serve food, etc. during the Roundtable.
~ The Winter Roundtable Crew
THANKS FOR CHECKING IN
We are eager to hear your voice and and get the chance to work with you, and we need help organizing all the projects listed above, so don’t hesitate to jump in.
email phone: 917 922 5430
