In addition to cooking and eating, the evening will feature guest appearances by local farmers Doug DeCandia and Mimi Edelman, who will share insights about growing, drying and storing beans, and preparing and cooking them.

These events are always incredibly festive, and spending time with the kids is never anything less than inspiring.

The price of admission is a mere $10 suggested donation, but seating is extremely limited and goes fast, so RSVPs are a must!  To RSVP and save your place, call Renee at 914-241-2135.

(NOTE: This letter was originally written in part as a year-end fundraising appeal.  We have lightly edited Josh’s letter to remove specific language about that, but the essential message is unchanged: membership and financial support are needed, and we are eager for your help.)

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share something with you – my new year’s resolution.

This year, I resolve to begin work to grow our movement by one million members in the next three years.

I know that sounds like a lot, but it is going to take at least a million of us to make food good, clean and fair for all. I’m committed to spend every ounce of energy I have working towards that goal.

Let me explain what your contribution will mean to the movement.

We know you’re committed to the values we share, but the reality is that without your financial support Slow Food USA can’t continue to make possible the inspiring work I see our volunteers do every single day. We want to be here in the years to come to make sure this work continues.

Hundreds of school gardens built, minds changed and food communities transformed, an historic school lunch bill signed into law – this is the work your support enables.

Here’s a snapshot a what we achieved together this year:

• 170,000 actions taken to see the first real increases to school lunch funding as part of our ‘Time for Lunch’ campaign, including petitions, phone calls and letters to Congress
• Your egg recall petition heard in Washington DC, with legislation passed making our food safer, while protecting small farmers
• Thousands of Slow Food members broke ground at gardens, farms, and community events, and then broke bread together to celebrate, at over 180 simultaneous ‘Dig Ins’ from coast to coast  in September.
• We grew to a community of over 200,000 supporters in over 225 chapters nationwide.

Never before has our food system been so broken: one in three of our kids will develop diabetes; farmers are leaving their land every day. But never before have so many people stood shoulder to shoulder together, ready to do something about it. Parents, students, farmers, small business people, and others – folks from all walks of life – all mobilized to make change.

That’s what it will take to fix our food, and to get us there we need your support. Will your new year’s resolution be to help us make food good, clean and fair? Please give what you can today:

http://slowfoodusa.org/newyears

Thanks for helping me work towards my resolution,
Josh Viertel
President, Slow Food USA

PS – I’ve resolved to grow this movement by a million members. What’s your resolution? Click here to make food good, clean and fair.

We’re inspired every day by Josh’s leadership.  Want to see Josh in action? Watch his 2009 talk at The Feast conference.

UPDATE: That 2009 Feast talk is so 2009.  Mark your calendars for February 12th — Josh is one of the speakers at TEDxManhattan 2011/”Changing the Way We Eat”.  There will be viewing parties in Westchester, the details of which we’ll post closer to the date.

Readers of this site might be interested in a few news items and events developing this month:

Hilltop Hanover Appeal — Act Now
Our friends at Hilltop Hanover have issued an urgent appeal that supporters of their mission take action to protest the County’s elimination of one of the farmer positions: Jenny Elliot. We won’t thrash out all the details of the County’s evisceration of Hilltop’s budget in this space — though we are certainly sorry to see it happen — but we encourage you to visit their website, join the “Friends of Hilltop Hanover Group” (we have), learn the facts, and join the battle to ensure Hilltop has the time to develop a financially sustainable business plan. And also: hold the County to its promises!

Annie Novak at Westchester Land Trust — January 20th
The Westchester Land Trust’s speaking series “Food, Land, Sustainability” is back on Thursday, January 20th, at 7pm at Sarah Lawrence College, with a talk by Annie Novak, the co-founder of Brooklyn’s Eagle Street Rooftop Farm. For information and reservations, check out Westchester Land Trust’s website. Last year, when the speaker was our very own Josh Viertel, the event was sold out — this year should be no different, so act fast.

NOFA-NY Winter Conference — January 21st-23rd
Saratoga Springs will be host to the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s 29th annual winter conference of small organic farmers from around New York State, January 21st – 23rd. It sometimes surprises people to realize that the pursuit of organic farming is not some funky food fad; for decades, small farmers in New York have honored growing practices that are good, clean and fair, for the earth, and for the people who grow it and eat it. The winter conference is designed for farmers, but is good fun for anybody who cares about delicious food, sustainable practices, and food justice here in New York.

Environmental Action Day — January 29th
The Bedford 2020 Coalition is organizing its second major summit, a day of education, discussion and networking on issues of sustainability, environment, and community. The first summit, two years ago, was a landmark achievement in getting the communities of Northern Westchester to recognize the vast depth of resources, and passion for the issues, right here in our backyard. With two years of work, experience, and the passage of the Town of Bedford’s pioneering Energy Action Plan, this is an opportunity to found out what’s new, what’s changed, and what still needs to be done. (Hint: a lot.) Get your tickets at the B2020 website.

Eat In at Washington Irving School in Tarrytown

For many years, advocating for better food in schools was an uphill struggle here in Westchester and across the country. Many parents felt marginalized when they took a public stand against the excessive sugar, poor quality processed foods served in schools. This wasn’t a sexy topic and didn’t have a solution in sight. Lots of parents gave up on the big picture and settled for just trying to taking care of their own kid’s lunch.

Slow Food USA gave me and countless others marching orders when they launched the Time for Lunch Campaign in 2009. This advocacy program gave parents across the country a fun and meaningful way to participate in national legislation that would impact millions of children. Here in Westchester County, we mobilized 3 different Time for Lunch events, also known as Eat Ins. Over 300 Eat Ins across the country in September 2009 sent a loud message to legislators in DC. Many people who had never advocated for any legislation got involved, signing petitions and making phone calls.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. We wanted things to change, so we had to step up and get involved. It was a journey filled with twists and turns but now this legislation is finally signed into law. It’s not perfect, but the good news is that hundreds of thousands of people took a stand for better school food. After all, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Slow Food has built a food movement that will not fall back asleep. While we celebrate this hard won victory, we understand that we are just getting started with school food reform.

We must and we will continue to keep advocating in every community for a better school food system from the ground up. We’ve got work to do outside the cafeteria. School gardens are a fantastic way to improve the Food IQ and food culture of a school. Many Slow Food chapters across the country are now deeply involved with projects that include gardens, cooking classes and food based film festivals. Right here in our own backyard, Slow Food Westchester continues to be deeply involved with both the Mount Kisco Child Care Center and the Sleepy Hollow Community Garden project.

Instead of getting distracted by people like Sarah Palin talking nonsense about cookies, we’ve got to keep focused on the change we want to see in our world. Slow Food President Josh Viertel wants to see a world where there are more school gardens than McDonald’s franchises. While I agree with this worthy goal, I’d like to bump it up a notch.

I want to see the day where we have a garden in every school with food based lessons integrated into math, science and English. Gardens pave the way for kids to understand where their food comes from and cultivates meaningful connections with real food. Junk doesn’t grow in gardens. Grassroots involvement at the local community level can accomplish this. Slow Food chapters across the country, including ours,  are perfectly positioned to play a lead role in making this happen. Let’s do it!

Today is the day that this bill will live or die on the floor of the Senate. Marion Nestle, a professor at NYU and the author of Food Politics has a great summary in her blog today.  Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser wrote a piece that does a good job of explaining the whole deal in the NY Times this weekend, A Stale Food Fight.

The bottom line is its time for the FDA to regulate food safety. Here’s two reasons: a half billion eggs recalled last summer  and $152 billion dollars, that’s the annual costs associated with food borne illness. Do you remember the tireless mom in  Food Inc. Barbara Kowalcyk, whose 2 year old son, Kevin, died from E.coli poisoning after eating a hamburger? If this bill passes,  she’ll sleep better at night.

The Tester amendment, written by John Tester (D-MT), will make it even more effective, strengthening food safety rules while protecting small farmers and producers.

If you have a moment today, make a phone call to your Senators and tell them that you support S510 with the Tester amendment.
Senator Charles Schumer
(202) 224-6542
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
(202) 224-4451

The menu will include roast chicken and root vegetables, soups and salads, winter squash, cheeses, and desserts to die for.  All of it locally sourced and lovingly prepared by the Wild Hive kitchen.

• November 13th, from 3pm — 7pm
• Wild Hive Farm, 2465 Salt Point Turnpike, Clinton Corners NY (just off the Taconic Parkway)
• Call 845-266-5863 for details or visit Wild Hive Farm online.

One of the local events is being hosted by our very own co-leader, Jan Maltby, whose many accomplishments in this arena include the Sleepy Hollow Community Garden Coalition.  Check out her event for this Saturday: the Morse School Vegetable Garden’s Grand Opening!

As the poster says, give them a shout at: shcommunitygardencoalition@gmail.com.

Every year, more Americans are dying from contaminated food. The list of products that are being recalled keeps growing and growing. The good news is, thanks to this latest egg recall scandal, we now have an unprecedented opportunity to get our leaders to fix the problem. There is another way.

Watch this Inedible Egg video and join the call to make our food edible. Now that would be incredible.