A year ago, I had a series of conversations with my workmate, Randy, about how there are all these people working around the issue of how we eat, what we eat, and how much we have to eat, and wouldn't be great to cooperate?
Two weeks ago, I remembered a moment just after that conversation with Randy: I was stepping out of the shower at the house I was living at in Joyce, and thinking: we need a big event, maybe some performance art--or maybe just a big, fun meeting--a Food Summit, with wonderful people and enthusiasm, and great food! I was all jazzed up about it and nearly called my boss, Bonnie, but it being 10:30 on a Saturday night, I figured it could wait until Monday...
And we worked on the idea.
And the 'we' changed, and shifted like congregations of water molecules rushing downstream.
And six months ago, I started thinking I'd be lucky to sucker twenty people into this... what am I calling it?--Food Summit.
Well, thank you all for coming together for what felt to me like a day well-spent, and what felt like months of planning and organizing that will likely be to our benefit.
So what now? I wish we could all meet and resonate in our collective energy, as inspiring as that is, and eat wonderful food on a weekly basis, but... well, now let's step back into the realm of the feasible.
So, again, what now? How do we maintain momentum? We each have our professional outlets, and we have some collaborative efforts such as Jefferson and Clallam Landworks Collaboratives (CLC meets Mondays at the Skills Center at noon) but, for the most part, I find the energy and inspiration in our collective efforts, and what's more, we can all work more efficiently--in concert with one another--if we stay connected.
SO, WHAT NOW??
well, for starters, if you're into gazing at a computer monitor, check out www.foodforourfuture.ning.com as an ongoing, virtual food summit (minus the catering). It's a social networking site organized around the topic of building a sustainable, equitable food system. If this helps us stay in touch, let's use it. If it helps us connect with other sub-group efforts (like our farm to cafeteria efforts) then let it guide you to those. As it turns out, Beth Loveridge, local Farm-to-Cafeteria guru, has started connecting us to a larger Farm-to-Cafe web-network.
Nice work, Beth!
Maybe someone's spearheading another ning site for one of the other afternoon break-out topics? I don't know. I'm not suggesting we waste time or burn energy gazing at computer monitors, but if it makes sense, let's go with it.
Thanks again to all y'all who came to the summit last Friday! Y'all are going to work together to keep this place beautiful, I just know it.
~gabriel
