Good Food for All

Daily Digest: French Market at Ogilvie, Local Foods Farming Course, and Hillside Farmers Co-op

Last week, Chicago's first French Market opened at Ogilvie Transportation Center.  The market will take place year-round, featuring 25-30 local artisans. 

John Wood Community College in Quincy, IL is offering a Local Foods Farming Course.  

Edible Twin Cities features an article on the Hillside Farmers Co-op, which is developing a network of Latino-owned free-range poultry operations. 

What does "sustainable food" mean to restaurants? 

Listen to this audio clip on Young Farmers in America, featured on WNYC. 

(Photo: Hillside Farmers Cooperative, Inc.) 

Good Food for All Announces 'Food Grant Database'

Fresh Taste is compiling a comprehensive database of grants available to farmers, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. 

The database will be in Excel format, categorized into Federal, Corporate, and Private Foundation sources. 

If you have any trouble downloading this document, please email us. 

Click on "Grants Database" above on the Navigation Bar, to download the latest version of the Food Grant Database 2009.   It will be updated frequently so check back in to download the most up-to-date version. 

Spotlight on: Western Illinois

Western Illinois is preparing for the upcoming growing season with some exciting new developments related to local food. 

Good Earth Food Alliance Launches New Website

The Good Earth Food Alliance launched its new website this week, offering a CSA program to the Peoria, Galesburg, and Kikapoo areas.  The GEFA network is a collaborative of over ten sustainable growers and producers, offering "not just food...but piece of mind too."  The Good Earth CSA program aims to provide 45-50 different foods this season.

One of the members of GEFA is Amy Brucker of Appleton Hollow Farms (photo below from the GEFA farm slideshow) who recently started farming after completing the Central Illinois Farm Beginnings Program, offered through The Land Connection and The University of Illinois Extension. Read the article in Radish Magazine about Appleton Hollow here.

 

U of IL Extension and John Wood CC Offer Local Foods Class

The University of Illinois Extension Adams/Brown Unit will offer an class this spring at John Wood Community College, entitled "Building Community: One Bite at a Time."

Here is the synopsis of the course from the Locally Grown blog.  The class will take place at JWCC on Thursday, April 2, 2009.

"Locally grown", "sustainable", "localvore", "seasonality"—you have heard the words, but what do they mean? A class titled Building Community: One Bite at a Time will define these terms as the possibility of building a sustainable local food system is explored. The class will be taught by University of Illinois Extension staff Carrie Edgar and Brenda Derrick on Thursday April 2, 2009. Offered by John Wood Community College as one of their community education courses, the class will run from 6:00-8:30 pm in room D022 of the Paul Heath Center. The cost is $20 and those interested can register by contacting JWCC at 217-641-4941 or http://www.jwcc.edu/communityed.asp.