The Youth Food Movement at Slow Food Nation

The program to support the Youth Food Movement at Slow Food Nation brought young people together in order to build and empower networks of students and young farmers, cooks, artisans, activists and eaters; give them new resources; link them with mentors in the wider food movement; allow them to inspire others; and gather, have fun and share meals in the spirit of Slow Food.

Participants represented the generation of young (and older) people who are inheriting our current broken food system and refusing to accept it as is. The success of this program has generated Eat-Ins.org, a website to help people rally their communities in support of building a healthy food and agriculture system that satisfies everyone’s right to good, clean and fair food.

The program featured:

  • Wednesday, August 27

    Opening Retreat

    Location: Slide Ranch

    Time: Overnight; Wednesday 2:00pm to Thursday morning

    An overnight retreat for 40+ young people to meet, camp out and begin a global youth food movement. Slide Ranch is a teaching farm on the California coast very near to San Francisco. They  generously offered to host an overnight camping trip for young activists at Slow Food Nation. Transportation was by carpool and meals were simple and shared.

  • Thursday, August 28

    Young Farmers Seed Swap

    Location: Bull Moose Hunting Society Warehouse, 23rd and York Streets, San Francisco

    Time: 7:30pm

    A social event for all youth participants to meet and make friends, hosted in partnership with The Greenhorns and the Bull Moose Hunting Society. The event featured screenings of documentaries by young filmmakers; a seed swap and teach-in led by Heather Flores, author of Food not Lawns; live music; and wild boar (roasted and eaten, not greased and let loose).

  • Saturday, August 30

    Workshops

    Location: 18 Reasons, 593 Guerrero Street, San Francisco

    Time: 10am – 5pm

    18 Reasons, a gallery space in San Francisco that builds community through food and art, partnered with Slow Food Nation to host teach-ins, roundtables and demonstrations at their location in San Francisco’s Mission District. All workshops were free and open to however many could squeeze into the room (roughly 30 at a time).

    10:30 – 11:30

    “Terra Madre.” Youth delegates past and future introduced Terra Madre and made a master plan for taking over this year’s event, the theme of which was the international Youth Food Movement. Presented by: Jerusha Klemperer, Slow Food USA; and Betsy Manning, Slow Food International.

    12:00 – 1:30

    “Jam Jam.” A simultaneous demonstration of jam- and music-making. Ingredients foraged from urban backyards; musicians poached from local street corners. Presented by: Monica Linzner and Asiya Wadud, Forage Oakland.

    2:00 – 3:30

    “Student Food Movement.” Leaders from the Real Food Challenge and Slow Food on Campus hosted a roundtable discussion on campus dining and student activism. Presented by: Kristen Rasmussen, Arizona State University; Erin Gaines, Stanford University and the Real Food Challenge; Siv Lie, Slow Food Boston University.

    4:00 – 5:30

    “Tools & Tales from Young Farmers.” Young farmers from around the country shared stories and sowed the seeds for millions more to follow their example. Concluded with a tour of Brooke Budner’s secret backyard farm around the corner. Presented by: Severine von Tscharner Fleming, The Greenhorns; Zoe Bradbury, Groundswell Farm; Brooke Budner, SF Victory Gardens.

  • Sunday, August 31

    Open House at the Edible Schoolyard

    Location: Edible Schoolyard, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, 1781 Rose Street, Berkeley, CA

    Time: 2:00pm – 5:00pm

    Wendy Johnson and Vera Fabian of the Edible Schoolyard invited participants in the Youth Food Movement at Slow Food Nation to visit the garden and kitchen classroom learn about hands-on edible education in public schools.

    The Edible Schoolyard is a non-profit program located on the campus of Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California. The cooking and gardening program grew out of a conversation between chef and author Alice Waters, and former King Middle School Principal Neil Smith. Planning commenced in 1995 and two years later, more than an acre of asphalt parking lot had been cleared. A cover crop was planted to enrich the soil, and in 1997, the school’s unused 1930s cafeteria kitchen was refurbished to house the kitchen classroom. Today, the program is integrated into the middle school’s daily life. The organic garden is flourishing, plants feed and outgrow the adolescents who nurtured them, and the kitchen is filled with delicious smells, music, and enthusiastic young chefs.

  • Monday, September 1

    Eat-In

    Location: Dolores Park, 20th and Dolores Streets, San Francisco

    Time: 11am – 3pm

    250 students and young farmers, cooks, food artisans, activists and eaters gathered for an Eat-In in San Francisco’s Dolores Park to demonstrate that changing the way we eat can be simple, joyous and accessible to everyone. Slow Food Nation was proud to partner with Outstanding in the Field for an extraordinary event that closed six days of events for Youth Food Movement participants.

    Celebrating the leaders of a future Slow Food Nation, the Eat-In was an opportunity for the young people inheriting our food system to share stories, break bread and discuss the next steps in building a global movement of young people committed to bringing good, clean and fair food to everyone. Teams of young people from all over the country picked up produce and ingredients from local markets on Saturday and Sunday and then took them back to kitchens, where young cooks led them in preparing food together.

    This event has inspired other young activists to organize their own Eat-ins and has inspired the organizer of the Youth Food Movement Program to launch Eat-Ins.org.

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