Over the past year, as part of our mission to support community-led initiatives, we have had the opportunity to partner with the incredible Butterfly Effect Project (BEP) – a community-oriented non-profit with the mission to create safe spaces for girls to dream and succeed. This partnership began last spring when one of our Master Farmers, Melissa Mapes, joined other BEP volunteers to help build a garden and plant vegetables, herbs, and flowers. The gardens have been a huge success and are used to help teach the kids in their programs about everything from the environment to how to grow their own food.
They celebrated the bounty of their gardens by hosting a Harvest Festival and Cook Off in early October. The intergenerational celebration showcased the importance of local food in building community, and included a cook off with chefs competing for cash prizes.
The three winning recipes – a carrot salad, collard greens, and eggplant parmigiana – will be included in a forthcoming cookbook from BEP (you can reach out to them here, to learn more about it). Slow Food East End happily sponsored the event along with 40 other organizations and companies from the community.
We then joined the FBC/Michael’s Smile Butterflies to cook up some delicious and spooky treats for a Halloween celebration including honey caramel popcorn, almond butter eye balls, and pumpkin hummus sporting jack o’lantern faces! Children as young as 4 years old looked on, helped cook, and of course helped eat it all up.
Organizations like the Butterfly Effect Project are essential for the health of our communities. We are grateful for the work they do, and we look forward to continuing to support them for years to come.