Board members not pictured above: Claudine Nayan & Becky Chidester

Thank you to everyone who joined us at our Annual Public Board Meeting on November 5th. This is always one of our favorite events each year because we get to share our accomplishments and hear more directly from you about our work and initiatives.

We had the perfect day! The weather was beautiful, and the location, Veterans Park Community Center, was ideal with a gorgeous view of the Peconic Bay and the company even better. We know we are lucky to have so many friendly, talented, and caring people in our Slow Food community.

This year we celebrated with lots of delicious food, guests and board members brought potluck offerings from goat cheese toasts with local honey brought by Gabriella Macari, Al Goldberg brought his famous fish cakes from fish he recently caught near Montauk, Main Road Biscuit biscuits – were so delicious you know why the restaurant is named Biscuit! We also poured an amazing assortment of wines donated by members of the Long Island Wine Country wineries, LIWC celebrated 50 years of viniculture on Long Island this year and has been a sponsor of our events this year, a special thank you to: As If Wines, Chronicle Wines, Saltbird, Brooklyn Oenology, Lieb Cellars, Macari Vineyards, Pellegrini Vineyards, Rose Hill Winery, SuhRu Wines, Sparkling Pointe Vineyards & Wolffer Estate Vineyard.

The day was wonderful, but also bittersweet as we said goodbye to two of our amazing Board members who are at the end of their term limits: Pennie Schwartz, president, and Robin Tyson-Stoehr, secretary and so long to Peter Berley, an amazing chef who is off to new adventures, you will all be missed. But we know you will continue to be part of our community because we have become friends, we know that we will all see each other over wine and food on the forks.

Our annual meeting is also the day we vote new Board members into office, all have already participated in previous events we’ve hosted this past year, are members of our organization, and support our mission. We are thrilled to have them aboard and excited for the coming new year.  We’ll share more information about our new board in an upcoming newsletter.

Congratulations to all our 2024- Slow Food East End Board Members 

Maria McBride – Chair

Sunita Narma – Vice Chair

Becky Chidester

Alyson D’Anna

Marissa Drago

Stacey Isaacs

Gabriella Macari 

Claudine Nayan

Ralph Reinertsen

Nicole Sinning

Susan Wachter, guest leader, nonvoting board member

Our annual meeting is also the night we kick off our Feed the Forks Virtual Auction it is now live and ends November 12th at 9 pm EST. Start bidding now! There are 85 great items to bid on from cooking lessons to great East End activities on both the North and South forks. Auction items make great holiday gifts, feel free to share the link with friends! The proceeds from the auction will fund SFEE  initiatives including Flour Power, School Gardens, Snail of Approvals, and Resilience Grants. 

We are grateful to everyone who comes out to learn more about Slow Food East End. Your support allows us to help local farmers & food producers who support a healthy environment, good soils, and clean waters for all. 

We hope you’ll join us for many events we’re planning in the new year, meanwhile, enjoy these photos from our 2023 Annual Meeting.

The week of  September 18-24, people across our East End community enjoyed the iconic Negroni while supporting the Slow Food movement. With shared Italian roots and interest in a fair food and beverage system, Slow Food, Campari, and the Negroni are the perfect pairing.

For the past 10 years, Slow Food, Imbibe Magazine, and Campari have joined forces to increase their collective impact by using donations raised during Negroni Week to provide incubator grants for activities that support and promote good, clean, and fair food and beverage. 

Here on the East End, we were fortunate to receive a grant earlier this year to expand our Flour Power program.  This is a program that provides healthy and nutritious bread to people in need.  The additional funds from the Negroni Week grant will be a significant boost to our efforts.

Thanks to all the restaurants, bars, art museums, liquor stores, and chocolate shops across the Forks that participated.  We had fourteen venues on the East End register, and several of our participants sponsored some specials and fun events during the week.  Pictured here are a few highlights:

• An evening with our guest leader, Nichole Sinning, enjoying the Negroni variation “Your Momma Don’t Dance” at Townline BBQ
• Tropical Negroni and snack pairing at Love Lane Kitchen in Mattituck, cocktails crafted by Joe Coleman at Doublespeak Cocktails
• Dinner at Noah’s with a round of classic Negroni’s enjoyed by guest leader, Becky Chidester and her East Marion friends.