For Immediate Release: JLMF and SFEE Host “A Moveable Feast”

Mar 23, 2017 | In The News

The Joshua Levine Memorial Foundation and Slow Food East End will host “A Moveable Feast”, an evening of celebration, honoring Joshua Levine and supporting Edible School Gardens on the East End. “A Moveable Feast,” which is now in its seventh year, will take place on April 2, 2017 from 4:00 – 7:00 pm at Dodds & Eder Landscape Design Showroom in Sag Harbor. As a result of this event, the East End of Long Island has grown into one of the largest, most successful school garden programs in the United States, 27 schools in all!

“A Moveable Feast” not only celebrates the legacy of Joshua Levine and supports Edible School Gardens, it is the kick-off of the spring season and the waking up of the earth and our community after a long winter. Everyone is ready for a great party with exceptional food and drink, along with music that will get you up on your feet. Guests will have the opportunity to meet and chat with some of the East End’s best chefs and beverage purveyors, while moving from station to station and feasting on their latest culinary creations, which may include veggies grown in our very own school gardens! See separate document for list of participants as of March 1, 2017.

There will also be a silent auction featuring items donated from local farms, fishermen, restaurants, vineyards and merchants on the East End and beyond.

This year a special block of tickets will be available through March 15, 2017 to teachers and administrators who are part of the Edible School Garden Group on the East End. There will also be an opportunity to sponsor a Farmer, Fisherman or Forager. The donation will allow us to invite and show our appreciation to some of the folks who grow, catch, hunt or gather our magnificent local food. For more details, visit www.slowfoodeastend.org.

Funds raised from this event keep the Edible School Gardens Program flourishing by providing stipends for three Master Farmers and Mini Grants to be used for the purchase of garden tools, supplies and materials. Our mission is to promote good farming practices, education, a sustainable environment and healthy eating for children and their families.

Event: “A Moveable Feast”
Hosts: The Joshua Levine Memorial Foundation & Slow Food East End
Date: Sunday, April 2, 2017
Time: 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Location: Dodds & Eder Landscape Design Showroom, 11 Bridge Street, Sag Harbor, NY 11963
Tickets: $100 per person for members of Slow Food; $150 per person for non-members.
Members will receive a one-time savings of $25 when two or more tickets are purchased.

To Purchase Tickets or Make a Donation, please visit www.slowfoodeastend.org.

Slow Food is a non-profit, member-supported organization that advocates for healthy food produced with minimal damage to the environment. The East End Chapter, encompassing the North and South Forks, is part of the global Slow Food network of over 100,000 members in more than 150 countries. Through a vast volunteer network of local chapters, youth and food communities, we link the pleasures of the table with a commitment to protect the community, culture, knowledge and environment that make this pleasure possible.

Our mission as an international grassroots membership organization is good, clean and fair food for all.

Businessperson of the Year SFEE’s Master Farmer Lucy Senesac

Mar 3, 2017 | In The News

Source: The Suffolk Times Lucy Senesac | 3/3/17

It’s hard to sum up exactly what role Lucy Senesac plays at Sang Lee Farms in Peconic.

Customers of the certified organic operation might find her selling Romanesco cauliflower and ginger scallion dip at a weekly farmers market. Maybe she’s the one handing out a recipe for potato leek soup to winter CSA members. She certainly can be seen in the fields pulling rows of Korean radishes from the ground before the first frost.

But Ms. Senesac also works with North Fork school gardens, consulting with administrators about what to plant and how to build beds. She has revamped and operated Sang Lee’s Young Farmers Camp, a summer program for 7- to 12-year-olds interested in organic farming, since 2014. She has organized gleaning projects with schools and coordinated donations to the food bank at Island Harvest.

The list goes on.

For inspiring a new generation to value sustainable food production and healthy eating, Ms. Senesac is The Suffolk Times’ 2016 Businessperson of the Year.

Ms. Senesac joined Sang Lee in 2010 after graduating from Skidmore College and volunteering at an organic farm in New Zealand. She found positions overseas through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms network, a practice known as WWOOFing that allows aspiring farmers to trade their labor for room and board.

Ms. Senesac’s degree was in psychology and art, and at the time, her path wasn’t exactly clear.

“People said, ‘You are educated. There are really other things you could be doing.’ I told her to stick with it until you know. She really was torn,” said Karen Lee, co-owner of the Peconic farm. “Now she will tell you she can’t live without [farming]. That it is her soul.”

Lucy Senesac plants seeds with participants of Sang Lee Farm’s Young Farmers Camp in 2014. (Credit: Katharine Schroeder)

Ms. Senesac’s first role at Sang Lee was in retail, according to Ms. Lee, but she soon rotated into the field, doing things like baiting an electric fence so deer would learn to avoid it.

“She doesn’t mind doing the menial parts of the task to achieve the goal,” Ms. Lee said. “And that is so critical in this particular industry.”

Looking for ways to grow her position at the farm, Ms. Senesac developed a young farmers’ camp for children in 2014. Campers learn the ins and outs of operating an organic farm, from planting seeds to harvesting vegetables.

Ms. Senesac took on the role of Slow Food East End’s master farmer for North Fork schools in October 2014 after KK Haspel, a local educator and owner of The Farm in Southold, died. She will play a key part in executing a $68,000 state grant that six local school districts received in November. The money will help the schools collaborate with local farms to increase the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables provided to students, since the amount currently grown in school gardens isn’t enough to sustain a meal plan for the entire year.

Working with the schools allows Ms. Senesac, a 2005 Mattituck High School graduate, to give back to her alma mater and hometown.

“She was that kid who stood out. Who always had a look in her eye,” recalled Mattituck-Cutchogue School District Superintendent Anne Smith.

Ms. Senesac with Sang Lee Farms’ purple and cheddar cauliflower at Riverhead’s indoor farmers market last year. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo)

Ms. Senesac with Sang Lee Farms’ purple and cheddar cauliflower at Riverhead’s indoor farmers market last year. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo)
Ms. Senesac with Sang Lee Farms’ purple and cheddar cauliflower at Riverhead’s indoor farmers market last year. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo)
She also inspired Dr. Smith’s daughter, Rebecca, to become a WWOOFer in New Zealand.

Other projects Ms. Senesac has worked on include consulting on the expanded Greenport School District garden, which finished construction in November. She suggested building garden beds. Fourteen wooden containers were constructed by students in technology teacher Mike Davies’ class, allowing for easier maintenance of crops while providing wheelchair accessibility.

David Gamberg, superintendent of Greenport and Southold school districts and someone who previously worked in the Mattituck district and can remember Ms. Senesac as an eager fifth-grader, said her work will have a lasting effect.

“You’re looking at an entire generation of young people who will have had the opportunity to eat in the school cafeteria, freshly grown vegetables that they themselves have planted,” he said. “They will have a greater appreciation of how to eat nutritious meals even when they leave school.”

Ms. Senesac also helped 11-year-old Victoria Witczak of Cutchogue secure a $300 grant to create a 1,000-square-foot garden to benefit local food pantries.

“Lucy is a fantastic role model for my children and for anybody’s children,” said Tonya Witczak, Victoria’s mother and Ms. Senesac’s neighbor. “The kids have learned so much from her.”

If there’s thing those who know her can agree on, it’s that Ms. Senesac’s upbeat personality and energy allow her to connect with young people.

“This is a way for me to help people — by feeding them healthy food and teaching them about nutrition,” Ms. Senesac told us in 2015. “That’s a great feeling at the end of the day — even more so now, with kids.”

School Garden Mini Grants Awarded

Feb 10, 2017 | In The News

SFEE’s Top Ten Projects of 2016 – A Note from SFEE’s Chair, Anne Howard

Jan 8, 2017 | In The News

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Anne Howard

As 2016 comes to a close, it’s always good to look back at what we’ve actually done in the past year. Where did the time go? What happened during the past year that was new or worthwhile to remember? As I complete my first year as Chair, I can look back at what SFEE accomplished in 2016 and be proud of our chapter, our Leaders – and our food community.

Slow Food East End plays a unique role in our community though our support of Edible School Gardens. Thanks to our partnership with Susan and Myron Levine of the Joshua Levine Memorial Foundation, the East End has one of the most successful school garden programs in the country.

Through the JLMF & SFEE annual April fundraiser, we are able to fund stipends for three Master Farmers who advise school gardens throughout the East End. We also provide mini-grants to help these school gardens grow and flourish as educational teaching tools.

In addition to our support of school gardens, here’s our list of Top Ten 2016 Projects that we’re especially proud of (in no particular order).

Top Ten 2016 Projects

1. Honoring the Founders of Slow Food East End (Ted Conklin. Mary & Tom Morgan, Kate Plumb) at the “Gala in the Garden” fundraiser at Estia’s Little Kitchen. Our sincere appreciation goes to Chef Colin Ambrose, Jessica Ambrose and the staff at Estia’s for hosting this wonderful event benefiting Slow Food East End, Ride for Life, and Project Most.
2. Helping raise $18,000 for ALS Ride for Life at the Estia’s event. SFEE was proud to be on the team that raised this money. Without our work – and the generosity of those in attendance – these donations in honor of Chef Gerry Hayden would not have been possible.
3. Supporting WLIW Channel 21 and WNET Channel 13 by helping organize a MetroFocus segment spotlighting Slow Food East End and Eastern Long Island’s Slow Food Movement. You can watch this video on SFEE’s website www.slowfoodeastend.org.
4. Helping save the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin by being an Ambassador for this Slow Food “Ark of Taste” native pumpkin. Slow Food East End’s numerous events during the year helped bring attention to our new favorite pumpkin for cooking just about anything!
5. Awarding our second Slow Food East End “Carlo Petrini Award” to Susan and Myron Levine for the joy they have brought to thousands of local children through their generous support of school gardens. The Levines received the award at a lovely Slow Food dinner at 18 Bay Restaurant on Shelter Island.
6. Being a sponsor of the FoodLab Conference at Stony Brook Southampton; the Fall Festival and Craft Slow at Hallockville Museum Farm; and making donations to Feisty Acres Bobwhite Quail Release Program , Slow Food USA’s “100 Years of Plenty” biodiversity campaign, the Long Island Regional Seed Consortium, and Hallockville Museum Farm.
7. Becoming a member of the Long Island Farm Bureau!
8. Teaching kids to cook the foods they grow in their school gardens through our Chefs to Schools program. Local chefs work with teachers to educate kids in food preparation, safety and nutrition. Our Chefs to Schools program was promoted at the Wellness Foundation’s “Wellness in the Schools” Conference in March. SFEE appeared on the program for the Long Island regional meeting Family & Consumer Sciences teachers, discussing the Chefs to Schools program and explaining the meaning of Slow Food.
9. Bringing people together over food through our Snail Socials, Snail Picnics, Snail Suppers and Market Dinners – with a renewed emphasis on education at these events. Plus, recognizing restaurants that promote good, clean, and fair food through our Snail of Approval program.
10. Sponsoring 3 delegates to attend Terra Madre, Slow Food’s international gathering in Turin, Italy. We also provided financial support for Lucy Senesac, SF Master Farmer, to attend the National School Garden Spring Break Conference in Charlotte, NC.

None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the support of members, leaders, friends and donors. We are already planning new and exciting programs for 2017. If you are not currently a member of Slow Food East End, we urge you to join and get involved. We are a one-of-a-kind organization that is dedicated to changing the world through food that is good, clean, and fair for all. We do good things as well as enjoy “the pleasures of the table.”

Wishing you all the best in 2017!
Anne

Anne Howard, Chair
Slow Food East End

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Report from Terra Madre Torino, Italy – September 22-26, 2016

Dec 11, 2016 | In The News

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This past September, Slow Food East End Leaders Laura Luciano and Pierre Friedrichs, along with Master Farmer Lucy Senesac, attended Slow Food International’s Terra Madre Salon del Gusto in Torino, Italy as part of a delegation representing Slow Food USA.

Terra Madre Salon del Gusto (Mother Earth Salon of Taste in Italian) is an international conference that brings thousands of farmers, food producers, and Slow Foodies from 150 countries to Torino every two years.

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This year Slow Food International took the event to the street literally, since most exhibitions took place outdoors throughout city, a first for this event. There were conferences, meals, food tastings, classes, presentations and off-site events which gave ample time for delegates to mingle, share learn, and be inspired.

Here are some highlights from Laura’s recap

Pierre and Laura presented SFEE’s good work: The products they brought representing the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin Project were a big hit. Meeting with like-minded people from all over the globe who are working for a common cause was invigorating and inspiring. It confirmed that we are part of a much bigger movement.

The work that each chapter puts forth creates a wonderful global story about the same core values: Good, Clean and Fair. At the USA booth there was a map where each chapter placed Slow Food Flags which represents what we grow, farm or produce that’s “Slow.” We are proud to say we had many flags to place.

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Special Note

SFEE has National exposure. We are very lucky to live in an area where philanthropy and the beauty of the land and sea are all around us. We live IN a Slow Food region, other folks are not as fortunate. A strong undercurrent to Terra Madre was the Indigenous fabric of our country, food diversity, biodiversity, seed sovereignty; rallying around farmers who understand this concept as something bigger than themselves for the greater good and feeding those who are less fortunate (example: educating food banks and in turn providing nourishing products that are diverse – not to promote one specific vegetable because it is easy, promote nutrition and food diversity for the masses.

Our wish for our chapter is to focus on these very issues in the coming years – from grants to farmers (who support these values) to educating food banks (dialogue begins with the less fortunate communities). Through these banks, there is the possibility of creating a Slow Food Co-op for farmers. We have big opportunities within these areas.

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Ark of Taste and Different Cultures

The USA is a melting pot of cultures from all over the world. Our strength as a nation is to embrace these core values as Americans. To meet with people from all over the world who are making products from their hometowns, showing their wares and sharing stories fills your heart with such pride. Mono-culture, Mono-Agriculture is a dangerous slippery slope. Diversity is freedom in reference to race, beliefs and one’s heritage.

The Ark of Taste points to this concept. It is an international catalogue of endangered heritage foods that are sustainably produced, unique in taste, and part of a distinct eco-region. The goal of the Ark of Taste is to reverse the trend of our narrowing food options by saving “endangered” foods from extinction by promoting them to consumers. After a product is added to the Ark of Taste, Slow Food tries to support the producers behind Ark products by helping them develop local projects called the Presidia that work to improve the infrastructure of artisanal food production.

In the face of Big Ag, there are more than 500 million family farms world wide that struggle day to day to defend biodiversity, promoting native seeds, and act locally to develop clean, healthy economies. This multitude concretely endorses an alternative model and designs possible future scenarios in which food sovereignty will be developed and propagated, in which food will no longer be the slave of a faceless and unchecked market.

This is at the core of what Slow Food means. Supporting what is real, listening to the stories of the very folks who grow and create a product because it is part of their heritage, it is their way of life. It is as real as it gets. There is no mystery.

Slow Food International working to revitalize a region/economy

The Apennine Mountains- in particular. Slow Food is working with an entire region to bring back the very folks whose family heritage and work is vital to that mountain range. SFI is working to bring back this economy which speaks volumes to the power of Slow Food.

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Valle d’Aosta Cheese Shop

Valle d’Aosta is very important, both in socio-economic and cultural terms. It is known for its centuries-old tradition of producing Fontina cheese, which is done in small batches. It is radically different than the cheese we know by the same name here, which most likely is not made in this region. Pierre and Laura witnessed a cheese monger making this cheese at his co-op facility. The concept of one central place that makes cheese for the area’s dairy farmers was eye opening. (A concept that would be great here on the East End, not just for cheese, but perhaps for meat production, or vegetable distribution).

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University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG) in Pollenzo

Founded in 2004 by Slow Food in cooperation with the Italian regions of Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna. It is an international research and education center for those working on renewing farming methods, protecting biodiversity, and building an organic relationship between gastronomy and agricultural science.

UNISG students, hailing from around the world, gain dynamic experiences in artisanal and industrial food production, thanks to complementary education in both sciences and humanities, sensory training, and hands-on learning during study trips across five continents.

The by-product of this education is a new professional figure – the gastronome – skilled in the production, distribution, promotion, and communication of high-quality foods. Gastronomes are the next generation of educators and innovators, editors and multimedia broadcasters, marketers of fine products, and managers of tourism and other related businesses.

Pierre and Laura enjoyed dinner at this school. Laura noted it was a magnificent facility for culinary exploration and study.

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