Menu for the Future
Click here to order course guides
Menu for the Future is a six meeting discussion group. Our Unitarian Society of Germantown in Philadelphia Menu for the Future summer and fall courses incorporate visits to farmers markets, along with sharing your discovery of local food sources and producers with your group in the form of a pot luck meal.
I found a baby eggplant!
Our Mission
We’re dedicated to bringing local food movement activists, chefs, educators, urban farmers, interested youth, food co-op members, local food producers, food banks, and sustainability supporters together in small, conversational groups of 10-12 people using the Menu for the Future course guide, which is one of many excellent sustainability course guides available from Northwest Earth Institute of Portland, OR.
Menu for the Future community collaboration mission is to support the creation of Edible School Yards all over Philadelphia. We want food insecure families to feel free to volunteer and glean neighborhood community gardens we establish. We want urban youth to appreciate the economic development model of a one square block urban farm, sharing through a neighborhood CSA, or selling harvest to restaurants, culinary institutions, and to experience delicious nutritious meals they learn to cook.
Our Goal
A grassfire grassroots educational campaign throughout Philadelphia. Our intention is to close the information gap. Why belong to a food co-op? What’s the difference between a food co-op, like Weavers Way, Mariposa, Creekside, or the Kensington Food Co-op, and Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or Costco? What’s the difference between local and organic food? How do I get my child interested in healthier, fresh food? How do I bring garden fresh produce into my child’s school lunch program? Who will help organize this effort? Who will volunteer to turn vision into reality?
Our Outreach
Friends, neighbors, interfaith organizations, schools, universities and commercial enterprises who will make more sustainable choices once they become aware of these choices. Once we all understand, as a city-wide community, what is at stake, we will do what needs doing — saving our municipalities and school districts millions of dollars while improving children’s chances for better health.
Food security is not a privilege. We need to know where our food comes from, that it’s free of antibiotics, additives, preservatives and pesticides. What is the true cost of the food we buy? What is its regional and global carbon footprint? How do we protect and sustain our 100 mile food shed in Philadelphia. We need to teach urban youth how to grow their own safe, nutritious food; how to wean themselves off of toxic diets full of sugar, carbohydrates and pesticides; how to prevent early onset of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other poor health earmarks of nutritional starvation.
Why Now
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is a powerful example of what can happen when a local food shed is damaged by a non-local player.
This is a big job. The good news is that the Menu for the Future course guide makes it easy to have unique, intimate conversations in our own communities — in our churches, libraries, schools — and to broaden the scope of these conversations into our college cafeterias and institutional catering operations. There are no right or wrong answers when we exchange ideas about local food sheds, but we can’t afford to avoid asking questions or talking to each other about food insecurity or arbitrary access to good food in our communities.
If you don’t already know who Will Allen is, how Alice Water is at the forefront of Edible Schoolyards, what is Slow Food, and why Michele Obama has beehives in the White House kitchen garden, you’ve come to the right place.
Please join our Menu for Our Future Meetup group, sign up for a discussion circle, host a discussion group, attend a potluck or film showing. Then identify the action steps that will be meaningful to you and your community.
This is our menu for the future!
Order course materials for your school or organization here: http://www.wix.com/vtyaya/Green-Sanctuary-Blue-Marble
Inspiring People to Take Responsibility for Earth
The Northwest Earth Institute is a national leader in developing innovative programs, empowering individuals and organizations to protect Earth. These programs emphasize individual responsibility, the importance of a supportive community, and the dual need to walk lightly on and to take action for the earth. By reaching out to people in their workplace, home, faith center, neighborhood, and community, NWEI provides easy access to tools for individual and cultural change.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
