Food in, friendships out

Wow.  I am exhausted, and brimming with hope and cheer and appreciation for all of the amazing people I met this weekend at the Food-in.


The weekend went just as we had imagined and hoped it would be.  We didn't have too much in the way of a formal structure set in place for the conference: we hoped simply to rely on the magic that happens when you mash together keen, excited folk with a warm, open space and amazing food.  What we got was a veritable frenzy of conversation and idea-sharing and new friendships and excitement.

I was totally blown away by how different each group that we invited was: from the intensely political to the unabashedly epicurean; from those that dumpster-dive for food to those that sourcing directly from farmers; from feeding thirty people once a week to others which feeding four hundred every day; from those that have a formal organisations to those that simply exist by way of friendships and routine; those with two members to those with over a hundred; those that operate soup kitchens to those that operate coffee shops to those that operate bulk food stores; and so on...

And yet, we all had so much to talk about and share.  Here is a sample of some of the workshops that were held (we simply created a paper spreadsheet and had people post up workshop/discussions they wanted to run):

• Spreading the message: community outreach & publications
• Dumpster diving
• Food packing and wrapping: serving minimally packaged food
• Creating inclusive community with our groups
• Maintaining institutional memory
• How to organise to win referendums and elections
• Community gardening 
• Food sourcing issues (from farmers and otherwise)
  
• Recipe and cooking techniques exchange
• Organising a cross-country solidarity network
• Food security outside of the kitchen

Ah-mazing. I'm so grateful for all of the people that came, and to the other Yam!s and peeps that poured a whole lot of love and time into this to make it happen.  I'm especially grateful for the folks that drove out from the East coast (twenty four hours of straight-driving!) and Ottawa and Montreal, and to the lone UBC Sprouter who made this part of us reading week adventure.   w00t.