 Laura here:
Dave Clift led an informative presentation at the community center in late August, called “Idea to Action: the JU Food Hub Journey”. A member of the steering group for Transition Town Jericho, Dave is also part of the newly formed Board of Directors for the JU Food Hub. The fledgling group recently obtained 501c3 nonprofit status. Dave began with some history, citing how in 2023, Transition Town Jericho got the go ahead at Town Meeting to form a task force to explore food hubs, ultimately leading to the formation of a joint food hub the following year with sister town of Underhill. In just over a year, the joint food hub has already done ample moving and shaking in both towns. Besides developing a website, JUfoodhub.org and facebook page, the food hub has published guides which have been mailed out to town residents. The guides celebrate local farmers, makers and producers. Activities of the food hub have included organizing seasonal community meals featuring local food, summer workshops around growing and food topics, and a farm-to-school pumpkin venture. Food hub organizers help maintain a community potato patch, pizza nights at Jericho Elementary School, a Garden Contest, and area food sheds, among other things. Dave reported that most recently, the food hub met to have a visioning session, to unify goals and help propel the group into the future. Among the many questions that came up were: -Would developing a community kitchen be helpful for processing, having classes, etc? -How can we connect (new) farmers to unused town land? -How can we grow our number of local producers? -How do we finance the food hub; grants, an endowment, other? Before the Q&A, Dave showed a video he created of the many and assorted food hub activities in the area. All in all, it was a lovely, informative presentation that surely inspired many in the audience to get involved! The JU Food Hub meets fourth Wednesdays at 6pm at the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library; all are welcome to attend! |
