As a JOI fellow and organizer-in-training last year I really internalized the notion of building power and building leaders. But I hadn't really had the opportunity to run a campaign or work with a community of folks wanting to make this notion a reality.
February 8 Moishe/Kavod House Boston organized an incredible, 200+ person seder. Folks from different Jewish communities and congregations across Boston came together to learn about, discuss and reflect on the connection between food and Judaism through the lens of the Tu B'shevat (New year of the trees) seder. Within two weeks, three Jewish Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs launched in the Boston-area Jewish community (and we're launching one in 2010 in Brookline/Brighton). What we're learning in our community is that there's a HUGE need for this, both for 20/30-somethings and for everyone. And in the Jewish community, where challah, matzoh ball soup and paprikosh are held in such high esteem, food's status as deeply-engrained cultural ritual makes it all the more relevant. The leaders on this campaign, totalling more than two dozen, did an incredible job preparing the presentation and discussion questions, recruiting local farmers, and finding and preparing local/organic/sustainably produced food. But we also found an issue that really resonates with people, and there's incredible energy to move forward on the project.
Next week we're launching the beta test for our educational workshop. Originally, we decided that the best venue to educate and empower folks around local foods in the Jewish community is to develop fun, engaging workshops with folks of different ages and to do these workshops in communities around Boston. This was also our vision for the seder. And our vision for starting a Jewish CSA in Brookline/Brighton was limited to getting Brookline/Brighton community members to join.
But at our most recent planning meeting, a shift occurred--we decided that we could most effectively leverage our skills (organizers, educators), networks and political capital by training leaders in communities across Boston to deliver these workshops and to be the CSA Connector helping connect these commnuities to local CSAs. It's a paradigm shift from local grassroots power-building to building the larger network of communities and being the intersection of resources, tools and networks to do local foods education and advocacy in their communities. We're pretty excited about this paradigm shift, and are excited about the upcoming workshops to continue to move forward with our project.
Be in touch (kavodlocalfoodeducation@gmail.com).
B'hatzlacha,
~ Aaron
Check out the event on Google Calendar:
