Welcome To The Table!

The past several weeks have been full of food and agriculture news both nationally and locally. It almost feels like the food world has invited us to start the Growing Tables blog now, during all the buzz. And so we are launching Growing Tables. This blog has been floating around the Community Assistance Network's staff wish list for a while and we are very happy to welcome you to what we hope are growing tables of conversations about our local food and agriculture system.

Growing Tables will offer up new and information relevant to Del Norte's current and future food system; feature profiles of local "food heroes"; announce food- and agriculture-related events in our region; provide growing calendars for our coastal climate; and occasionally call for volunteers for food-related projects. We want this blog to be interactive, so please let us know about events or food heroes you'd like to see featured in this space.

There has been local food news in abundance recently. I think it started locally with this excellent article about Crescent Elk Middle School's broccoli harvest. Joe Gillespie and his gardening crew provided broccoli from the school garden to the cafeteria, adding fresh, local veggies to the lunch offerings. The Triplicate followed up with a two-part series about Del Norte's school lunch programs and the Children's Health Collaborative's efforts to improve school lunches and add salad bars to all our schools.

In unrelated, but exciting news, the Requa Inn held its first wine-makers dinner to great success. They not only highlighted regional wines, but also local foods. This is one of many events the Requa Inn has planned for this winter, the first time recently the Inn has remained open throughout the year.

From CAN's perspective, we are eagerly anticipating breaking ground on two new community gardens over the next few weeks (if the rain doesn't move in semi-permanently again!). They have both been a long time coming, but will soon offer more growing space for residents eager to grow their own food, but without the land resources to do it. We'll be sure to post pictures of their development as we go.

We hope over the coming months and years, you will help us add to the good food news in our community. Help us grow the tables for healthy food, community, and positive action!