Food and Faith Potluck
Food and Faith Potluck
-to be held from 7-8:30pm on Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day) in the Newman Center Burke lounge
-we will invite:
a) friends and family
b) the speakers that came to our class
c) local churches/synagogues
d) campus groups such as Hillel, Sustainable Food & Farming, Catholic Newman Center, MERCYhouse
e) targeted general public (i.e. flyer at River Valley Coop, All Things Local)
-we will ask people to bring a food that is meaningful to them, a $5 suggested donation, and/or a canned good
-money donations could be donated to Abundance Farm (which is currently raising funds to construct a greenhouse to grow food for the Northampton Survival Center), and canned goods could be donated to Amherst Survival Center
-individuals from our class and other individuals we invite who are interested, could speak for 5 min or so about their personal connections to food and faith
-have a laptop available for people to sign petition about Food Democracy Now
To do items:
-Lisa will contact Dining Services to ask if they will donate plates, cups and utensils (estimating ~75 people)
-Alex will email campus groups to advertise the potluck via email announcement and/or social media, and post flyers at the coops
-Lisa will reach out to Jacob at Abundance Farm and CBI synagogue
-Christina will reach out to the First Baptist church
-Others can reach out to other local churches or groups they are familiar with, TBD
-Next week we will bring a sign-up sheet for our class to plan a balance between drinks/entrees/salads/desserts so we don’t end up with 40 fruit salads
-Next week we can discuss structure/format for any organized discussion topics during the event
Contact Person: Alex Desmond at; apdesmond@umass.edu
Spirituality and Environmental Sustainability 
For us to get a “temporary food event” permit with the City of Northampton, we could either pay the small fee or be sponsored by a local nonprofit (fee waived): http://www.northamptonma.gov/704/Food-Permits-Fees
With the Town of Amherst, it is a $50 fee for a temporary food permit: https://www.amherstma.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/18619
(Both permits require that at least 1 person in your group is ServSafe certified… Alex is!)
There are several places in Northampton/Amherst that rent both event space AND use of their kitchen facilities:
1. First Churches of Northampton, $75 for kitchen use + cost of whichever room we choose: http://firstchurches.org/room-use/
2. Northampton Friends Meeting House, $15 for kitchen use + cost of whichever room we choose: http://northampton.quaker.org/ (click on “rental brochure”)
3. Unitarian Universalist Church of Northampton, http://www.uunorthampton.org/component/content/article/41-common/124-building-space.html
4. Possibly Amherst Survival Center (would need to ask them, nothing about rental space on their website)
5. Possibly on-campus, but would need an on-campus club or group with kitchen facilities to sponsor us (i.e. Hillel)
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I emailed Tracey Levy, the Program Coordinator at Amherst Survival Center, about our group and possible potluck. First, she was really interested in the seminar itself.
She said that ASC does not rent out its facility off hours. The only possibility is a mid-day event on Wednesdays, the day they don’t do their daily lunch. That didn’t sound practical for us.
She will check with the pantry coordinator about what sort of contribution will be helpful – of course, financial is always welcome, and she will check on other possibilities that will make sense.
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Food and Faith Potluck
-to be held from 7-8:30pm on Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day) in the Newman Center Burke lounge
-we will invite:
a) friends and family
b) the speakers that came to our class
c) local churches/synagogues
d) campus groups such as Hillel, Sustainable Food & Farming, Catholic Newman Center, MERCYhouse
e) targeted general public (i.e. flyer at River Valley Coop, All Things Local)
-we will ask people to bring a food that is meaningful to them, a $5 suggested donation, and/or a canned good
-money donations could be donated to Abundance Farm (which is currently raising funds to construct a greenhouse to grow food for the Northampton Survival Center), and canned goods could be donated to Amherst Survival Center
-individuals from our class and other individuals we invite who are interested, could speak for 5 min or so about their personal connections to food and faith
-have a laptop available for people to sign petition about Food Democracy Now
To do items:
-Lisa will contact Dining Services to ask if they will donate plates, cups and utensils (estimating ~75 people)
-Alex will email campus groups to advertise the potluck via email announcement and/or social media, and post flyers at the coops
-Lisa will reach out to Jacob at Abundance Farm and CBI synagogue
-Christina will reach out to the First Baptist church
-Others can reach out to other local churches or groups they are familiar with, TBD
-Next week we will bring a sign-up sheet for our class to plan a balance between drinks/entrees/salads/desserts so we don’t end up with 40 fruit salads
-Next week we can discuss structure/format for any organized discussion topics during the event
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Lisa, Alex, others –
Thank you for all the organizing.
I will check in with Tracy at Amherst Survival Center to make sure what the Food Pantry wants. Probably canned goods, but I told her I’d check back with her first. They will also want to know about this.
If you have a flier, is there a way for you to send that electronically to us? There are a few other campus organizations that I might notify.
Kris
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