Burlington Food Council

Urban Agriculture Task Force releases Report to City Council

anihart — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:58:59 +0000

Tonight the Urban Agriculture Task Force will present its report to City Council, complete with a comprehensive set of policy recommendations developed through an 18-month stakeholder process. The City Council meeting begins at 7pm in the Contois Auditorium at City Hall. Download the report [PDF].

American Flatbread Benefit Bake for Healthy City Youth Farm

mklepack — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:48:44 +0000

Where & When

September 20, 2011

5:00PM-10:00PM

American Flatbread
Burlington Hearth

115 St. Paul Street

Burlington, Vermont

Please join us for an American Flatbread Benefit Bake in support of the Healthy City program and our nine vibrant Burlington school gardens on Tuesday, September 20.

This event will raise awareness about the importance of community-based gardening, and raise funds for garden-based education and summer taste tests. American Flatbread will graciously contribute a portion of the cost of each flatbread sold from 5pm-10pm. We hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Jessica Hyman & Jenn McGowan

Friends of Burlington Gardens

Success on Farms Manager Position Available at the Intervale Center

mklepack — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:46:13 +0000

The Intervale Center seeks a Success on Farms Manager to work full-time delivering high quality farm business planning services that enhance the viability of Vermont’s food system.

This manager will provide business planning education and technical support directly to farm businesses and agricultural economic support to all Intervale Center initiatives. Based in Burlington, the SOF Manager is required to travel throughout Vermont.

The ideal candidate has a Bachelor’s degree in agricultural management, business, or related field and advanced training in farm business management or economics. Minimum 4 years experience in agricultural development and/or business development and experience working directly with farmers required. Position also requires a positive attitude, project management skills, the ability to work independently, creative problem-solving, and excellent verbal and written communication skills. To apply, submit resume, cover letter, and 2 references to Mandy Davis at mandy@intervale.org or Intervale Center 180 Intervale Road Burlington, VT 05401.

Application deadline: May 20, 2011

The Intervale Center is an EOE.

Farm to Plate – Vermont’s 10 Year Plan for Strengthening Local Food

mklepack — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:28:22 +0000

Tuesday, April 26

7:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Black Box Theater

Free!

How can Vermont build strong local food systems, create jobs in the food and farm economy, and improve access to healthy local food? The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund has laid out an impressive road map for the next 10 years of agricultural development with January’s release of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan.

Ellen Kahler, Executive Director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, and Kit Perkins, project manager of the Initiative, will lead this presentation to discuss the findings of the Initiative’s exhaustive 18-month research project. They will present their strategies to increase jobs and enterprises in the farm and food sector and ramp up local food production and consumption in Vermont and regions beyond our borders.

Get a sneak peak at the plan’s executive summary.

This presentation is co-sponsored by City Market, The Intervale Center, and the Burlington Food Council.

Come early for Burlington Green Drinks!

Tuesday, April 26

6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Main Street Landing

First 125 pints delicious Wolaver’s Organic Ale free!

Plus free local nosh!

The Ecology of Food Systems | Professional Certificate Program

mklepack — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:06:49 +0000

UVM is offering a week long professional certificate in Food Systems this summer! It’s great to see the unfurling of UVM’s new Food Systems Spire of Excellence!

Here’s the description of the program and a link to the Certificate’s website:

“Participants of the program will gain an in-depth understanding of the ecology of the Food System and its influences on product/service/system/ organizational design. Imagine a day filled with new knowledge gained through presentations, lectures, site visits, hallway conversations, group projects, networking, panel discussions and the sheer osmosis of context. Days are a combination of classroom time and excursions. Meals are for networking and peer-to-peer learning with participants, faculty and guest lecturers. Evenings are for socializing in the GreenHouse common rooms with like-minded professionals and for casual, stimulating discussions with the scholars in residence during the nightly “tea”.”

Sounds like fun to me!

Support Urban Agriculture! Help us win $500

mklepack — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:26:43 +0000

You may not have heard yet – the news is still pretty fresh to us as well.

The Burlington Food Council was just charged by the City Council with studying the issues of urban agriculture and providing policy recommendations. We hope this project will result in city policies that resolve confusion (for example, why can you only keep 4 chickens in your back yard? What about goats, pigs, or a cow?) and create comprehensive policies that will encourage people to grow victory gardens and raise more of their own food.

This project is up for The Skinny Pancake’s Community Gardening Grant and we need your support. The $500 grant will be awarded to one lucky local food project on May 1 based on a popular vote.

I looked over the list and was overwhelmed by all the good projects that deserve our support! Luckily we all get 3 votes so we don’t have to choose between school gardens, community beehives and urban agriculture.

Vote here and thanks for your support!

Oxfam America is Coming to Burlington

mklepack — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:42:00 +0000

Hunger Banquet – Check it out on Facebook
Saturday, March 5, 2011
5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Main Street Landing
Free and open to the public

This event sounds really cool! Oxfam is celebrating the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day. Governor Madeline Kunin is hosting (among others!) and two really intriguing speakers:
- Ms. Lindsey Bolger, Director of Coffee Sourcing & Relationships at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
- Ms. Yvette Cissé, an Oxfam America partner, shea butter farmer, and member of MoBioM farming cooperative, Bougouni, Mali

Grants for forty VT gardens

jennmcgowan — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:54:36 +0000

Senator Bernie Sanders recently announced the availability of federal funding to establish forty school community gardens across the state, with the goal to teach more children and teens how to grow fresh vegetables.

The federal grant provides technical assistance and mini-grants of $1,000. The program will be coordinated by Friends of Burlington Gardens, a long-term member of the Burlington Food Council. The deadline for submitting online applications is March 15, 2011 and grants will be awarded on April 12, 2011.

Healthsource Classes at Fletcher Allen

mklepack — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:25:16 +0000

Fletcher Allen Health Care is offering a great series of free classes in Burlington this spring focused on food choices and food issues!

Cooking with Winter Vegetables, and Helpful Tips on Nutrition and Training for a Marathon, among others, caught my eye!

Check out their full calendar here.

Local Food Assessment Work

mklepack — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:08:22 +0000

The Council’s December meeting was a bit of a step back to evaluate where the council is headed. One of the themes that emerged from the group was the need for planning and assessment of the local food system.

Bart Westdijk passed along some great resources for this work. He referred us to a local food systems model created by Ginger Nickerson (page 10 of this report), saying, “I think this might provide a framework to think about how to set goals around Food Council work: what areas do we want to cover/how do we look at Burlington’s Food System?”

As we discussed planning for the Legacy Project and the Municipal Plan, Bart passed along this tidbit, “In terms of thinking about writing a Food Chapter to the municipal plan: here’s an example of how that works in the local energy world. VNRC has a section on their website talking about how to write an energy chapter for your town”.

Interesting fodder for our next meeting in February!