What is Slow Food?
Slow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in Bra, Italy in 1986. It is a counter movement to the ever-expanding fast food culture that encourages tradition, quality, community, and sustainable practices with regard to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. The movement has since expanded globally to now include over 150,000 members in 150+ countries. Slow Food USA is the national association of Slow Food that has over 170 local chapters and 40 campus chapters that coordinate local activities, projects, and events.
For more information visit: http://www.slowfood.com and http://www.slowfoodusa.org/what-we-do
Slow Food snail logo. Photo taken at Slow Food Convention 2012
Why Did We Start Slow Food Vassar?
Meghan McDermott, Samantha Loewen, and Eushavia Bogan came together through a course entitled Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Food with Candice Lowe-Swift. They decided to start Vassar’s chapter of Slow Food after working at a fourth generation family-owned and operated farm, Soons Orchard, as part of their field work for the class. They bonded over our shared love of food, community, and sustainability and decided to share their experience and passion with the Vassar community by forming this chapter.
What is our Mission?
Slow Food Vassar endeavors to invigorate genuine interest in all aspects of food – from production to consumption – within the Vassar community. We strive to link people with their local food supply and challenge current knowledge of the food we eat by exploring the relationship between food, the consumer, and the producer from global to local connections. We believe that food traditions should be preserved, food cultures should be celebrated, and the food we eat should reflect the values we believe in.
What do we do?
Through our sister campaign, the Vassar Food Co-op, we have created a campus wide Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program where students, faculty, and employees can buy produce and cheese "shares" from local farms and have a box of 12-14lbs of produce delivered to them each week. We also had a Raw Milk campaign where students could order raw milk from Shunpike Dairy farm in Millbrook, NY and Slow Food members would pick up their orders and deliver them each month.
Vassar Food Co-op weekly CSA share 2013
Slow Food Vassar founder Meghan McDermott at Shunpike Dairy
We also hosted benefit dinners where we cooked a dinner for over 100 people in the Vassar community using produce and ingredients from local suppliers. All the proceeds were then donated to local food justice organizations such as Queen's Galley gourmet soup kitchen in Kingston, NY.
"Shake the Hand that Feeds You" benefit dinner 2012
We also hold cooking and baking demonstrations such as pie making, Thanksgiving dinner, bread baking to teach students slow cooking skills. Slow Food also prepares home cooked food using local ingredients for many events run by other clubs to increase the accessibility of these food options to students.
Pie Making Workshop 2012
Slow Food also promotes healthy lifestyles by creating opportunities for exercise by holding Zumba dance classes with local food snacks each year.
Zumba class and local food snacks 2014
In order to spread awareness about the benefits of eating local food, we also host Local Food nights once a month at the All Campus Dining Center, ACDC, where students and faculty can make a pledge for a day or for one meal to eat only locally grown or produced food.
ACDC Local Foods Night 2011
ACDC Local Foods Night 2013
Lastly, Slow Food focuses on opening avenues for Vassar students to connect with the community. In the past, we have worked with Poughkeepsie organizations such as, Shaping Empowered Teens (SET) and the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, through volunteering to educate children and supporting their own community projects.
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