Here is a great article written by shannonbshea on the DC Food For All blog. [Crossposted from DC Food For All]

“Eating local” is nothing more than a turn-of-phrase without defining the word “local.” Although some corporate natural foods stores label blueberries from Northern New Jersey as local to D.C., most agricultural advocates define local as grown or otherwise produced within 100 miles of the buyer. This range is often referred to as a region’s “foodshed.” Thankfully, we here in the D.C. Metro region have a plethora of choices for local agriculture, whether produce purchased from a nearby farmer or grown in a community garden. To help people in the region find options near them, Ecolocity D.C. maintains the D.C. Foodshed Map.

The D.C. Foodshed Map is an easy-to-use resource based in Google Maps that covers sustainable food resources within 100 miles of NW D.C. It lists a variety of resources, including both distribution channels and sources of food. Categories include:

- Farmers’ markets
– Community gardens
– Local farms, especially those that have Community Supported Agriculture programs
– Grocery co-ops
– Food justice and sustainability organizations
– Gardening businesses and resources, such as sources of mulch
– Restaurants with a focus on sustainable and local food

Although the D.C. Foodshed Map is an invaluable resource to D.C. residents, it also provides a wealth of information to those in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. It even includes resources as far out as Baltimore and Pennsylvania. To serve people of all income levels, it also provides information on food banks and which farmers’ markets accept WIC, SNAP and other food stamp programs.

Users can browse the map in multiple ways. You can click and scroll into your local area to see the nearby resources. You can also scroll through the list of entries, which are sorted by organization and in alphabetical order. If you save the Foodshed Map into My Places on Google, you can look up a particular address and view the surrounding points of interest. Users with Google Earth or other mapping software can even download the data as a KML file and view it in that platform.

If an organization or place is missing, users are welcomed and encouraged to add to the map. There is a form on the Food Map page on the Ecolocity website, where users can enter in the name, type, description, address and much more about the organization. The entry is then uploaded the next time the administrator (me) updates the map, which is approximately once a week. If there is a correction needed, please email me to fix it. As the map has a database back-end, I can also add large numbers of entries at a time, such as government data. Please let me know if you have access to such data sets.

By Rebecca Kanter

DC’s Field to Fork Network and the DC Food for All are hosting a free panel discussion on Friday, April 16th at THEARC in Southeast DC from 10 to 2. The topic will be community food security, with two panels: one that has a national focus and one that will look at what’s going on here locally. Afterward, a reception begins at approximately 1:15. Appetizers will be served!

Registration available here.

Maurice Small is one of the speakers on the national panel. Let’s meet him below!

What made you decide to be on Friday’s Panel?
The way I met Carl Rollins [the organizer of Friday’s event] was through Mark Winne. Mark introduced us via email and I then googled Carl on the internet. I called Carl up and he called back and we talked. We have talked about twice a week since then; regarding topics of soil, food, and community. Carl asked me to come and that was enough. We both want to [share the experiences of the respective cities in which we work, I in the Cleveland area and Carl in DC].

What does food access mean to you?
Food access means a garden on every block, a farmers market every 10 blocks every day of the week, food production year round in a cold climate, inter-generational diversity, polycultural diversity, and most importantly, families that are aware.

When you say “aware” what do you mean?
I mean that people know the culture of food and where food comes from that includes soil, compost, the farmer, the shop where they buy food (that their family doesn’t own). This goes for people of all socio-economic statuses and living everywhere.

What do you mean when you call yourself a “food broker?”
On Wall Street, brokers have a job that is to make money for someone else. A food broker is a stock broker for food guaranteeing securities and options for other people to make sure they get the maximum benefit. I am the link between farmers and buyers (e.g. hospitals, families, schools, churches) all over Northern Ohio. I share the wisdom of fresh food with people and they know I have the best interests of people at heart.

How does this work? The buyers contact me [Maurice] and then I [Maurice] contact the farmer(s). The farmers set their price, which remains largely unchanged [except for a tiny fee that Maurice adds for his income]. Very often, this cost is equitable to all three parties (the farmer, buyer, and I [Maurice]). The buyers know they are paying for quality and flavor. At the end of the meal(s), eaters come away with a good taste and thoughts of ‘that meal was special, it had life to it.’ There is a polyculture of community here that has great trust within it.

What will it take to ‘eradicate’ the many food access issues in Ohio urban areas; do you envision a future where you don’t have to do what you do (because these issues shouldn’t exist)?
We (visionaries, such as Malik [Yakini], Will Allen, Majora Carter) try to train people to take our jobs. I hope one or two of them will love it. We make sure we leave them with the fire that never goes out. We want to put ourselves out of a job. What do I think it will take? It is about education. The taste [of education] has to be sweet and good. Only flies go to crap, we want to attract honeybees that are sweet and productive.

So do you think in about fifty years, for example, these issues won’t exist and you won’t have to do what you do?

I think in less than fifty years. Obama has done a lot and we are getting the work done. I (and others) got the fuel and just need the oxygen (ideas). One people eat correctly it spreads and spreads. This is what has happened to City Fresh. [Bit by bit] at a micro-level through local farms and initiatives things are changing.

It’s almost spring time – and we are so ready to get gardening!

Fortunately, City Blossoms has an exciting new project in the works.

There’s a plot of vacant land on Marion Street, NW — located just behind Bread for the City, between P and Q and 6th and 7th streets, less than a block away from the Kennedy Recreation Center — that will soon be transformed into an intergenerational community garden with educational opportunities for children, youth and adults. (See the beautiful artists’ rendering below.)

And City Blossoms needs our help to make that transformation happen! So on Saturday March 20th at 11AM, the DC Food For All will host a volunteer Garden Gang day. As inspired by the recent NYT profile of “crop mobs,” we’re looking for 15-20 volunteers to help prepare the site for construction and the growing season ahead.

We’ll spend a few hours working together on things like: Marion Garden plan * sheet mulching! * leveling! * pulling out very very stubborn old weeds! * setting up a fence! * picking up trash!! * and some planting!

So we need you — as well as any tools (large shovels, rakes, pick axes, large forks) that you may be able to provide for the afternoon.

RSVP to DCFoodForAll@gmail.com. Let’s get gardening!