This is an email I received from the Sustainable DC Food Working Group list serve:

Are you working to fix DC’s broken food system? Do you have a passion for fighting for food justice? Then come network with other individuals and organizations who share your passion at the DC Food Systems Organizing Workgroup New Member Orientation and Community Brainstorm Training. This conversation is for anyone who’s interested in organizing their communities around food justice, or who wants to better lead conversations about the food system with their neighbors, coworkers, or faith community.

New Member Orientation & Community Brainstorm Training
March 26, 2012 6:00-8:30pm
Center for Green Urbanism, 3938 Benning Road NE
RSVP to Angie Stackhouse, astackhouse@breadforthecity.org or 202-480-8916

The DC Food Systems Organizing Workgroup is a group of individuals and organizations who are working build a Food Policy Council in DC. See our previous blog post about what we’ve done over the past year. Right now we are reaching out to people that share the vision of creating a nourishing community in which all Washington, D.C. residents can enjoy a nutritious, safe, and culturally appropriate diet provided by a local sustainable food system that fosters health, equity, interdependence, and self-reliance.

The New Member Orientation and Community Brainstorm Training is part of this outreach effort.  The orientation is from 6:00 – 7:00, we’ll take a quick break, and then from 7:00 – 8:30 we’ll be doing a training on how to facilitate discussions about the food system in your own communities. Learn more about what the community brainstorms are here.

Please join us, and share the flyer (http://goo.gl/LYfNk) or this email with colleagues, friends, family, and neighbors you think might be interested.

Let’s get the conversation started and ignite a DC food revolution today!

FREE public screenings of IN ORGANIC WE TRUST (www.InOrganicWeTrust.org) at the Environmental Film Festival:

Friday, March 16, 8:00 pm

Carnegie Institution for Science, Elihu Root Auditorium

1530 P St. NW, DC 20005

Friday, March 23, 6:00 pm

Town Hall Education Arts & Recreation Campus (THEARC)

1901 Mississippi Ave. SE, DC 20020

Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A with director Kip Pastor, Bernie Prince of FRESHFARM Markets, and Jennifer Mampara of the FoodPrints program at Watkins Elementary School.

The film features DC organizations like Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Food Safety. Our goal is to inspire viewers to get involved with local organizations working on sustainable food solutions, and to take action at the community level.

Synopsis from Website: We can no longer stomach our food system. It’s killing more and more Americans and costing billions in healthcare. 73% of Americans eat organic food, because they think it’s healthier. But is organic really better for us or just a marketing scam? When corporations went into the business and “organic” became a brand, everything changed. The philosophy and the label grew apart. Can gummy bears or bananas flown halfway across the world truly be organic? 

This film looks beyond organic for practical solutions for me and you. Local farmer’s markets, school gardens, and urban farms are revolutionizing the way we eat. Change is happening from the soil up.

In Organic We Trust – Teaser #1 from Pasture Pictures on Vimeo.

Rooting DC 2012 was a success!

Thank you for sharing your energizing feelings of friendship, creativity, inspiration, connection, love, and support to make this event possible! Here is to a great kickoff for the 2012 season!! 

The Beet Street Gardens clan at Rooting DC 2012

Come party with Beet Street Gardens, this Saturday Evening, February 11th as we celebrate the end of our 2nd season and gear up for an exciting 3rd! This midwinter gathering will feature many local flavors —  nourishment for your belly, signature drinks for your spirit, along with garden photos and live tunes from a variety of local artists.

When: 7-11pm on 2/11/12

Location: the JamJar
1719  Lamont Street NW, DC

Metro: Columbia Heights + 10 min. walk
Bus: H3, H4 Crosstown / S2, S4 16th Street
Car: advised to park on 16th street & walk west 1.5 blocks
Bike: parking plenty

Beet Street is jazzed to focus this season’s local growing/eating around building edible forest gardens and an outdoor kitchen. Your donations will help make that possible! $10-20 suggested.

Questions: email annabeth@beetstreetgardens.org

Blooming echinacea at Sasha Bruce.

See you on the 11th!

Beet Street Gardens

fb invite here

www.beetstreetgardens.org

Just a reminder for everyone who is planning on coming to Rooting DC on February 18th to sign up via our registration portal on www.rootingdc.org!

Follow us! Pass the word along!

Twitter: @RootingDC

Facebook: www.facebook.com/rootingdc

Rooting DC 2012 Flyer

I know you all are waiting anxiously for the 5th Annual Rooting DC, which is still on its way in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, come and celebrate the excitement with us this Thursday, February 2nd, 5 – 8 pm at The Looking Glass Lounge!

Check out the Facebook event for complete details: https://www.facebook.com/events/312966532075646/

Celebration!

Join us for some treats and good company to celebrate 5 years of Rooting DC! We will be asking for a $10 donation at the door, but this is a suggested donation, and no one will be turned away! There are also some excellent drink specials from Looking Glass Lounge: $2 off draft beers, $1 off rail drinks and special just for US a $4 Rooter Shooter!!!

Silent Auction Fundraiser!

We have some awesome prizes so please bring cash or a checkbook & come ready for bidding! Prizes include gift baskets, certificates to yummy local restaurants, and many more! All money raised from the silent auction will go directly towards offsetting the cost of the Rooting DC forum (to keep it free for all who attend!)

Hope you can make it on Thursday! If not, save the date for Rooting DC – February 18th, 2012 from 9:30-4. Registration details coming very soon!

Stay up to date with Rooting DC details on Facebook and on Twitter (Follow us @RootingDC and help spread the word with #RootingDC !!)

Please come! Rooting DC is an annual, FREE, community and urban gardening focused forum, with over 500 attendees! Come, attend sessions to learn and get information about what is going on in your communities and how you can get involved. Want to know how you start your own garden or how to compost? Come to Rooting DC 2012!

Please feel free to pass this information and flier along to others – Hope to see you all there!

Follow us on Twitter @RootingDC as well as on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rootingdc

The NEW Montgomery County Food Council has officially launched, and is currently welcoming applications from interested individuals.  The deadline for applications is next Friday, January 13, so if you are interested don’t delay!

Click here for more information and to apply.

In case you haven’t heard, the Food Council aims to bring together a diverse representation of stakeholders in a public and private partnership to improve the environmental, economic, social and nutritional health of Montgomery County through the creation of a robust, local, sustainable food system.

The Council will be comprised of 13 – 17 diverse stakeholders including individual members, professionals, private businesses, government officials, community organizations, and educational institutions that represent and/or work on food issues in our county.  We would particularly love to see council members who represent urban/suburban agriculture and community food production, so if you are involved in any of these, please consider applying!

The first meeting of the Council will be on Wednesday, February 15, location to be announced; all meetings will be open to the public, with community involvement encouraged.

Again, Council member applications are being accepted through next Friday, January 13.  Click here for more information and to apply.