Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Project Winterfood - December 2 - Richmond, VA

posted by Noah at 9:54 AM

Just a reminder that my Design Rebels students are presenting Project Winterfood, an event promoting local in-season food in Richmond, Virginia. The initial event on December 2nd will feature art, free food samples, live music, a raffle, and more to educate about and promote local, in-season food. The art will continue to be on display from December 4-31st and all profits from the sales will go to support the Central Virginia Foodbank as well as the community space Gallery 5. If you're in the area please come out and show your support...











Project Winterfood is a local food event and art exhibition organized by a group of VCU Graphic Design students. The theme of the event is spinach, apples, and sweet potatoes: all seasonal foods available in Virginia during the Winter.

Event + Art Exhibition
December 2nd, 2009
7-10 PM
1509 West Main Street

Continued Art Exhibition
December 4-31st, 2009
Gallery 5, 200 W. Marshall St.

What is it?
Project Winterfood is a local food resource, art exhibition, and benefit event. Project Winterfood was created by a group of VCU Graphic Design students to help share and preserve the culture of food in our Richmond community. The students who organized the event know how easy, practical, and beneficial it is to utilize local food options. With the help of some community partners, we are excited to share this knowledge with the public.

Project Winterfood will house an art exhibition made up of work that celebrates three winter foods: apples, spinach and sweet potatoes. The artwork has been donated by local artists and will be on sale during the exhibition. All proceeds from the artwork will go to benefit The Central Virginia Food Bank and Gallery 5, a non-profit gallery that supports using the arts to promote positive social action.

At the event, there will be a gathering of partners involved in the Richmond area food community to answer questions and share information about local food options, resources, and benefits. Visitors will be able learn more about how they can easily enjoy food from local farms as well as restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients. The community partners include such local businesses as the Farm to Family Veggie Bus, Dominion Harvest, Savor Cafe, Ipanema Cafe, Rostov’Äôs Coffee & Tea, Ukrop’Äôs, The Byrd House Market, and more to come which will be listed on the website as the project continues.

During the event there will be live fiddle music, sample & tasting booths, and delicious coffee provided by Rostov’Äôs Coffee & Tea. Each visitor will leave with a complimentary take-home brochure designed by Project Winterfood. The brochure will contain information & resources as well as recipes that include the three featured winter foods.

After the event, the artwork will be on display in Gallery 5 throughout the month of December. It can be purchased during that time as well.

Why is it important?
The team at Project Winterfood is passionate about sharing and preserving food culture. It is our mission to share with others in the community how easy, accessible, practical, beneficial, inexpensive, and fun it is to utilize local food options. Project Winterfood is reaching out to everyone’Äî those who already enjoy farm fresh foods and those who have heard the phrase ’Äúeating locally’Äù without getting a chance to learn what it’Äôs really all about.

The Project Winterfood event will present seasonal winter produce in a unique way that creates a memorable, informative, and fun experience.

Who are we?
Project Winterfood is combined of a group of VCU Graphic Design students who are interested in promoting positive change through community service learning. They are part of Noah Scalin’Äôs Design Rebels course striving to make a positive difference as Graphic Designers in the Richmond Community.

For more info visit: ProjectWinterfood.org

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Friday, November 13, 2009

Project Winterfood - A Local Food Event

posted by Noah at 10:53 AM

Once a year I teach Design Rebels, a course on socially conscious design that I created for Virginia Commonwealth University's Graphic Design department. As part of the class the students are required to create a real world group project, based on the themes of the class, that reaches into the community beyond the school. This year the class decided to focus on the issue of local, in season food. They're creating an art exhibition called Project Winterfood that will give people in the area a fun way to learn more about what grows in the area in the winter and why it's important to eat locally grown food. Here are the details from their press release:

PROJECT WINTERFOOD

What is it?
Project Winterfood is a local food resource, art exhibition, and benefit event. Project Winterfood was created by a group of VCU Graphic Design students to help share and preserve the culture of food in our Richmond community. The students who organized the event know how easy, practical, and beneficial it is to utilize local food options. With the help of some community partners, we are excited to share this knowledge with the public.

Project Winterfood will house a fascinating art exhibition made up of work that celebrates three winter foods: apples, spinach and sweet potatoes. The artwork has been donated by local artists and will be on sale during the exhibition. All proceeds from the artwork will go to benefit non-profits who are working to make a positive difference in the Richmond community.

At the event, there will be a gathering of partners involved in the Richmond area food community to answer questions and share information about local food options, resources, and benefits. Visitors will be able learn more about how they can easily enjoy food from local farms as well as restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients. The community partners include such local businesses as the Farm to Family Veggie Bus, Dominion Harvest, and many more to come, which will be included on the website as the project comes together.

During the event there will be live fiddle music, sample & tasting booths, and delicious coffee provided by Rostov’Äôs Coffee & Tea. Each visitor will leave with a complimentary take-home brochure designed by Project Winterfood. The brochure will contain information & resources as well as recipes that include the three featured winter foods.

After the event, the artwork will be on display in Gallery 5 throughout the month of December. It can be purchased during that time as well.

Why is it important?
The team at Project Winterfood is passionate about sharing and preserving food culture. It is our mission to share with others in the community how easy, accessible, practical, beneficial, inexpensive, and fun it is to utilize local food options. Project Winterfood is reaching out to everyone’Äî those who already enjoy farm fresh foods and those who have heard the phrase ’Äúeating locally’Äù without getting a chance to learn what it’Äôs really all about.

The Project Winterfood event will present seasonal winter produce in a unique way that creates a memorable, informative, and fun experience.
Event + Art Exhibition
December 2nd, 2009
7-10 PM
1509 West Main Street

Continued Art Exhibition
December 4-31st, 2009
Gallery 5, 200 W. Marshall St.

More information and updates can be found on their website HERE.

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Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Linkage: Cloth bags are bad and corporations are local?

posted by Noah at 8:00 AM
Go figure, the plastic industry says that cloth bags are bad! via

Speculative architecture fiction.(image shown) via

Making newpaper boxes into planters. (image shown) Thanks Carlos!

Free e-book on sustainable printing. via

The growth of the greener lunchroom.

Documenting product placement (and displacement). (image shown) Thanks Mica!

The new greenwashing: corporations go "local". Thanks Mica!


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Saturday, April 18, 2009

Record Store Day!

posted by Noah at 6:00 AM
It's Record Store Day today! Stop reading this and go support your local record store if you still have one!

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Monday, December 24, 2007

Word of the Year: Locavore

posted by Noah at 11:16 AM
The Oxford American Dictionary recently announced "Locavore" as its Word of The Year for 2007. By way of explanation the Oxford University Press blog notes:

The past year saw the popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives.

The ’Äúlocavore’Äù movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’Äô markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation.
Find out the runners-up HERE.

Thanks Mim!
via NYT LEDE blog

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Friday, August 17, 2007

Going Local

posted by Noah at 8:43 AM
A few nice articles about the local food movement have come out recently:

From the Christian Science Monitor: More Restaurants Going Green by Going Local

and an entire section in Plenty (written by my friend Tracie McMillan):
Local Food Movement Hits Urban America which includes...

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Monday, July 02, 2007

Foodometer

posted by Noah at 9:41 AM
Watch Your (Fo)odometer is a succinct video explanation of the benefits of eating locally by artist Molly Schwartz. It accompanies an essay on fast food by Donna Schaper on TheNation.com.


Thanks Jessica!

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