Celebrate Thanksgiving with the Turkeys! - Saturday, Nov. 20

No, not by eating them, but by hanging out with them while having a great meal and supporting a great local organization!

As you may know Montgomery Victory Gardens does not take a stand on meat eating vs. vegetarianism, apart from noting that Americans, in particular, need to eat a lot less meat and a lot more vegetables, and that whatever meat we do eat should be local and sustainably raised (such as grass or pasture fed, if we're talking about cows).  But we absolutely and strongly support the humane treatment of animals, and we're delighted to tell you about this great event.

Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Poolesville (a beautiful Montgomery County destination on a nice fall day) is having their annual "Thanksgiving With the Turkeys" event this Saturday, November 20th from 12 noon to 4pm.  Bring a dish, make a small contribution, and join CAFO-rescued turkeys Gertrude, Gobbles, and Eliot and all their farm friends for this compassionate Thanksgiving event to support the our county's leading farm animal refuge!

For more information about Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary and "Thanksgiving with the Turkeys," click here.

Vegetarian Society's Life-Affirming Thanksgiving - Thursday, Nov. 25

And for those who would like to enjoy a great Thanksgiving celebration without meat, and a great event to boot, check out the Vegetarian Society of DC's Life Affirming Thanksgiving Celebration,  held next Thursday, November 25, from 12 Noon to 4pm at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD.

The VSDC Life-Affirming Thanksgiving is an annual event that brings together hundreds of vegetarians and non-vegetarians to enjoy compassionate and healthy food and a wonderful social setting.  It is a gourmet vegan feast (seriously, check out the menu), which will include live music from guitarist Stephen Svoboda, and a presentation from special guest speaker Dr. Jonathan Balcombe, a noted scientist, writer and speaker who focuses on animal research and behavior and education for the humane treatment of animals.

This gourmet holiday feast is $54 for VSDC members and $57 for non-members. Children aged 3-12 are $36, and those under age 3 are free.  Registrations are required, and the deadline for them is this Sunday, November 21, so don't delay!  Click here for more information on one of the grandest vegetarian Thanksgivings you're ever likely to attend!

Michael Pollan Wants YOU to Make a Call for Food Safety Now

For those of you who missed Tuesday's alert on the Food Safety Modernization Act, S. 510, there is still time to act!  The bill was cleared for a vote in the Senate yesterday, and could be voted on as early as TODAY, Thursday, November 18.

And now food author (and demi-god) Michael Pollan has gotten into the act, and is urging people to make a call to support this bill, and most especially the amendments that would protect small and family farms who sell their products locally.  Along with Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser, Pollan issued the following statement to Food Democracy Now! yesterday:  "S.510 is the most important food safety bill in a generation. The Tester amendment will make it even more effective, helping to ensure food safety while protecting small farmers and producers.  We both think this is the right thing to do."

So if you haven't made your calls already, NOW is the time to act.  It's super easy and quick to do, just click here for more information, phone numbers, and a script to use. Thanks for taking this simple action to protect small and family farmers - and good food for all of us!

The Mishah Garden Celebrates Its First Year - Sunday Nov. 21

 
The Mishnah Garden at Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda has been one of the stellar participants in MVG's new Congregational Community Garden Network.  From building new food gardens and involving their kids to contributing food to the Manna Food Center and composting their waste (in a mighty fancy composter, I might add!) Adat Shalom has shown what can be done in a congregational garden, a group of food producers we hope to double in size in 2011, from the current 15 congregations to 30.

So we are delighted to announce that the Mishnah Garden will be welcoming all gardeners to join them this coming Sunday, November 21 from 10am to Noon for a closing day in the garden as they plant garlic (a little late, but I planted mine on Thanksgiving last year and it still worked!), spread horse manure, tidy up the beds, and eat some carrot cake while unveiling a new slide show celebrating year one. 

Adat Shalom is at 7727 Persimmon Tree Lane, Bethesda, MD 20817, and the weather will be great, so if you're in the area please consider joining them!  For any questions call garden coordinator Fred Pinkney at 301-233-1642 or email at pa.sommers@verizon.net

We Americans Waste Almost HALF Our Food - Don't Do it This Thanksgiving!

You probably knew we were a wasteful nation, but this recent blog post from the New York Times points out some disturbing statistics:

* 93% of respondents in one study said they buy food that they don't use

* 40% of respondents in another study said they throw out vegetables that aren't in pristine condition

* Food scraps make up 19% of the waste dumped in landfills, where it ends up rotting and producing methane, a greenhouse gas

Perhaps worst of all, it turns out that up to 40% of our food wasting happens right in our own homes!

We cannot build a sustainable local food system while wasting massive amounts of food, so as we approach the most food intensive holiday of the year, take a few simple steps to make sure you don't end up contributing to this massive problem: don't overbuy; eat all your leftovers; use your freezer; make lots of soup, and if you absolutely have to, throw food scraps into the compost, not the trash!

For more good tips on how to avoid wasting food, read "From Farm to Fridge to Garbage Can"  (including the comments, where some of the best suggestions are!). 

Dueling Food Pyramids

We've all seen the famous food pyramid, which tells us how much we should eat of different food groups for optimal health.  Well what if there was a pyramid that also showed us the effects of the different food groups on the planet's health?

The Barilla Center for Food Nutrition in Italy, birthplace of the Slow Food movement, has provided exactly such a pyramid for us.  Click here to check out their excellent "Double Pyramid" chart.  (Spoiler alert:  foods that are good for us, as it turns out, are also good for the planet.  Want to guess what the foods we should be eating less of do to Mother Earth...?)

Of course you can also use pyramids to demonstrate other vital information about our food system, such as why the food that is bad for us costs so much less than the stuff we should be eating.  Click here to see "Why Does a Salad Cost More Than A Big Mac," produced by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. (And thanks to MVGer Nadine for passing this on!)

Yes, You Can Teach Kids To Eat Broccoli

A newly released study shows that fast food restaurants, which spent $4.2 billion in advertising in 2009, reserve their most aggressive marketing campaigns to target youth and minorities.  Is it any wonder that 40 percent of parents report their children ask to go to McDonald's at least once a week, with 15 percent of preschoolers asking to go every day - or that we have a national childhood obesity and diabetes epidemic?

Some local governments have taken drastic steps, as when the San Francisco City Council moved to ban Mc Donalds' "Happy Meals" for kids.  But there is another way, and the involves teaching kids about healthy food from the get go.

Not possible, you say?  Don't tell that to the folks at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in Washington D.C., where the school food program has young students eating broccoli, tilapia encrusted with panko, and boureks with beef or vegetables.

The meals served at Elise Whitlow Stokes are part of an overall wellness program at the school, which includes - no surprise here - growing some of their own food in a garden outside the school.  "One thing kids need to be successful in school and in life is good nutrition," said school chef Lisa Dobbs said. "They need to learn what good food is, what good nutrition is, what a real serving size is. And if they get the experience early, they will have it for the rest of their lives."

So it can be done, and this is part of what Montgomery Victory Gardens is committed to in our county.  Click here to read the Washington Post report, "Yes, you can teach kids to eat broccoli"

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That's it for this week folks!  Good luck preparing for your awesome Thanksgiving Feast!!

For the Montgomery Victory Gardens Team,

Gordon Clark, Project Director