Three Thursdays in March

 This week the GGRWHC launches three programs featuring area women, urban and rural, and the roles they have played in agricultural politics over the past century. Join us at the Ford Museum on Thursdays, March 8th and 22nd, then at the Women's City Club to end the month with a toast on March 29th. Stay in touch via our website (www.ggrwhc.org) for updates and about more programming. Here's to Women's History Month 2012!

THE POLITICS OF FRESH FOOD & GRAND RAPIDS WOMEN

"WWI, Women, and the Rise of Grand Rapids Farmers Markets"

by Jayson Otto, Michigan State University

7:00pm, Thursday, March 8th, 2012

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

Reception following.

Free & Open to the Public

Celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Fulton Street Farmers Market, its former manager Jayson Otto will tell the surprising story of its origins. The battle began in 1912, and the soldiers were mostly Grand Rapids women. An "accidental" women's historian, Otto did not realize until he started his MSU thesis in historical agriculture the role played by women to fight inflation and to get healthy food into the city during wartime.

Farmers markets were started in Grand Rapids through the civic engagement of women without the vote. One hundred years later reinvestment in the Fulton Street Farmers Market stands as a testament to the work of Progressive Era women and everyone supporting the market through its ups and downs. And activist Eva McCall Hamilton rode her local experience into the Michigan senate in 1920-the first woman to serve!

Join us Thursday for a great story! (Co-sponsored with the Grand Rapids Historical Society & Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.)

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR

TWO MORE THURSDAYS!

"Women of the Ridge: Handling the Business and Politics of West Michigan Agriculture"

by Cindy Laug, Grand Valley State University

7:00pm, Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

Free & Open to the Public

From the Peach Ridge Fruit Growers Association, formed in 1928, to Women for the Survival of Agriculture in Michigan, organized in 1972, West Michigan women have overseen the business of marketing fruit and picketing price-gougers. Talk with some of the players after Cindy Laug's fascinating presentation!

Women's History Month Finale!

A sneak peek at a new book by Jaye Beeler &

Dianne Carroll Burdick

Tasting and Touring Michigan's Homegrown Food:

A Culinary Road Trip

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

5:00 pm Hors d'oeuvres & wine ticket bar ($5/glass); 5:30 pm: program

Women's City Club, Lower level auditorium, 254 Fulton Street

Free & Open to the Public.

Writer Jaye Beeler and photographer Dianne Carroll Burdick will bring us into the present when we celebrate their new book! Traveling 2000 miles over the course of a year, they met dozens of enterprising women farmers and producers whose stories continue to squash myths that only men are farmers.

Join us & support the work of the GGRWHC!