After growing up in San Diego County, Avigail ventured to the great Northwest to attend Reed College where she graduated with a degree in Religion. She spent a summer in Amherst, MA, to intern at the National Yiddish Book Center and then returned to Reed to work as an admission counselor for two and a half years. Though Portland was an amazing place to wheel around on a 3-speed cruiser to get to yoga class and buy groceries, Avigail was excited to come on board at Hazon in January, 2008. She now works on Hazon's food programs.
Those of you who came to the Food Conference may have gotten to hear from Woody Tasch, the founder of Slow Money.
The idea is a simple one: invest your money as if food, farms and fertility actually mattered. Get anyone who invests money (and if you have a 401k or an IRA, that’s you too) to direct just 1% of it toward small food enterprises and local food systems. Get at least that small sum of money out of the hands of Wall Street, huge banks and multinationals and use it, quite literally, as seed money. Invest in local farms, food systems, artisans, brewers, bakers, cheesemakers and so on and keep that money close to home.
Many people are using Passover as a chance to think about hunger and food security.
Just this week activists gathered in Jerusalem to protest the government’s failure to provide thousands of children who live below the poverty line with hot school lunches or ensuring ‘food security’ for all its citizens. Click here to read the whole story.
In Los Angeles, many of Hazon’s friends are involved with a Hunger Seder on March 24th. The community seder will take place at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino.
A couple of times when I was a kid I was able to convince my parents to buy me a school lunch. I still remember the feeling of independence I had when I got those bills from my Mom and Dad, and the amazing taste of that beef taco. That’s right – a public school beef and cheese taco. With iceberg lettuce. A trayf-er thing I cannot remember eating…
It’s that time again. With Purim around the corner, many people have been thinking about Hamentashen. I had some friends over last night to make tasty triangular treats. Our savory ‘tashen were inspired by this blog and Leah Koenig (see the archived post here) though mine were rosemary dough with sweet-potato goat cheese filling. My brother made home-made poppyseed filling like I did last year (see that archived post here).
Our friend Nancy Wolfson-Moche also sent along this link to her blog for her “pouch pastry recipe.” Thanks, Nancy, for sharing this photo of your delish hamentashen.
Meet Rachel Tali Kaplan, a young Jewish woman who is farming organically on 2 acres in Georgia. Warm, funny and intelligent, Rachel explores the challenges of farming, her passion for feeding people, and the importance of sustainable agriculture in today’s world. Christine Anthony and Owen Masterson shared this short film with us:
Avi Rubel is the North American Director of Masa Israel Journey, the umbrella organization for immersion programs in Israel for young adults (18-30). When not sending people to Israel, Avi can be found making cheese, bread, kombucha or fermenting or pickling all kinds of goodies in his Brooklyn apartment and recording his adventures on his food blog, Make Cheese Not War. In the weeks after the Hazon Food Conference, he shared some of his thoughts about his experience with Hazon in California.
Thanks to Rachael Don for this guest post! Rachael is a Registered Dietitian in training and co-editor of the Jess Schwartz Jewish Community Day School’s Hazon CSA newsletter in Scottsdale, AZ. A former healthcare administrator, she holds an MBA and a Masters in Health Services Administration. When she’s not cooking organic vegetables, Rachael is caring for her three young sons and husband, David in Phoenix, AZ. She shares these thoughts with the readers of that newsletter and all of you!
David Bryfman, currently the Director of the New Center for Collaborative Leadership at the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York-SAJES, got inspired by Jamie Oliver’s passion for healthy eating. He’s thinking about how to bring Jaime’s suggestions for education into the Jewish community:
Learn with Hazon’s Executive Director and Founder, Nigel Savage, get updates about our work to build a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community and a healthier and more sustainable world for all. Participate in the conversation as we explore the dynamic interplay of food, Jewish tradition and contemporary life.
The Hazon CSA community in Elkins Park (Philadelpha, PA) hosted another outstanding Tu Bishvat seder this year. (Click here to see photos from their seder last year.) Their organizers shared this list of individual commitments that folks wrote down for the year, to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community, a healthier and more sustainable world for all. May they serve as an inspiration for all of us in the coming season!
Be sure to check out this article written by Nigel Savage, Hazon’s founder and executive director, published in Sh’ma this month. The piece is a good summary of the lay of the land of the Jewish Food Movement and is sure to give folks some “food for thought.”
Hazon staff love granola. We’re blessed to often get home-made batches from our colleagues, but when we need granola for 600+, we turn to Udi’s Granola. Udi and his team have been supporters of the Hazon Food Conference for years. And, if that wasn’t enough to convince us that we like them, Udi’s Granola was a winner in the San Francisco Chronicle’s granola reviews. Here’s what they said in the article:
Panelists described the first-place Udi’s ($4.99/13 ounces at Whole Foods) as “toasty and nutty,” with “a mild honey flavor” and “nice small flakes.” They liked the “oaty-ness” and “simple flavor” and thought it had an “old-fashioned taste.” Two would buy this brand, two might and one would not.
The Green Zionist Alliance (GZA) is seeking volunteers to help write a food-justice resolution for the World Zionist Congress, scheduled to be held this coming June in Jerusalem. The Congress has jurisdiction over the spending and policies of the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency and Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (KKL-JNF). If you’d like to participate this year in writing a food-justice resolution, please contact David Krantz – chairperson [at] greenzionism [dot] org.
For information on the GZA’s work in Israel through the World Zionist Congress, click here.
For information on the resolutions that the GZA successfully passed at the last Congress, click here.
From our friends at the Jewish Farm School, an environmental education organization whose mission is to practice and promote sustainable agriculture and to support food systems rooted in justice and Jewish traditions.
Eden Village Camp (EVC) and the Jewish Farm School (JFS) are thrilled to announce the creation of the Eden Village Farm, a 2-acre educational farm that will be a central component of Eden Village Camp. EVC is a new Jewish summer camp with a focus on environmentalism, social justice and spirituality. The farm will be a laboratory for creative and meaningful educational experiences, connecting Jewish agricultural laws to contemporary environmental and food justice issues. The farm will also host programs and volunteer events in the spring and fall.
We are currently looking to fill the following positions.
