Tuesday, October 20, 2009

'Smart by Nature' Book Features Evening Meals

It's here: the new book by the Center of Ecoliteracy, which features 20 compelling stories about schooling for sustainability and includes an essay about the Lopez Island Farm Education Program and Evening Meals at School. Smart by Nature is available at Islehaven Books and the Lopez Library, and will also be sold at the October 29 Evening Meals at School.

Author Michael Stone attended the Lopez community's first Evening Meals at School, "Hungry Moon Winter Harvest Dinner" in January 2008. Here is an excerpt from Smart by Nature:

The tables were set, the room decorated. White bean chili with pumpkin, Lopez lamb sausage, tri-color cabbage slaw, red velvet beet cake —  prepared fresh from local products by prominent island chefs — were arrayed and ready. But would people turn out on a cold, wet mid-week evening, with snow still on the ground after a rare snowstorm?...

...When the doors opened at 5:30, a line snaked out the door and around the building. People kept coming. And coming. The room filled. Volunteers gently urged eaters to move along after finishing their suppers, to make room for others. Eventually, three hundred people — children, parents, old-timers, new arrivals, the well-to-do, and those barely getting by — showed up. People kept remarking that they couldn't remember an event with such a cross section of the island's population. I'm seeing people I've never seen at the school," said (former) Superintendent Bill Evans.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Please Share Your Thoughts With Us

We would like to invite community members to share thoughts, topics, and prose for this page. Our intention is to educate, stimulate conversation, and inspire actions that support our ability to sustain our community and ourselves. Please register by sending an email to info@lopezlocavores.com and look for your confirmation in your mailbox. We welcome your participation.