The Food Project: Youth. Food. Community.

Maria Barros prepares bacalhau.Local gardener Maria Barros led friends, neighbors, and food enthusiasts in a cooking class about Cape Verdean cooking at The Food Project’s office this Saturday, January 28.

The ten participants included Cape Verdean Bostonians eager to learn about their traditional cuisine, as well as many local gardeners. As they chopped vegetables for the class, the gardeners discussed last year's cabbage crop and their excitement to plant collard greens for the spring.

Barros led participants in preparing two traditional Cape Verdean dishes called Cachupa and Bacalhau. Cachupa is a stew that contains collard greens, beans, and corn. Bacalhau is a stew containing salted cod. After preparing the two dishes, participants dined together to taste their creations.

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The following blog was guest-authored by Michael Palmer, who is partnering with TFP to spread the message about real food to new audiences.

Why TFP Has a Place in This Thriller Author’s Heart

Oath of OfficeGreetings from Swampscott, Mass. My name is Michael Palmer, I am a NY Times best-selling medical thriller author. A little over two years ago I watched Food, Inc. I know that many of you are familiar with the sobering realities exposed in this documentary: the business of corporate farming, the harmful treatment of animals, and the limited access many people have to healthy food.

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Coming up soon at The Food Project, we’ll be presenting our new “Grow Well, Eat Well, Be Well” workshop series. In these sessions, we will explore gardening topics, share cultural recipes, connect you with other gardeners from your neighborhood, and more. These workshops are the beginnings of some exciting new opportunities coming up – you won’t want to miss them!

Grow Well: Bringing your gardening skills to a new level
Planning Your Garden
* Saturday, January 21, 10:00 – 11:30 A.M. OR
* Tuesday, January 24, 6:00 – 7:30 P.M.

This is the first workshop in our Grow Well series. Through this interactive workshop on designing your garden, you can get help with everything from planning its layout to ordering seeds. Other topics in this series will include: how to start seeds, planting tips, and how to dealing with pests and diseases.

Download a flyer for more information.

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The Food Project’s Board of Trustees has named longtime Managing Director Susan MacDougall as interim executive director. Her appointment took effect on October 20, 2011. As interim ED, Susan will lead the organization while TFP conducts its search for a new, permanent executive to succeed former Executive Director Margaret Williams, who left in September.

“We believe that having Susan in the position will help ensure continuity and stability for TFP during this important period of transition, and we are grateful to her for accepting the responsibility,” said Gene Benson, TFP’s board chair.

The announcement may sound familiar to longtime friends of TFP – Susan was asked to serve in the same capacity in 2007, the last time The Food Project underwent a leadership transition. In addition to her work for TFP, Susan brings a wealth of nonprofit management experience to her new role. Prior to joining TFP, Susan served as the managing director of SquashBusters, another Boston area youth development organization.

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Governor Patrick digs in with a broadfork to loosen up carrots at Baker Bridge farm. --Photo by Christopher FowlerMassachusetts Governor Deval Patrick visited The Food Project this morning to celebrate Food Day and join us in harvesting food for local hunger relief efforts. TFP Director of Agriculture Tim Laird led the governor, Food Project youth, and a team from the Boston Area Gleaners working in the field to collect carrots and kale that might otherwise have not been harvested this season.

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Mayor Menino and TFP youth with the trophy that ended the curse!At our first 2011 Community Lunch in Boston, everyone got a special surprise: Red Sox Executive Chef Nookie Postal, who cooked the delicious meal, brought along the 2004 World Series trophy!

The event was held Monday, July 18, on The Food Project’s urban farm in Dorchester. Every summer, TFP hosts Community Lunches in all the communities where we work. All lunches feature delicious meals prepared by local chefs using freshly picked Food Project vegetables. In addition to their time, chefs generously donate other food items. Chef Postal went above and beyond in bringing along the trophy that ended the curse!

Chef Postal is thanked with TFP gear.Chef Postal's delicious meal was served to top city officials, including Mayor Menino, Superintendent of Schools Carol Johnson, and Public Health Commission Director Barbara Ferrer.

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Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Boston Celtics star Glen “Big Baby” Davis helped get the 2011 Boston Bounty Bucks season underway at a noontime press conference held Monday, June 27, at the City Hall Plaza Farmers’ Market. Joining the mayor and Davis were Food Project Executive Director Margaret Williams, Youth Intern Phil Nguyen, Boston Public Market Association President Don Weist, and Scott Soares, Commissioner of Agriculture, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR).

Intern Phil Nguyen addresses press conference kicking off the 2011 Boston Bounty Bucks season.

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The Food Project is excited to launch a major new effort to increase affordable, local food access for low-income children and their families in eastern Massachusetts. Beginning this fall, in partnership with CitySprouts and Boston Public Schools (BPS), TFP will be working on farm-to-school and school gardening projects in Boston, Lynn, and Gloucester. We are calling this partnership the Massachusetts FoodCorps Initiative.

This work is made possible by FoodCorps, a new AmeriCorps program that places service members for one year in high-need communities to improve children’s education about and access to healthy, locally grown food.

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The Food Project (TFP), with support from the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), is seeking partners to share community space in the recently opened Dudley Greenhouse.

The Dudley Greenhouse is a 10,000-square-foot facility in the Dudley Neighborhood of Roxbury. Owned by DSNI and leased by The Food Project, the greenhouse operates year-round as a food production and educational space. The Food Project operates enterprise projects that employ youth in half the space. In the remaining space, The Food Project has started running community educational programming, and is now seeking community partners to run their own programming in this space, with limited support from TFP.

Our hope is that by bringing in a few different organizations and/or individuals to use the space, the greenhouse will better serve a wide range of community interests and needs. Examples of projects include:

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