Real Food Summits 2009

Check out the Real Food Summits in FIVE regions, coming your way this February and March! Also be sure to check out your regional page for more details and other events. If you're in the Mid-Atlantic or Southwest, visit a summit near you!

Northeast
Southeast
Midwest
Northwest
California
 

2nd Annual Northeast Real Food Summit
Feb 21-22, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

REGISTER for the NE Real Food Summit!

This year's Northeast Real Food Summit will unite over 300 food activists--from high schoolers to college students, young farmers to chefs, and food service directors to faculty--for a weekend of inspiring and rejuvenating workshops, performances, games and food. Let's strengthen our local and regional networks, dream big together, and create pragmatic plans for real change now!

Go to http://realfoodchallenge.org/northeast/summit09 for more details or contact Sam and Marissa at northeast@realfoodchallenge.org.
 

Southeast Youth Food Activist Summit
Feb 13-15, Chapel Hill, NC

The Southeast Youth Food Activist Summit (SYFAS), the first of its kind in our region, will bring together sixty to seventy students and other youth activists from across the Southeast to share strategies, and to strengthen a youth network in the region. SYFAS will feature student-led workshops, student speakers, peer-to-peer networking and seasonal community dinners. The Real Food Challenge and FLO Food, a student organization at UNC -CH working to promote the availability of fair, local, and organic food on campus, are collaborating with many students and other organizations to plan the summit.

Contact David Hamilton, dsjhamilton@gmail.com, for more details and check out more on the Southeast page and here: http://www.syfas.org.
 

Midwest Real Food Summit: Building a Student Coalition for Just & Sustainable Food
March 7-8, Maharishi University, Fairfield, Iowa

In the spring of 2009, a Real Food Summit will bring together students from around the Midwest to create networks and build coalitions. This summit is for students in the Midwest who are active in various food issues – campus gardens, animal welfare, local food programs, climate change, and fair trade to name a few. The activities at the summit will involve break-out sessions led by students, local organic food meals, and keynote speeches by Erik Esse and Denise O'Brien.

Contact Sue DeBlieck,midwest@realfoodchallenge.org, for more details and check out more on the Midwest page.
 

Northwest Real Food Summit
March 19-21, Portland, OR

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Scholarship Deadline: February 8th
Registration deadline: March 6th

The Real Food revolution is heating up the Northwest this March—watch out! We will be hosting our summit in conjunction with the 4th Annual National Farm to Cafeteria Conference. Join us in solidarity for four days of youth empowerment, solutions-based workshops, and action. Our rockin' youth delegation will meet with allies including farmers, public health advocates, policy-makers, food service providers, farmworkers, and community activists to discuss our collective work towards a just and sustainable food system. We will have student-run skills trainings, hands-on learning opportunities, delicious food (of course!), and more. Expect to leave with a support network, new friends, leadership skills, and an action plan.

Contact David and Shannon at northwest@realfoodchalleng.org to be involved with planning or for more details and check out more on the summit info page.
 

2nd Annual Strengthening the Roots Super Convergence
Feb 13th-Feb 15th, UC Santa Cruz

The Strengthening the Roots: Food, Justice, & Fair Trade Convergence will be held in Santa Cruz, CA from February 13th to the 15th. The convergence is organized by the California Student Sustainability Coalition's Foods Initiative/West Coast Real Food Challenge, United Students for Fair Trade, & the Community Agroecology Network. This regional gathering of students, allies, and other key members of the Fair Trade & Sustainable Food Movement will build upon past accomplishments and serve as a catalyst for regional integration and leadership development. In addition to strengthening the roots of the movement through content explored, the convergence will broaden the leadership community by actively engaging new high school and middle school youth and deepening the commitment of our college level affiliates.

Students will gain skills to act for greater social, environmental, and economic justice in their local communities & institutions, learn from successful models and case studies, build lasting relationships toward future collaborations, and return home with an enriched skill set to foster problem-solving and change-based solutions.

Outcomes of Attendance:

• Develop and strengthen inter-school connections and collaboration in order to deepen and expand the Sustainable Food and Fair Trade movement.
• Increase the number of skilled, knowledgeable, and confident youth leaders throughout the Western United States.
• Integrate Fair Trade & Sustainable Food based initiatives in an effort to foster new partnerships toward creating more just and sustainable communities and institutions.
• Forming relationships, lighting fires, and having fun!

The Convergence will provide an opportunity for students and allies to build relationships with each other and with those within the Fair Trade & Sustainable Food movements whose ideals and goals are similar. It can revitalize and motivate, which is necessary to cultivate healthy and happy activists. Students will leave the Convergence with a greater sense of solidarity and with a deeper com mitment to the movement. USFT & CSSC will share their creativity and experience to provide the resources necessary for action in local communities and around the world.

It will be the largest regional meeting in CA exclusively dedicated to students and young leaders working on Fair Trade and Sustainable Food.  The convergence will be a rallying point that will inspire continued engagement throughout the 2008-2009 school year!

We are looking for interested students and youth to submit workshops, offer musical and artistic gifts to share with attendees, and much more! Contact Tim at westcoast@realfoodchallenge.org for more details and check out more on the California page.