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April 17, 2013 - 6:11pm
It sounded like a clap of thunder as I passed the MIT Dome on Mass Ave, but no one around me seemed even to register the noise. I checked my surroundings: the sun was shining, people were enjoying a walk in the cool, sunny spring weather, so I relaxed. I was my way to the Marathon to meet my friends, one of whom --thanks to smart phone tracking devices-- I knew had crossed the finish line more than an hour ago.
I was almost to the edge of the MIT campus when a woman pushing a baby carriage coming towards those of us walking towards Boston said , "Have you heard the news? Do you know what happened?" A couple of strangers walking along with me and I, shook our heads in unison. "A bomb of some kind has exploded. Don't go over there."
I heard someone next to me say, "Thank you." Registering that incongruous verbal exchange--being thanked by a stranger for being warned away from a place where an explosion has just taken place - the second sign that the bucolic spring day about to change in a profound way. I hesitated for a moment, wondering what to do. I decided to continue to walk to as far as the edge of the MIT campus, posting myself like a sentry at the corner of the...
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March 26, 2013 - 1:08pm
--Joan Squeri
The branches are still bare and the chill in the air most March nights is still positively unforgiving--but Thursday night, March 14--the annual Farm Share Fair http://farmsharefair.com had hundreds of folks thinking spring and warmly shaking hands with the people who will be producing their food this growing season.
The whole idea of an event like Farm Share Fair is to introduce consumers directly to farmers, as well as a concept called Community Supported Agriculture-- a term for a seasonal subscription purchase of goods directly from a farm or ranch. C.S.A.s, as this form of direct sale opportunity has come to be known, have become an increasingly popular way to source food for many urban consumers. Its good from the farmer’s side of the economic equation,too. This alternative buying method is breathing strong new life into New England Agriculture.
Founded in 2010 by Dave Madan, Executive Director of The MOVE http://getoutma.org, the Farm Share Fair sprang from a desire connect average citizens to the agricultural process and introduce the people who actually grow food to new consumers. Now in its third year, Farm Share Fair came from somewhat humbler surroundings...
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March 18, 2013 - 3:38pm
Movie Trailer - A Place at the Table: One Nation Underfed
by Joan Squeri
A Place at the Table is a portrait of hunger in America in 2013. Here’s the frightening thing: the portrait looks like many people you know. Forty seven million Americans --that's one in six people in the United Sates of America --currently relies on food stamps (now known as USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) to survive. Charities are straining to keep up with the growing numbers of people who have come to rely on food banks and pantries to make it through the month.
The fact that there is no shortage of food in a nation of expanded waistlines, all-you can-eat-buffets and out-sized portions, surprises no one. What makes A Place at the Table so compelling is the light it shines on the close relationship that obesity and hunger have come to share. These days, hunger in America no longer resembles the hollow-cheeked families in The Grapes of Wrath, gaunt and emaciated.
The undernourished poor of today often appear well fed, even heavy --or even morbidly obese. What’s more, they may even hold a job and a struggle to pay a mortgage. The reality is that they are no longer a tiny minority...
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August 3, 2012 - 5:35pm
Annual ‘Sweet Soul Supper’ Feeds the Work of Margaret Fuller House, Area Four and Beyond
Transcendentalist, feminist and Cambridge citizen Sarah Margaret Fuller, (1810-1850) was born in the section of Cambridge that we know today by two names: the ‘Port’ if you grew up here and ‘Area Four’ if you are from other parts of Cambridge. Fuller would have been proud of the annual celebration honoring the work carried on at her historic birthplace; the celebration itself was a vivid example of community partners coming together to meet a host of social needs.
‘A Sweet Soul Supper’ is the Margaret Fuller House’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Even before development pressures around Area Four were being felt so acutely the event has been on the fast track to becoming an annual Cambridge ‘good will pilgrimage with a pedigree.’ The team at the Margaret Fuller House has been drawing a virtual ‘who’s who’ of Cambridge politicians and community relations folk to show up from biotech, banks and academia, for a chance to rub shoulders with Area Four/‘Port neighborhood residents and to show their support for the work of the Margaret Fuller House for a few years running now.
If this year’s...
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November 8, 2011 - 8:03pm
Farmer's markets and Community Supported Agriculture (shares of farm goods delivered to consumers popularly known as "CSA's" ) are rapidly coming to occupy a greater place of importance in our food supply. Across the country, the percentage of people shopping in farmers' markets has gone up by double digits annually each year for the last decade. Farmer's Markets themselves are growing in size and the diversity of their offerings and CSA's are are following suit: becoming more sophisticated, offering more diverse products and choice in response to the rapidly customers desire for local food.
It certainly no secret that restaurants want to buy what local farmers,fishermen, winemakers, cheese makers and craft beer brewers produce. Bold proclamations of the origin of products appear throughout menus- local food comes to embrace not only produce but meat, dairy, and scores of other products-- all locally produced.
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No longer are farmers markets limited to quaint, roadside gathering places for summer and fall's locally grown fruits and vegetables. In a market with a decent number of vendors, its now possible to find the majority of items that on would find in a typical...
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