The Sustainability Connection is almost here

Attention, concerned folk of Tacoma! This Saturday from 12-6, UPS is hosting The Sustainability Connection, a day-long summit bringing students, faculty, staff, community members, and professionals together to discuss environmental protection, health, and family planning. Slow Food is co-sponsoring the event and would love to see you there! Workshops, food, and tons of interesting information will circulate throughout the day, so if you'd like to participate please visit this page and register as soon as possible.

Times articles

A few articles came out in yesterday's New York Times that caught our eye immediately. Wednesday's Dining and Wine section featured Prince Charles as a "hero of the organic movement," a growing trend to make wine production more sustainable, and a section on the Eat Local movement. What's so encouraging about these articles is not only their content; they are also a sign that Slow Food ideals are spreading to a larger public and becoming important enough for an internationally distributed newspaper to discuss! Keep your eye out for more news about our food choices and please share anything you find with us.

Dining Out For Life

This Thursday in Tacoma, you can head out for dinner to a variety of local restaurants and have 25% of your meal go to fight AIDS/HIV. The program is called "Dine Out For Life" and all proceeds will go to the Pierce County AIDS Foundation and United Communities AIDS network. This is not affiliated with Slow Food, but eating for two purposes (good food and social justice) should certainly happen more often. So, if you're hungry and are looking for a good meal, check out their website and see where you can go.

Community Garden

Doing anything this Thursday night? Consider heading to a meeting on community gardens, April 19th at 7pm at the Commencement Bay Coffee Co. downtown. Check out this link for more information, and contact us if you're interested in going. There will be a panel discussion about the importance of these open spaces and the outlook for creating more in the Tacoma area.

Speaking of community gardens, we had our first day of work at the UPS campus garden on Sunday (4.15). There is still a lot to get in line, though, so if you're free this coming Sunday please meet us again for some weeding!
Some lovely photos of the day....

Slow Food on Campus

Check out the sidebar for our newest ally in producing, preparing, and consuming quality food: Slow Food on Campus! Their goal is to connect all the Slow Food groups on college campuses so that we share support and ideas. There's already a lot of interesting posts to read, and if you have further questions about the program or want to get involved, contact Cecily Upton at cecily@slowfoodusa.org or sfoc@slowfoodusa.org.

Garden Party!

So what's happening in the organic garden on campus these days? Well, a lot of plants are growing, but they're not the kind we'd like to eat this summer. To remedy the situation, we're having a Garden Party this Sunday (April 15th) from 10-2. Meet us at the garden (on Alder and 16th) ready to pull some weeds, and we'll provide the tools and some riveting conversation. What should we plant? Who's willing to help maintain the veggie patch over the summer months? Come discuss, work, and maybe eat some food together when we're done.

Dine around Seattle!

If you're looking for a nice meal this month (without cooking), check out this page for a list of Seattle restaurants offering three-course meals for $25. If you go, let us know how it is: slowfood@ups.edu, and we may plan a group trip.

Also, if you're looking for a good Washington wine to accompany your locally grown meal, read this story from the News Tribune.

Tacoma Food Cooperative

Students from Slow Food went to the meeting on February 21 to discuss forming a food coop in Tacoma. For more information and to see what you can do to help, visit the news story from the Tribune.

February Potluck

Our potluck on Sunday, February 11 was a success. Folks came to Liz Kaster's house with delicious, well-prepared food and spent the afternoon enjoying it with good company. The menu featured:

-omelettes (made with local, farm fresh eggs)
-home made cinnamon rolls from scratch
-home made hummous
-fried potatoes
-fresh bread
-delicious green salad
-home made Asian-style tomato soup with fresh veggies
-fresh fruit salad

Stay tuned for the next potluck after spring break!

If you missed the meeting... 1/30 Minutes

We went over lots of ideas on Tuesday! Thanks to all who came to share thoughts, snacks, and enthusiasm. Here’s what we talked about at our first general meeting of the semester:

• Introduction to Slow Food for new folks. The movement started in Rome and is now international. Goals: sustainability, support local food and farmers, and general slowness and savoring everyday activities.

• Michaela went over some foods that are in season here now. For more info throughout the year check out: www.pugetsoundfresh.org
• Books: Slow Food Bible and In Praise of Slowness. Ask Devin if you’d like to look them over.
• Regional wine tasting possibility at Pour at Four. Contact us if interested.
• Dine Around Seattle in March—a couple restaurants (Flying Fish and Marjorie) have even been “Slow Food Approved” and we could make a field trip some time. Info: www.slowfoodseattle.org
• SUB Food Advancement Committee—contact Devin if you’re interested in lobbying for more organics, vegetarian, and local food in the diner
• Organic Garden: work with Sustainability Advisory Committee to get herbs/what-have-you in the garden for use in the SUB (or general campus community). Also, we’re interested in making a COMPOST pile.
• Monthly potlucks: we decided that Sunday afternoons work best for everyone. We’ll send out an email for everyone about the details—hopefully in the next couple weeks!
• Local farmer talk: question & answer session, information, try to include broader campus community. We want this to be a big lovely advertisement/announcement for Slow Food UPS. Dinner also?
• Cooking classes! Possibility of funding from ASUPS.
• Slow Food USA requires us to perform some sort of volunteer work—SF Seattle visits schools to teach about healthy, local eating. Good idea for us.
• Slow Food Theme House—Hey, give it a try if you’re interested and dedicated. It’d be great to have a home base.
• Cookbook—we’d like to compile recipes on the Slow Food UPS Blog. If you have a dandy recipe, make it, share it, and we’ll post it on the blog!

Okay, that’s a long list of stuff to think about. Whether we end up doing all of or not, let’s keep the spirit of good, slow food with us throughout the semester! Slow down...

Next Slow Food Meeting on January 30

Puget Sound's Slow Food student convivium meets to plot coming events, including the first pot-luck dinner of the spring semester. Everyone welcome. Tonight's slow refreshment: homemade lavender biscuits. Yum. Watch this space for location of meeting.

Tuesday, January 30 at 6:30 pm in WSC 201