Andrew Zimmern of Chow & Again has more details on local chefs’ efforts to help out local farmers devastated by the recent flooding. Eating for benefit of your neighbors is such a Minnesotan thing to do.
As we wrote last week, here is the latest on how you can eat your way toward helping out with the flood relief in southeastern Minnesota. I am hosting a live auction on Friday from 1–3 p.m. on my FM107.1 radio show, and more info about participating restaurants for the One Big Night Out, as well as live auction packages, can be found at the FM107 website. I got this e-mail yesterday from Scott Pampuch at Corner Table.
The rain began in southeastern Minnesota on the night of August 18. Up to seventeen inches fell the first day, and sporadic heavy rain continues as the flooded area grows. The region is home to many sustainable farmers, their employees, and related businesses. Eric Hoiland of Rushford, MN, lost all his turkeys. The fields at the Featherstone CSA farm lie under contaminated water. Others have lost their crops, their houses, their communities, their friends.
The Minnesota convivium of Slow Food is joining with local non-profits and chefs to raise money for farmers and their communities. At press time for the Food Chain, we know that many slow restaurants in the Twin Cities are dedicating their profits on September 8 to flood-relief efforts. The event is called “One Big Night Out.” In addition, Slow Food Minnesota is helping to put together an online auction with contributions from local chefs, food producers, and Slow Food members.
More information on fundraising efforts will be available soon on Slow Food Minnesota’s website: www.slowfoodmn.org. At this time contributions can be made to the Red Cross Winona chapter, 1660 Kramer Dr., Winona, MN 55987; 507-452-4258; Maggie Modjeski, Director, or online to the Sow the Seeds Fund, www.sowtheseedsfund.org.
One of the better sidebars in all of this is that the Slow Food convivial is getting ‘out there’ in the public eye. SFMN should be ten times the size it is and have a much larger public footprint given the work it does and what it stands for. Friends of mine who are members have lamented to me for years that the local group is plagued by internal squabbling and grandstanding, but new infusions of membership and new leadership might change that. About time.
