Event: Eat Local Challenge 2012
Dates: September 7-16, 2012
Contacts: Wendy Siporen or Becky Brown, 541-488-7272
The 7th annual “Eat Local Challenge” is a week of fun activities that raise awareness about the benefits of eating locally. Restaurant specials, tastings, a farm tour & dinner and the Food For Thought Film Festival are all included in the festivities. In its seventh year, the challenge features 35 participating restaurants from Grants Pass to Ashland and 35 different events for local food lovers. The full details about participating restaurants and a menu of events is attached and on the web at www.buylocalrogue.org
There are many great ways to get involved:
- Dine at one of the many participating restaurants offering local food specials during the week.
- Enjoy one of our member events, food tastings, cooking classes, Food For Thought Film Festival and the Rogue Flavor Farm Tour & Dinner.
- Pledge to eat local during the week and be entered to win a fabulous Rogue Flavor gift basket.
- Record your participation with the Eat Local Week passport and be entered to win a $100 gift certificate for the Rogue Valley Local Foods online farmers market.
- Check out some of the great resources we have gathered for your local eating adventure.
The Rogue Valley is home to some of the best agricultural and artisan foods in the world. The Rogue Flavor campaign and Eat Local Week highlight what makes the Rogue Valley unique: the local farms and food businesses that create the distinctive local flavor of our community. How much are you willing to commit to eating local? It’s up to you.
At the core of the Challenge, Rogue Valley residents are invited to celebrate locally produced food by pledging to eat from the greater Rogue Valley. The purpose of the challenge is to spend some time thinking about where your food comes from and support our local farm and food businesses during the bounty of the harvest season.
When you take the Challenge, you are making a difference in preserving our local agriculture system. Not only does local food mean better taste and more nutritional value, supporting family farmers builds a stronger local economy, and lightens the ecological costs of long-distance food transportation. By eating local, we also learn about our “food shed” and the way that family farms connect us to the land and preserve our valley’s rural character. The four different pledge levels are:
- Locavore Supreme — All foods that I consume during the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles (and I even agree to give up coffee, chocolate and non-local spices)
- Locavore — All foods that I consume during the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles (but I still want my coffee, chocolate and non-local spices)
- Taster— All foods that I consume during one meal per day throughout the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles
- Sampler — All foods that I consume during two meals during the week will be grown, raised or produced within 200 miles
