“You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.”
-Julia Child
A Community Harvests Success
Evening Meals at School provides communal, organic meals of local, seasonal foods served in the school’s spiffed-up cafeteria once each month for the entire community. Offered first in January of 2008, the dinner was an instant hit, with hundreds of islanders in the rural community of 2,200 attending.
The menu and the mission of these community dinners are lessoned themselves in the benefit of sustainable, local foods and the strength of a connected community. Lopez School students in grades K-12 have been planting, harvesting, and cooking lunch from their own school gardens for six years. Inspired by the L.I.F.E. Garden program, the dinners began with the goal of strengthening ties between the community and the school and supporting local farmers and families.
Those who attend the self-sustaining Evening Meals donate what they can afford to pay, and the meals served often showcase local foods, from grass-fed lamb to organic produce, benefiting both residents and local farmers. The cost, which runs about $10 per person, is covered by donations at the door. “Everyone needs healthy, local, organic meals at an affordable price,” says Michele Heller, co-founder of Lopez Locavores, a grass-roots community based organization.
Lopez Locavores promotes consistent affordable access to fresh whole sustainably grown, local food, and with the help of a team of 25 volunteers, this group creates the monthly meal at the school. The success continues to build with as many as 250 friends and neighbors regularly sharing a delicious organic meal at a price everyone can afford.
Programs
The L.I.F.E. Garden Program teaches K-12 students how to grow and eat organic, healthy food…
Evening Meals at School serve up organic, affordable communal dinners for the whole community…
S&S Homestead Farm demonstrates principles of sustainability and takes a leadership role in educating youth…
The Vita Parcours Lopez Island Fitness and Ecology Trail offers a scenic fitness experience for all abilities and ages…
Local initiatives support cultural diversity, a connected community, and healthy, well-informed individuals…
Collaborating with a local effort to bring clean water to a village in Ethiopia with the Water for Anasi project…