Cornell Future Food Summit

05/12/2020

🎙️The team at Food Tank: The Food Think Tank have been providing frequent coverage of the impacts of COVID-19 on our food system. Their podcast is hosted by Food Tank President Dani Nierenberg, who interviews food system practitioners across all sectors, most recently including Frances Moore Lappé, author of the world-renowned Diet for a Small Planet, as well as Dan Barber, chef/co-owner of Blue Hill At Stone Barns and co-founder of Row 7 Seed Company

Check out Food Tank's amazing coverage at https://foodtank.com/

05/07/2020

Producers around the world are suffering from excess food with shrinking sales, while food banks are struggling to keep their shelves full. While some of the supply has been redirected to food pantries through organizations like The FarmLink Project, setting up these relationships and overcoming logistical hurdles has proven to be difficult.

Read more:

Some producers acknowledge the efforts are “just a drop in the bucket” of what farmers can’t sell and are destroying instead.

05/03/2020

Farmworkers are not only essential workers in upholding our food supply chain, but they are also particularly vulnerable due to the close working proximity as well as shared housing with other farmworkers. Students, volunteers, and staff at the Cornell Friends of Farmworkers Program have been making sure that farmworkers were provided with resources, including handsewing and delivering masks, as well as COVID-19 and health education materials in Spanish, English, and other indigenous languages.

Learn more about their work here:
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/04/program-delivers-masks-covid-19-info-ny-farmworkers
https://cardi.cals.cornell.edu/programs/farmworker/

To help protect farmworkers and slow the spread of COVID-19 in rural New York, the Cornell Farmworker Program is mobilizing local support to make and distribute face masks across the state.

05/01/2020

Mutual Aid Tompkins has been a key source of support for many members of the local community. Formed by a group of neighbours committed to serving populations most vulnerable and affected by COVID-19, they have helped set up community food pantry pods in accessible areas around town. These cabinets are stocked with non-perishable food, stocked by volunteers, and open to anyone—no questions asked.

Check out how you can contribute or see food sharing cabinet locations on their website: https://mutualaidtompkins.com/food-sharing/locations

Photo Credit: Mutual Aid Tompkins page

04/29/2020

The PressBay Food Transfer Hub in downtown Ithaca has been working hard to provide fresh food to the local community, forming direct connections between producers and consumers. They organize pickup on Thursdays from an extensive list of farms and more recently, have collaborated with Friendship Donations Network to set-up the PressBay Food Pantry every Monday.

Check out their work here: http://pressbayalley.com/pressbay-food-transfer-hub/

Photo credit: Press Bay website

04/27/2020

Before the COVID quarantine period, our fabulous co-founder Shen Ming Lee hosted a couple social events with our team. We had a sushi-making social in the fall and a community potluck in the spring! We hope our spread can give you some home-cooking inspiration.

What’s your go-to quarantine recipe? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below. 🙂

04/26/2020

Running out of flour? The COVID quarantine has introduced a whole new community of home-bakers as demand for flour, yeast, and other baking materials have soared. With grocery stores going through supply shortages, many bakers have turned to local flour businesses. Our community member Alexandra Donovan shared the work of Amy Holloran at Flour Ambassador—an online campaign supporting small, regional mills:

“In the shortage of flour during quarantine, I found myself digging deeper for local mills to buy from… Ended up ordering from Ground Up Grain in Hadley, MA and am so thrilled and inspired to have flour that was literally milled last week!”

We invite you to share any local/regional flour options (or bakeries using local flour) in your area below! :)

Photo credit: Flour Ambassador / Ground Up Grain

04/25/2020

The Ithaca Farmers Market is open and considered an "essential business". If you are able, we encourage you to support our local food community and be sure to follow their new health and safety guidelines!

Check out this fantastic video made by Cornell student/videographer Rafael Bitanga at Bitanga Productions.

04/24/2020

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, businesses around the world have responded to the soaring demand for hygiene and medical products, converting their operations to manufacture masks, face shields, hospital gowns etc. Around us in Upstate NY, regional cideries and distilleries like Rootstock Ciderworks have also taken action, utilizing their equipment and expertise to manufacture hand sanitizers. While most of these supplies have gone to hospitals and other essential businesses, some are also available for purchase for local customers.

Learn more about similar NY operations here, and feel free to share any other sanitizer operations in the comments below: https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/04/they-mastered-making-hand-sanitizers-whats-next-for-upstate-nys-distilleries.html

04/24/2020

Spotlighting our third functional team — Partnerships & Outreach! These team members were incredibly vital in putting together a holistic agenda and sourcing world-class speakers for our program. They were also integral in working with on- and off-campus organizations for fundraising and building co-sponsoring relationships. Without their leadership and organization, we would not have had as many robust and interdisciplinary partners for a well-rounded Summit!

Team Members:
Andrew Petterson - Applied Economics & Management ‘20
Danielle Gill - MBA ‘21
Delia Hughes - Food Science ‘14, MBA ‘20
Elaine Tu - Hotel Administration ‘20
Elena Runfeldt - Nutritional Sciences ‘22
Serena Chen - Applied Economics & Management ‘23
Yun Liu - MPH ‘21

Learn more about our whole team at cornellfuturefoodsummit.com/team!

04/23/2020

Irene Li ‘15 has been working on the front lines of the COVID pandemic in Boston with her business Mei Mei Restaurant. From delivering meals for healthcare workers with Off Their Plate to supporting local farmers with Farm Fresh Rhode Island, Irene and her team have been actively serving their community. They have also recently launched the “Unsung Restaurants” fundraising campaign supporting small, mom-and-pop restaurant businesses around Boston.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/unsungrestaurants

Check out their page and show them some love and support!