Can Promoting Food Systems be Fun? Ask a Local Yokel! 

For two summers, some half-dozen local-food enthusiasts from Missoula, Montana have trekked across the state from West Yellowstone to the Yaak to educate and entertain communities about why and how to eat food grown closer to home. With wigs, oversized props, audience prompts, and a whole lot of laughter, The Local Yokels Road Show—thirty minutes of skits and songs—frames local food systems as good old-fashioned fun.
If you are not afraid to work hard—but laugh harder—you can create your own Local Yokels troupe. Here are ten tips to get started. (more…)

aka A Reflection on Food Project Induced Insanity with Five Steps to Plan Your Own Eat In, Act Out Week Event and Instructions to Make an Eggplant Costume

by Lily Perkins-High, Food Project Intern

(Eat In Act Out Week is an international week of events to promote local food, featuring YOU! Host an event in your community! Learn more at www.thefoodproject.org/eatinactout)
I am, at times, prompted to do strange things in the name of The Food Project. For instance, last August I found myself dressed up in a homemade eggplant costume, passing out carrots to complete strangers, urging them to eat locally. I was a part of Carrot Day, one of the numerous events during Eat In, Act Out Week. (more…)

(Almost) Everything You Ever Needed to Know About Bringing Food Stamps to Your Farmers’ Market

by Sarita Daftary

Almost all states now issue Food Stamps through an electronic system called Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT). This replaces the paper food stamps used in the past with an EBT card that works like a debit card to withdraw money from a customer’s Food Stamp account. A good thing in many ways, but a huge blow to farmers’ markets since accepting EBT cards means you need a working EBT machine – not an easy feat for most markets, which operate in outdoor areas without access to electricity, and include multiple vendors. But many farmers’ markets across the country, including our East New York Farmers’ Market in Brooklyn, NY, have been using wireless EBT machines to bring Food Stamps back to farmers’ markets.

You can too.

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