Welcome to Farm to Shul: Boston’s Jewish Local Agriculture Campaign
In the spring of 2011, we launched a new phase of our initiative, focused on increasing the sustainability and ethics of Institutional Purchasing of food by Jewish community institutions. For more information about this initiative, please contact Aliza: aliza[dot]wasserman[at]gmail[dot]com.
We have also been collaborating with our friends at the newly launched Ganei Beantown to run a Young Adult Learning Series on Judaism and local food.
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In October 2008 Moishe/Kavod House kicked off Farm to Shul: Boston’s Jewish local agriculture campaign. This campaign, began with generous funding from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston aimed at:
- Increasing understanding of importance of local agriculture in the Boston Jewish community.
- Increasing demand for community supported agriculture (CSA) shares in local farms.
Since that time, we have worked with a number of synagogues and Boston area Jewish organizations by presenting workshops, and providing technical assistance and elements of our curriculum, in order to build relationships between synagogues and local farms, and build knowledge and interest in the relationships between Jewish values and ritual and food systems issues.
We have a local focus in our organizing and also support national efforts through Hazon and other organizations to build awareness and increase action for sustainable food systems in the Jewish community. This has included supporting a variety of efforts including state policies for better school nutrition, the campaign for fair wages for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Florida tomato pickers (check out coverage of this effort here), and other efforts.
PAST ACTIVITIES
We coordinated the 2009 Tu B’shevat Seder in conjunction withTemple Beth Zion, Hebrew College, which sold out at more than 200 people from several Jewish communities in the area as well as eight farmers that provided insight into the challenges and rewards of food production. Thanks to all volunteers for their stellar support. This seder has continued to be a popular annual event.
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