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Videos of the two 2014 “Food will help Rhode Island grow™” Town Halls

by David Dadekian
written by David Dadekian
At the R.I. Gubernatorial candidates forum, from left to right: Todd Giroux, Ken Block, Gina Raimondo, Clay Pell, Allan Fung, Angel Taveras, Jessica Wood, Ben Wood, David Dadekian, Michael Reppucci

At the R.I. Gubernatorial candidates forum, from left to right: Todd Giroux, Ken Block, Gina Raimondo, Clay Pell, Allan Fung, Angel Taveras, Jessica Wood, Ben Wood, David Dadekian, Michael Reppucci

In August, Eat Drink RI produced two Town Hall style forums, one with the candidates for governor of Rhode Island on Wednesday, August 13th, at the Sons of Liberty Spirits Distillery in South Kingstown moderated by David Dadekian and Wildwood co-owner Jessica Wood, and one with the candidates for mayor of Providence on Monday, August 18th, at The Café at Easy Entertaining in Providence moderated by Dadekian and Easy Entertaining owner Kaitlyn Roberts.

Based upon Eat Drink RI’s motto “Food will help Rhode Island grow™,” each Town Hall focused specifically on the food and beverage industry. Thank you to all the candidates—Ken Block, Allan Fung, Todd Giroux, Clay Pell, Gina Raimondo, Angel Taveras, Jorge Elorza, Dan Harrop, Michael Solomon, Brett Smiley and Chris Young—for participating and to the Rhode Island Food Policy Council and the RI Small Business Journal for their sponsorship support. Note: the Gubernatorial forum video was put together from a number of different sources, apologies for the mismatched sound and choppiness. It is complete with the exception of two dropouts, the beginning of a question being asked by Moderator Wood and a single sentence from one of Ken Block’s answers.

Eat Drink RI’s “Food will help Rhode Island grow™” Town Hall with the R.I. Gubernatorial Candidates

 

Eat Drink RI’s “Food will help Rhode Island grow™” Town Hall with the Providence Mayoral Candidates

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Eat Drink RI Presents Two “Food will help Rhode Island grow™” Town Halls: Gubernatorial Candidates on August 13 and Providence Mayoral Candidates on August 18

by David Dadekian
written by David Dadekian

Eat Drink RI Presents Two Food Will Help Rhode Island Grow Town HallsEat Drink RI along with Sons of Liberty Spirits, Wildwood, Easy Entertaining, the RI Small Business Journal, and the RI Food Policy Council, have put together two Town Hall style forums, one with the candidates for governor of Rhode Island on Wednesday, August 13th, at the Sons of Liberty Spirits Distillery in South Kingstown and one with the candidates for mayor of Providence on Monday, August 18th, at The Café at Easy Entertaining in Providence. Both forums will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a reception immediately following.

Based upon Eat Drink RI’s motto “Food will help Rhode Island grow™,” each Town Hall will focus specifically on the food and beverage industry, asking the candidates for governor and mayor of our capital city how they plan on encouraging further growth in the industry, and their plans to work with and assist culinary businesses grow our economy. As Eat Drink RI founder and President David Dadekian says, “The next revolution in jobs and new businesses will be in the food and beverage industry, and Rhode Island is poised to be at the forefront of that economic growth through our restaurants, agriculture, aquaculture, food & beverage producers, distributors and much more.”

A portion of the questions to be asked at each Town Hall will be collected by Eat Drink RI from Rhode Islanders who own businesses and are workers in the food and beverage industry. While organizers expect high attendance by industry professionals, the events will be open to the public with registration for free tickets at eatdrinkri.com. Topics to be discussed may include support for existing culinary businesses, regulatory reforms, how to incubate new business, access to healthier food and increasing local purchasing.

Rhode Island Gubernatorial Candidates Town Hall – tickets here

  • Confirmed: Ken Block, Allan Fung, Todd Giroux, Clay Pell, Gina Raimondo and Angel Taveras
  • Wednesday, August 13th, 6:30 p.m. at Sons of Liberty Spirits, 1425 Kingstown Rd., South Kingstown, RI 02879
  • Moderated by Eat Drink RI’s David Dadekian and Wildwood’s Jessica Wood
  • There will be a reception sponsored by Sons of Liberty and Wildwood following the session with the candidates.

Providence Mayoral Candidates Town Hall – tickets here

  • Confirmed: Jorge Elorza, Dan Harrop, Michael Solomon, Brett Smiley and Chris Young
  • Monday, August 18th, 6:30 p.m. at Easy Entertaining, 166 Valley St., Providence, RI 02909
  • Moderated by Eat Drink RI’s David Dadekian and Easy Entertaining’s Kaitlyn Roberts
  • There will be a reception sponsored by Easy Entertaining following the session with the candidates.

The food and beverage sector in Rhode Island is one of the few consistently growing areas in our economy with long established businesses thriving and new ones opening almost weekly. Business owners are passionate about the culinary scene here as evidenced by the thoughts of some of the Town Halls sponsors:

Jessica Wood, co-owner of Wildwood, says “I love Rhode Island! LOVE IT! Rhode Island has ocean front farmland, how can you beat that? My commitment to this state is based in employment as well as sourcing local foods. As a company we take pride in sourcing from local farms. We have taken company field trips to meet the farmers and truly understand where our food is coming from. I also commit to employing Rhode Islanders. To do this we need support from our government to truly be successful in this movement.”

Michael Reppucci, CEO & Founder at Sons of Liberty Spirits Co., says, “Rhode Island farmers and their products have made our whiskey stand in its own class. We use locally grown cucumbers and pumpkins in our spirits and have won spirits awards at the world competition level for them.”

Kaitlyn Roberts, owner and executive chef of Easy Entertaining Inc., says “As deeply entrenched members of the Providence community, we are honored to have been selected as the venue for the Providence Mayoral caucus. As a company, our core values revolve around locally minded cuisine, seasonal ingredients and exceptional customer service. I am extremely excited to be co-moderating the caucus with David Dadekian of Eat Drink RI. I am looking forward to relaying the questions that we have as service industry leaders and those of my peers. Ensuring that the city runs as a well-oiled machine is critical to our success as major players in the hospitality industry, and being a part of this caucus will only allow us to discuss the different ideas of achieving that goal.”

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Food Day RI – Full List of Events

by David Dadekian
written by David Dadekian

Food DayFood Day will be October 24—in 2011 and in years to come. Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. We will work with people around the country to create thousands of events in homes, schools, churches, farmers markets, city halls, and state capitals.

Rhode Islanders are participating in the first National Food Day with a great number of events around the state before, on and after October 24. A number of schools, businesses and other organizations are showing their support by holding private events. Below is a list of all the public events as collected by the Department of Health and the other organizations involved with Food Day RI. For more information on the events, please see any contact information, or check the Food Day RI Facebook page or Food Day RI Google Calendar.

The primary RI event for Food Day is the launch of the RI Food Policy Council and the “Opportunities for Action” summary of the soon-to-be completed RI Food Assessment, which is a comprehensive report on the current state of the food system in Rhode Island. Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit will join First Lady Stephanie Chafee; Department of Health Director Michael Fine, MD; Senator Susan Sosnowski; Henry Herrera, MD, general manager for Dig Deep Farms & Produce, a project of the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs Activities League; and others for the 10 a.m. launch at the State House which will focus attention on the importance of ensuring a healthy, affordable, sustainable, and locally-grown food supply.

Following the State House event, the RI Food Policy Council will host a community presentation and discussion entitled “Come Talk About Food!” The event will take place from 4 – 6 p.m. at the URI Providence campus located at 80 Washington Street. Karp Resources will present their findings on the current state of the food system in Rhode Island. The public will have an opportunity to discuss the RI Food Assessment findings and share their ideas for making RI’s food system stronger, sustainable, and more equitable.

In addition, the Office of Providence Mayor Angel Taveras will be rolling out Farm Fresh Rhode Island’s Veggie Box Program on Food Day. For those City Employees who enroll, the program delivers fresh produce directly to City Hall from local farms each week, increasing the convenience of buying well priced and healthy options for employees and their families. Farm Fresh Rhode Island is expanding this program to businesses and organizations throughout the City of Providence. Providence Mayor Tavares, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung and the town of North Kingstown have each issued Food Day proclamations.

Events on National Food Day, Monday, October 24:

  • 9 – 10:30 a.m. – Meet Casey’s Farm with Adam Lowe at West Bay Family YMCA Welcome Center, North Kingstown
  • 10 – 11 a.m. – Food Policy Council Launch at the State House, 82 Smith Street, Providence
  • 10-30 a.m. – 12 p.m. – Meet Bevan Lindsley of the Coastal Grower’s Markets at Casey Farm and Lafayette Mills at West Bay Family YMCA Welcome Center, North Kingstown
  • 3 – 4 p.m. – ECO Youth Food Day Flash Mob, Burnside Park next to Kennedy Plaza, Providence
  • 4 – 6 p.m. – Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’ Food Day Proclamation and community presentation of the statewide food assessment at URI downtown campus Feinstein Auditorium, 80 Washington Street, Providence
  • 7 p.m. – Free Screening of the film, “Urban Roots” at JWU Harborside Campus, 265 Harborside Boulevard, Providence

Events Before Food Day

  • Thursday, October 20, 4 – 7 p.m. – Nutrition Workshop for kids in afterschool program at the Cranston YMCA, 155 Gansett St.,Cranston
  • Friday, October 21, 7:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Free Food Festival with cooking demos, nutrition education and a visit from local farmers at the Health and Wellness Institute, 291 Promenade St., Providence
  • Saturday, October 22, 8 a.m. – Temas Familiares: Healthy Eating Workshop for Parenting Conference, 182 Thurbers Ave, Providence (for registered participants)
  • Saturday, October 22, 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 23, 12:30 – 6:30 p.m. – RI Local Food Day with featured local farmers, sample recipes and more at all Shaw’s Markets in coordination with the NE Dairy Council

After Food Day and ongoing events:

  • Wednesday, October 26, 6 – 9:30 p.m. – Food and Farming Community Forum at CCRI to engage the wider community on how to expand local farming and fisheries 1 John H. Chafee Blvd., Newport
  • Thursday, October 27, 6 – 8:30 p.m. – West Bay YMCA hosts presentation on Making it Easier to Get Healthy Foods at Wickford Middle School, North Kingstown
  • Friday, October 28, 6 p.m. potluck, 7 p.m. presentation – Witness for Peace brings in speaker from the Humboldt Center in Nicaragua for a dialogue on “The Human Face of U.S. Policy” at Friends Meeting House 99 Morris Ave., Providence
  • Friday, October 28, 6:30 p.m. – “Supersize Me” Movie/Discussion Night at the Cranston YMCA 155 Gansett Ave, Cranston
  • Saturday, October 29, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. – West Bay YMCA hosts presentation “Keeping Farms and Local Food in our Future” at the Cold Spring Community Center, North Kingstown

Food Day events and activities have been planned in coordination with the following RI organizations, universities and businesses: Southside Community Land Trust New England Dairy Council, Environmental Justice League, YMCA of Greater Providence, West Bay YMCA, Town of N. Kingstown, Whole Foods, Brown University, Johnson and Wales University, University of Rhode Island, RI School of Design, Farm Fresh RI, Lifespan Hospitals, Shaws, Health and Wellness Institute, RI Department of Environmental Management, RI Department of Health, RI Department of Administration, New Urban Farmers, Amica, Chartwells School Dining Services, Aramark School Nutrition Services, Kids First, League of Women Voters, Edible Rhody, Eat Drink RI, Rhode Island Community Food Bank, Grow Smart, African Alliance, RI Resource Recovery Corporation

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