In about five weeks, my friend Aaron and I are departing on a 100-day bike adventure across America to capture and share stories of the Local Food Movement through potlucks. The stories we capture will be posted on our website, Bikeloc.org (pronounced “bikeluck”).
When we began to plan this trip last year, discussion around the Local Food Movement quieter than it is now – it’s phenomenal to see how much momentum this movement has gained over the short Winter, propelled by writers like Michael Pollan, and Michael Schlosser; movies such as FRESH and King Corn; famers such as Joe Salatin, and Will Allen; and organizations like Just Foods, Rooting DC, and DC Food For All. We’ve watched restaurants start to purchase locally-sourced foods, Michelle Obama plant a garden, Jamie Oliver talk to children about healthy eating, and neighbors plant gardens in their front yards.
We want to create even more awareness around this movement, and get folks to take action. To do this, we plan to hold 12 community potlucks across the US, engaging individuals in discussion about the Local Food Movement, covering topics like accessibility, nutrition, community and culture. As they say, great discussion happens at the dinner table, or in our case, with food in hand. Our hope is that by contributing to the meal, potluck attendees will feel at ease contributing to conversation and story-sharing around their experiences with food – these are the compelling stories we want to capture.
We’re looking to find a copule of captivating stories at each event, capturing them with video, audio, or photo. With the strong social media strategy we’ve been developing, we plan to share these stories with hundreds, even thousands on the web, showcasing impressions of and ideas around the local food movement. As for the potluck goers, we anticipate they’ll walk away with a new emotion about food, or an idea about how they might positively change their habits or contribute to the movement.
We hope you’ll follow us on our trip, and help get the word out! Please visit bikeloc.org to sign up for our newsletter.
In addition, we’re currently participating in a challenge to win $5,000 to help fund our project, and could use your help to make it happen! Please visit refresheverything .com/bikeloc–and vote once per day, every day through March 31. It takes about 20 seconds, and would mean a great deal for our trip.
In food,
Robert
bikeloc.org | facebook.com/bikeloc | @bikeloc
