Future Chefs--This program, a partnership between the City of Kalamazoo Parks & Recreation and Fair Food Matters, offers kids aged 13-19 experience in the kitchen with food service professionals. For more information about Future Chefs, contact Lucy Bland.
Community Kitchen--The vision of this project is to create a certified kitchen that can be rented out for use by citizens, organizations, entrepreneurs, or farmers to process locally created food items.
The Community Kitchen takes the first step! Click on this link to read the survey that is going out to hundreds of people in our community to form a network of kitchen users. Please print it out or download it, fill it out and send it back to us if you are interested in using the community kitchen or forward it to all the food entrepreneurs you know. Questions or ideas? Contact Lucy at 492.7653 or by email.
Farms-to-Kalamazoo College--Fair Food Matters is working with a group at Kalamazoo College, composed of students, faculty, staff, and employees of dining services contractor Sodexho, to bring more local food into the college cafeteria. To learn more about the group and our programs and progress visit the web site.
To bring attention to the Farms-to-K College movement, we have held several Local Food Showdowns. Local chefs use food grown by about local growers to create mouth-watering local delicacies. Awards are given for creativity, flavor and presentation. Follow this link for photos by Seema Jolly of the first two events.
For local food resources download our "Local Foods Guide" last updated November of 2006.
Southwest Michigan Community Harvest Fest--Fair Food Matters has partnered with other local organizations for the past several years to bring to life the Southwest Michigan Community Harvest Fest, a celebration of local food and local farming. Additionally, in the past, we have partnered with KNOW and others to stage an annual Earth Day Celebration.
Growing Matters Garden -- For this urban educational youth development project, Fair Food Matters partners with local organizations such as Family & Childrens Services, the ARK, and the Eastside Urban Garden Project to empower local youth with time in the garden and information about how our food is grown and the ecology of sustainable growing. This project is supported in part by generous grant funding from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, John E. Fetzer Fund, the Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation, and the Michigan Land Trustees. Please visit the