This past Saturday the rain and clouds of a busy day gave way to the fun Chicken and Egg of the night. It was the 9th Chicken and Egg Fundraiser Dance held at the Capri Hall/Subud Centre on Fraser.
There were folks from FarmFolk/CityFolk, BC Association of Regenerative Agriculture, Vancouver Farmers Markets, and farmers from Aldergrove.
The Sybaritic String Band provided some great entertainment. There was a, what I will call, a square dance caller there - teaching classics such as the Virginia Reel. Great local organic foods, lots of raffle prizes and silent auction items. Congrats to Susan, Jeff, and Roberta for a fun fun night of dancing and appreciating food.
Special thanks to volunteers Penny, Suzanne, Michael, Andrew (VFM board member), Cheryl, Steve, Shalea, Mariegold, storyteller Naomi, Marcia, and Eva for helping to make the event a memorable one.
Put on your chicken hats and start stretching! It’s the 9th annual Chicken & Egg Dance. Save the date, Saturday February 13th to come shake and shimmy your winter blues away. It’s going to take place during the first weekend of Olympics, and is a great fundraiser with proceeds going to the Vancouver Farmers Markets, as well as FarmFolk/CityFolk and The BC Association for Regenerative Agriculture. That is a Chicken & Egg Dance supporting some great peeps…and I’m not talking about the marshmallow kind here.
There is also a silent auction! Check out the clip below…how fun does that look?!>!
Here’s a clip of hilarity from one of our vendor’s Bokashi Man!
Excerpt of information about the event…
A perennial favourite family event that benefits local food organizations returns this year on February 13. This time around, a trio of non-profits bring an evening of good old-fashioned country fun to the city for the 9th Annual Chicken and Egg Dance held at the Capri Hall. The BC Association for Regenerative Agriculture, Farm Folk City Folk and Vancouver Farmers Markets join forces to raise money to further their work promoting and supporting local food production.
Saturday, February 13, 2010 6-11pm Subud Centre/Capri Hall, 3925 Fraser Street map here. Adults: $12, Kids (6-12 yrs) $6, Kids 5 and under – Free Family Fun – no alcohol. Dance to the Sybaritic String Band Farm-friendly snacks for sale.
Tickets are available in advance at Vancouver Winter Farmers Markets (January 16, 30 & February 13) through the Vancouver Farmers Markets office and online at www.eatlocal.org Tickets also available at the door. Cash & Debit accepted.
If you are interested in helping, please email me. We are looking for volunteers to help us run this fabulous event. Here are some positions we’d like to fill for the event:
1) Kids Activities Co-ordinator Most of the help for the event is required on the day of the dance, however, we are also looking for someone to plan children’s activities to be held in the mezzanine area of the hall. Since this is a family-friendly dance, kids are welcome and usually are looking for things to do. Ideas for the kids area include: face-painting, Valentines (or other) themed crafts, games, sing-a-longs etc but we are open to new ideas and a fresh approach.
VFM has a large amount of supplies suitable for kids crafts. We even have game materials and a face-painting kit. This position would require someone to look through what supplies are currently available, make a plan for activities to do on the event day and make request for additional supplies. Our organizing group meets by phone every other week so if the Kids Activities Co-ordinator can join in on a conference call, that would be great. If not, VFM would be the contact organization as we are sponsoring the kids area and VFM offices can be used as a base of operation because most of the supplies are stored there.
If you are interested in this position, please get in touch soon!
2) Set-up Team aka “The A Team” or “The Eggs” (approximately 3pm - 6pm) Setup of tables, chairs, food station, silent auction, kids activities, kids raffle, food ticket sales, front door ticket sales Decoration of hall - creation of some signage on-site to thank sponsors and donors
3) During the Dance Help aka “The Chickens” or “The Eggs”(6pm-10pm) Taking tickets, payment and greeting folks as they arrive Selling kids’ raffle tickets and supporting the kids raffle station Helping out with the kids’ activities, facepainting etc. Help with selling food tickets Supporting the food station - ensuring food makes it out to the buffet tables, taking tickets from purchasers Monitor silent auction bid sheets
4) After the Dance aka “Take Down Central” (10pm- midnight) Clean up and pack out Do a spin on the last song of the night
5) Silent Auction Help A good way we raise funds is by holding a silent auction during the dance. If you are handy contacting various companies around town, or are well connected, we can use your help getting silent auction items for the event.
6) Outreach Team A major help is letting people in your community know about the event. If you have a free afternoon, then you may be able to help us tremendously with letting your community know about the dance.
Big thank you to all of the suppporters, volunteers, and staff who came by our Open House last Friday. What a great way to start of a new year!
The head office was very festive with lots of tasty vittles and treats. Seriously, it was the most beautiful I have ever seen the office…so clean! Beautiful flowers and candles were on display…very festive.
Phil and Debbra from Edible Vancouver chatting with our Executive Director Tara.
It was great to see market staff from what feels now like way back in the summer stop by to catch up, enjoy some laughs and meet people from other markets. Special thanks to all of the volunteers who swang by to say hi!
“And that’s the message we’re trying to get across to the decision makers and politicians. Farmers markets are not special events or community projects—they’re an economic driver that employs hundreds of people and allows access to fresh food.”
—Tara McDonald, executive director of Vancouver Farmers Markets and member of the city’s Food Policy Council.
Incase you missed it…over the holidays the Vancouver Courier did a write up about 2009 year in quotes. One of the quotes came from our own Executive Director Tara! It’s a great point about our local Farmers Markets too!
Here is a clip from Vancity Community Foundation which has a great summary of some of the programs they support. You’ll see there is some footage of our Executive Director Tara McDonald. Great clip!
Happy New Year! This year is already starting off with a bang. Thanks to everyone who came to our New Year’s Open House last Friday. Here…in summary form is a list of some farm/food related events going on in the next week or so. Email me if you’d like more details.
Spring Gillard is teaching her ongoing course The Politics of Food. more here.
Saturday, January 16th - 10a-2p 1st Winter Farmers Market of the year!! Hope to see you there!
Tuesday, January 19th Screening of “The Age of Stupid” by the UBC Continuing Studies Centre for Sustainability. more here.
Thursday, January 21st Screening of “Jeff Lawton’s Intro to Permaculture Design” by the Vancouver Permaculture Meetup. more here.
Saturday, January 23rd Cedar Cottage Garden is having their Annual General Meeting. Read more here.
Soon February will be here! One of the highlights for us will be our Annual Chicken & Egg Dance on Saturday February 13th - save the date! February will bring us of course the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games - the city will surely be busy with activity. If you are cycling around town during the Olympics, check out this handy map of bike routes during the Games.
If you have other events going on in town that are local-food focused, please feel free to email me details and we will post on our blog. Sharing community events is just a small part of building a great local food community. :-)
Happy Holidays to everyone! This creative time-lapse film of the last Winter Farmer’s Market was put together from our talented volunteer (and Winter Farmer’s Market Staff) Brock! Big thanks to Brock for filming and editing this piece.
Thanks to all of our volunteers who helped us staff and run an amazing market for the first time at the Croatian Cultural Centre: Mariegold, Sandy, Linda, Shalea, Jon, Iryna, Cathy, Kristy, Marcia, Eva, Wendy, Gretchen, Penny L, Penny P, Celeste, as well as our board members Tara & Amy! Special thanks to everyone who came out to support us and our amazing staff: Jen, Roberta, Alita, Bobbie, Alissa, and Jess.
Volunteer, event planner extraordinaire, and food photographer Jackie Connelly is holding a Food Photography 101 class in the new year!
I attended an earlier version of this class during the Sustenance Festival and had a great time - very informative. The focus of the class will be on taking shots for food bloggers and will take place on Saturday January 9th at the Irashai Grill. More info at the link above.
Just announced last week, an exciting opportunity has arisen to learn about urban farming. With more demand for people wanting to learn how to grow their own food, and even take it to the next level and make a living off of urban farming… a new program through Kwantlen Polytechnic University in cooperation with the Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Project, the Richmond Food Security Society, and the City of Richmond sounds excellent!
City Farmer has a great listing of the new program on their website…enrollment info is on the link above. Below is the contact for more information.
Contact Kent Mullinix, Institute for Sustainable Horticulture 604-612-1252; kent.mullinix@kwantlen.ca
Those of you who are interested in really immersing yourself in sustainable farming practices should know…the program includes the potential for an “incubator” farm land at the end of the session next November! That is incredibly valuable…land that you can work yourself after you’ve finished.
Hey, and then maybe we’ll see you selling your goods at one of our markets - score!
For those of you like me who can spend hours sitting and drooling over culinary creations on Food Network, you may be very familiar with Chef Anthony Sedlak…
Chef Anthony has risen to fame from his win on Food Network’s Superstar Chef Challenge II, to his own half-hour cooking show The Main. Originally from Prince George, BC, Chef Anthony is back in BC as the Executive Chef at The Corner Suite Bistro De Luxe just blocks from our very own West End Farmers Market.
I found a quote from Anthony about his first experience shopping at a farmers market. Chef Anthony uses a lot of fresh and seasonal ingredients in his cooking. What an honor it was to read that the first farmers market he visited was our very own East Van Market at Trout Lake when Anthony was 16 years old!
In a related note, we do not have an update yet on the new location of the East Van market for Summer 2010, but please stay tuned for news!
With our Annual Holiday Market behind us, and only one more Farmers Market in year 2009…there are some other great options for gift giving out there.
Granville Magazine has a great list of some other local gift ideas for the holidays.
You may notice that our Winter Farmers Market is on the list. Don’t forget that market money and our market merchandise still make excellent stocking stuffers!
This is the official blog of the lovely and hardworking volunteers of the Vancouver Farmers Markets. We help run four markets in the summer months and one market throughout the cold and rainy months. For more information on volunteer opportunities please visit the Vancouver Farmers Markets website , or send us an email.
First time visitor? Read our quick welcome note here.
Regular volunteer? Send a story & photos to us via email or submit here.
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