We kicked off the year with a workshop at CAST (Center for Advocacy, Support and Transformation) in Southold to introduce our Flour Power program. We are looking to engage home bakers to help us bake fresh healthy bread to share with food pantries on the East End. We have ambitious goals and want to make it easy for all to help. Click the link to learn more and sign up to bake with us.

Let’s Bake

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Fireside at Quogue Wildlife Refuge

On a sunny winter weekend we gathered at Quogue Wildlife Refuge — if you haven’t visited, you should! Open every day, this sanctuary of 305 acres is home to a nature preserve, educational center and refuge for injured wildlife that require human care to survive. Guests were welcome to walk the trails and join us in the nature center to hear more about SFEE programs while enjoying hot soup and cider provided by event sponsor Bell & Whistle Weddings.

School Gardens Begin to Bloom Again!

We have one of the most successful Slow Food school garden programs in the U.S. with a mission to connect children and their families with the process of planting and growing real food.

Each year SFEE raises money to give out $10,000 worth of grant monies to schools for garden tools, supplies, and materials. Applications for grants up to $1,000 each are accepted on a rolling basis.

A huge thank you to our master farmer Maria Plitt for all her hard work in 2023 towards reseeding this program post pandemic. We look forward to a robust new year.

School Garden Program Updates

Snail of Approval 2023 Awards

Slow Food has long awarded restaurants around the world that incorporate the SF ideals of good clean and fair food for all. SFEE proudly looks beyond eateries to also award businesses from farms, wineries, fish farmers, and food producers Snail of Approval status.

This year we announced awards to:

Amber Waves Farm

ECI – Ecological Culture Initiative

Ty Llwyd Farms

Quail Hill Farm

8 Hands Farm

Suggestions for future nominations are always welcome and appreciated!

For a full list of our SOA recipients, visit our website.

Snail of Approval Awardees

Chefs To Schools

This month we also brought our Chefs To Schools program to the Greenport school and we taught the children how to hydrate with watermelon. Watermelon pizza was made and enjoyed by all.

Slow Hour at Macari Vineyards

Our Slow Hours feature a wine tasting plus an informative introduction to worthwhile organizations. At Macari we welcomed Long Island Organics Council to share news about the East End Countertop Food Cycler Pilot Program. We used the night to remind our guests that eliminating food waste from landfills is the easiest and most significant way for individuals to impact and combat global warming.

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Slow Hour at Duck Walk Vineyards

(in May) featured a wine tasting and an introduction to Food Rescue US-North Fork, committed to locally reducing food waste and hunger by collecting unused edible foods to share with local food pantries.

Slow Hour Events

Slowing Down on the Forks.

September is the month that East End promotes our affiliations with Slow Food USA and Slow Food International.

Slow Food USA’s annual membership drive takes place every September.

Gaining the support of new members helps insure our national organization is able to thrive on a local level. SFEE is one of the most active chapters in the USA.

We also celebrated Slow Food International’s partnership with Negroni Week – a global initiative to raise and distribute funds to local SF chapters working to promote food and beverage production that is good for everyone and good for the planet.

In September SFEE received one of the 29 grants that were made globally this year to various chapters whose programs work to change the world through food and beverage. WOO HOO! Thanks to all who helped and continue to support our efforts for our Flour Power program.

We held our annual public meeting at Veteran’s Park in Mattituck to gather with our East End community. We welcomed our new incoming Board members and paid tribute to our outgoing members Pennie Schwartz, Robyn Tyson-Stoehr and Peter Berley for all their amazing contributions — way too many to list!

The meeting kicked off our week-long virtual auction which was a great success with over 75 auction items donated by our SFEE community. We are grateful for the amazing response, together we raised over $15,000!

The money raised through this auction is the way SFEE is able to fund our Feed the Forks initiatives including School Gardens and Flour Power.

Our donors