PHOTOS: Slow Food East End Gathers at Shelter Island Historical Society

The second annual Slow Food East End annual meeting and potluck supper took place at the Havens Barn at the Shelter Island Historical Society on Sunday. The meeting was open to all Slow Food members as well as those wanting to learn about it.

Slow Food USA offered a $5 challenge, asking that potluck attendees bring a dish to share costing no more than $5 for four servings. The offerings were impressive and offered a wide variety of choices for all tastes.

Initiatives and activities of Slow Food East End include potluck dinners with films, restaurant crawls highlighting those that serve fresh local food, community and school gardens, improving school food choices and nutrition programs and cookbooks with inexpensive seasonal meals. Internships are offered, such as one for interns working at Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island in honor of Josh Levine, a Slow Food enthusiast who recently lost his life at Quail Hill Farm.

Slow Food East End is thrilled that the fifth grade school students from Greenport will work on the garden started this year with the help of parents, faculty and chef Rosa Ross, owner of Scrimshaw Restaurant. The school cafeteria will be offering salad greens and other veggies grown in the school garden. The school’s garden committee welcomes the help of area residents. To volunteer contact Carol Worth at 631-477-1950 or  mcfm.morgan@gmail.com.  Other school gardens started and supported on the east end by Slow Food include Southampton, Bridgehampton, Springs and Hayground.

An international organization, Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.

Slow Food East End is inspired by chef, author and edible school-yard visionary Alice Waters, who wants Americans to choose seasonal food grown through sustainable techniques by local farmers and to serve caring meals at the family table rather than Happy Meals in the minivan.