Slow Food East Bay celebrates worker-owned collectives at Port Kitchens in Oakland May 11th.  Enjoy good food and drink, and learn about the local food movement. The film Food For Change will be shown, and a panel will talk about local worker owned enterprises.  There is a wealth of co-ops in the realm of food.  Slow Food East Bay gives you an inside look at collectively owned organizations in local economies.

Slow Food East Bay is San Francisco’s East Bay chapter of Slow Food. We’re one of over 210 chapters in the U.S. operating within the network of the national non-profit organization Slow Food USA.  We strive to connect people with their local food communities — whether that be by working on community gardens in urban areas, visiting & purchasing food at local farmers markets, supporting legislation that protects our food sources, learning new (old!) kitchen skills such as food preservation, or just sitting down to a potluck meal and enjoying food and wine with other like-minded folks.

We believe that every one of us has a right to enjoy good, clean and fair food and that we can all be “food activists” in our everyday lives. You don’t have to attend meetings or sit in trees to claim a stake in the food system: food activists are people who cook, garden, share meals, meet their farmers and food producers, cooperate and invite new and old friends to come sit down at their table.

Become a member
Slow Food is a grassroots non-profit supported by members who pay annual dues. You should become a Slow Food member for the same reason you would attend a march: because you believe in the cause.

There are 3 ways to become a Slow Food member:

1. Online at www.slowfoodusa.org
2. By phone at (718) 260-8000
3. By mail. Download the form here.

Attend one of our many programs, or move one step up the ladder and help us out!
We are all volunteers, and though we’d like to do more, our time and resources are limited. Do you ideas for programs you think would help support the local food community?  Join our planning committee and as a group we will bring them to fruition!

Some of our thoughts?

• Biweekly drinks and discussion at a bar serving good local beer
• A monthly picnic after the Saturday farmers’ market
• A workday at a community garden or with a program like City Slicker Farms or the People’s Grocery
• Visits to nearby farms
• Film screenings
• Neighborhood food, garden or foraging walks
• Potlucks
• Cooking lessons
• Volunteer days
• Seed exchanges
• Teach-ins, talks and more

Invite us into partnerships or collaborations
Our leadership team loves new ideas, but we don’t always have the time or resources to follow through on them. If you’re thinking about organizing an event (a soup night, weekly drinks, a garden workday, a rally) or if you’re already involved in a project or organization in the Bay Area and you think we can work together to help out the cause, write us.

Contribute to your local food community
Perhaps the most important way to get involved is to “vote” for healthy food and agriculture in your everyday life. Get cooking. Buy local, organic food from the farmers’ market and from locally owned groceries. Support local ranchers with the Bay Area Meat CSA. Pack a bag lunch. Plant a kitchen garden. Make things from scratch. Conserve, compost and recycle. Drink unbottled water. Sign the Food Declaration. Organize an Eat-In. Speak out about food injustice. Learn the Bay Area’s food stories. Shake the hands that feed you.

Talk Slow Food
A very easy way to take action for healthy food and agriculture is to talk about it. Organize an Eat-In with your friends, your church, your book club or the neighbors on your block. Tell politicians to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and get their act together. Write letters to editors. You’ve got to start somewhere.

Contact us at info@slowfoodeastbay.com