On December 7th, 2012, the American Museum of Natural History hosted 400 teachers and educators under the Blue Whale in the Hall of Ocean Life; this was part of its awesome exhibition, Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture.
The exhibit focused on our planet's history of growing, trading, cooking, tasting and eating food. Slow Food NYC facilitated table discussions at the event's Educators' Evening. SFNYC board members Rachel Mamane, Holley Atkinson and Roberto Gautier sat with teachers and described Slow Food programs in NYC public schools - our farm in Brownsville, Brooklyn and our growing network of food producers.
Face-to-face contacts with science teachers, cooking instructors and program directors from FoodFight.org; GrowNYC; Abbe Fudderman of the Earth School in the Lower East Side; Sea to Table; Windowfarms; and the NYC Department of Education expanded SFNYC's reach in direct, pre-Facebook ways.
Teachers proclaimed their love of the huge resources of the AMNH, but cried out for volunteers with hands-on expertise for gardening and cooking projects. Any takers? Contact Ed Yowel or Martina Kenworthy of Slow Food NYC's Urban Harvest project at info@SlowFoodNYC.org.