Story & photo essay: Russ Grayson
Plains To Plate Food Convergence, Adelaide, mid-February 2010
AFTER ALL THE PLANNING and problem solving, after all the talking and thinking, the moment had arrived.
Speeches over, Robert Pekin walks over to where the food boxes are stacked and around which the Food Connect Adelaide crew are clustered. He picks up a pair of garden clippers — mere scissors being inadequate for a launch of this type — and as he cuts the bright red ribbon that binds a box, Food Connect Adelaide moves from good idea to reality.
An auspicious moment for Simon Martin and Sally Fisher as the Food Connect Foundation's Robert Pekin cuts the ribbon to launch Food Connect Adelaide.
Food Connect Adelaide has already gathered a capable crew together and they were there at Plains To Plate. Simon Martin is the Enterprise Coordinator. He holds a certificate in agriculture and a diploma in biodynamic agriculture, which probably means he knows a thing or two about farming and food. Sally Fisher, who has a bachelor of science in nutrition and dietetics, is City Cousin Coordinator. Together, these two and the rest of the crew make a capable organising team.
Sydney, February 2010
Food Connect driver Brock and Fiona check out a large-size Food Connect Sydney weekly fresh food box.
The launch of Food Connect Sydney just a few days earlier had been a low key event. The Food Connect driver had delivered the food boxes to the City Cousin collection points throughout the city from where local Food Connect members picked them up.
At the Randwick/Coogee City Cousin, local sustainability enthusiast Greg Olsen became a City Council Buddy by collecting the weekly boxes of fresh food and delivering them to Food Connect members who live nearby.
Time to debug
Adelaide has yet to start deliveries to its seven or so City Cousin collection points. But it will have plenty of boxes to fill with fresh food from city region farmers to judge from the pages of contact details left by people at Plains To Plate.
These are early days for Food Connect in Sydney and Adelaide and the enterprise has now to pass through its initial start-up period in which it is debugged, problems solved and the operation made to run smoother. This will require both patience by and feedback from members.
Well, it's done! Food Connect Adelaide is now reality.
The Food Connect Adelaide crew at the launch.
At the Food Connect Adelaide launch, Sally Fisher and Simon Malcolm join potato farmer, Syd Lewis, whose crop will feed Food Connect Adelaide members.
Robert Pekin gets a little help from his daughter at the launch of Food Connect Adalaide at the Plains To Plate Food Convergence.
Food Connect Adelaide's Sally Fisher.
Food Conenct Adelaide' Simon Martin
Elanor signs on to Food Connect at Adelaide's Plains To Paddock Food Convergence.
