I know very little about it outside of what’s in the email that I just received, but this sounds like such an interesting event, with so much potential, I felt compelled to pass it along. On Tuesday, February 22, Washtenaw Community College will be hosting an event intended to bring together local farmers and restauranteurs to explore the possibility of better integrating their efforts. The event, which is being called the Small Holder Farm Career Day & Job Fair, is scheduled to run from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, and will be broken into the following three segments.
9:00 AM – Noon: Chef/Farmer Speed Planning – Representatives from local restaurants and representatives from local farms will rotate through a series of quick meetings with one another, along the lines of what’s commonly referred to as ‘speed dating’. Each farmer will meet with approximately five chefs, and vice versa, to discuss which crops are presently being planned and which products would be of most interest in the coming season.
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM: Chef/Farmer Roundtable & Brown Bag Lunch – Participants in both groups are encouraged to share the challenges that their businesses are facing, in order to receive feedback and engage in solutions-oriented dialogue.
2:30 PM – 4:30 PM: Career Fair – Representative from both restaurants and farms will have an opportunity to meet with potential new employees, and job-seekers will be able to ask questions of them.
Those interested in participating should contact Victoria Bennett at: vbennett@wccnet.edu. [As of right now, I’m not clear as to whether or not this event is free and open to the public, but my guess is that it is, and that you don’t have to be a WCC student to participate. You might want to send an email to the above email address, however, just in case.]
I’m not certain, but I imagine this event is to be held in the College’s Morris Lawrence Building, where their last Farming Career Day was held.
5 Comments
This is a good idea, but I’d prefer to have our new governor mandate that all in-state restaurants only serve invasive species.
Thanks for posting Mark!
You are right the event is free and open to the public. Farmers & Chefs interested in participating should RSVP now at vbennett@wccnet.edu. No registration necessary for job seekers attending the job fair.
Can you send a reporter to cover this?
There is also this: http://migoodfoodfilmfestival.blogspot.com/ that is partially sponsored by WCC and my friend Victoria (referenced above) is in charge of it (I think she’s in charge of it…or at least very involved). She is cool.
Do kids in the local high schools know about this? I would have loved to have worked evenings on a farm instead of in a kitchen.