Fulton Street Farmers Market /Steven Depolo
Grand Rapidians:
Reporters:
Local First is launching their 10x10 Pledge as part of the Eat Local Challenge for 2012. The pledge officially runs from August 28 to October 30, starting just a few days after Restaurant Week, which is designed to introduce the community to local restaurants in the area with special $25 menus. The 10x10 Pledge can be taken by filling out a short Survey Monkey form.
The 10x10 Pledge states, "I pledge to be part of a healthy, sustainable food system by shifting $10 of my weekly food budget for 10 weeks toward local food sources." Those who take the pledge will then receive weekly email info packets from Local First with resources, great places to get your local food, recipes, special deals and more.
Local First's goal is to have at least 1000 people sign the pledge. If Grand Rapidians step up to the challenge and they reach the goal, with 10x10 Pledgers spending at least $10 of their weekly food budget to local food, that would mean a shift of $100,000 of local spending going right back into the local food system.
Rapidian reporters have got their own challenge: to report on their own experiences as they take on the 10x10 Pledge themselves.
Our Rapidian reporters are invited to take the pledge and write about it along the way: restaurant reviews, opinion pieces about eatling local, first-person accounts about what they're learning... if it's about local food, we want to hear about it. The top three contributors between August 15 and October 17 will earn a pair of tickets to the Fork Fest on October 18 at Romence Gardens. Local citizens interested in sharing their own news and reflections are, as always, invited to become a reporter and will have a mentor and the Rapidian team to help them share their stories.
Talking about food and the local food economy is nothing new for Rapidian reporters. Members of the food beat have covered stories like the Grandwich competition, the food truck debate and what food trucks they'd like to see in Grand Rapids and of course kept us up to date on developments in the local brewery scene.
All of our Eat Local Challenge content will be easily accessible on one designated page, by clicking the 10x10 banner at the top of the Rapidian website, so be sure to check in to find out what your fellow citizens are learning about the challenge to eat local, $10 at a time.
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