Hi Everyone,

I just experienced what happens when a new condo development goes into a low income neighborhood, and pushes the old timers out! It’s called Gentrification, and it sucks! For over 20 years, The River Fund-NY, along with iEat Green, have been serving the folks in and around Rufus King Park in Jamaica, Queens, a Homemade Thanksgiving Feast on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. This year, for the first time, we were denied our permit. Rumor has it, that with the conversion of Jamaica Hospital into new condos, they didn’t want to attract poor people into the park. We were horrified and frantic at the same time, trying to find a new location to serve our people.

Our Thanksgiving Feast was Almost Cancelled!! It was down to the wire. If I didn’t find a new location by the end of the day on Tuesday, I was going to call the whole thing off. Luckily, The River Fund was able to arrange for us to bring the food and coats to a different location where they also have a relationship, but that still doesn’t help the folks in Jamaica, Queens. They will experience this Thanksgiving without the benefit of the River Fund’s Mobile Food Pantry, our Winter Clothing giveaway, and our Thanksgiving Feast, which they had become accustomed to. It is a sad reality for the community, but one that is spreading across all cities in this country. It’s the dark side of gentrification!

Kate Fullam, the Executive Director of East End Food Institute, Joins Bhavani to Talk About Our Local Food System and the Farmers Who Make it Happen!

Kate Fullam is the Executive Director of East End Food Institute, a nonprofit in Southampton whose mission is to support, promote, and advocate for local food and local producers throughout eastern Long Island, New York. I first met Kate while giving a cooking demo at Southampton Hospital a few years ago, and we recently re-connected at the Food Lab Conference that the East End Food Institute hosted this past summer. I wanted to invite her on to talk about the growing food movement on the East End of Long Island, and the ways the Institute is supporting the farmers and local food producers.

Prior to joining East End Food Institute, Kate built her career at Group for the East End, Southampton Hospital (now Stony Brook Southampton Hospital), and most recently at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. Kate’s wide range of experience with local and regional issues related to environment, economy, science, and human health are now united toward the goal of creating a more sustainable and equitable local food system. I’m very excited for our conversation, and I hope you can tune in!

My radio show, iEat Green with Bhavani on the Progressive Radio Network is live, every Thursday, from 10-11 am, EST.  To tune in to the live show, just navigate to PRN.fm and listen in!

If you miss our live show please listen on iTunes by downloading the Podcast App.

If you want to call in during the show with any questions for me or my guest, the call-in number is 888-874-4888. If you are listening to the podcast after the live broadcast, you can still ask me a question by leaving me a voicemail message at 862-800-6805. Just remember to say your name, what show you’re calling about (iEat Green with Bhavani), and your question. The message will be passed on to me, and I will get back to you.

With Love and Gratitude,

Bhavani 

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