The New York Times has a terrific piece about the work our partner, St John’s Bread and Life, is doing to bring good food to Bed-Stuy.

Tony Butler, Bread and Life’s executive director, talks about the Local Orbit partnership: “You don’t create community around problems,” said Mr. Butler, who hopes that clients on food stamps will eventually be able to shop from Local Orbit farmers at St. John’s. “You create community around shared projects.”

John Glebocki, Tony Butler and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn

The new way of connecting farmers with communities is gaining a lot of attention. Last week, fifth-generation farmer John Glebocki joined New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Tony Butler to discuss food distribution issues in the region. John knows a thing or two about fresh produce with 70 acres of fertile land in the black dirt region of Orange County, NY. His Goshen farm supplies the same high quality vegetables to Goldman Sachs, white table cloth restaurants and food pantries across New York.Since October he has been offering his produce for sale to residents of the Bed-Stuy community.

This month Glebocki’s vegetables — known for exceptional flavor — became part of a great holiday meal – sourced entirely through Local Orbit and enjoyed by 2,000 Bed-Stuy families, including a humanly raised turkey, a half pound of organic fresh cranberries and a vegetable bag that includes three carrots, four potatoes, one butternut squash and two to three onions.

Welcome to Local Orbit!  A little more than 18 months ago we started talking with local food producers, chefs and eaters about creating a better food chain.

Everyone we talked with was hungry for food that comes from farmers and artisan food producers they know and trust. Many were interested in spending a larger share of their food dollars in their own communities. Everyone had a story about limited or inefficient access to locally produced food.
read on…