Mark your calendars for Going Local Week 2011

What better way to celebrate Indiana’s food culture than to challenge oneself to a week of local food consumption?  The Going Local Week, slated for Sept. 4-10 is a “virtual event” that hopes to increase Indiana residents’ consumption of locally grown/produced foods in a long term effort to encourage them to regularly purchase more locally produced items for their weekly meals. The ultimate goal is to encourage people to eat Indiana locally grown and produced foods year-round and that it will become the norm, not a novelty at Hoosier dinner tables across the state.”

Who:  Hoosiers across the state

When:  September 4 – 10, 2011

What:  One week “challenge” to Indiana citizens to eat at least one Indiana locally grown or produced food at each meal during the seven-day event.

Why:

-Create an appreciation for the abundance and diversity of the Indiana food shed.

-Make Indiana citizens more aware of the availability of local foods in their own communities.

-Provide support and recognition for Indiana local food producers.

How can I participate?

• Visit a farm, farm market, or farmers’ market in your area.
• When dining out, choose restaurants that support local producers by offering local food items on their menus or in their dishes.
• Host a local foods pitch-in and ask everyone to bring a dish made primarily with local foods.
• Bring in fresh Indiana melons for the staff instead of doughnuts during the week.
• Hold an in-office potluck lunch where everyone brings in something they’ve made with a local ingredient.
• Go out to an after-work “happy hour” at a local winery or brewery.
• Get together with your friends at work and take turns that week bringing a local food dish to share at lunch.

Not sure where to find local goods?

Explore your local sourcing options with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture’s Indiana Agritourism and Farmers Market Directory.  The directory offers information for u-pick farms, farmers markets and agritourism.

A taste of Hoosier restaurants that make use of local ingredients in their menus:

R Bistro and Goose the Market, Indianapolis

FARMBloomington, Bloomington

Joseph Decuis, Roanoke

Visit the GOING LOCAL WEEK page on the GOING LOCAL site for more creative ideas on how individuals, food retailers and farmers markets can participate.  

This post was written by Brittany Smith, an intern with the Indiana Humanities Council. Brittany is a senior Communications major at Butler University. A strong passion for food and agriculture brought her to the Council’s Food for Thought campaign.