Butte County is missing out in over 50 million dollars in economic activity this year due to less than full enrollment in Child Nutrition Program. Dr. Cindy Wolff's presented this information at the Organic and Sustainable Agricultural Conference in November.

24,427 Butte County residents are eligible, but not participating in the Food Stamp Program.

24,427 x $104, the average amount per recipient.

Result? $2,540,408/month in federal funds is lost due to under participation.

But that is not all. For every Food Stamp $1.00, an additional $1.84 is generated in other spending. Equals $4,674,350 a month of lost economic activity.

That is $56,092,200.00 per year.

And it is just the outer skin of the onion. Better fed kids achieve better academically, are healthier, and are less likely to become delinquent - all conditions that reduce the burden of public service programs and those conditions that reflect poorly on our county.

It is my feeling that no other economic program could so dramatically improve the local economy than a program in charge of seeing that every eligible family has access to this child nutrition program.

Furthermore, money spent locally at farmers markets more than doubles the money recycled in the community over those food dollars spend in large grocery outlets - potentially adding another $2,500,000.00 a month to the local economy. Not to mention that the Leopold Center study comparing local to non-local food prices found a savings of over 10% to those purchasing produce at Farmers Markets over Supermarket prices for the same items. (Click on the graph above to be taken to the press release.) Extrapolating

BUTTE COUNTY
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7th ANNUAL
CHICO ORGANIC FOOD AND FARMING CONFERENCE

Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 Time: 8:30 AM

Location: Bell Memorial Union, Room 210

The 7th Annual Chico Organic Farming and Food Conference will be held from 8:30 AM until 2:30 PM on Wednesday, November 4th in Room 210 of the Bell Memorial Union on the Chico State Campus and followed by tours of the Organic Vegetable Project and the Organic Dairy from 3:00 until 4:30 PM on the University Farm.

The conference is sponsored by the CSU, Chico College of Agriculture, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, and the North Valley Chapter of California Certified Organic Farmers. The program is free and open to the public.

Visit the conference Web site for more details:
http://www.csuchico.edu/sustainablefuture/conference/organicfarm.shtml

For more information please contact Dr. Lee Altier at (530) 898-4137 or e-mail LAltier@csuchico.edu.


SLOW FOOD SHASTA CASCADE AT CHICO STATE'S

"THIS WAY TO SUSTAINABILITY V CONFERENCE"

NOVEMBER 5-8, 2009

General Admission to the conference is $25.

What: Roundtable panel on “Food Community and Democracy in Chico,

the North State, and Beyond”


Date: Friday, November 6, 2009 Time: 2-3:15 PM

Location: Student Services Center (next to the Bell Memorial Union), Room 150

Friday, November 6, 2009
Student Services Center 150 (next to the Bell Memorial Student Union)
2:00-3:15 p.m.

Lori Weber- Slow Food Shasta Cascade, John Luvaas- Chico Grange, Bryan Shaw- Chico Natural Foods, Francine Stuelpnagel- GRUB, LaDona Knigge- CSU, Chico, and Jeremy Miller- Chico Food Network will speak toward the theme of “food community and democracy.” The panel will be co-moderated by CSUC student Carly Freeman and Lori Weber and will begin with a brief talk from Dr. LaDona Knigge on “civic agriculture.” The food sustainability movement underscores the connection between food, the people that produce and consume the food, their communities, and U.S. democracy. These organizations provide unique contributions to community and democracy in Chico and the North State. The goal of this panel is to provide forum for attendees and presenters to discuss these contributions, and raise consciousness about the inextricable link between the health of our food and political systems.

For more information contact Lori Weber at

Lweber@csuchico.edu

or the conference Web site:

http://www.csuchico.edu/sustainablefuture/

TEHAMA COUNTY

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Check out Pacific Sun's event

Love at First Crush

November 8th

Visit the farm, pick olives & make oil, sample oil and local wine

Kids are welcome!

http://www.pacificsunoliveoil.com/



Tehama Together

Grand Opening

Food~Music~Presentations~Raffle

Wednesday, November 4

4:00 pm to 7:pm

Pine Street Plaza

332 Pine Street Suite, L

Red Bluff



Tehama Together is a new nonprofit organization established to bring together the community and its resources to better meet the needs of Tehama County residents. To do this, we plan to establish a place where people can come together to promote health and nutrition through the use of local food products, to sponsor workshops of community interest and to develop a county wide information and referral system. The first major project will be the development of a community garden.

Schools who wish to pursue, or are already working on gardens.

please attend or contact us.

530-736-5200

admin@theamatogether.org



http://tehamatogether.org/

Ann Cooper talks about Children, Schools and Nutrition. This is not a talk to be missed! Click on image to view information poster on this important event.

Date: November 1st
Time: 2:30 - 3:45
Place BMU Auditorium - CSU, Chico
Cost: Free!

For more information contact Karen Goodwin at 898-5678