CFR Week 2019 – From Farm to Table

Celebrating an Apple’s Journey from Farm to Table 

This year’s Manna Food Center’s Community Food Rescue Week Oct 20-26 demonstrated how our community is feeding more and wasting less with five public events.   

CFR Week’s aim is to raise public awareness about food waste, hunger, and food recovery in Montgomery County. This year’s events thanked CFR network members, expanded the CFR network, celebrated our accomplishments, and reinforced our close ties with supporters and partners. 

The common thread of each event followed post-commercial harvest apples along their journey– gleaned at the orchard, distributed to neighbors in need, cooked into delicious apple crisp, and sampled at events. CFR week finished with a composting demo to show how even food scraps can be used to enrich the earth. Read on for highlights of each event.  

Gleaning Apples at Butler’s Orchard 

Montgomery County Master Gardeners and GSK volunteers joined us at Butler’s Orchard, our event co-host and CFR network food donor, to glean apples. Most of the 1,200 pounds of gleaned apples were distributed to CFR network food providers that serve neighbors experiencing hunger. The rest were baked into apple crisp at the Cooking with Recovered Food Event. 

Cooking with Recovered Food 

Following gleaning at Butler’s Orchard, we joined with co-hosts Silver Spring United Methodist Church, STEP Chef Scott Ulen, MoCo Food Council and KindWorks volunteers to cook gleaned apples into apple crisp. Using recovered food, we cooked other delicious dishes from recovered food such as crostini with greens and fall grain salad. The 100 prepared meals were donated CFR network member, the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless. We also prepared appetizers and apple crisp that were served at other Community Food Rescue Week events.  

CFR Happy Hour 

Foodies and food advocates mixed and mingled at True Respite Brewery to discuss our local food system, promote food security and fight food waste. We recognized CFR volunteers and this year’s CFR mini-grant awardees. Attendees enjoyed True Respite’s beer, wine, kombucha, and soda that accompanied delicious appetizers and dessert made from Butler’s Orchard gleaned apples and recovered food at a CFR Cooks! Event earlier in the week.  

No Waste, Big Taste Cooking Competition 

Our No Waste, Big Taste cooking competition drew a large crowd at the Silver Spring Fresh Farm market. The event pitted two CFR member donors—PLNT Burger and Matchbox against each other to see who could best use mystery donated and rescued ingredients from the Manna warehouse and market vendors. In two quick rounds they each created an incredible appetizer and main dish.  Jenna Umbriac, Manna Director of Programs, emceed the competition and kept the crowd’s rapt attention with chef, sous-chefs, and judge interviews, and trivia questions to the audience about Manna, CFR, hunger, food waste etc. Farm market attendees were treated to samples of the above– mentioned apple crisp as they learned about CFR.  

Koiner Farm Tour and Compost Demonstration 

Koiner Farm, the only urban farm in Montgomery County welcomed us along with Bethesda Green, the Montgomery County Food Council, the Compost Crew, and the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection. Each organization shared their connection to our food system, starting with how food is grown to how food scraps are turned into compost.  Attendees learned how to reduce food waste at home while enriching their gardens and the environment by composting food scraps.   

For more highlights visit: CFR Website www.mocofoodrescueweek.org. Community Food Rescue Week happens once a year, but volunteers are needed all year round. Visit www.communityfoodrescue.org to learn how you can feed more and waste less.