Our Work
Slow Food USA seeks to create dramatic and lasting change in the food system. We reconnect Americans with the people, traditions, plants, animals, fertile soils and waters that produce our food. We seek to inspire a transformation in food policy, production practices and market forces so that they ensure equity, sustainability and pleasure in the food we eat.
As one of more than 200 local chapters of Slow Food USA, we carry out our grassroots mission on a regional level, while participating in a global movement for real food.Good, Clean, and Fair?
Good food is informed by tradition and inspired by region; it is eaten with friends and family and tastes delicious.
Clean food recognizes the impact that eating can have on our health and environment - farmers and eaters alike have a responsibility to preserve the biodiversity of our foods and the health of our land.
Fair food is accessible to all, and provides a just and healthy living for everyone involved in its production.
Join Slow Food today!
Add your voice to our powerful network of changemakers demanding a just and healthy food system. Join the movement!
Events and Partnerships
To inspire real change to our food system, Slow Food Portland hosts a wide range of public events each year. In recent months, these have included a brewery tour, a farm pollination event, a bike ride to backyard gardens, a RAFT product potluck, and a cooking demo with eco-chef and food justice activist Bryant Terry. Below, you'll find a little information about some of the many events organized by our all-volunteer committee.
Day of Action 2011: The $5 ChallengeFrom Hawai'i to Illinois to New York to Texas...from potlucks to family dinners to community suppers to food truck rallies, over 5,570 meals were shared on September 17 2011.
No matter where they were or how they came together, they were all trying to answer the question: is it possible to make a healthy, local, and delicious meal for under $5 per person?
Our Cully Community Potluck gathered together 115 Cully neighborhood members, Slow Food Portland members, and many Slow Food USA leaders to share a healthy meal cooked by all. Stories of school and community gardens, communal kitchens, and a community farmers market were just a few of the activities that were highlighted by people from the neighborhood.
In addition to the celebration of the many programs in place in the neighborhood the question was asked: what more can be done to ensure that fresh, good food is available to everyone in the Cully neighborhood? We look forward to reviewing the ideas and suggestions that came up, and to our continued partnership with the Cully neighborhood in helping to build a future of good, clean and fair food for all. View photos here.
Read how 30,000 people across the US made it happen.
An article on the $5 challenge on Forbes.com.
An article about the Cully Potluck on the Portland Observer.
See photos from Slow Food USA.
Share your story!
Policy Advocacy
As the movement for real food gains nationwide momentum, Slow Food will be working to keep you informed of the latest food policy decisions, and to help you voice your support for good food legislation. Locally, Slow Food Portland has testified on the city's Urban Growth Boundary and we've worked with Ecotrust Food & Farms to advocate for state funding measures in support of locally-sourced school lunches. This fall, you can expect to hear news and action alerts on statewide farmer's market food safety regulations. Visit our blog for information on how you can get involved with shaping local and national policy for sustainable food systems.
The People Who Feed Us
Every bite we take is thanks to the work of dozens of individuals involved in raising, producing and serving our food. Our event series, The People Who Feed Us, takes a close look at the diverse branches of food labor, from kitchen staff to field workers. The series began with a panel on worker unions and alternative labor for small farmers, and continued with a tour of Willamette Valley housing camps with the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation. Expect upcoming events about young farmers, fair trade certification, the restaurant industry, and women in agriculture.
Slow Food Happy Hours
Order a drink, grab some nibbles, and start a conversation! A casual way to catch interesting food figures out of their kitchens and away from the podium. We've already dished on GMO foods - stay on the lookout for upcoming evenings when we will raise a glass to subjects like childhood nutrition, butchering, or food photography!
Terra Madre and Slow Food Nation
Slow Food Portland supports a range of food producers, chefs and activists by helping them to attend national and international Slow Food conferences with their peers around the world.
Every two years, the international Slow Food movement convenes Terra Madre, a conference of over 7,000 farmers, food producers, educators, chefs, students and activists. Over four days in Turin, Italy, the attendees meet up to share stories and hear inspiring presentations from world-renowned figures like Vandana Shiva and Slow Food founder, Carlo Petrini. Alongside the conference, the Salone del Gusto, an international food hall of artisanal and heritage products, draws an additional estimated 150,000 visitors!
In 2008, Slow Food USA hosted the largest food conference and festival in American history: Slow Food Nation. Held in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend, the event brought together 85,000 people for markets, concerts, films, farm tours, and panels with food luminaries like Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Wendell Berry, and Eric Schlosser. Two of the most impressive sights of the festival were surely the Taste Pavilions - a massive hall of food samples from American artisans - and the lush Victory Garden, planted on the front lawn of San Francisco's City Hall. Plans are already underway for the next event, with hopes of taking the festival around the country.
