Chefs Collaborative

Beginning in 2016, Edible Ohio Valley is embarking on a new adventure: supporting the launch of the Ohio River Valley Chapter of Chefs Collaborative, the national organization whose mission is to gather chefs, growers, and food professionals to improve our food system. We’re working alongside a dynamic group of people: Lily Burdsall of Midwest Culinary Institute; Justin Dean of MadHouse Vinegar (he also serves on the board of the national Chefs Collaborative organization); Rachel DesRochers of Grateful Grahams; Jeff Hunt of MadTree Brewery; Amy Clements Powell of Atwood Village Farm; Ilene Ross of {513}eats; Richard Stewart of Carriage House Farm and MadHouse Vinegar; and chapter president Stephen Williams of Bouquet.

Our partnership with Chefs Collaborative stems from thinking strategically about our vision for the Ohio Valley: for all people in our region to eat locally grown food. As you might imagine, the strategy to reach this big-hairy-audacious vision is complicated. We need help! We need help from you and our 25,000 current readers—and we need more readers to hear this important message. We need more farmers to grow good food, and we need more chefs and consumers to buy local food.

Chefs Collaborative will help us accomplish these goals: more readers, more farmers, more chefs, and more consumers. One of the chapter’s aims is to recruit 150 members and 3,000 fans on Facebook by the fall of 2016. To reach these goals, there are many events planned for the Ohio Valley region - including a series of fundraising events in May at MadTree.

The events are Karen Norman, co-owner of La Terza Coffee Roasterie and current Chefs Collaborative member, said of the chapter’s kickoff event at Bouquet in January, “It was a fantastic event and I'm so excited about the energy demonstrated in this new group!” Marti Kleinfelter, an Edible Ohio Valley subscriber from Milford, agreed saying, “I care about these issues. Thank you for raising them.”
Another Edible reader, Gayle Ficken-Clarke, cheers the work on, too, saying the Edible Ohio Valley and Chefs Collaborative event “gave me the opportunity to meet and chat with dedicated and creative people doing amazing things around food in my little town. I'd heard of the Chefs Collaborative but hadn't given it much thought until last night … wow, powerful! I come away refreshed and energized.”

What’s more, we will accomplish even more with our ambitious goal of eating 100% locally. As Chefs Collaborative states in one of its six principles, “Good food begins with unpolluted air, land, and water, environmentally sustainable farming and fishing, and humane animal husbandry.” The food we grow and raise, the food we cook, and the food we eat is linked to the larger concept that everything is connected.

— Jennifer Kramer-Wine

Chef's Collaborative Ohio River Valley Chapter
Facebook.com/ChefsCollaborativeOhioRiverValley
Join at: ChefsCollaborative.org/join-us/