Project Focus

The food choices we make and how our food is grown directly impacts the environment.  When we select food that was produced faraway — the average ingredient in the American meal travels 1,500 miles before it is consumed — and grown conventionally with non-renewable petrochemical-based fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, we contribute to air and water pollution, the depletion of our planet’s soil, and the creation of greenhouse gases. By choosing locally grown food that uses sustainable, organic farming methods which replenish the soil, we support lower fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, while creating healthier food and a healthier planet. 

Green Fork inspires and educates people to grow, buy, cook, and eat seasonal, local, organic food. Our events provide people opportunities to transform their relationship with food and their environment while building relationships and community between growers, eaters, and like-minded community members.  As a result, we create new opportunities for local, organically grown food production. In doing so, we restore the fertility of our soils and reduce our reliance on the petrochemicals (pesticides, fertilizers, and fuels) that are polluting our environment. And by participating in this process, people reconnect with the Earth as the source of our physical and spiritual nourishment.

Programs

Take A Bite Workshop Series - The Take a Bite Series expands participants food savvy!  By taking advantage of the abundance of locally grown food in each season, participants learn how to preserve food via fermentation, canning, and cheese making.

Edible Landscaping Tour - This annual bike-friendly tour provides an opportunity for participants to visit 10 local homes and the Common Ground Demonstration Garden.  Participants learn what motivates their neighbors to grow their own food, and they discover how other gardeners weave edible plants into both garden beds and the landscape.  Participants leave inspired to plant their own gardens.

100-Mile Thanksgiving - Green Fork’s annual 100-Mile Thanksgiving Tasting and Planning Event presents a tasty, festive autumn menu of organically grown ingredients sourced from within 100 miles of Palo Alto. We inspire people to prepare their own local holiday feasts and to familiarize them with local and organic food sources.  By eating local, seasonal, and organic food, we help reduce our carbon footprint and help create a healthier planet.

Getting Going Growing - This program helps elementary schools launch and sustain their garden programs which in turn helps children get excited about eating more fresh fruits and vegetables while learning about the natural world and where their food comes from. See Getting Going Growing for more information.

Harvesting for the Hungry - This collaboration with Village Harvest lets volunteers have fun harvesting fruit from local homes. The food is then donated and directly benefits the hungry in the local community.

Local Food Resources - Green Fork provides materials to help people in the San Francisco Peninsula area eat seasonal, local and organic food.  The Local Food Source Guide is a list of where to purchase hard-to-find locally grown and produced foods like oil, vinegar, cheese, flour, cornmeal, nuts, etc., and the Eating Sustainably Guide provides information about local CSA's, restaurants, markets, etc. that have local, seasonal, organic food. Our recipe database includes recipes for Thanksgiving as well as other occasions.

Regional FoodShed Leadership - Green Fork participates in the San Mateo Food Systems Alliance and Healthy Silicon Valley’s food providers sector, where regional solutions to food-related issues, including increasing people’s access to fresh, affordable food, are formulated and then proposed to local policy makers to enact.