Southern food evokes powerful feelings and emotions

for anyone that’s from the south or even just visited.

Unfortunately, our food is having significant unintended

consequences on our personal health as well as the health

of our environment. EAT South wants to take the great

things about southern food and farming to a new level by

encouraging healthier culinary techniques and farming

practices.

EAT South teaches children to eat with ‘intention’. The

programs we provide are focused on one central idea –

children will develop healthy life-long eating habits if they

are provided healthy food that tastes great. We make sure

that every child that visits our model farms and school

gardens has an opportunity to taste food that is grown to be

eaten – food that is picked when it’s ripe and prepared using

healthy culinary techniques. This simple process opens the

door to children accepting healthy food as an important –

and delicious – part of their diet.

GIVE the GIft of HeALThTo THe RiVeR REGIon!2013 EAT SOUTH GIFT CATALOG

John AnzaloneAmy BelcherTiffany BellAlexia BordenAnna LowderDG Markwell

Clay McinnisScott MillerHarvi SahotaGalen ThackstonCarl WhatleyBarbara White

BOARD OF DIRECTORSEAT SOUTH STAFF EAT South StaffEdwin Marty – Executive Director Mark Bowen – Education and Outreach Coordinator Jetson Brown – Downtown Farm Manager Catherine Doe – Hampstead Farm Manager Skye Borden – River Region Food Policy Council Coordinator Amanda Edwards – AmeriCorps Vista

VISION:EAT South envisions communities across the Southeast that have access to fresh healthy affordable food and the knowledge about food preparation that supports a healthy lifestyle.

CORE VALUES:Access to fresh healthy food is a basic human right A healthy diet includes significant quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables Supporting local food production is good for our economy and our health Sustainable food production reduces the environmental impact of our food system.

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW:EAT South is a non-profit organization located in Montgomery, Alabama that utilizes two urban farms as vehicles to promote urban food production and healthy eating. EAT South grows and sells produce on our farms and then uses the farms as ‘living-classrooms’ to provide children with hands-on opportunities to grown and eat healthy delicious food. We also work in the community by developing school gardens and encouraging better food policy.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

• Improving our food system

• River Region Food Policy Council

• Alabama Food Policy Council

Alabama has some of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the country. We spend billions of dollars every year treating obesity related diseases. Preventing obesity is an economic necessity. Alabama has some of the highest rates of childhood hunger in the country. Hunger directly impacts children’s capacity to function in school. Good food policy can eliminate childhood hunger in Alabama. Alabama only produces 5% of its own food. We import 2 billion dollars of food every year. This money could be kept in our local economy.

ACT

EDUCATE

TRANSFORM

• Teaching children about healthy eating

• Garden in Every School

• Good Food Day

• Growing and selling healthy food for our community

• Downtown Farm

• Hampstead Farm

Educate EAT South provides an on-farm food education fieldtrip for schools and community groups called Good Food Day. Children experience the entire seed to plate process by planting seeds, tasting a variety of foods they’ve harvested directly from our farm crops, and composting their food waste. As the children engage in these hands-on activities, they are learning about health, nutrition, farm ecology and much more. Every child in Alabama deserves a Good Food Day! EAT South also provides schools the opportunity to create and utilize school gardens through a program called A Garden in Every School. We envision every school in Alabama having a garden that provides an ideal setting for students to learn math, science, nutrition and how to produce fresh sustainably grown food. The program also provides teacher training, school garden curriculum, assistance in building a garden, and in-school programing.

Act EAT South manages two urban farms, at the town of Hampstead in east Montgomery and in Downtown Montgomery along the Alabama River. Both farms are living classrooms for youth and adult education programs focused on growing and eating healthy food. The farms are vibrant gathering places that foster education, sustainability, tourism and economic development for Montgomery and the entire Southeast. EAT South sells its produce to the local community through a Community Supported Agriculture program as well as to local restaurants. EAT South’s farms promote sustainability by utilizing natural, regenerative resources and methods in growing food, resulting in less waste in transportation and fuel costs from farm-to-table. EAT South is composting restaurant and community waste on-site to produce a high-quality soil fertilizer.

Transform EAT South works with community partners to develop food policy groups in Montgomery and across the region. We have helped establish the River Region Food Policy Council as well as the Alabama Food Policy Council. Both the regional and state-wide Councils are focused on addressing policy issues that can increase food security and promote local sustainable agriculture. We also provide education through a Speakers Series that brings the brightest minds to our communities to share examples of healthy lifestyles.

• Improving our food system

• River Region Food Policy Council

• Alabama Food Policy Council

YOU CAN hELP MAKe A DiFfEReNCe

Illustration: Lydia Shows

EAT South’s Downtown Farm located below Wright’s Brother Park.

5251 Hampstead High Street, Unit 203Montgomery, AL 36116