For most University students and faculty, the Thanksgiving holiday was a time to eat plenty of turkey and pumpkin pie with the family. For many members of the Charlottesville community, however, Thanksgiving represented more than just a dinner: 100 participants from the University community decided to hold an experimental Thanksgiving feast that celebrated and supported local farming.
"The idea extended from last year's Thanksgiving, in which all the food was local within [a] 100-mile radius," University Architecture graduate student Bob Batz said. "After that we realized we rely on a lot of food that's not local. The idea this year was to combine a local and global theme because the way we eat has significant impacts on the world, whether global or local."
University students and faculty members attended the event where the participants contributed food to a potluck dinner prepared with local and non-local ingredients.
"Everybody was asked to bring something and [everyone] chose where they bought the ingredients," said Tanya Denckla Cobb, a senior associate of the Architecture School's Institute for Environmental Negotiation. "The sweet potatoes in my sweet potato corn bread were from Cumberland county."
The resulting feast included turkey from a farm in Staunton, applesauce made from local Carter Mountain apples and many more traditional Thanksgiving dishes.
"There was standard Thanksgiving food, turkey, trimmings, gravy, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, several squash dishes, breads made with flower from Wades Mill. We had pies, homemade strawberry ice cream and the pumpkin apple pies were made with local pumpkins and apples," Cobb said.
Last year, the experimental Thanksgiving meal included food that was strictly within a local 100-mile radius. This year, however, the participants decided to expand the scope of the meal.
"The very first year we did this we wanted to source everything within 100 miles, and there was no chocolate anywhere." Cobb said, "This year we decided to do a 'global' Thanksgiving. We decided we'd try, if possible, to buy or make food with things that were grown locally within 100 miles, but if we couldn't, we wanted to, at a minimum, be aware of where food really comes from while trying to represent global citizens."
The "global" Thanksgiving worked to energize and support local Virginia farms, Cobb said.
"Right now our small farms are threatened because of rising taxes and growth from cities, and it makes sense for them to sell. One of the reasons buying local food is beneficial is that it supports our local economy and helps local farmers stay in business," she said.
This event also encouraged consumer awareness regarding where purchased food is coming from.
"From a health point of view it helps to know who's growing your food," Cobb said. "There is evidence that shows organic and local food that's fresher is healthier for us. This type of food has more vitamins, and there is less likelihood of food contamination occurring on a local farm. From another point of view, with local food we have the feeling that we are a part of a system that makes sense -- with today's runaway food system the average food on our plate has 1,500 miles on it, and it makes sense in a day and age when we're trying to be more contentious about energy footprint to buy locally."
Although the experimental Thanksgiving only comes once a year, interested members of the Charlottesville community can support locally owned farms throughout the year.
"It's an easy thing to do," said Julie Ulrich, a graduate student in the Urban Planning Program who attended the event, "If you're in a grocery store and you see something is local and you buy it, you've made a small improvement by the small act of supporting something local"
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