When eight inches of snow descended on the Piedmont area on February 26th, and many of our staff lost power in their homes, we knew we made the right decision to cancel the Piedmont Come to the Table conference. With nearly thirty speakers lined up, including a special guest from out of town, a band, a popular caterer, a videographer and a busy venue we had no idea if we could pull off the same program on another date.
Today, we are excited and amazed to share with you our conference program, hot off the press for **May 28th**, including eleven of the thirteen sessions planned for the original event, plus the following four new workshops:
- Agriculture in the South: A History Lesson and Implications for the Food Movement with Scott Marlow – RAFI, Justin Walker – Double J Farm and Annette Hiatt – Land Loss Prevention Project.
- Farmers vs. Food Security: Why are hungry people and food producers often pitted against each other? with Viola Glenn – RAFI, Gini Bell – Farmer Foodshare, Helen Eure – Hertford County Public Schools and Jane Saiers – RambleRill Farm.
- Funding that Builds Community Engagement and Program Longevity with Kristen Richardson-Frick – The Duke Endowment, Zulayka Santiago – Fertile Ground Food Cooperative, and Jeff Bacon – Triad Community Kitchen
- Congregations and Communities: Making Change that Lasts with Rev. Grace Hackney – Life Around the Table and Scott Marlow – RAFI.
To view the full conference program, click here.
The Piedmont regional conference will take place at Elon Community Church as originally planned. Vimala’s Curryblossom Cafe is gratefully still on board to serve us a delicious farm to table lunch, Chris Fowler will be on site to document the event, and Roots Revival will be there as planned to treat us with inspired music.
We are truly grateful and humbled by everyone that has pulled together to make this event happen, and we look forward to seeing you there!
For more information and to register, please visit www.rafiusa.org/cttt/conferences.
Hear what conference speakers and participants had to say about our events in Lumberton and Sylva!
