Friends School To Host Community Event on Local Food
Decatur Metro | August 20, 2010Nancy sends along this press release from the Friends School of Atlanta…
On Thursday, September 23, The Friends School of Atlanta (FSA) will hold an event called Food
Fundamentals for Healthy Kids and Communities that takes an interdisciplinary look at the food we eat and at
the Farm to Table movement that is growing in momentum in Atlanta and around the country. To be held on
the campus at 862 Columbia Drive in Decatur, the event kicks off a year-long speaker series to commemorate
FSA’s 20th Anniversary. The event is free and open to the public.Beginning at 6:00 pm, FSA will screen a film called What’s on Your Plate?, a witty and provocative
documentary about kids and food politics that follows two inquisitive 11-year-old girls in New York City as
they explore their place in the food chain. FSA is grateful to State Representative Stephanie Stuckey Benfield
(District 85) for sponsoring this highly popular film at the school. Rep. Benfield is also the sponsor of a bill in
the state legislature to provide for a Farm to School program to encourage and solicit county and independent
school districts to purchase Georgia-grown farm products.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. Serving on the panel will be Rep.
Benfield along with Julie Shaffer, FSA alum parent and founder of Slow Food Atlanta as well as Emory
University’s Food Service Education Coordinator; Erin Croom, Coordinator for the Farm to School Program for
Georgia Organics; and Melissa Walker, FSA Alum grandparent and award-winning author of books for young
readers dramatizing key environmental issues. The panel discussion will run the gamut from consciousness
raising for those new to the concepts behind the farm to table movement to looking at how this local food
movement is sweeping into communities, particularly through schools, and creating a wonderful new awareness of how our choices help … or hurt … our environment and our health.The Friends School of Atlanta is commemorating its 20th year throughout the 2010-11 school year with
a Speaker Series entitled: Building Beloved Community, Celebrating 20 Years of Quaker Education in
Atlanta. Offering a pre-K – 8th grade program, FSA’s mission is to provide challenging academics in a
diverse environment, drawing on the Quaker values of a simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and
stewardship to empower students to go out into the world with conscience, conviction and compassion. In
2008, the school moved to its current campus on Columbia Drive in Decatur and currently has a limited number
of spaces open for student enrollment. For more information, visit www.friendsschoolatlanta.org or contact
Waman French, Head of School: 404-373-8746 x8136; [email protected].