Poetry Festival Food Goes Fresh

Thanks to books like “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” local foods and sustainable agriculture are topics that are clearly on people’s minds these days.

As we get closer to the 12th Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, food is on our mind too. We have been asking ourselves for a few years now how we can bring fresh, local, organic, and generally healthier food choices to the Festival. This year, we are pleased to announce a breakthrough.

The 2008 Festival will offer an unprecedented variety of food choices for Festival-goers which will include organic, vegetarian and vegan options, as well as a general commitment to eco-friendly paper products, increased recycling, locally-sourced food where possible, fair-trade coffee, and a free water station.

All of these improvements are an effort to build on the success of greening the 2006 Poetry Festival, as well as an ever-present effort to live our values as best we can.

Hot dog and funnel cake lovers don’t despair! It wouldn’t be a festival without hot dogs, funnel cakes, and oh yes, french fries too. We hope you are eagerly anticipating this year’s Festival (September 25-28 at Waterloo Village), and we hope you come extra hungry this year!

Here’s a quick look at some of the food choices you can expect for this year’s Festival food:

• Cosmic Catering - organic and homemade wraps and sandwiches, homemade veggie burgers, organic salads, and herbal teas
• Nomad Pizza - freshly made brick oven pizza (these will be limited quantity – get them while they last!)
• Nyota’s Ting - Jamaican-inspired vegetarian and vegan curries, beans, rice, wraps and bbq
• Greene’s Beans – fair-trade coffee, a special Poetry Festival blend, muffins, cookies and other snacks
• South Silk Road teas – high quality hot and iced teas, herbals and tisanes

As well as Italian sausages, pizza, hot dogs, french fries, fresh fruit, funnel cakes, fresh lemonade, and healthy snacks.

We continue to add vendors to the 2008 Festival, so please be sure to visit our website for updates on food choices for the 12th Biennial Poetry Festival.