PROPOSAL: Apple in Hand

Dave Madan & theMOVE

Describe your project.

Our project is a combination of event + experiment + meal. In 2013, we aim to offer tasty, fresh fruit to 800+ students across the urban communities of Metro Boston. theMOVE organizes reflective farm workdays for diverse urban groups, mostly youth. We do this to connect folks hands-on with fresh food, and with the labor and land that sustain us, to build voices for a more accountable food system. We focus primarily on engaging low income communities, people of color, and youth—the groups least likely to have access to food, nutrition, and sustainability education opportunities otherwise. Our workdays are powerful: this year, 90% of participants said it would cause them to care more about how food choices impact their health (67% said significantly so), and 79% said it would lead them to change up their lifestyle (47% cited multiple changes). To build on this impact, we've found that when we're able to offer participants a local, natural, tasty snack, it offers a key bridge for students in their relationship-building with fresh food on the farm. Likewise, in 2013 we hope to push forward our "Apple in Hand" initiative, putting a piece of fresh, tasty, local fruit into the hands of each of the 800–1000 students we engage across our 80 events. To record and share the experiences that result, we'll post throughout the year to an online album of photos and stories, to inspire our broader community towards similar connections.

How will you use the grant to make your idea happen?

We are requesting funding to purchase a piece of fresh fruit from local farmers for 800–1000 students.


Why and to whom is your project important?

The "Apple in Hand" initiative is an important means in shaping food choices among the young urban folks we work with, whose diets are often based more on circumstance than conscious connection. Eating is a cultural act, built off of surrounding behaviors, ideas, and access. We in the Feast Mass community have had our own opportunities to build relationships with healthy, hearty food, which has brought us here together in celebration. theMOVE aims to share such opportunities more broadly, encouraging participants to become conscious agents of our bodies and communities. Tasting real food—a crunchy apple, a juicy peach, a bitter blueberry—is key to that process.