I asked Beth Wilson what she was eating at that moment at Loving Local.
“Goodness,” she replied.
She had just visited Good Fortune Company’s food station, where chefs Sarah Cai and Arturo Leighton were serving “Big City Halal Cart” — chicken or tofu over rice.
So, I had to try it a.s.a.p. “Goodness” — and may I add “gracious” — it was so over-the-top good.
Good Fortune was just one of the food stations at the Project Green Fork event held June 15th at The Ravine.
Also on hand were Monique Williams of Biscuits & Jams, Kevin Sullivan from Tsunami, Terrance Whitley of Inspire Community Cafe, and Caleb and Brandon Ellenburg from Central BBQ.
Project Green Fork is part of Clean Memphis, whose mission is to make Memphis a cleaner and greener city. The certified Clean Memphis restaurants at Loving Local take six steps to reduce their environmental impacts. That includes recycling, composting, and not using styrofoam.
The restaurants at Loving Local were among the 40 Project Green Fork certified restaurants, says Clean Memphis project manager Lisa Brown.
“We’re spearheading zero waste events in Memphis,” Brown says. “Zero waste doesn’t literally mean no waste. It means sending the least amount of material to the landfill with our preferred waste streams being recycling and composting.
“We work with chefs and attendees to make sure everybody understands that we’re trying to keep as much material out of the landfill as possible. So, for our events, we typically send as low as three percent of the event waste to the landfill. And the other waste is either recycled or composted. We’re talking zero waste to the landfill because that stuff is going to sit there for 30 years. That stuff will likely outlive you and me.”
About 200 or so people attended Loving Local, which Brown describes as “an event that is fun for the entire family. You want to make sure the kids all the way up to grandparents are able to come to this event and eat good food and have fun.”
And, she says, “The guests are also able to mingle and talk with the chefs about their dish, about their restaurant, about their personal mission for environmental sustainability.”
If you missed Loving Local, make plans to attend Project Green Fork’s Reharvest Memphis November 16th Downtown. The annual event is “to bring the awareness to the overall issue of food waste and how we are encouraged to think about food waste.”
They work with four or five chefs, who take surplus food “nearing the end of its life,” and “create new purposes for it.” Brown says.
For instance, a chef might take surplus Mid-South Food Bank cans of black eyed peas nearing their expiration date and, instead of sending them to a landfill, they create a dish with them. “We encourage attendees to be more creative with our food instead of looking at food as a resource and not necessarily as a commodity.”
In August, they will begin a new project, Brown says. “We’re planning a restaurant challenge. We will ask local restaurants to basically adopt two to three new practices that are going to help them reduce the majority amount of food waste that they’re producing. We’re going to start this in the Crosstown Evergreen area.”
