Food For Thought

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Food For Thought Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank

For more information call: Rachel Gardner at 707-887-1647; email rachelg@fftfoodbank.org

Calabash! A Festival of Gourds, Art and the Garden

Sunday October 5, 2008

One of Sonoma County’s most colorful art events – Calabash – will take place this year on Sunday, October 5 from 1 to 5 p.m. in the beautiful organic gardens of Food For Thought, Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank, in downtown Forestville.

This will be the organization’s 8th annual Calabash festival. Proceeds from Calabash support Food For Thought’s mission of feeding men, women, and children with HIV/AIDS in Sonoma County.

This year’s event holds special significance as October marks the 20^th anniversary of the founding of the food bank.

What began, in 1988, as a service for mostly gay men, many of whom were dying, has evolved into a health-maintenance organization that supplies weekly groceries, along with nutritional counseling and supplements, in the fundamental belief that food is medicine. The recipients of service now include women and children, and an increasing number of Latino clients. As the face of the epidemic has diversified, so have the food bank’s services.

“Things have changed significantly in the 20 years since Food For Thought was founded,” says Ron Karp, the organization’s Executive Director. “There are better treatments and people with HIV and AIDS are living longer. However, the disease continues to have significant health and economic impacts. We provide people with the food and supplements they need to experience a good quality of life.”

Food For Thought provides food and nutritional supplements to 550 people living with HIV/AIDS in Sonoma County. With a dynamic grassroots tradition, the organization is largely staffed by 500 volunteers who participate in all facets of the operation.

Located on a one-acre site in downtown Forestville, surrounded by organic gardens and run on solar power, the food bank’s facility is a testament to the organization’s holistic view. And, Calabash – one of the organization’s most successful annual fundraising events – also reflects this view.

One of humankind’s first art mediums, gourds are the basis of an art form that mixes tradition with the avant-garde. Some exquisite examples of gourd art will be for sale during Calabash’s silent art auction.

The event provides a lovely way to spend a fall afternoon. Guests are served fine wines, along with delicious hors d’oeuvres made by local chefs from the finest seasonal ingredients, as they visit the gourd auction and meander through Food For Thought’s beautiful gardens. In October, the gardens are at their peak, brimming with gourds, fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plantings. Strolling musicians playing hand-made gourd instruments complete the scene.

Calabash is sponsored by Food For Thought, in partnership with the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, which helped develop the organization’s organic gardens in a collaborate effort.

Tickets are available now

Tickets for this must-see event may be purchased for $35 in advance or $40 at the door the day of the event. For advance ticket sales and information about the event, call Food For Thought at 707-887-1647. Food For Thought is located on 6550 Railroad Avenue in Forestville, CA, just one block south of downtown Forestville off Hwy. 116. Visit the festival’s website at www.calabashARTfest.org

Food For Thought
Established in 1988, Food For Thought is a grass roots non-profit food bank dedicated to meeting the nutritional needs of people living with disabling HIV/AIDS in Sonoma County. 550 clients receive groceries, fresh produce, quality protein, nutritional supplements, vitamins and minerals, basic dietary information, concern, caring and occasional hugs at no charge. Food For Thought provides weekly delivery service to clients who are homebound and unable to come to the facility in Forestville. The food bank provides a comfortable environment, free of discrimination and sensitive to the emotional and physical needs of each client.

Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
The Center is a non-profit educational center and intentional community founded in 1994 by a group of biologists, artists, activists, educators and horticulturalists. It serves as a gathering place for people seeking innovative and practical approaches to the social, environmental, economic and spiritual challenges of our day. The Center offers residential workshops and training programs. The Mother Garden has been a resource and inspiration to gardeners, teachers, healers, and activists throughout the world.

The Garden Project
The food bank’s gardens are the result of collaboration between Food For Thought and the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s Horticultural Therapy Program. In addition to supplementing the food bank’s seasonal offerings of vegetables, fruit and herbs, the garden provides clients with an opportunity to connect body and spirit with the natural world, in an activity that is inherently and profoundly healing. It also supports and extends the work of the food bank by providing a hands-on approach to learning about the links between food, nutrition and health.

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Note: The image below is available for use in the media. It is a decorated gourd vessel by Mendocino County artist Susan Sweet. If you use the image, please credit the artist.

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