![\"foodforthought1\"](\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/foodforthought1.jpg\")
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For the past five years, Georgia Southern University\u2019s Friends of Zach S. Henderson Library, a council dedicated to supporting and strengthening the Library\u2019s services and collections, in partnership with the Statesboro Main Street Farmers\u2019 Market, has held a benefit combining local food and literature in an effort to highlight the region\u2019s natural resources while supporting an educational one.<\/p>\n
The Farm To Table Dinner began in 2010 just as the farm to table food movement was gathering steam and becoming a culinary trend, and not long after the Farmers\u2019 Market opened in downtown Statesboro. The phrase farm to table is a buzzword referring to food made with locally sourced ingredients.<\/p>\n
While other University outreach centers have held longstanding food-related fundraisers, such as the Garden of the Coastal Plain\u2019s \u201cWine, Moonlight and Magnolias\u201d and Georgia Southern Museum\u2019s \u201cFeed the Mosasaur,\u201d the Library needed a unique angle that would be both educational and entertaining. \u201cAt the time, a number of our members of Friends Council were fans of the market,\u201d said Bede Mitchell, dean of the Zach S. Henderson Library. \u201cWe knew this would be a cool thing to hang our hat on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 2010, a few notable guests have included Savannah culinary historian Damon Lee Fowler, award-winning author and speaker Ken Burger of Charleston, South Carolina, and most recently, environmentalist and author Janisse Ray hailing from Baxley, Georgia. At the 2014 event, Ray spoke about the need to re-localize our food, with a focus on the importance of supporting local farmers and food producers, educating the public on where food comes from and knowing your farmers. \u201cThe average calorie on our plate has to travel 1,500 miles to get to us,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re eating from a local farm, you know the distance that food traveled. When you have a relationship with your farmer, you\u2019re more in touch with what that person\u2019s putting on the fields. That food is going to be fresher and more nutritious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each year, the event begins with music and signature cocktails, and is followed by a five-course gourmet meal featuring local, seasonal produce from the farms of southeast Georgia. Kevin Case, executive chef of Eagle Dining Services has catered the event for three years and simply put, explains farm to table as cutting out the middle man. \u201cThe food you\u2019re being served is sourced at area farms,\u201d he said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t go through a distributor to get to you. We went directly to the farmers and constructed a menu from the crops.\u201d<\/p>\n
Case and his culinary team of eight produced 450 plates during the June event for 86 guests. He says he wants attendees to take away from the dining experience two things \u2013 inspiration in the kitchen and an appreciation for local food and farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope folks can see all the local produce we have in Statesboro and surrounding areas and that we\u2019ve encouraged them to visit the Farmers\u2019 Market and get new ideas,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope they\u2019ve been inspired and that we\u2019ve helped them discover what they can make with Relinda Walker\u2019s carrots, potatoes or squash, or Stacy Freeman\u2019s grits and flour. This event is also about giving the farmers recognition and getting their names out there. For some it\u2019s their livelihood. If we don\u2019t support that, our food supply, we\u2019ll lose out on supporting the farmers and our local community.\u201d \u2013 Rebekah Faulk<\/em><\/p>\n The Farm To Table Dinner menu for the June 19 event featured the following dishes:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1st Course<\/strong> 2nd Course<\/strong> 3rd Course<\/strong> 4th Course<\/strong> 5th Course<\/strong> To learn more about the Farm to Table Movement directly from renowned chefs, visit http:\/\/curiosity.discovery.com\/question\/farm-to-table-food-movement<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Annual Farm To Table Dinner Benefits Henderson Library<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":2174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-2064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-summer-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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