If you’ve been called to do community work, this is a meaningful moment to get involved. Local food systems need people who care — and Eugene has always been full of people who care.

Slow Food South Willamette is building a community rooted in good, clean, and fair food for all. We celebrate local farmers, makers, and chefs, and we work to make great food accessible to everyone.

Become a member of Slow Food South Willamette and help shape what this chapter becomes. Your annual membership of $60 goes to Slow Food USA, our parent nonprofit, which allows chapters like ours to pursue programs and events that benefit their local community. Any donation above $60 goes directly to our chapter.

We can use these funds in a variety of ways. We are just getting established so we would use the funds for the costs of developing the brand new website. We would purchase signage and booth supplies so we could have a presence at events. We would use these funds to pay chefs to cook food for us, pay farmers to give us tours, and pay other presenters to share their knowledge with us, so we aren’t asking anyone to work for free.

This project is personal because I’ve watched Eugene’s food community grow over the 35 years I’ve lived in the Eugene area, and I want to be part of strengthening it. I’ve been waiting for the right moment to do something like this, and I left a journalism job to be able to do it.

I’ve spent years writing about food and volunteering as a board member with Eugene Area Gleaners. I’m trained as a Master Recycler, and currently I am working through the Master Food Preserver program. All of it has been pointing me toward this. As I started to talk to other people about Slow Food, other people came forward and said they too wanted to be involved. This chapter would not have been able to launch without Rocky Maselli, chef and owner of Eugene restaurant Osteria DOP. Rocky is the first person I mentioned this too, and he immediately said he would step up as Co-chair. I talked to my friend Katie Neall about it, and she agreed to be Secretary. Katie is a forager who makes delicious meals from wildharvested foods. Nicole Peltz, another friend with a long history on the local food world, agreed to be Treasurer. Everyone I spoke to was excited about this. The time was right, and we believe the community needs a way to find shared values over food now more than ever.

Food has always been one of the most powerful ways humans build community. Sharing a meal, learning where ingredients come from, celebrating the people who grow and cook them. Slow Food South Willamette is a place for all of that. It’s a community for people who believe that how we eat matters.

Eugene, Springfield, and the south Willamette Valley deserve a thriving Slow Food chapter. If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to be part of building it with me. Become a member today.

Thank you.
Vanessa Salvia