Yale Sustainable Food Project To Raise a New Roof

The public is invited to witness the modern equivalent of an old-fashioned barn-raising on September 20, as members of the Yale community — students, faculty, alumni, and friends — pitch in to raise a new pavilion at the Yale Farm on Edwards Street.

This event, which begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday, will kick off festivities to celebrate the fifth birthday of the Yale Farm, a one-acre, four-season market garden in the midst of New Haven. Volunteers from the Yale community will put up the new building with the help and guidance of the timber-framers who planned the structure. After the communal pavilion-raising, there will be a dedication ceremony, a celebratory meal prepared with food from the farm, and a dance under the new pavilion.

In the past five years and with the hard work and devotion of students, staff, and faculty, the Yale Farm has grown from a brambly acre of sod to a flourishing, productive garden. It is a major initiative of the Sustainable Food Project, which seeks to educate students about food and agriculture and cultivate a generation of environmental leaders who understand the many ways in which food, the land, and the environment are intimately interconnected. The pavilion-raising is designed both to celebrate all the work that has been done, and to mark the beginning of new efforts to strengthen the Yale Farm as an educational and community space over the next five years.

Visitors are welcome to join the fun or just observe. The heavy lifting will be around 10 a.m. and again at 1:30 p.m. Rain dates are September 21 or September 27. Call Anastatia Curley at 203-494-4587 for updated information.

More information is available about the pavilion-raising and the Sustainable Food Project web site online.

About the Yale Sustainable Food Project: The Yale Sustainable Food Project was founded in 2001 by Yale students, faculty and staff, as well as Yale University President Richard Levin and Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant. It was established with the understanding that many of the world’s most important questions regarding health, culture, the environment, and the global economy are deeply connected to what we eat and how it is produced. The Sustainable Food Project seeks to foster a culture that draws meaning and pleasure from the connections among people, land, and food. It oversees a sustainable dining program with a seasonal menu, manages a model organic farm near campus, and supports academic and educational endeavors related to food and agriculture.

Upcoming events for this term include workshops at the farm, a speaker series on food and climate change, and a panel on urban farming