Attendees settle in at the first Farm-to-Fork Dinner in 2016. (Sacramento State/Jessica Vernone)Sacramento State’s Farm-to-Fork Dinner on the Guy West Bridge – which quickly sold out in September 2016 and 2017 – is getting a change of seasons, moving from fall to spring. The third edition of this homage to the region’s agricultural bounty is getting a new name, as well. It'll be known as "Farm-to-Fork Seasonal Tasting on the Bridge" and will take place Friday, May 3, 2019.
Organizers had previously announced a date in late April, but it conflicted with another major event on campus.
And, the organizers are working out details but likely will shake up things by abandoning the three-course buffet dinner concept for a cocktail party-like “taste of Sac State.” They would scatter high-top tables along the bridge and provide guests with ample hors d’oeuvres prepared by Sacramento State students using locally sourced ingredients, along with regional wine and beer selections.
“Moving the bridge activities to springtime will allow our students more time to plan and practice the food production, something that wasn’t afforded them when the dinner was in the fall, just after school started,” says Lynn Hanna, acting chair of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.
The 2019 theme is “Sustainability,” and organizers are coordinating with the Sac State Sustainability staff to make the event a part of the University’s Earth Month observance in April.
Students in Professor Kelly Thompson’s Food Production & Sustainability class will prepare the appetizers. Many of the fresh ingredients will be harvested from the flourishing gardens at Sac State’s Bioconversion and Agricultural Collaborative, best known as the BAC Yard.
Sac State student volunteers will set up for the farm-to-fork celebration, serve guests, and clean up after the event.
The inaugural farm-to-fork dinner, in 2016, raised nearly $3,000 for the Associated Students Inc. (ASI) Food Pantry, which dispensed a combined 32,868 nonperishable food and toiletry items to more than 1,000 students in 2016-17. During the same academic year, more than 4,000 students took advantage of the free fresh fruits and vegetables offered at ASI’s Pop-Up Pantry.
The second dinner’s beneficiary was Sac State’s College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), a federally funded program that supports underserved students as they go from high school to the University. More than $4,000 went to the program.
Details on Sac State’s third farm-to-fork celebration, including the beneficiary, will be announced in the next few months. – Dixie Reid