Locavore expo puts spotlight on area’s local farmers and food innovators

By Brian Wheeler
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Charlottesville City Market was bigger than ever Saturday morning — literally. As part of the Tom Tom Founders Festival, the market area was expanded for a Locavore Expo to celebrate and educate the community about local food.

Expo organizer Natasha Sienitsky, a member of the Charlottesville Planning Commission, said local food complimented the festival’s innovation program.

“I think it’s a natural fit for the innovation series because it’s an area that our community has been particularly innovative in,” said Sienitsky. “It’s something there is clearly passion for in the community.”

Locavore Expo organizer Natasha Sienitsky

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While parents made their market purchases, Sienitsky made sure the more youthful locavores had learning opportunities too.

“We had seed ball making for kids, and we did veggie prints with them,” Sienitsky said. “The whole idea is that by getting kids excited and engaged about food, and seeds and planting and harvesting, that will create the next generation of consumers who feel passionately about local food.”

Sienitsky and her husband Oliver Platts-Mills, who co-founded the Tom Tom festival with Paul Beyer, hosted a panel discussion on local foods inside the South Street Brewery.

Representatives from Albemarle County, the Local Food Hub, the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, and the Piedmont Environmental Council talked about their work. They described a wide variety and scale of local food initiatives in the community.

Housing the Future: Reinventing Where We Age - Special podcast

Victor Regnier

By Brian Wheeler
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Wednesday, January 26, 2011

On January 24, 2011 the Charlottesville Community Design Center hosted a presentation and panel discussion entitled Housing the Future: Reinventing Where we Age.  Part of the community’s Livable for a Lifetime initiative, the featured speaker was Victor Regnier, a teacher, researcher and architect at the University of Southern California.  He is one of the nation’s leading experts on aging. 

Local panelists included Nisha Botchwey, John Quale, Matthew Trowbridge, and Stephen Thomas. The panel was moderated by Gordon Walker, Executive Director of the Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

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