April 11, 2025: Slow Food Annual Gathering

We held our Annual Community Gathering on a gorgeous Friday evening in April as a Happy Hour event at Hammerling Wines in West Berkeley!

This was a chance to bring our leadership team together with the broader community. The team shared out about our 2024 projects and what our thoughts are for the year ahead. We also had roundtable conversations, each centering on a different aspect of our work, giving us a chance to get feedback and inputs directly from attendees. Folks have a lot of concerns around our food systems right now, from immigration to climate impacts of agriculture to the challenges in avoiding dairy. We came away with a strong list of interests and suggestions on partnerships, directly from our community.

This was a potluck event, and as per usual, our community showed up and showed out, with a gorgeous and eclectic spread of food, all beautifully aligned with the slow food ethos.

We asked each attendee for a $5 reservation fee, and all of those proceeds were donated to Hijas Del Campo, the organization selected via a vote during the event. Thanks to our approximately 60 attendees, we were able to donate $187 to Hijas Del Campo.

It was refreshing and impactful to connect with our community in this way — sharing out, hearing back, and just gathering for a good time with good food and the great people who push the East Bay further towards strengthening its good, clean and fair food scene.