"Are we jumping on the Green band wagon? No. We are the wagon."

                                                                                                        -Cindy Gentry, Community Food Connections

West of Western Culinary Festival partners with Slow Food Phoenix and Community Food Connections /Downtown Phoenix Public Market, to present non-profit organizations at the Festival that are active in maintaining our food heritage traditions. Their research and support for producers of heirloom produce enrich the choices of Arizona Chefs. Visit them at The Grand Tasting.

Community Food Connections (CFC) is an Arizona non-profit organization that works to alleviate hunger and create food self-sufficiency for low-income households through community and economic development. Our focus is on healthy foods, healthy families and healthy farms. Several programs on the front burner right now include:

The Arizona Farmers' Market Nutrition Program – CFC is working with the Governor's Office and state legislature to develop funding for this valuable program to allow low-income seniors to shop at near-by farmers markets for fresh Arizona grown fruits and vegetables. In addition to increasing local produce consumption this program brings a new revenue stream for small-scale farmers to help keep them on the land.

Farm to Cafeteria – developing pilots that encourage and support schools, restaurants and other institutions to purchase and serve locally-produced foods

The Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) at Farmers' Market projects – CFC coordinates and develops resources so that Food Stamp customers may shop for eligible items at select farmers' markets throughout the state.

The Downtown Phoenix Public Market project - The Downtown Market has just celebrated its Second Anniversary The Downtown Phoenix Public Market is open every Saturday year-round, rain or shine from 8am– 1pm Established in February 2005 the Market provides our city with:

• A several-day-a-week venue that is an interim step to establishing a permanent Public Market hall and Market district in Downtown Phoenix
• Additional quality of life choices by increasing access to affordable, nutritious, healthy foods
• New jobs
• A unique outlet for small local food-related enterprises to create opportunities for small businesses that cannot afford typical retail space costs to market their products
• Support for our state's small agricultural producers and agricultural heritage.
• The best of what's fresh and local, and a great community gathering place, right in the heart of Phoenix.

For more information, please call: Cindy Gentry, 602-493-5231 or visit phoenixpublicmarket.com

Slow Food Phoenix is an eco-gastronomic organization dedicated to ensuring
the food we eat is good, clean and fair. The non-profit's Valley-wide membership
is involved in the following programs:

• Educating families about local foods and food traditions including an annual Mesquite Milling event
• Educating youth at the Seed to Table school garden program at Desert Marigold School
• Preserving Arizona's traditional and heirloom seeds, vegetables and meat through projects such as the Churro Lamb Presidia and the RAFT Local Farmers Seed Grow Out
• Supporting local farmers and producers through farm tours, special dinners,
  other educational events and donations
• Encouraging the consumption of local, sustainable, fair and humanely-raised foods
  while celebrating the pleasures of the table.

Slow Food Phoenix is the local chapter of Slow Food USA; For more information,
contact David Johnson at (602) 214-8076 or see http://www.slowfoodphoenix.org

Tohono O'odham Community Action TOCA's Tohono O'odham Community Food System is a project dedicated to the creation of a sustainable food system within the Tohono O'odham community. Its goals are to:

Empower community members to reduce the high incidence of adult-onset diabetes within the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Contribute to the revitalization of the O'odham Himdag - the Desert People's Way.

Stimulate sustainable and culturally-appropriate economic development through food system development.

Native Seeds/SEARCH works to conserve, distribute and document the adapted and diverse varieties of agricultural seed, their wild relatives and the role these seeds play in cultures of the American Southwest and northwest Mexico. Our mission began in 1983, springing from the nexus of cultural longing and impending loss of genetic diversity. Today we safeguard 2000 varieties of arid-land adapted agricultural crops.