7th Boston Local Food Festival

Values of Local Seafood in the Spotlight

What: 7 th Annual Boston Local Food Festival
Date: Sunday, September 18, 2016
Time: 11:30 am: Opening Program and Festival Kick-off in the Fish Stock Zone
12:30pm – 2:30pm: Seafood Throwdown in Fish Stock Zone
11 am – 5 pm: Boston Local Festival
Where: Rose Kennedy Greenway, Zone C, Milk Street, Boston, MA 02110

Opening Program and Festival Kick-off
Boston Local Food Festival, September 18, 2016 Rose Kennedy Greenway 

Location: Zone C, in the Fish Stock Zone at Milk Street

•11:30 AM     Welcome from Laury Hammel, Executive Director of Sustainable Business Network
•11:35 AM     Remarks from Boston Chief of Health and Human Services, Felix Arroyo (tentative)
•11:40 AM     Remarks from Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Commissioner John Lebeaux
•11:47 AM Remarks from Tom Kelly, Ph.D., Executive Director, Sustainability Institute University of
New Hampshire and Food Solutions New England
•11:50 AM     Remarks from Shannon Eldredge, Board President, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance
•11:57 AM     Thank you and Festival Kick-off from Maddie Phadke, Managing Director of SBN

For one spectacular day each year, The Rose Kennedy Greenway transforms into New England's largest farmers' market celebrating the joys of eating local food. Join The Sustainable Business Network of MA (SBN) on Sunday, September 18, 11am-5pm. The Festival Kick-off will take place at 11:30am at the Fish Stock in Zone C at Milk Street. More than 50,000 festival-goers will purchase local dairy, meat and fresh cooked dishes made with food grown in New England and try new dishes and products made close to our backyards. Over 100 vendors will be featured at this year’s 7th Annual Boston Local Food Festival. See the full program here.

Themed “Healthy Local Food For All,” this free outdoor festival showcases farmers, local restaurants, food trucks, specialty food producers, fisher folks, and organizations that focus on healthy food and fitness from Boston and around New England. The Festival is a zero-waste event with over 90% of our waste is diverted and offset 100% of its energy use. Festival highlights include the Chef Demo Stage, Fishstock and the Seafood Throwdown, The New England Village and the “50 by 60” New England Food Vision, and the Family Fun Zone, a kids-focused interactive zone with gardening, health and fitness activities, live farm animals, and more! Featured also will be a tent dedicated to the food businesses from Boston’s own CommonWealth Kitchen.

“The Boston Local Food Festival has emerged to be a premier event featuring flavorful and fresh foods from our area local farms, fisheries and food producers. The Festival supports the MA Local Food Action Plan through the promotion of Bay State products to consumers. Massachusetts farmers are growing high-quality produce and I encourage all Massachusetts residents to support their local farmers by buying locally grown food products and locally caught seafood,” said John LeaBeaux, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources.

This year, SBN is pleased to highlight issues around real ecologically responsible values-based seafood businesses. With our long time partner Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA), the Festival will feature chefs, institutions, and organizations working to ensure that our appetite for seafood doesn’t undermine the integrity of the marine ecosystems while increasing the economic, social, and food access benefits of fishing. NAMA and the Local Catch Network will release a set of values recently adopted by fishing businesses ready to do things differently. This year’s Seafood Throwdown will feature chefs from institutions such as the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and others who have worked to make sure their seafood procurement values and policies match the values they have adopted around their land food purchases. Judges for the Seafood Throwdown will include organizational and business representatives that have embraced values that go beyond the maximum return on profit, and what it takes to spread that message across the whole seafood value chain.

Key sponsors and partners of this year’s Boston Local Food Festival include: Massachusetts Department of Agriculture, CommonWealth Kitchen, The Trustees, Edible Boston, Natural Awakenings, Boston Organics, Backyard Farms, Eastern Bank, The Rose Kennedy Greenway, Gentle Giant, Harvest Co-op, New England Dairy Promotion Board, and The Williams Agency.  A detail list of vendors follows. 

About Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts and The Boston Local Food Festival
Launched in 1988 as the Responsible Business Alliance, SBN is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, MA, with the mission to build a Massachusetts economy that is local, green, and fair. With over 1000 locally owned and independent businesses, affiliates, and individuals participating in SBN’s projects and programs, SBN remains the leading organization of sustainable business in the state.  SBN currently organizes and leads the following programs: Sustainable Business Leader Program, Local First Networks, Boston Local Food Program, and the SBN Leadership Exchange.

For full vendor list click here.

For more information about SBN and the Boston Local Food Program, visit www.sbnmass.org, www.bostonlocalfood.org or call 617-395-0250.

For more information on the festival, visit www.bostonlocalfoodfestival.org
Twitter: @BostonLocalFood, #BLFF2015
Facebook: Facebook.com/BostonLocalFood
Instagram: @BostonLocalFood
Hashtag : #BLFF2016