This article originally appeared in the College Park Community Paper
There is a unique feeling people get when choosing the locally grown strawberries over the cheaper ones packaged and shipped from out of town; it’s something like pride and happiness mixed into one.
Now, imagine having that feeling for three months straight. That is exactly what Rebecca Reis-Miller and Trisha Strawn are doing.
Both Managing Partners at Growing Synergy, LLC., these two women are challenging themselves to eat local, artisanal foods from Florida for 90 days. And they started on the first day of spring.
Strawn and Reis-Miller each have their respective and established experiences with local food: Reis-Miller was the co-founder and leader of the Orlando Chapter of Slow Food USA and Strawn won Innovative Farmer of the Year during Small Farms Conference in 2010.
There has been widespread support from the community and local restaurants that source their ingredients locally.
Namely, College Park’s K Restaurant and Wine Bar is responsible for most of Strawn and Reis-Miller’s meals.
Owner Kevin Fonzo points out that “we are not just supporting the ‘90 Day Challenge.’ K has been a big supporter of local food since we opened 11 years ago. I have been utilizing local produce, dairy, meat, and fish as often as I can.”
In fact, he continues, “Back in the day, K used to get in trouble from the city for having too many pots of herbs/vegetables on the sidewalk of the old location. I have always believed, before it was popular, in sourcing locally to keep the local economy going. K is a neighborhood restaurant that relies on the true Orlando locals for support.”
On a Thursday evening, each challenger also stopped by the College Park Farmers Market at Infusion Tea to gather their goods from Heart of Christmas farmer, Richard Kann.
Strawn recalled, “Richard gave me this huge box of produce and I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to go through all of this before it goes bad.’ But two weeks later, not one thing has gone bad.”
Kann interjected, “Oh, yea. That was all fresh-picked that morning!”
What might motivate these two women to take this challenge, aside from their advocacy for local food? Why go local for 90 days?
Reis-Miller explains, “Food has always been my passion. I have been involved for about ten years through advocacy and education. I started volunteering with the Simple Living Institute in 2007, and I used to run the College Park Farmers Market back in 2005.”
She continues, “The goal was to connect consumers and restaurant owners as much as possible. I met Trish through Slow Food and the ranch. I mean, I live and breathe this every day of my life.”
Even with the experience and know-how Strawn and Reis-Miller bring to the table, the challenge is still just that, a challenge.
Strawn admits, “We were not prepared to do this. We thought we were, but we weren’t. We made a promise to do the best we could do to eat local/artisanal foods because we wanted to demonstrate our support for everyone. At first, it was not easy, and that definitely made me more aware of how there is still so much work to be done to make eating locally easier.”
In the past, it may have been more of a struggle to find restaurants and markets that carried locally grown foods, but there has been an outpouring from the Central Florida community eager to help out.
However, with organizations like College Park’s The Homegrown Cooperative, which Strawn notes has been super supportive over the years, more and more awareness has been brought to the issue of local sustainability.
“I’d recommend people considering this as a lifestyle to connect with the source of their food,” she says.
On the same topic, Fonzo of K Restaurant adds, “[Residents] just have to be willing to open their eyes and break their routine to find and/or eat local food. With more support of local farmers, I hope we see a boom in independent farming in Central Florida! People like Trish are definitely opening up people’s eyes and challenging them to break their routine!”
