Eat Local Challenge Gets Students, Families Looking for Local Food

The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) is challenging students and families to find as much of their food as possible from local sources during the Eat Local Challenge, a contest running from Nov. 8 to Nov. 15, in conjunction with Virginia Farm-to-School Week.  The Farm-to-Table program in Rappahannock will bring the contest to all students in the Rappahannock County Public Schools.  Families throughout the Piedmont region are also invited to take part, and can find the contest online at www.buylocalvirginia.org/challenge.

Participants get an Eat Local Challenge “bingo” card, with squares that list local foods available in late fall—such as salad greens, pumpkin seeds, apples, meat, eggs, dairy, honey, jam, preserved foods, and cool-weather vegetables.  When they eat one of these foods, they can mark it on their card and list the source of the food, which must be grown within 100 miles of their home.  For every row of five squares that a participant completes, his or her name will be entered that many times in a drawing to win prizes from local businesses.

Prizes will be awarded through two drawings, one for families and one for students in the Rappahannock Schools. Local businesses that have donated prizes include:

• Beech Spring Gift Shop in Sperryville
• Black Bear Bistro in Warrenton
• The Farm at Sunnyside, in Washington, Va.
• Lees Orchard in Rappahannock
• Millers Farm Market in Locust Grove
• Moo Thru Ice Cream in Remington
• Oak Shade Farm in Culpeper
• Real Food in Orange
• Stone Hearth Christmas Tree Farm in Leon
• Toni Egger in Rappahannock
• Triple Oak Bakery in Sperryville

Students in Rappahannock will get a boost on their Eat Local Challenge cards, when the county schools celebrate Local Foods Day on November 9, providing local hamburgers, salad and apple crisp in all of the cafeterias. 

To find other ingredients on the Eat Local Challenge card, students and families can turn to the Buy Fresh Buy Local holiday guides, which the Piedmont Environmental Council is producing for the Charlottesville Area and the Northern Piedmont.  By November 1, the guides will be available up online, at www.buylocalvirginia.org. 

Melissa Wiley, director of PEC’s Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign, says, “It’s definitely more of a challenge to find local food in November than in the summertime.  But a wide variety of local foods are available throughout the colder months if you know where to look.  Both the Eat Local Challenge and Buy Fresh Buy Local holiday guides can help people discover more of these year-round opportunities.”