New England Grassroots Environment Fund

Group Resources

Printable Local Food Guide
Online Local Food Guide
Harvest Calendar
Winter Farmer’s Market Website

Group Details

Seacoast Eat Local works to connect consumers with sources of locally grown and locally made foods. The group advocates eating locally for ecological, social, cultural, and environmental reasons. Its goal is to increase consumption of local foods by improving access through information, promotion, and facilitation.

The group’s successes include: an incredible reception of the 2008 Seacoast Harvest local food guide from farmers and consumers alike asking for it by name. The online seachable database received 1,300 visits from 750 unique visitors in its first 4 months. In November and December of 2007 Seacoast Eat Local hosted two winter farmers’ markets in Dover (NH) at the McIntosh Atlantic Culinary Academy. These markets were an astounding success, each drawing over1,200 visitors and receiving positive coverage from local media. The group worked with the NH Deparment of Agriculture to create and promote NH Eat Local Week, a promotional week encouraging NH residents to explore NH grown foods and involve their community members. Seacoast Eat Local also organized a farmer’ market “gleaning program” in 2008, working with 3 other area community groups to collect donations from farmers at the end of the largest area farmers market and deliver the fresh foods directly to Cross Roads House, the region’s largest transitional and emergency shelter. An average of 50 pounds of food per week has been donated.

The group, located in Rye (NH), received its latest NEGEF grant to increase capacity for food self reliance year-round in the Seacoast area. Seacoast Eat Local will provide a day-long workhop for farmers to help build their capacity for increased off-season production for the 2009/10 winter market season and will also provide outreach to community members prior to and during the 2009/10 market season, in order to generate support for the expanding series of Winter Markets and enrich the consumer experience through awareness, education, and information sharing opportunities. Through this dual approach of increasing both production and consumption of local foods in a non-traditional farm season, Seacoast Eat Local will facilitate a more environmentally sustainable, healthy food system on the seacoast.