Food

Colorado’s Growing Jewish Food Movement: The Place To Be

Hugging Goats at the Boulder Jewish Commons Image by Juliet Glaser

By Juliet Glaser August 18, 2011

The growing season in Colorado may only be about 150 days long, but the New Jewish Food Movement is growing here year round. Two years ago, Colorado sent 52 Participants to the Hazon Food Conference in Monterey, CA. Those participants came back to Colorado and began building one of the most diverse and dynamic local scenes in the New Jewish Food Movement today.

The Denver and Boulder areas are home to four Jewish run CSAs. The Minyan Na’Aleh, Denver JCC Edibly Fit, Boulder’s Tuv Ha’Aretz and the South Denver CSAs have grown out of the Hazon CSA program and offer a connection between the Jewish Community and local farms. Along with offering a way for community members to enjoy local produce, the CSAs also offer a spot for the local community to gather and connect with each other.

The area is also home to two Jewish-run farms and community gardens; Denver’s Ekar Farm and the Boulder Jewish Community Commons Animal Project. Ekar is located on the grounds of the Denver Academy of Torah, and is in its second year. Ekar engages the local community by encouraging people to have their own plots in the community garden as well bringing people together to help out on the farm, which donates the bulk of its produce to local food banks. The Boulder Jewish Community Commons project is in its first year and already has an area for community gardens as well as a chicken coop and goat pen. Building on the success of these two farms, other local organizations and synagogues are looking to build their own farms and gardens on their land. The Denver Jewish Day School campus as well as the Hebrew Educational Alliance, Temple Sinai and the Kabbalat Experience are all in the process of developing farms and gardens for their communities.

As fitting as one of the nation’s largest meat producing states, there is also a budding sustainable kosher meat movement in Colorado. Over 20 families participated in a sustainable kosher meat buying club this past spring, and are looking to have another one this fall. The Hebrew Educational Alliance helped to organize an educational chicken shechita, where over a dozen families participated in the ritual slaughter of nearly 50 chickens. Colorado is also home to EcoGlatt, a sustainable kosher meat business that is working to bring sustainable kosher meat to the local Jewish community in a more accessible way.

Hazon in Colorado has a local, lay lead Steering Committee which is dedicated to creating and supporting the New Jewish Food Movement in our community. Recently the 13 member committee allocated grants to 12 local organizations and projects. Among these projects were new gardens at local institutions, educational events focusing on environmental and sustainability issues and programs that would address food justice matters.

These projects and organizations are just a small sample of all that Colorado has to offer the New Jewish Food Movement. This year Colorado is sending 32 participants to the Hazon Food Conference in Davis, CA. The interests and backgrounds that these participants bring the conference are as diverse as the movement itself. Colorado’s Jewish Community will be looking to see what new ideas and endeavors these participants bring back home, and Hazon in Colorado is excited to help them grow.

Juliet Glaser works for Hazon as the Director of Community Education in Denver. She is an avid gardener, canner, and cook and loves playing with her two kids, two dogs and husband in Denver, CO.

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