I’m thrilled to announce that our town is the proud recipient of a $7,500 “On the Same Page” grant from the Federal Library Services and Technology Act, administered on the federal level by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and on the state level by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.  You may have heard this program called a “Town-Wide Read” because all residents of a particular town are encouraged to read and discuss the same book.  As my Reading Group blog page indicates, we’ve chosen as our book Barbara Kingsolver’s account of her family’s year-long attempt to eat locally.  Over the next two months, our library has scheduled a variety of activities which will integrate reading with local food, farms, and gardens.

The kick-off event for Read-Eat-Grow was a lecture at the library this evening, featuring the owners of Many Hands Organic Farm in nearby Barre.  An overflow crowd listened to Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson describe their attempts to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.  For nearly thirty years now, the couple has grown vegetables and fruits without using pesticides or herbicides and has raised livestock without feeding them antibiotics.  As both spoke, they showed slides of the farm and the crops they’ve grown.  They encouraged the audience to buy food locally and also to support organizations such as NOFA, the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

I was impressed with the couple’s determination to “walk the talk” and I must say that the home-made soup they brought us was delicious!  With this lecture, I think our project is off to a great start, and I look forward attending the upcoming events.  Please do bookmark the library website and consider helping us celebrate both reading and local food.