Charlie Fork

A lot of people ask me, why I started Local Fork.  For those of you haven't told in person, I thought I would lay out the short version of how Local Fork came to be.

 

My wife and I live in New York City with our three children.  As they entered school, we became concerned with the quality of food we saw children eating. It prompted us to take a broader look at food issues generally. 

 

I started off by reading some books on the subject, including: 

The more I read, the more I became interested in the local food movement.  The issues around food expanded beyond issues of health into the realm of environmental sustainability.  Not only was our food system producing questionable food, it was polluting our environment.  Clearly, something had to be done. 

  

The challenges around eating locally- and sustainably-produced food are often challenges of informaiton and collaboration.  I am an Interent developer by trade.  The Internet is great as facilitating collaboration, so I thought that there must be a way to develop online collaboration tools to help people eat better food.  Primarily, if we can reduce the cost, both in time and money, of eating better, more people will.

 

Since I founded Local Fork in October of 2006, we have experiemented with a variety of ways to make it easier to eat better.  In the Spring of 2008 we launched the pilot of our CSA Toolkit.  Over the summer we have worked to refine the tools.  We are looking forward to launching our upgraded toolkit in the Spring of 2009.  We are also collecting videos and hosting blogs around sustainable food. 

 

In the big picture, the inspiriation behind Local Fork is more than just food.  Food plays a central role in every aspect or our lives, and  as Lord George Gordon, and later Margaret Visser, said, "much depends on dinner." 

 

So at Local Fork, we have dedicated ourselves to one simple goal, "Better Food for Everyone".  With that, great things will follow.

 

Charlie 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first post of Charlie Fork!

 

I founded Local Fork two years ago to explore ways to use the Internet to help people eat fresher and more sustainable food--and to have some fun.  Fun it has been.  Over the last two years I have leaned a lot about local food issues, and at Local Fork, we have experimented with various site designs and tools.

 

Last Spring we launched our CSA/Co-op Toolkit pilot program.  We appreciate all the CSAs that have taken part.  It was a great summer.  We are currently in the process of improving the tools for next spring when we hope to attract more CSAs.  We are offering the toolkit free!

 

Today also marks the launch or our new look and homepage.  We have worked to simplify the look and navigation of the site.  We are focusing on our core offerings:

 

We have a lot on tap, so look for some major upgrades to the site in the coming months. 

 

Also, I will be writing a blog on issues around local food. 

 

Thanks to all and welcome!