Giving Hope and Going Green
Eco Home and Garden Expo and benefit farm dinner coming to Monterey in October
By Sarah Wood
Hope Center Monterey opened its doors in January 2009—a time when the financial crisis was causing a surge in the number of families struggling just to feed themselves.
“We wanted our kids to have a safe place to volunteer and to realize that they had a responsibility to help their community,” says Hope Center Executive Director Kim Lemaire, mother of two daughters. “I always say help locally and think globally—if everybody thought that way, there’d be no hunger.”
Over time, the entirely volunteer-staffed food pantry has grown to provide 300 Monterey Peninsula people and 150 pets with much-needed supplementary groceries each month—and a place where children and adults alike can contribute their time to helping others. But because the center operates independently of any church or other organization, it relies completely on donations to pay its rent and purchase the food it distributes. This time of year, the need for its services is greater than ever.
Edible Monterey Bay is extremely proud to be assisting the Hope Center by sponsoring the Monterey Eco Home and Garden Expo Farm-to-Table Dinner on Oct. 18—an event that will raise money for the Hope Center and kick off the Eco Home and Garden Expo (Oct. 19–20), which we are also sponsoring. Both will take place at the Monterey County Fairgrounds.
The dinner will feature produce and meats raised on local organic farms and foraged from local forests. Heller Estate Organic Vineyards will pour its award-winning wines and the highly creative chef, Brandon Miller of Mundaka in Carmel, will cook the meal, which will be held al fresco, in an oak-studded area overlooking the adjacent golf course.
“It’s going to be the best time of the year for harvesting produce,” Miller says, noting that he also expects to incorporate wild chanterelles, housemade charcuterie and the Spanish flair that Mundaka is known for into the multi-course meal.
Heller Estate is a huge supporter of local community organizations, and Rich Tanguay, Heller’s winemaker, says the winery is especially pleased to be helping the Hope Center. So Heller will be taking the special step of pouring at the event its not-yet-released, first-vintage Petite Syrah, among other wines.
“It turns out that it’s going to be pretty awesome,” Tanguay says. “It’s very broad-shouldered, inky and juicy—it’s a really vibrant and explosive wine.”
Also exciting for all parties involved is the fact that the annual fall home and garden show is being refined this year to focus on green living.
“We’re excited to be re-launching this as an eco home and garden expo so that homeowners can become more educated and take away one piece of advice that makes their lives a little bit greener and helps the planet overall,” says Heather Osgood, co-founder of Simply Clear Marketing, which is staging the expo.
Osgood and her staff have planned a number of new features to help event-goers enhance their homes and gardens. There will be lifestyle seminars on topics such as green building (including one produced by Edible Monterey Bay), cooking demonstrations, wine and food tastings, and more than 100 home and garden experts available to answer questions.
The expo will also offer an array of items—many of them organic—for purchase from a “Grab and Go” home décor shop in the Expo’s Lifestyle Pavilion, and electric cars will be on sale as part of an electric car demo.
Tickets for the dinner are $75 and may be purchased at www.ediblemontereybay.com/edibleevents. For more information, e-mail info@ediblemontereybay.com. To learn about the Eco Home and Garden Expo, go to www.montereycounty homeshow.com/cm/Home.html.
About the author
At Edible Monterey Bay, our mission is to celebrate the local food culture of Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties, season by season. We believe in sustainability, and we believe everyone has a right to healthful, clean and affordable food. We think knowing where our food comes from is powerful, and we hope our magazine, website and newsletters inspire readers to get to know and support our local growers, fishers, chefs, vintners and food artisans.
