Dinner for Farmers at Vizcaya Honors Innovators, Educators

South Florida farmers face numerous challenges – natural disasters like storms and disease, encroachment from developers, market forces, to name just a few. Surmounting those issues is critical to the future of our food system. This year, the third annual Dinner for Farmers collaboration with Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and edible South Florida focused on innovation and education. Three farms and one edible gardening initiative were honored for their work in improving how food is grown and distributed and for educating consumers and colleagues in their efforts. 

The event kicked off with remarks by Vizcaya executive director Dr. Joel Hoffman, who introduced guests to the 12-acre Village, originally created with staff quarters, a garage and workshops, barns, and greenhouses and fields that supplied fresh flowers, fruits and vegetables. The planned restoration will realize the full potential of Vizcaya as a cultural hub through year-round programming and green space for residents and visitors. Community programs manager Rebecca Peterson led the group through a progressive dinner with stops along the way that included an introduction to Hungry Harvest, a rescued-produce delivery service; Health in the Hood, a community garden program to provide fresh produce in food deserts; and awards for local farmers. 

Honoring South Florida Farmers

Top honors went to The Education Fund for outstanding achievement in both education and innovation for their Food Forest program in Miami-Dade schools. Program managers Eddie Recinos and Debi La Belle oversee edible gardens on school grounds at 51 elementary schools, using organic and sustainable methods of growing to teach more than 34,000 schoolchildren real-life science and nutrition lessons. Those include food forests, where fruits, vegetables and herbs grow year-round, tended by students and staff, with up to 135 varieties at each site, such as five varieties of spinach, three varieties of edible hibiscus, katuk, moringa, lemongrass, bananas and papaya.

Cafeteria staff is trained in the garden’s offerings, and regularly incorporates fresh produce into their menus. Students receive regular harvest bags to take home for family meals. “Many parents turn to their children for advice on the preparation of the exotic greens, and the students love being able to offer guidance on the different vegetables,” reports Mimi Pink, director of development. The program reports that 80 percent of the students improved their science scores, 54 percent improved their attitudes toward food and 46 percent improved their eating habits. 

Another award winner was the Little River Cooperative, a small urban farm that launched a farmer incubator program to teach small farmers how to grow food and provide them with beginner plots of land and tools to get started. “We came up with this program because we saw a need in South Florida for more small farmers, and with a lack of community and land opportunities we saw people interested in growing but not able to start the process of hands-on learning and small-business building,” says farmer Tiffany Noé. “We hope this season’s effort in growing farmers as well as veggies will benefit everyone in the farm community by building it up with more farmers and more community.”