Civil Eats

If you’ve spent years listening to well-meaning and otherwise well-informed people patiently explain to you why it’s elitist to think everyone should have access to fresh, delicious and locally produced food – if you’ve occasionally even lost the will to argue back, then each encouraging word on the subject from Michelle Obama arrives like a long-awaited gift.

There have been a lot of these lately – most recently last week, when the First Lady visited Miriam’s Kitchen and praised the outreach program for serving healthy and delicious meals to Washington, D.C.’s homeless. She brought along a few cases of fresh fruit donated by White House employees, and urged all of us to “collect some fruits and vegetables – bring some good healthy food,” to our area soup kitchens. “We can provide this kind of healthy food for communities across the country, and we can do it by each of us lending a hand.”

On that note, Miriam’s Kitchen is extending an open invitation to brunch on Saturday, March 21; the price of admission for this homemade meal will be stuffing envelopes for its 8^th annual fundraising gala, 100 Bowls of Compassion, to be held at the National Building Museum. Email miriamsbowls@gmail.com if you want to go to the D.C. brunch. For tickets to the gala, as well as information on how to be a sponsor or donate an auction item click here.

Photo: Jim Young, Reuters

Katrina Heron is a San Francisco-based writer and editor who was Board Chair of Slow Food Nation 2008. A former Editor-in Chief of Wired Magazine, she was also a senior editor at The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and The New York Times magazines. She is a director of the Chez Panisse Foundation.