On October 27th, more than 150 community members gathered at the Artscape Sandbox in downtown Toronto to learn about Shoresh’s 7-year vision for Bela Farm. Together, we created a beautiful, warm, heart-felt evening that left everyone in the room with a sense of inspiration and hope for the future.
Shoresh’s ED, Risa Alyson Cooper sharing our map for Bela Farm.
Here’s what some friends had to say about the event:
“I just wanted to say a huuuuuge mazal tov for all that you’ve accomplished with Shoresh! It felt amazing to be in the room on Tuesday with such warm vibes, celebrating such meaningful aspects of community, sustainability, food, judaism, etc. Kol Hakavod! Look forward to all that lies ahead!”
Highlights from the night included:
- Bringing together 7 of the most innovative and creative thinkers in Toronto’s Jewish and foodie community.
- Feeling nourished and supported by our incredible volunteers who curated an incredible team of artisinal food producers for our Snack N’ Shmooze
- Seeing a diverse array of community members come together to learn more about Bela Farm. Food connects us all!
- Hearing 14 year-old Ryan Storm encourage 150 adults to “turn passion into action”
- Sharing 4-years of work and vision with our friends, family and community including these 7 things to look forward to at Bela Farm over the next 7 years:
7 things to look forward to at Bela Farm over the next 7 years:
- 100 ACRES OF JEWISH-NATURE CONNECTION: Bela Farm will be 100 acres of open green space, fresh air, clean water and deep experiential learning making it the LARGEST Jewish educational farm in North America.
- 20 ACRE NATIVE FOREST: We will plant 16,000 native trees to honour the memories and lifecycle events of our community members, sequester carbon to help mitigate climate change and demonstrate our long-term commitment to the future.
- 20 ACRE BEE PASTURE: We are planting 2 million native flowering plantsto feed our pollinators and save them from malnourishment and starvation.
- 10 ACRES OF LOCAL VEGETABLES: Honouring the ethic of tzedakah embedded in Jewish agricultural law, we will make sure that everyone in our community has access to fresh, local, organic produce.
- 30 BEEHIVES: We’re growing our apiary so we can meet the community’s demand for local, raw honey and beeswax candles for Jewish rituals from Rosh Hashana to weddings to Shabbat!
- NOURISHING NOSHES: From horseradish and matzah for Pesach to honey for Rosh Hashana, we are excited to bring our field to your table!
- IMMERSIVE LEARNING: We will offer a variety of community immersive programs and volunteers opportunities, helping all members of our community to connect deeply with people, land and spirit
Check out our beautiful photos here and stay tuned for lots of good things growing at Bela Farm in spring 2016!