“Yoel thinks we’re crazy!” says Leora Mallach, founder of Ganei Beantown and organizer of the first Boston Jewish Food Conference. We are on a phone call trying to plot out dinner and we’re hitting a few snags along the way. Feeding 200 people is a task in and of itself; feeding 200 people on a budget, in a less-than-ideal kitchen, and accounting for an all-vegetarian meal and additional dietary needs furthers the challenges. We were attempting to do this within the constraints of using a Kosher caterer, while sourcing as many local and sustainable ingredients as possible… in April, in New England.

To say that we had our work cut out for us is an understatement. The seed for the Boston Jewish Food Conference was first planted in the spring of 2011 when Leora Mallach, Becca Weaver and Hannah Levine, inspired by the 2010 Hazon East Coast Food Conference, sat down over leftover Tova’s vegan spicy chocolate cake to consider a local gathering. As planning moved along, it became clear that our meal and all of our snacks needed to be certified Kosher in order to be inclusive of the wide range of beliefs and practices in our Jewish community. Because the conference focused on ethics in our food choices (our tagline for the conference is “Sowing the Seeds of Sustainability”) we also knew that we needed to role model this in the meal that we served. While Boston boasts multiple Kosher caterers and several caterers that focus on using locally-sourced and sustainable ingredients, there is no one that does both.

Please read the rest of the article on the Pursue Action blog.