Our October meeting was organised as a potluck Harvest dinner, where everyone brought some local seasonal food to share and enjoy. The event took place at The Rose (51 High Street, Oxford) and was kindly hosted by the owner Marianne Bruel, who also provided appetisers and drinks. We all ate extremely well before getting down to business. Below is a brief summary of the evening:

The focus of the evening was Children and Schools.

Eka Morgan from Oxford Inspires came to talk to us about a programme she is working on called "Eat the County". Oxford Inspires is the cultural development agency for Oxfordshire, with culture defined in the broadest terms, including food. Indeed, as Eka reminded us, food is culture. "Eat the County" focuses on children, because they are where the need is. The project essentially aims to get children cooking as children do not have enough opportunity to do so at present. The project will choose a selection of schools in each district in Oxfordshire. It will link a secondary school with a feeder primary, focusing on children in the last year of primary and the first year of secondary school. The main goals are:

• Link schools with local producers and restaurants. They hope to get committed people to give talks and demonstrations aimed at the children. Some links have already been established (Aziz restaurant has expressed an interest, for example). What they need are engaging speakers who can appeal to children.
• Fund-raise for more after-school cookery clubs in these same schools.

Everything will work towards a series of special events and festivals in 2007 and will culminate in the literal "eating the county." This idea is based on the work of the Spanish artist Alicia Rios who creates replicas of buildings or monuments that are completely edible. Possibilities include replicas of the Sheldonian or Didcot power station made from food. This will in turn help remind people that food is culture. Getting children involved in this stage of the project would also be a goal.

Eka then opened up the discussion to the members and many suggestions and comments were made. It was especially interesting to hear about Greg Dawson's successful project: providing and cooking healthy organic food at their Dalesford Organic Farm Shop for his local school every Friday.

Eka and Oxford Inspires would very much like to get Slow Food Oxon involved in fundraising for the project. They would also like to hear from SF Oxon members who have ideas about:

• Ways to get involved in the project
• Names of good speakers

Anyone who would like to help can contact her directly:
Eka Morgan, Food and Environment Coordinator
eka.morgan@sbs.ox.ac.uk
01865 278817