Small Plates is a roundup of New Hampshire food news.
Dartmouth student Adam Charnin-Aker says there’s a simple idea behind an initiative called Dartmouth Feeding Neighbors: “Hanover seems to be a very wealthy area, and it really is, but you can drive 5 minutes outside of Hanover and find people who are struggling to make it by.” Charnin-Aker and several other students have arranged to collect food from Dartmouth dining halls that would otherwise go to waste and bring it to the Upper Valley Haven, which provides food and emergency shelter for those in need in the region. The students bring in several hundred pounds of food through their deliveries, made three times a week, though as WMUR reports, “the shelter says most of the food is gone by noon.”
“Our businesses are not even remotely viable anymore”
Speaking of challenges related to food, check out Larry Clow’s recent feature story in The Sound on the state of the fishing industry on the Seacoast. Last fall regulators announced more big cuts in catch limits because, as NOAA’s John Bullard put it, “cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine are in freefall,” though he noted the new restrictions would likely have “a tremendous impact on people who fish on the gulf of Maine.” The fishermen in Clow’s piece disagree on the state of the cod stocks, but agree the new regulations have had a huge impact on their work. “I’ve lost 95 percent of my cod quota,” longtime fisherman David Goethel says in the story. “If you took 90 percent of the stuff of Walmart’s shelves, Walmart wouldn’t exist anymore.”
“Getting food to the people”
Somersworth has its own farmers market, and organizers tell Foster’s Daily Democrat it’s about time. “We have a couple of areas that are considered food deserts in Somersworth,” said Lara Willard of Goodwin Community Health, a co-organizer. “So we’re trying to bring access to nutrition and healthy food.” The market runs Thursday afternoons through late September.
This week: “Brazil in Waterville” at Waterville Valley Resort (Friday-Sunday); Yoga in the Vineyard at LaBelle Winery in Amherst (Saturday);
Links to take home: Welcome to the Concord Monitor’s new food blog, On The Food Trail! Ruminations on the “exceptional awesomeness” of a longtime employee of the Hanover Co-op. Here’s a writing prompt Redditors could probably knock out of the park: “Bob’s Clam Hut ran out of chowder just before 1 p.m.”
