For five days in April, the local food movement in Long Beach will be showcased in all its tasty, homegrown glory as Long Beach Fresh ushers in its seventh annual Spring Foodways Summit.
Along with the highly-anticipated return of the Long Beach County Fair and agricultural contests, residents can also enter the new Long Beach bake-off, sauce, pickle and jam contests. Residents will have chances to tour some of the urban farms that have far-reaching impacts in the city and learn about policies that impact local food “eaters and seeders.”
Long Beach Fresh works with and supports nearly 20 community gardens and urban farms in Long Beach, as well as local food vendors, neighborhood markets and local businesses to provide every resident with affordable, healthy and sustainable food options.
“I think it’s so easy to slice up the food movement any which way; interesting, dynamic, delicious, diverse—like it isn’t hard for us,” said Ryan Smolar, Long Beach Fresh co-director. “These events came together because we just reached out to our network of local people doing amazing things and this is what they were doing. We’re just connecting it and adding a little more storytelling and more of a face to it so there’s more of a welcome mat for more people to participate.”
There will also be a farm-to-table meal and celebration at Organic Harvest Gardens to honor Long Beach Fresh’s 10 years in the city. This will be the only event that residents must pay to attend; the other seven celebrations will be free.
The Spring Foodways Summit grew from a trip to Amsterdam, where Smolar happened upon a placemaking week, where public spaces are given a community-first makeover. Smolar realized that Long Beach’s local food scene already constantly puts the community first, making it the perfect aspect to highlight.
“We wanted to come back and showcase all of the great food stuff happening in Long Beach because so much of it happens under the radar that people don’t know about it,” Smolar said. “The more exposure they get, the more amazing they realize that these assets are in their community and we wanted to connect more people to that.”
This year’s Foodways Summit will have an underlying emphasis on “the explosion of micro-entrepreneurship in the food system,” Smolar said. Panels will discuss the challenges and accomplishments of local food vendors as well as a state law that allows people to start food businesses out of their home.
The food contests will also give residents the chance to make a name for themselves amongst the farmers market regulars.
“They’re really meant to get more people engaged in the local food scene, which is very vibrant, it’s very inclusive and very culturally diverse. It’s an economic driver for residents in town,” Smolar said, adding that the network of urban gardens, farmers and local food vendors makes Long Beach more sustainable and acts as a safety net for people who can’t afford high-quality food.
“It’s a big camp of really interesting people engaged in this and this is one of our opportunities to mix and mingle across that spectrum,” Smolar said.
Long Beach Fresh could also benefit from more community exposure since the main grant that funded all of its operations has ended, forcing the nonprofit organization to apply for numerous grants and rely on donations in the meantime.
Here’s a full list of the events scheduled for the 2023 Spring Foodways Summit:
Wednesday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m.: The Spring Foodways Summit will kick off with a mixer at the SpaceTime Collaborative in Signal Hill. This warehouse/laboratory setting will be filled with chefs, artists, designers and agriculturalists to enjoy AR food art demos and preview the events of the week. The “Cambodian Cowboy” chef Chad Phuong will be serving up delicious food while local business International Players Juice will be crafting spring mocktails for attendees to sip on.
Thursday, April 6 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Residents can explore agricultural excellence hidden within a concrete jungle with a free tour of downtown Long Beach’s Sowing Seeds of Change Urban Farm. The tour will highlight the farm’s vocational programs that teach youth with disabilities and foster youth agricultural skills that they can use to get jobs in the future.
Thursday, April 6 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Local businesses and food vendors will impart their wisdom onto residents at the Bixby Knolls Farmers market Thursday afternoon. Chef Phuong from Battambong BBQ and Kerrina Sanchez from Farmer K Homestead will be discussing their journeys in the local food scene, while Long Beach Fresh will explore ideas of placemaking within Long Beach.
Friday, April 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: There’s another stop at a farmers market—this one in downtown Long Beach. Guest speakers will discuss the California Microenterprise Home Kitchen Ordinance, which allows someone to start a food business out of their home. Long Beach has the option to opt-in to the ordinance, which will be discussed, along with other food and climate issues in California.
“During COVID everything shifted to food distribution and things like that, and now we’re seeing things shift more to food entrepreneurship as people look to the food system to create economic opportunity,” Smolar said. “So we’re trying to tell that story and raise that alarm that, ‘Hey, this is what we’re seeing and this is what people are asking for and what they want and these are policies on the table that could activate more opportunity.’”
Friday, April 7 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.: The Spring Foodways Summit culminates on Friday night with the Long Beach County Fair. Local growers will submit their finest fruits, vegetables, flower bouquets, food art and more for a chance to be named “best in Long Beach” at the annual blue-ribbon contest. The Bixby Knolls Improvement Association will add a petting zoo, music and stilt-walkers to add to the fair ambiance.
In the past years, contestants have mixed in creativity and storytelling with their homegrown produce. Judges are also encouraged to slice into the fruits and vegetables to taste and rank the competing produce.
Saturday, April 8 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: The Growing Experience, the largest urban farm in Long Beach, will be offering free tours of its sustainable oasis Saturday morning. Residents will learn about the farm’s aquaponics and hydroponics systems and enjoy a pizza made completely from ingredients at the farm while enjoying ‘90s music classics.
Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m.: Long Beach Fresh will be celebrating 10 years in the city with a farm-to-table event at Organic Harvest Gardens starting at 1 p.m. There will be celebrity chefs, a live DJ and guests from the California food and agricultural system. Tickets will be $85 and go toward keeping Long Beach Fresh operations going.
“I think that it’s important for us to connect the old energy and the new energy, because you have people who worked really hard to set the stage for years and they really struggled and they face a lot more opposition, and then you have younger people coming in who also need opportunities and need connections,” Smolar said.
Sunday, April 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: There’s one last farmers market on the Foodways Summit tour, and this one involves another round of food competitions. Residents will be invited to enter their best baked goods, sauces, pickles and jams at the Marina Farmers Market in order to make a name for themselves in the local food scene.
Although nearly all of the events are free, residents are encouraged to RSVP on the Foodways Summit website.
