Department of Parks and Recreation
Local Foods, Local Chefs
Throughout the month of October, dine at participating Arlington restaurants and enjoy a dinner made with locally grown ingredients. Supporting local vendors strengthens our local economy. But supporting local farmers goes even further. You'll be helping to keep farmland in production and your food is fresher when it was just picked the day before. This initiative endeavors to further encourage local restaurants to feature local ingredients in their menu offerings and to strengthen their relationships with farmers.
Each participating restaurant below will feature menu items made with locally grown ingredients. Restaurants will also feature information about the farms from which they have procured the ingredients. Locally grown is defined as within a 125 mile radius of Arlington, the same criterion that is used for admitting farmers into the Arlington Farmers Market in Courthouse.
Local Foods, Local Chefs is sponsored by Arlington County, Virginia Cooperative Extension, and Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment. Support local farms! Support local chefs! Enjoy delicious food! Doing the right thing never tasted so good.
KICK-OFF EVENT
Saturday, October 1 |
| Meet Diane A. Welland, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Local for a book talk and signing. Also visit local food vendors and chefs, and try food samples throughout the store. |
2011 Participating Restaurants
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Are you a restaurant owner interested in participating? Contact Jenn Truong (703-228-6406, jenn@arlingtonenvironment.org) or Jennifer Abel (703-228-6417, jabel@vt.edu) for more information.
The History of Local Foods, Local Chefs in Arlington
This initiative was pioneered by County Board member, Jay Fisette, who got the idea to do this in Arlington after visiting Bloomington, IN and seeing a similar project in place there. In December 2007, he approached the Virginia Cooperative Extension to ask them to lead the effort in strengthening the partnership between farms and restaurants. After much planning and organization, Local Foods, Local Chefs was born. This October 2011 marks the third annual event for Arlington.
The success of the many farmers' markets in Arlington attests to the fact that Arlington residents enjoy and appreciate locally grown foods. Currently seven markets operate in the county on every day of the week except for Monday. Several restaurants in Arlington have been sourcing ingredients from local farmers for a long time; for others this is a new experience. We wanted to encourage more restaurants to commit to featuring dishes made with local foods on their menus, and so we also recruited restaurants who said that they were willing.
In the first year of the initiative, seven restaurants and one grocery store participated. The overall results were astounding! Restaurants noted between 10% to 55% increase in business during the event. The restaurants purchased ingredients from a total of 68 farms. Those restaurants whose purchasing habits had not previously been heavily focused on procuring local ingredients before this initiative indicated that they would be more likely to purchase foods from local farms after participating in Local Foods, Local Chefs.
In addition, customer surveys showed that 97% of respondents said that the event taught them more about local food options in Arlington, with 100% of them indicating they would attend more of this kind of event in the future. 98% of respondents said they would be likely to buy more locally produced foods because of this event. 99% said they would be likely to support local farmers' markets as a result of this event. Many participants also requested that more restaurants feature local foods on a regular basis. Respondents also expressed a desire for more farmers markets.
For the full report of the 2009 kickoff year, click here.
LOCAL FOODS/CHEFS
