Dear Slow Food Oxon Members & Supporters:

Welcome to all our new members!

This is our monthly SF Oxon e-bulletin and I would like to update you on a few recent events and initiatives and also remind you on our upcoming events.

SF Fund Raising Dinner, Oxford, 18 May

Thank you to all those who have signed up and sent their cheques through! The tickets are selling fast and we have a waiting list now for non-members. I would like to ask you to acknowledge your intention to attend the dinner by email ASAP and send the cheque as advised on the invitation form. Although we now have decided to add a few more seats, I shall hate having to say No to late comers, so please-please send the RSVP back. I can now confirm that we shall have a jazz band and the entire evening promises to be fascinating. I will need a volunteer to help with the raffle, let me know if you are interested. If you don't have an Invitation yet, please let me know.

SF Oxon Book Group

The next meeting is on 24 May, The Wine Café in Summertown, Oxford and the book for discussion is "The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities and The Meaning of Table Manners" by Margaret Visser. Please come along even if you do not get to read the book; bring your favourite books for future readings. Sign up with Liz Wilding, webeditor@slowfood-oxon.org.uk

Ethnic Foods evening in Oxford change of date!!! Now on 13 June

No Fuss Chinese Dinner with Chef sign up with Geoffrey Whittle ranger.organics@virgin.net See details in Geoffrey’s letter attached. We have changed the date because our neighbouring Conviivum SF Wiltshire & Berkshire are holding a big event for SF members “The Carp Festival” at Sheepdrove Organic Farm and thought that some of you may be interested to attend both. Please see the Plan of Activities for SF W&B attached. If you cannot open attachments, let me know and I shall email this again.

Below are some excerpts form our Leaders’ Update that I receive from SF headquarters.

Terra Madre 2006 Website Now Online
The new Terra Madre 2006 site is now online at www.terramadre2006.org in the eight official languages of the event: French, Japanese, English, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and German.
One section on the site is dedicated to news from the food communities, while the 'Projects' section describes work and progress from the last two years and new projects that are underway. Transcripts and documentation from the 2004 Earth Workshops are also available, and site visitors can immerse themselves in the first meeting between the food communities by visiting the 2004 photo gallery.
To foster further growth of the network of food communities, the Terra Madre newsletter and forum will also become active once again in the coming months.

Slow Food Comes to Senegal
This month, a Terra Madre food community in Senegal has created the first convivium in that country. The new members are all women who belong to a coastal community involved in processing seafood products. The group is linked to the FENAGIE/PECHE organization which includes nearly 17,000 coastal fishermen and fish processors in Senegal. The organization was founded in 1990 to protect the rights of these fishermen and the ocean ecosystem, as well as to ensure the continued development of the fishing industry here. Today, 62% of its members are women.

New Slow Food Brochure – Now Bigger and Better

We're pleased to announce that the new Slow Food brochure is available in English. To really explain our philosophy and all of our projects and activities, we realized that we needed a few more pages. The new brochure is a 26-page, full-color booklet that offers us all a new tool to communicate Slow Food.

Slow Food Facts & Figures

Did you know that:
53 convivia have been opened in the last three months? (A few will be opened shortly, and some have been reactivated.)
This may very well be because of the synergy created in the last year between the Presidia/Terra Madre and International offices and the reorganization of the latter that has given increased focus on communication.

Sincerely yours,