Just Food Conference 2012 & The Good Food Jobs Fair

Last March I had the pleasure of attending the Just Food CSA Conference as a volunteer. I scheduled my volunteer shift for early check-in so I would be able to attend the rest of the day's events. I learned so many things that I think about or practice daily. Michaela Hayes lead a great canning workshop featuring Ball products and how to preserve the bounty from CSA shares and the farmer's market. There was a delicious meal for lunch where I spoke with egg producers who have their farms not too far from where I grew up. After lunch I learned about The Greenhorns and all the amazing young farmers out there and what they are doing. The main discussion let everyone in on how the economy is really effecting farmers. And finally the Expo was an fun way to talk to producers and artisans with exciting products and ideas. At the Expo I learned about Animal Welfare Approved and heard more from Winter Sun Farms CSA (an awesome frozen, local produce CSA). All in all, a enlightening and significant experience. 

With that said, it is time to talk about the 2012 Just Food Conference 2012: Eat • Work • Grow the Movement! 

When: Friday February 24th & Saturday February 25th

Time: Friday: 8am -7pm, Saturday 8am - 6pm

Where: Food & Finance High School 

(525 West 50th Street, New York, NY)

Full Information on the Just Food Website.

Buy Tickets here.

This year's conference will be even more awesome than last year. The first reason for this is because one of my favorite companies is involved in a spectacular way-- Friday night of the conference (February 24th) Good Food Jobs presents the Good Food Jobs Fair! 

The Good Food Jobs Fair will be February 24th from 5:30pm - 7:00pm at the Food & Finance High School (525 West 50th Street, New York, NY). This is a perfect opportunity to meet with up and coming businesses as well as established ones- think artisans, creative agricultural organizations and more. Taylor and Dorothy of Good Food Jobs expect 40 awesome businesses at the fair. Come to meet, mingle, network and find your dream job! It is a wonderful new addition to the Just Food Conference!

Buy your ticket to the Good Food Jobs Fair here.

If you wish to have a table as a business/organization apply here. 

Follow Fridays: #FoodJobs

Food jobs are near and dear to my heart, as I hope to have one of my own someday soon. I started blogging in part to get my passion for food out of my head and into words but also as a means of creating a reference point when applying to food jobs, a field I have no formal training in. Luckily, there are some really great resources for people who want to make a living from their love of food. Here are some of those resources who keep up excellent Twitter accounts and who I always give a special Follow Friday (#FF) to with other hashtags like: #PostYourJobs #Jobs #FoodJobsforAll. 

@GoodFoodJobs - The account I always list first in this category is Good Food Jobs. There is not enough I can say about what a great resource Taylor Cocalis and Dorothy Neagle have created. The site is a job listing board, a way to find out what sort of businesses are up and coming, and a wonderful blog (The Gastrognomes) that interviews one amazing person after the next. The Gastrognomes blog is my favorite part of their site. The best question they always ask their interviewees is: "What advice do you have for others in search of a good food job?" The answers to these always make me think of something new and give me a boost when I feel like my job search is becoming futile. If you are an employer with a good food business, please post your jobs here! It is the best place to post if you want to hire people who are truly passionate about food and want work that satisfies the need to express that passion daily. Job seekers: keep applying! Sign up for their newsletter to get job listings and the blog post of the week in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

@TheSFJblog - Similar to Good Food Jobs, Sustainable Food Jobs is a blog that has job listings focused even more closely on the sustainability side of things. They often list internships and other non-traditional means of gaining experience in the culinary world. If you are seeking a food job, this should be a site you follow. Since it is a blog you can easily subscribe to the RSS Feed and simply get their job postings the same way you read your favorite blogs.