ccSCOOP Green Moment: "LOCAL 'N' GREEN" AT MARISA'S BAGEL CAFE IN CHATHAM Fran Heaney ccSCOOP News Kerstin Kup, Joseph Briggs, and Chiara Ostacoli had a good green idea. They came up with a way to respond to Michelle Obama’s “Call to Service” and observe Martin Luther King Day: the first Local ‘n’ Green Meeting. Like many Columbia County residents, Kerstin, Joseph, and Chiara are changing the way they think about food, local farms, food products, community markets, sustainability, solar power, and alternative energy.

Event organizers Kerstin Kup, Chiara Ostacoli, and Joseph Briggs

Chiara Ostacoli and her mother own and operate Marisa’s Bagel Café in Chatham. On Monday, January 19, they invited green-thinking folks to the café to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday by brainstorming about locally grown food and Columbia County’s precious resources. Joseph Briggs thought a gathering of like-minded, green-thinking community members would be a good way to connect the dots. The café was packed with people eager to share their ideas.

Alicia Polak, visiting from South Africa, talked about her Khaya Cookie Company. The cookie company was the recipient of the Food Network’s “Edible Entrepreneur of the Year” award in 2007. The founding principle of the Khaya Cookie Company is to create jobs. For every 150,000 boxes of cookies sold, the company hires 100 new people.  Check out www.khayacookies.com for more information.

Jody Rael and Betsy Ferris Wyman of Solar Power and Art brought information about their dream to create an industrial-scale arts enterprise in the 100,000 square feet of the old Chatham Boxboard Company on Route 66. Jody owns 180 acres in back of the mill. He hopes to build Solaqua Homes, a co-housing community. Sundog Solar from Solaqua is already a big success.

Candace Estace, a nurse from Schodack High School, came to discuss getting locally grown food into school cafeterias. Brenda Schufelt is planning to have a victory garden.  She hopes that the Obamas will plant a garden at the White House.

Sarah Shapiro talked about the Hawthorne Valley Farm’s full line of natural foods, baked goods, and dairy products. Jeff Lick of the Spruce Ridge Alpaca Farm talked about the Alpaca fiber products the farms produces and sells. 

Glen Widjeskog, who is involved in Stuyvesant conservation, voiced his concern for the children in the community with “nature deficit disorder” and advocated for a “No Child Left Inside” program.   

Kerstin, Joseph, and Chiara were excited and inspired by the turnout at their first Local ‘n’ Green meeting. Their next meeting will be February 2 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Marisa’s Bagel Café. You can email them at localNgreen@yahoo.com.