On Friday, at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, a couple of thousand food-curious/concerned folk attended day and night sessions of festival21 to talk about the future of food. The day was huge, filled with stories of people using food to transform themselves, their communities and their environments.  With Open Table and Tamil Feasts I was part of an instant fundraising session for CERES Fair Food (that’s my enormous head on the screen with a 6 pack of canned tomatoes). In front of a heaving plenary I pitched our Crowdsaucing Day idea to the audience.

In the end it was the amazing crew from Tamil Feasts (every Monday and Tuesday at CERES) who whacked the ball over the fence and onto the neighbour’s roof with their awesome story and raised $7000 to go towards establishing a new restaurant. And I tell you there is no more heart-warming and tasty a project going around this big city of ours.  And though Crowdsaucing Day didn’t win the night I felt like a winner later backstage when the ladies from the Italian women’s choir – La Voce Della Luna, told me how much they loved our idea.

A big, big thanks to all the organisers, the volunteers and everybody who turned out despite the crazy weather.