Case in point: Four weeks ago, Roger Doiron sent an email to 90 people, inviting them to join a brand new website for fans of Maine food. The site, www.eatmainefoods.org, was built using the social networking platform Ning.com and now has more than 240 members. Last week, Doiron told me the site had more than 900 pending invitations sent to friends and fellow locavores by existing members. By now both the number of members and the numbering of pending invitations likely has grown even larger.
“I think we’ve tapped into some latent energy in the food community,” says Doiron, who heads Kitchen Gardeners International from his Scarborough home and launched the site in support of the Eat Local Foods Coalition.
“It’s very dynamic and informal and very democratic,” Doiron says of the site, which allows users to create a profile page, post discussion topics, upload photos and videos and chat with other like-minded eaters across the state.
Another online gathering spot for Greater Portlanders who like to eat and drink is Meetup.com. This international site allows local organizers to create groups (for a fee) centered around specific interests. Here in Portland, there are four Meetups with a food focus: Portland Dining Out, Maine Vegan, Portland Night Life and Portland Maine Permaculture. The permaculture site has been around the longest, has 198 members and organizes potluck meetings. Upcoming events will explore topics such as backyard beekeeping and building herb spirals.
The Portland Dining Out group has only been around for three months and has 23 members. It’s next get together is March 28 at BiBo’s Madd Apple Cafe for a wine dinner, and the group also meets up for each First Friday Art Walk. The Maine Vegan group is a similar dining club that caters to vegans and vegetarians and has a rapidly growing membership base.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” says organizer Sarah Conroy. “It’s Maine and the name is Vegan Meetup. I thought we’d maybe get five people.”
Instead the group has swelled to 75 members, which Conroy says includes regulars who come to every monthly dinner and people she only sees once or twice a year.
“I’ve had anywhere from eight (at a dinner) to having to turn people away when I’ve reached 20,” she says. The group’s next dinner is April 18 at Flatbread.
Another group experiencing unexpected growth is the Food Now Buying Club in Portland. Loosely affiliated with the folks working to start the Portland Food Co-op, the buying club uses a Yahoo group to connect with members and a Google spreadsheet to manage orders.
“We’ve recently been inundated with people who are really interested in buying local food and finding an alternative to grocery stores,” says Emily Graham, one of the buying club’s coordinators.
Graham says the Yahoo group has climbed to 75 members, with 20 people who order on a regular basis. The buying club places bulk orders once a month with Crown of Maine Organic Cooperative and United Northeast Foods. Members must attend an orientation and be willing to lend a hand breaking down the large quantities into individual orders.
The online aspect of the buying club does diminish the personal interaction among members, Graham admits, but she points out people do meet face-to-face on delivery days. This impersonal side of online networking is also on Doiron’s mind when he says “I look at this site as being a really hopeful addition to the work that’s already out there. It will only be successful, in my mind, if it goes beyond the virtual world and people make real connections.”
— Avery Yale Kamila