Windy City Homemade Food Swappers

Hi All,

Im creating a group called the Windy City Homemade Food Swappers
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Windy-Ci ... 99?sk=wall

It will follow this model:
http://hipgirlshome.com/foodswaps/

For the start, Im going to limit the offerings to homemade food/edibles/drink (includes homegrown items) Preserves, fresh creations, breads, herbs, veggies, etc We will trade with one another, barter style (No money changes hands!) using silent auction bid sheets to get started. You will not be required to trade with anyone (even if they have "bid" on your item) You will trade one-for-one, so keep that in mind when packaging and preparing your foods. (please read the link above where there is tons of info on how it all works and when I announce the actual date, will have more specific info )

I am looking for a space to meet. The ideal spot has room for 20-40 people and enough tables for them to display their items. Ideally we can eat and drink on premises (samples and treats). Im thinking that a weekday evening m-th would be best, from 7-9 for the swap.

The event should be free, but we will require pre-registration so that we can make sure we dont have too many people.
Id like to have one in early december, so I have some feelers out for a couple of spaces I like, but if you have a recommendation or an "in" somewhere, let me know. Ideas might be: gallery, yoga studio, bar, meeting room, church basement.. keep in mind, we really need it to be free! A commercial space might like to host us for more exposure/community building...

If you are interested in volunteering to help, I will surely need it. I intend to also make a blog for the group, as well as the FB page (which you can promote if you wish, and certainly join!)

I will post the event once I have secured a space.

Thanks!!!

Nancy

HI,

Informally people have swapped meals (separate groups for omnivores and vegetarians), desserts, Christmas cookie exchange and canned goods via this board. What I like it involves people I know or at least know of.

Yours is on a different scale. Good luck.

Regards,

Yes this seems similar to the already existing food exchanges that are already set up on the LTHF events board which seem to be functioning well. I have only attended one so far but it seems relatively simple to orchestrate and it worked well.

Hello, Nancy! Nice to see you on LTH, and I hope you can see your vision come to fruition. Perhaps starting a little smaller would help with the venue?

Good luck and let us know how it works out!

I like the idea because someone who doesnt can, but maybe makes great breads can still swap goods. To me it seems similar to a farmer's market type situation. I dont personally know the farmer ahead of time, but I can talk to her/him while Im there and ask questions and decide if I'd like to try their items. The way these food swaps seem to work in other cities/areas is that you can provide samples for tasting, too.

I did go to the canning swap from this forum recently, and I didnt know anyone ahead of time, but I was able to trade jars of stuff for other jars of stuff I just think it might be fun also to trade my jars of stuff for somebody else's homemade raw fudge. Or whatever. ykwim?

I also like the idea of the community swap, the local aspect, the homemade aspect, making new friends, seeing what people are preserving and growing for their families. But it wont be limited to just one type of food offering.

I guess I dont know how many people will want to do it, but in the other cities, it looks pretty popular.

Looks interesting. The difference between the ones going on so far here it seems is that in this one you can bring just one jar of jam, let's say, and swap for one loaf of bread. You don't have to make 10 jars of jam and swap for 10 other jars of jam.

The Canning Exchange that we started here is the same as what they're proposing--you can bring one jar or 40 (AVA!!!!) In our case, that one jar could be exchanged for as many as the person could get for it (a certain participant with a few jars of freshly canned sauerkraut pretty much had her pick they were so much in demand!! )

Nancy--good luck with your planning and hopefully, you'll see a few familiar LTH faces at your event!!

boudreaulicious wrote:The Canning Exchange that we started here is the same as what they're proposing--you can bring one jar or 40 (AVA!!!!)
Nancy--good luck with your planning and hopefully, you'll see a few familiar LTH faces at your event!!

The under 40 jars that I brought was to make certain that all of our non-swapping participants got to still go home with a jar of something. Some even went home with multiple jars. Most of the other participants also saw to it that the non-swappers went home with a jar, but I just wanted to make sure I had enough in case others didn't feel like sharing with non-swappers.

Nancy, I'm interested because I'm shocked Chicago hasn't had one yet, but the free space is probably the biggest issue. Most of the others were held in churches, so if someone has church space that they think would be interested that's probably the best way to go. Or perhaps if the space wants a small amount of money/contribution that could just be offset, a buck or 4/participant.

Keep me posted.