Hello and Welcome Pepsi Refresh Visitors!
My name is Jeff Quattrone, and here's my bio. I'm thrilled that I am in the running for a Pepsi Refresh Grant. The idea for Vanishing Feast started out organically, appropriately enough. I started a blog called Magic Hat Stories and in the course of writing about people, organizations, etc. that do something that changes the world in a positive direction, I came across SlowFoods USA's Arc of Taste.
The US Ark of Taste is a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates.
Since I love storytelling, a lot of my writing on the blog was to encourage adults to see their lives as ongoing stories that they write everyday. By focusing on the actions of people who were doing something positive, I wanted to inspire people to emulate that in what they do on their own. When I came across the Arc of Tatse and the stories behind the food sources, I became fascinated (aka obsessed), which inspires my creativity.
Sometime around the middle of March 2010, I happened to be a counter having breakfast. The local paper was there. In it was a story about a community garden program at my local county college. I was stoked as they say. I haven't had access to a plot of ground to grow vegetables for a very long time. I realized that I had the opportunity to walk my talk, so I signed up.
As the saying goes, life happens and the blogging fell off for a while. That's because there's a bigger purpose for what I should be doing, and that is how the idea for Vanishing Feast sprouted. I started storyboarding some ideas, and the creative process started. My father taught me about organic gardening in the 60's. I won a Honorable Mention at the Salem County Fair for a 7lb canteloupe I grew. I studied photography and film making in college. I have extensive experience designing communications across a broad spectrum of media and audiences. And I wrote this post, My Heirloom Garden Follows the Journey of My Family. which I see now is where the seed was planted. Also, there is a heirloom in my family that is a plant, and that story will be featured in the video.
While I was writing Magic Hat Stories I would refer to the magic that happens when people take action. Little did I realize that the magic would happen to me in the process.
I will blog about the process here. Thank you for stopping by and considering to vote for me. I assure you that I take my creativity seriously, and if I win this grant, I promise that it will story of inspiration along with tools that will take that inspiration into action.
Some other blog posts that are related to this subject.
An Heirloom Garden, A Family Quilt by Another Name, Part 1
An Heirloom Garden, A Family Quilt by Another Name, Part 2
Exit 1 Bayshore Oyster Stout Thanks to the Oyster Restoration Project