MOFGA/El Salvador Sistering Project

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"Local is the distance the heart can follow."

- Odessa Piper, Chef

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Radio Interviews

Hear interviews with MOFGA's El Salvador Sistering Committee on WERU Community Radio Station. Details.

Indigo Dye

Among the oldest dyes used for textiles. This indigo comes to us through our El Salvador Sistering Committee, which collaborates with Salvadoran farmers and artisans working to revive the traditional, non-toxic industry. Indigo is high quality with 46% intensity.

Order online.

Directions for dyeing with indigo

Empty Bowl Supper

MOFGA's El Salvador Sistering Committee will host its 10th annual Empty Bowl Supper on Saturday, April 23rd, at 6:00 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Miller Street in Belfast.

If you would like to buy a handsome, Maine-made bowl, have a delicious meal, and support the MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee's work - all for just $15 ($35 maximum for families) - come to this 10th anniversary celebration of the Committee, 20th anniversary celebration of the U.S. El Salvador Sister Cities organization, and 40th anniversary celebration of MOFGA.

MOFGA needs handmade bowls for this event. Anyone wishing to donate bowls for the Empty Bowl Supper should contact Jean English at jenglish@tidewater.net.

Each year MOFGA serves this supper to raise funds for the El Salvador Committee's work. Those funds have helped bring Salvadorans to Maine to tour farms, meet with community organizers and agricultural officials, and participate in the Common Ground Country Fair. Proceeds also have helped fund events relating to the Central American Free Trade Agreement for MOFGA's sistering organization in El Salvador, and supported work to prevent mining companies from destroying Salvadoran mountains and agricultural lands.

Empty Bowl Suppers started in Michigan in 1990, when a high school art teacher helped his students raise funds to support a food drive. A class project to make ceramic bowls for a fundraising meal evolved. Guests were served a simple meal of soup and bread, and were invited to keep the bowl as a reminder of hunger in the world. Subsequently, Empty Bowls developed into a project to support food banks, soup kitchens and other organizations that fight hunger. The Imagine/RENDER Group, a 501(c)3 organization, promotes the project, and Empty Bowl events raise millions of dollars worldwide to help combat hunger.

The public is welcome to join MOFGA for delicious soups, breads and desserts and to socialize at this event. Tickets are $15 ($35 maximum for families) and will be available at the door. Paul D'Alessio of Primo Cubano will perform live music. Participants will take home a beautiful bowl, handcrafted and donated by a Maine potter. For more information, please call MOFGA at 207-568-4142.

El Salvador Sistering Project

MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee volunteers visit organic coffee farmer Don Raul in Valle de Jesus. January 2007.

MOFGA's El Salvador Sistering Project maintains a relationship between MOFGA and two Salvadoran grassroots organizations working toward sustainable agriculture. The committee explores issues such as organic certification, free trade, marketing, etc., that affect farmers in both countries. Several delegations from Maine have visited El Salvador, and delegates from El Salvador have come to Maine to tour farms and participate in the Common Ground Country Fair.

Each April, the El Salvador Sistering Committee hosts an Empty Bowl Supper in Belfast to raise funds for the ongoing collaborative work. Dinner guests make donations to the efforts, enjoy a hearty meal, and take home beautiful, handcrafted bowls made by Maine artisans. We are always looking for donations of handmade bowls (including seconds!) from potters. If you have bowls to donate, contact Karen Volckhausen. Thanks!

Information for Prospective El Salvador Sistering Project Committee Members

Reports from Past MOFGA Delegations to El Salvador

Delegates from El Salvador have come to Maine to tour farms and participate in the Common Ground Country Fair

US-El Salvador Sister Cities

MOFGA's El Salvador Sistering Committee works closely with the U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities Network, a grass-roots organization of U.S. citizens and residents who have ongoing partnerships with small rural communities in El Salvador. Those partnerships began in 1986 as a citizen-based response to the U.S. intervention in El Salvador’s civil war. Today, twenty sister cities from across the U.S. are paired with Salvadoran communities in six of El Salvador’s fourteen provinces. The Association for the Development of El Salvador, or CRIPDES, facilitates these efforts. Sister Cities works to connect and strengthen movements for social justice in the U.S. and El Salvador by sharing experiences, support, and accompaniment. The organization strives to build a new kind of globalization, one built from the ground up and united by human values of justice and solidarity. More information about Sister Cities.