Tag Archives: erin barnes

For Immediate Release: ioby Supper Club Launch Event with Chef Dave Martin

8 Sep

ioby launches exclusive Supper Club Series with September 15th event
Food. NYC. Youth. Health. Environment. Gardens. Good

ioby, a nonprofit organization that brings environmental projects to life in NYC neighborhoods, will kick-off a series of Supper Club events with an inaugural dinner on Thursday, September 15th at St. Marks Church in the Bowery featuring food by Chef Dave Martin of Bravo’s Top Chef: Season One and wines from Victor Schwartz of V.O.S. Selections.

This event will be the first in a series of dinners in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx where New Yorkers will dine outside for a spectacular, seasonal gourmet meal and learn more about the social, health and environmental impacts the city of New York faces due to food access issues. Proceeds from the series’ ticket sales will go to the Supper Club Fund that supports the many ioby projects that increase access to healthy food for NYC youth. Tickets from this dinner will directly benefit two selected ioby projects: Culinary Kids and La Plaza Cultural. Project leaders from Culinary Kids in Far Rockaway and La Plaza Cultural on East 9th Street will be at the dinner to share stories from their great work.

This intimate and rare dining experience will include a four-course seasonal meal and wine pairings. Tickets are limited to 35 diners: $125 apiece.

Press Contact: Erin Barnes, erin@ioby.org, 917-464-4515 x2, 203-606-7710

About ioby:

ioby stands for “in our backyards,” and connects New Yorkers to environmental projects in their own neighborhoods through an online crowd-resourcing platform. On ioby.org, anyone can raise money, organize volunteers and share ideas for local environmental change. Since launching the beta site in May 2009, New Yorkers making micro-donations (on average $37) to discrete, site-specific ioby projects, have contributed more than $120,000 and have fully funded more than 85 successful projects in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. ioby is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, co-founded by three graduates of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

About Chef Dave Martin:

Chef Dave Martin gained notoriety as a Chef-testant and finalist on the first season of Bravo’s Top Chef where he placed third. Since his appearance he has created quite a name for himself as a chef, cookbook author, brand ambassador, consultant and caterer. His mantra of using the freshest and best ingredients and creating “flavorful food without the fat,” coincides directly with ioby’s mission. 

About Victor Schwartz:

For the past 25 years, Victor Schwartz and V.O.S. SELECTIONS have been importing and distributing the finest wines, spirits and sakes to the top echelon of restaurants and wine shops throughout the New York metropolitan area. V.O.S. values quality over quantity and in doing so has created a portfolio of fine artisanal wines and spirits from across the globe.

 

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ioby Goes Guerrilla

15 Apr

On my way to work yesterday I spotted a sign near Penn Station that caught my eye. I recognized the logo immediately and knew it belonged to my friends at ioby (‘in our backyards’), so I forced my way back against the morning rush of commuter foot traffic to get a better look. The sign said “with ioby I could be..” with the blank filled in to say “a Farmer’s Market!” 

After doing some online digging and calling Erin Barnes, one of the co-founders of ioby (much easier than digging), I found out that this sign was part of a guerrilla effort carried out by ioby supporters, with the intention of encouraging people to ‘reimagine’ spaces they see in their communities, and that ioby can help those ideas become realities. Erin explained that “ioby is a move out of the environmental movement’s NIMBY past. ioby is all about saying, ‘This is my neighborhood and I want positive change right here. I’ve got an idea and I’m going to make it happen with my neighbors.”

The Reimagine signs were placed all over Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens (and maybe the Bronx and SI, but I couldn’t recognize the other boroughs in pictures). Each sign had it’s own message; some people imagined spaces could be community vineyards, murals, rooftop gardens, and more. You can check out all of the reimagined spaces on ioby’s Facebook page.

Sadly, this particular sign was already taken down by this morning, but it was cool while it lasted. As someone who works in advertising, I really appreciate the appropriateness of a grassroots marketing effort by a grassroots organization; getting creative, getting dirty, and going guerrilla.

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ioby connects donors and volunteers to environmental projects in their neighborhoods to inspire new environmental knowledge and action in New York City. If you’ve got an idea about making your ‘backyard’ community a better place and want to make it happen, check out the ioby website to see how they can help.

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