I hope you’re planning to join us for the free Feeding the Spirit webinar, Friday, Feb. 17, 1:45-5 p.m. (ET).

To help you plan your discussions before, during or after the webcast (as well as your menu for your potluck) we’ve assembled the Feeding the Spirit Cookbook: A Resource and Discussion Guide on Museums, Food and Community.

For those planning to participate in the webinar, the Cookbook provides tips on how to get the most out of the webcast, reviews our core themes, and presents the webcast “menu” of events and shares biographies of our speakers. This can help you decide whether to participate in the full, three-course presentation or a smaller slice.

Whether or not you can join us on Feb. 17 for the online event, the Cookbook is chock full of resources that can help your museum explore how it can engage with audiences through food. Including:

• Discussion Topics for our core themes: Promoting Food Literacy, Feeding the Visitor, and Food as Connector
• Ideas contributed by participants in the October, 2011 Feeding the Spirit Symposium on Things Museums Can Do to Promote Food Literacy; Ways to Make the Museum Food Service Healthy and Green; and Overcoming Barriers to Integrating Food into the Museum
• “Recipes for Success” contributed by museums across the country, sharing how they have created food-related programs, exhibits or initiatives and giving tips on how you might adapt these to your museum
• Information on how your museum can join the national Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens campaign

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Last but not least, we provide some suggestions for hosting a potluck at your organization to bring folks together over food to participate in the webcast. This includes recipes (actual recipes for food and drinks!) contributed by our 2012 CFM Lecturer, culinary history Jessica B. Harris.

I hope you can join us—the webinar will bring together museum practitioners, food policy wonks, food service providers, chefs, public health advocates and community leaders across America for a “national potluck” exploring how museums can promote food literacy, make their food services healthy and sustainable, and use food to build audience and strengthen community connections.

We provide dynamic speakers, commentary and discussion by experts; forums for participants to connect with colleagues via chat and social media; and suggested recipes for potluck viewing parties. Museums across the country are encouraged to provide a venue for groups to view the webcast, contribute to the national conversation and discuss how their museum wants to tackle food issues. And (of course), food!

More information, a downloadable copy of the Cookbook and a link to registration, lives on the CFM website.

Hope to see you in the chat windows on the 17th—Bon Appetite!