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“There's no way I would be the face of Cheeselandia. Why would they want me? You know, I'm just a girl from Georgia living in Tampa.” - Charlesea’“Charlie” Stephens of Charlie Chows Down food blog, on the idea that food blogging would lead to representing brands from across the country New people are being recognized thanks to the reach of our new video conferencing world. A Tampa Bay area food blogger is the new face of Cheeselandia—a group promoting Wisconsin cheese. What You Need To Know And it’s all because she rocked a cheese board on a Zoom call. Charlie of “Charlie Chows Down” food blog moved from Georgia to Florida about six years ago. Her family got to know the area by trying new restaurants. And she faithfully documented things, as her hungry family waited to dig into their hot meals. (She super duper appreciates them.) How much does Charlie like food? “ I waited four and a half hours in line for vegan hamburgers,” she said. “It was worth it. It was wor...

Elderly Gentlemen purchases food from a government issued EBT card. (Photo: USDA) NORTH CAROLINA (WWAY) — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced on Tuesday that Food and Nutrition Services recipients will see a temporary increase in the amount of benefits they receive. This increase is part of the federal Emergency Coronavirus Relief Act of 2020. - Advertisement - “We know that COVID has created additional hardships and increased food insecurity for children and families,” said David Locklear, Deputy Director for Economic and Family Services. “We want to do everything possible to support North Carolinians who need help buying food, and increasing benefits for hundreds of thousands of families will be instrumental in meeting that need.” The maximum benefit amount for households receiving FNS will increase by 15% until June 30. This increase will end on June 30, when benefit amounts will return to their current levels. Recipients can find out the ...

Jan. 5, 2021, 10:20 a.m. ET Jan. 5, 2021, 10:20 a.m. ET The New York Times Former farmworker, Immokalee, Fla. Video Credit Credit... Video by Alfonso Duran I worked on and off over the years. I worked for the last full season here, including during the pandemic. I started in August of 2019 in planting, then I worked all the way to the end of harvest, around May or June last year. It’s a long day, it’s very challenging work. We would be picking, for example, cucumbers in the morning and tomatoes in the afternoon and they’re both very heavy work. My fingers would hurt by the end of the day. It hurts your back and makes your lungs ache to work that hard. I would sometimes come home and would just cry. We were working long days, but they put a lot of protections in place. Lipman Family Farms were a part of the Fair Food program, and followed the procedures. We would clean all of the tables with Clorox or bleach and make sure that everyone was washing their hands we...

Image By: Frank Yiannas, Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response Ten years ago today, on Jan. 4, 2011, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law and Congress’ mandate was clear: It’s not enough to respond to outbreaks of foodborne illness. We must prevent them from happening in the first place. FSMA was fueled by widespread concern among lawmakers, public health agencies, industry and consumers after multi-state outbreaks of foodborne disease had caused severe illnesses and deaths in thousands of people and animals in the United States.  The result was the largest overhaul of the nation’s food safety system since the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938.  A decade later, what can we say has been accomplished?   Because of FSMA, those who grow, produce, pack, hold, import and transport our food are now taking concrete steps every day to reduce the risk of contamination. The result is safer food in this country, whether th...

Four years after the thunder in Congress over labeling foods made with GMO ingredients, the deadline for compliance with the USDA labeling regulation is in sight — the end of 2021 — despite complaints that the rule is riddled with loopholes that exempt many foods. Under the rule, food makers have four options for indicating GMO ingredients, ranging from saying so on the package to a fingernail-size QR code, so consumers may find it difficult to identify a GMO food. The labels will say bioengineered,  rather than the more commonly used GMO,  which also might dilute their impact. And disclosure is discretionary for some GMO ingredients, most prominently corn and soy oils from biotech plants. Congress passed the labeling law in summer 2016, after months of struggle, in a legislative bargain that called for mandatory disclosure of GMOs nationwide in exchange for pre-emption of state labeling laws. President Obama signed the bill on July 29. After two years of rul...

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In the broadest of terms, it’s the rebirth of the local food movement that has been taking hold from Virginia to California. It gained a lot of attention during the Obama administration and will likely be boosted again in the new Biden Administration. But in this case, the initial drivers are different. Consumers who were sick and tired of empty food store shelves during the early days of COVID-19 started seeking out alternatives. And local farmers and food producers were more than eager to connect and sell. One shining example is on Facebook as “Shop Kansas Farms” which has now built out a much more robust independent site on the web to showcase about 400 farms selling everything from beef to produce to honey and more. Shop Texas Farms is still building, and other states are following suit. It’s a model that could be built out in every state with the right people and resources. It’s not that Facebook is a bad platform, but it was found to be limiting. For example, growers can show ...

Author and food tour guide Akila McConnell will be addressing the Buckhead Heritage Society Book Club on Jan. 13 to discuss her career and her first book “A Culinary History of Atlanta,” a finalist in the 2020 Georgia Writer Association Author of the Year Awards. McConnell holds degrees in philosophy, accounting  and law, and is the founder of Unexpected Atlanta, which offers tours about the city’s history and food culture. Her Buckhead Heritage appearance will be held virtually at 7 p.m. and is free, but registration is required at BuckheadHeritage.com. Akila McConnell. Tell us about your book. It’s a food history of Atlanta, of course, but really it’s about recognizing stories that we usually don’t hear. I had read pretty much every history of Atlanta and most of those focus on the role famous people play, but I was more interested in the people you don’t hear about, such as Myra Miller, a Black woman who after the Civil War became one of the city’s most famous bakers. Who...