Produce will pass through green thumbs at the Bhutanese Community Farm, into the hands of an award-winning chef and onto the plates of 100 diners next Saturday for 'Taste of Wodonga'.
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The innovative event from the Wodonga Local Food Network is bringing together growers and embraces of local produce for a showcase at La Maison Cafe.
Owner Wassim Saliba is working with Miss Amelie's David Kapay and Jacquie O'Donoghue of Meraki Produce to hero ingredients from Grass Roots Beef, The Peaks Artisan Cheesemakers, and the Bhutanese Community Farm.
The people behind those products - Gordon Shaw, Luke Armstrong and Tilak Chhetri - will with the chefs talk food to attendees at the sold-out event.
"I went yesterday (to the community farm) and we're going to predominately use pumpkin, with diakon, chilli and silverbeet," Kapay said.
"It was a really good eye opener, seeing the guys working there and what they grow."
Gateway Health auspices the Wodonga Local Food Network and has a number of supporting agencies involved, including key partner Wodonga Council.
Gateway health promotion co-ordinator Megan Hunt said the three-course dinner would kick off a 12 week social media campaign to encourage people to eat locally.
"Tastes of Wodonga was about bringing people together with a dinner event, making it a low-key, nice evening and celebrating what produce we do have and our restaurant experiences available," she said.
"These guys will be roaming and having conversations at different tables.
"The other part was about raising awareness of the network, and planning for where-to from here."
Ms Hunt hopes to expand the reach of the network.
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"We want to grow it, and further the connections between the different sectors in the food system - producers finding more places to market, looking at supporting sustainability initiatives such as emergency food networks, and continuing to connect into schools," she said.
"We have a whole strategy that's been built with community around that.
"At the end of the day, we want everybody to be eating the right thing, through a sustainable system."
The Wodonga Local Food Network aims to support the local and regional food system, and is part of Murray Regional Tourism's Farm to Plate initiative and the North East Local Food Strategy and committee.
The network has been in place since 2014 and has representation from health services, local government, welfare services, educators, local producers, farmers markets and retail.
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