Nigel Savage, standing, speaks at a Women's Philanthropy lunch.

What better place to talk about food than at lunch?

It's exactly what 40 women who attended the Jewish Federation of Rockland County's Women's Philanthropy lunch did at the Outside In Piermont in late May. Nigel Savage, the founder and director of Hazon, the largest Jewish environmental group in the country, came to speak about sustainable living, community supported agriculture and how Federation work can support healthier living with a Jewish slant, or as he said, to bring "3,000 years of food history together with the locavore, anti-processing movement.

"Put your hands up in you in some way you eat differently than you did five years ago," asked Savage, a funny, engaging speaker with a motor-mouthed ability to pitch healthy living. All the hands in the group went up. Some of the women offered they were trying to eat fewer processed foods, others had given up gluten and dairy, or were eating less meat.

He asked the group to imagine asking that same question of their great-grandparents at the same age they were at now. Everyone laughed.

"The notion that the way we eat today is different than five year ago is a snapshot of where we are right now," said Savage.

Erica Napach and Judi Katz Kelly

"For 3,000 years before this, we were the people who kept kosher. If you're asking if something is kosher, you're asking [literally]'Is this fit for me to eat?' We are now asking the question - and not just from the prism of kashrut."

Savage founded Hazon in the year 2000 with a cross-country environmental bike ride from Seattle, to Washington, D.C. The organization still runs long-distance rides in the United States and Israel, promoting a  green, food-awareness agenda. Currently the organization is focused on establishing and promoting community supported agriculture, or CSA, programs, which allows people to buy a share in a farm, generally local and organic, for $500 and in exchange receive produce. The group established its first CSA in 2004 at Ansche Chesed, a Conservative synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Today, Hazon has 44 CSAs across the country serving 9,000 Jewish families, Savage said.
Surrounded by contemporary painting, sculpture and furnishings in the small Piermont gallery, Savage engaged the group with stories, peppered with humor and wry observations. In one instance, he told of a panel he organized on which both a mashgiach, or ritual kashrut supervisor, and a shochet, a ritual slaughterer, participated.

"These guys were very, very pious," he said. "They radiated piety. They said we ate too much meat. That it was not what the Torah envisioned. I thought, when was the last time you heard someone from Budweiser tell you to drink less beer?"

By establishing a CSA, he said you can "learn the vicissitudes of life." When you have good, weather, the right amount of rain, you get food and you feel your $500 investment is worth it, he said. But if the rains don't come? You probably don't feel that $500 was such a good idea if you end up with "four potatoes and three radishes," he noted
"That's when you should join in," he said.

He also made a pitch for involvement in Federation to the group, noting that Hazon has received $800,000 from UJA/Federation of New York over the years and would not be here had it not been for that funding.

"If we didn't have federation and had to reinvent what federation does, it would not be as efficient and it would cost us two to three times as much," he said. "Federation is really important in the process of renewing a central community chest."

Organizers were pleased with the turnout, which included both Federation stalwarts and new faces.

"This particular lunch was very different," said Beth Dubas, who was on the organizing committee, noting that the Federation is looking into starting a CSA through Hazon in the county. "It was something we're looking to grow from."

Paula Kaess was one of those new faces. Though she had not been to a Federation event before, she'd heard of Savage and wanted to hear him. Kaess works with a group called Hands to Mouth, a local garden initiative that encouraged community groups to start food gardens. The group helped establish one in Spring Valley and is working with one of Jawonio's group homes.

"So what Nigel was talking about dovetailed into our work," she said. "It was great to learn about supportive resources with a mission of tikkun olam and socially, it was good to meet a nice group of women."