By GREGORY ZELLER //
Long Island’s busiest farm-to-table bureau is pumping up the world-class East End food scene with a modern multichannel guide to regional edibles and events.
East End Food – the Southampton-based nonprofit formerly known as the East End Food Institute (a 2019 rebrand from the original Amagansett Food Institute) – regularly advocates for and partners with farmers, food producers and food consumers throughout Eastern Long Island.
Its latest collaboration is the East End Food Passport, a free print and online guide chock full of details on the region’s best growers, most progressive producers and tastiest occasions.
Kate Fullam: Diverse gastro-verse.
The Passport features a comprehensive directory bulging with 160 farm, food and craft businesses, along with a calendar of weekly agri-tourism events stretching through the end of 2023. Several regional activists and business owners are profiled in a Member Stories section – including Jermaine Owens (owner of Peconic-based North Fork Seafood) and Dyashwa Sylvester (director of the Boys & Girls Club of Shinnecock Nation) – and information abounds on local food-focused information sessions and workshops.
Both the print and online versions were supported in part by a Market New York grant from the Empire State Development Corp. and I LOVE NY (the state’s tourism division), awarded through Albany’s Regional Economic Development Council initiative.
And both open doors to culinary explorations across the East End, noted East End Food Executive Director Kate Fullam, who trumpeted a multiplatform marketing effort that cultivates “a deeper appreciation for the hard work that goes into producing good, local food.”
Fantastic Foodstuffs and Where to Find Them: Behold, the ultimate guide to East End edibles.
“East End Food Passport showcases the diversity of our region’s food scene for travelers to the region,” Fullam said Monday.
With a “Check In To Win” feature (gastronomic adventurers are encouraged to post pictures of their Eastern Long Island food experience on social media for a shot at monthly prizes) and other foodie-focused bells and whistles, The Passport represents one of the most targeted and ambitious marketing efforts to date for East End Food, which currently manages a community kitchen on Stony Brook University’s Southampton campus and oversees the East End Food Market, a weekly farmer’s market in the Town of Riverhead featuring dozens of regional vendors.
And the print-and-digital guide (hard copies are available at food-friendly sites around the East End) will ultimately provide benefits beyond the regional food-and-beverage industries, according to Fullam.
“The Passport will inspire foodies that strive to make conscious choices to support local farms and to visit Long Island and experience all this agri-tourism industry has to offer,” the executive director added, “while also having fun exploring other travel destinations in the area.”
