Harvard Club of Georgia

Sunday Supper - October

with guest; Mario Cambardella, City of Atlanta's Urban Agriculture Director

DETAILS:

Sunday Suppers is a casual dinner where new ideas and stimulating conversation is the main fare. The guest speaker leads an informal discussion based on their work or a topic of interest. Attendance is limited so that the conversation is more personal and happens over the dinner table. Each attendee orders their own meal. Their biography will be circulated among membership, and reservations are open to alumni club members only on a first-come, first-served basis.

COST: $15.00 reserves your space at the table and contributes towards the speaker's meal. Each guest is responsible for his/her check. Reservations are open to alumni members (plus one guest) only on a first-come, first-served basis.

RSVP: Event is limited to the first twelve people. Click here to buy tickets!!!

SPEAKER: Mario Cambardella

Last year The City of Atlanta named its first-ever urban agriculture director. Mario Cambardella joined the city’s administrative roster, headed by Mayor Kasim Reed, in early December. There is a critical need for such a position, according to Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, director of Atlanta’s Office of Sustainability. She says Cambardella will expand upon the city’s urban agriculture ordinance, which was adopted in June 2014 and changed Atlanta’s zoning rules to make more room for urban agricultural operations. “We need more urban farmers,” says Benfield.  She expects Cambardella to lead the way in refining the city’s urban agriculture policy and identifying opportunities for urban agriculture in underserved communities. He will be responsible for cultivating partnerships with local nonprofits and helping would-be urban farmers to navigate the city’s permitting process. He’ll also serve as a resource for farmers’ markets. “We are pleased to have Mario Cambardella join the City of Atlanta as the urban agriculture director,” says Mayor Reed in a press release. “With strong collaborative partners like Georgia Organics, the Atlanta, Food Well Alliance, the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc., this position will be integral to making continued progress in growing Atlanta’s urban agricultural community.” “Cambardella’s appointment is a critical component to helping us realize our Power to Change sustainability initiative goals, which aims to bring local, healthy food within a half-mile of 75 percent of all Atlanta residents by year 2020,” said Benfield in a news release. Certified as a professional landscape architect and an erosion and sediment control plan design professional, Cambardella has earned master’s degrees in landscape architecture and environmental planning and design, both from the University of Georgia. He cofounded and has served as CEO of Urban Agriculture Inc. an Atlanta-based business that helps incorporate food production in a variety of development settings (residential, mixed-use, civic, institutional, etc.). Benfield believes that a more robust urban agriculture presence in Atlanta will improve quality of life for the city’s residents, as well as the city’s financial bottom line. “Studies show increased green space improves the economy; people want to live where there is green space,” Benfield says. “If you build it, they will come,” she says of Atlanta’s BeltLine, a former railway path winding its way around the heart of the city. City planners envision more green space as part of the BeltLine, and urban agriculture could play a significant role in this endeavor. Another task for Cambardella, says Benfield, will be to identify where new farmers’ markets could locate in the city.