Event Recap - Healthful Happy Hour

This week Halfstack had the opportunity to visit The Goddes and Grocer during the Healthful Happy Hour organized by Chicago's own Sarah Baker of balancedbabe.com! Tasty bite sized plant based apps were sampled, great sangria was consumed and interesting people were met. The food was delectable and sourced from the team at FarmedHere and cooked by the talented chefs at The Goddess and Grocer.

The concept behind FarmedHere is such a great direction to see Chicago participating in! FarmedHere produce is grown indoors in urban facilities, away from the bugs, diseases, pesticides, and weather that impact most produce today. They utilize vertical growing technology and local distribution methods to reduce energy use, travel time and costs tremendously. Their business model is considered one of the most sustainable ways to guarantee access to fresh, healthy produce in city centers, in any season.

The FarmedHere website explains, "On average a head of lettuce travels 1,200 miles to reach your plate, our greens travel just across Chicago, which is why they’re the freshest. Indoor farming isn’t new, but recent advances in lighting technology and farming methods allows FarmedHere produce to be grown more efficiently than on outdoor farms, while creating local city jobs and making post-industrial buildings alive again." This is truly an amazing business doing amazing things for our community.



If you haven't had the opportunity to visit The Goddess and Grocer, we highly reccomend heading to Bucktown for an early bite to go! It's a deli meets artisanal grocery store that also offers catering. It's a triple whammy people. The food is on par, they offer local microbrews and the staff is attentive and so helpful! What more could you ask for in Chicago? They are the perfect go-to

I was lucky enough to get some time with the G&G Team and they shared some great information on the brand. It's exciting to see the direction the Goddess and Grocer is taking as they continue to support local sustainable businesses. As a brand, they truly believe in sustainability and supporting local. They always strive for ever-greener practices. They recycle, donate unused food to Zero Percent, and have started switching to green packaging.

Supporting local vendors and small businesses is something they've been about from the start. They have made it a point to stock local brands and help local businesses grow. They have taken on the opportunity to help the brands they stock develop. They were one of the first shops to stock brands like Vosges, Jenni's Ice Cream and brews from places like Revolution. It's a beautiful thing to see the relationships and support that has developed among these local businesses helping to raise one another up.

The evening was a great opportunity to see great people doing great things and feeding the city plant based food that was actually really good. Sarah Baker of Balancedbabe.com did what she does best - organized a great event to showcase the benefits of a plant based diet! She has some more events coming up this summer and fall, so be on the lookout! You can keep up with her on twitter and Facebook.

Make sure to check out our quick video recap of the night below and subscribe to our youtube channel for weekly videos on events, fashion, beauty, grooming and lifestyle! You can do so by clicking here!

**Photography by Dwight Bejec.**