Terra Madre Slow Food Trip

My name is Brett McClavy. I am the Head Chef/charcuterier/Cheese Monger of The Cheese Shop of Des Moines.  I love this city, and I love our shop.  I think Des Moines is not only one of the best places to raise a family, but also becoming one of the best cities to eat in. I am raising money to send myself and my wife, Nicole, to represent Slow Food USA, Slow Food Des Moines, and  The Cheese Shop of Des Moines as one of 300 USA delegates participating in "Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2016."  Terra Madre is a biannual food summit in the town of Turin in Northern Italy. We are raising this money to cover our costs of our air fare and ground transpertation when we arrive in Turin. My goal for going to the festival is to connect with as many chef's and farmers from around the word and not only teach them about what we do here in Des Moines but also to  learn new things from them to then bring back and implement into what I am doing here with an emphasis on how we can continue to build a strong local food network here in Des Moines. I truely love Des Moines and its people, but we can learn a lot from other cultures by stepping out of our normal comfort zone and seeing what other cultures have to offer. I am still reminded almost on a daily basis lessons I learned from the time I spent in France and being able to not only connect with Italian people in Italy, but the festival is hosting representitives from five continents so the oppurtunites to eat, drink, and learn from other cultures is endless.  We will be leaving on September 21st and staying in Italy for 7 days. This trip is going to be a once if a lifetime experience and Nicole and I are extremly grateful for all the wonderful support from our friends and families for taking care of our childen while we are gone and for the overwhelming amount of support from our community as a whole.  I can not wait to come back and use what I have learned to make our community even stronger.