2018 Soil Festival… One for the Record Books!  

/ Truly Living Well/

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us for Soil Festival 2018. This year’s event was our best yet!

Close to 700 people gathered at Truly Living Well’s Collegetown Farm in Southwest Atlanta to kick off International Compost Awareness Week. That’s twice as many people as last year! Indeed, Atlanta is collectively raising consciousness around the importance of healthy soil to grow healthy food in our city.

Here are just a few of the many wonderful comments on social media that captured the essence of the day:

“Soil Festival was nothing more than amazing… fresh prepared food, gardening and farming tips… pure fun at its best!”
“Today I saw so many people of all races and backgrounds come together and learn about food, soil and a healthier way of life. So much good happening.”
“What an awesome day at 2018 Soil Festival. So many educational exhibits showing the importance of sustainable ag, informative workshops, and oh my goodness what a feast from local food sources… it makes me happy to see such a great showing at such a great venue. Can’t wait for next year!”

Soil Festival 2018 could not have been the success it was without our amazing local community of people who played a role. We can’t say thank you enough to the James M. Cox Foundation who sponsored the event, our host partner Truly Living Well, and every member of the host committee who worked hard for months in advance. Our workshop instructors, exhibitors, volunteers, caterers, and kids corner instructors provided lasting inspiration and education.

Check out the highlights of the day:

  • Nearly 100 friend and family groups got their photos taken by Caleb Jones at our first-ever Farm Photo Booth! Check out the photos and find yours here.

  • We also had some amazing photos taken of the event as well, thanks to Jenni Girtman. Check out her amazing photos here and feel free to share your favorites! 

  • More than 50 volunteers offered their time and talent to help with set-up, parking, compost giveaway, registration, workshops, kids corner activities, and general festival assistance.

  • Four amazing Atlanta caterers - Chef Zu, Seasoned Sisters, Nae Cooks and Mouthfeel Caterers - sourced local food to prepare delicious farm-to-table tastes for everyone to enjoy. Ms. Haylene the Garden Queen returned with her famous iced tea, and King of Pops was there offering their most popular popsicle flavors.  

  • Kids of all ages had a blast at the Petting Zoo and seven activity stations at the Kids Corner. They learned about beekeeping, played with different soils, practiced yoga, heard stories and built things - including bird feeders and hydroponic bottle gardens they could take back home.

  • Five local workshop instructors covered a variety of topics including soil health, cover cropping, and everything from composting basics to composting myths, do’s & don’ts. Shot out to Natasha Dyer, Joe Reynolds, Corinne Coe, Lovey Gilliam, and Tony Gobert!

  • Truly Living Well staff members took attendees on two incredible farm tours and two harvest hours. Vegetables harvested were used later in the day for cooking demos by Chef Terri Carter and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Christi Hansen.

  • Experts at 12 exhibitor booths shared their knowledge on a variety of topics including composting, gardening and soil health. Exhibitors also provided info about services such as food scrap collection to create compost, and farm-to-door meal delivery.

  • More than 250 free five-gallon buckets of compost were given away to attendees.

  • More than 30 school and community gardens signed up for their chance to have compost delivered to their gardens.

At the end of the day, we hope our guests walked away with full hearts, minds, bellies - and a strong sense of community. Together we know that healthy communities require healthy people, healthy food, healthy soil. We loved seeing you at Soil Festival and look forward to next time, Atlanta!