FoodBackwards: The DooF Glob (blog)

I want to express my gratitude for your generous support at our second annual DooF-a-Palooza event at Google. I had wanted to post this much sooner. It’s nearly four weeks since the event and we’ve been absolutely overwhelmed in our preparations for our public television launch next year. We also took some time to put together a digest of the event in photos, quotes and basic stats.

I am especially appreciative of the time, money, effort and materials contributed by our sponsors and Sourcerers in order to participate. Their passion and enthusiasm made the event the success it was, and it was clear that the kids and families who attended the event got a chance to experience something very wonderful and unique.

The event exceeded our wildest expectations, allowing kids and their families an intimate understanding of food through the fabulous range of hands-on activities that were the fruit of our collaborations. Looking out over the crowd, it was clear that they were completely immersed in what they were doing, and stayed that way the entire day.

From the Google side, the event was considered to be a great success! The Google Culinary team contributed over 150 volunteers to the event and very much enjoyed getting to work with all of you. We were especially appreciative of the “model sourcerers” who contributed all of their time and product to the event. A special shout out for this level of commitment goes to:

• Barefoot Coffee Roasters
• Bassian Farms
• Charles Chocolates
• Clean Fish
• Earl’s Organic Produce
• Greenleaf Produce
• Interactive Parenting Media
• Kaiser Permanente
• King of Mushrooms
• Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Monterey Fish
• Nick Sciabica & Sons
• Obentec
• Planet Organics
• Second Harvest Food Bank
• 4H Youth Development
• Straus Family Creamery
• Sunset Scavenger

We’d also like to thank ALL of you for contributing the time and effort that it took to make our dream event a reality. Here at Google, the culinary team is used to feeding large crowds for all sorts of reasons - from everyday lunch to large-scale celebrations and fundraisers.

This event was different, though.

At DooF-a-Palooza, the chefs were not simply the help, but the main attraction, along with all of you!

That made the work all that more enjoyable and the end result was tangibly magical.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

We hope to see you all again at the next DooF-a-Palooza.

Mike, Mirit and the entire DooF-a-Palooza Team

(Download the DooF-a-Palooza 2008 Digest)

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What an amazing turnout!

DooF-a-Palooza was an amazing success, from this humble photographer’s eye.

There was so much to see, and everywhere I looked, adults and children alike were engrossed in various activities presented by the numerous “Sourcerers” on hand, as well as trying out all the scrumptious food!

There was a huge lounge area where visitors saw videos of themselves taken around the campus in what must have been minutes (or maybe 10’s of minutes) before.

In one of the campus’s cafe was a makeshift studio, where celebrity chef Joey Altman held his Kitchen Sink Cook Off, a friendly competition between teams of kids to see which team put together the best tasting pasta salad — all caught on video and recorded onto DVD for the participants.  How cool was that!

Here are some teaser photos from the day:

See the full set of photos in our Photo Gallery

Just a quick reminder that DooF-a-Palooza 2008 is this Saturday, July 12th.

Things are coming together quickly.

Please note that there will be NO physical tickets if you are registering online. Simply come to the will-call area with your name (and ID), and you should be good to go.

We’re very excited about what we’ve cooked up, and hope you will be as well!

See you all then!

What is DooF-a-Palooza

DooF-a-Palooza is nearly upon us. The fact that it is ‘a thing’ and has meaning to people is one of the more exciting aspects of our development and, in many ways, a crucial catalyst to the success of the DooF television show. But what is DooF-a-Palooza and why has it caught on so so fast?

A Bit of History

A fortuitous introduction to Mirit Cohen (Thanks, Barry!) — one of the chefs in Google’s amazing employee food service program and a force of nature in her own right — led to an invitation to do a fundraising event on the Google campus last year. This became our First Annual DooF-a-Palooza.

It seemed our mission to share the magic of good food with children struck a chord with Google’s own commitment to sustainable food practices. We thought, why not invite food purveyors to come up with activities that enable children and adults to participate in and understand how they create their very special food products? Add a dash of Google magic and the opportunity to participate in the creation of DooF and you’ve got DooF-a-Palooza.

DooF-a-Palooza Facts

• Kids are much more willing to try different foods when they make them themselves
• Many adults (including me) have no idea how much of what we eat gets here
• A Sourcerer is someone who creates a fun hands-on activity that involves kids in the process of bringing good food from source to table
• DooF-a-Palooza activities involve a ‘making’ component and an ‘eating’ component
• DooF-a-Palooza activites underscore the unique nature of what our Sourcerers do
• DooF-a-Palooza will include nearly forty hands-on activities, each one paired with one of Google’s amazing cafes
• The DooF-a-Palooza stage will include live music, performance, a raffle and our now-famous food backwards spelling bee
• DooF-a-Palooza will also feature a roving DooF film crew and the opportunity to audition for DooF by telling a funny food story

Provisional List of Sourcerer Activities

• Apron Strings — Around the World to Vietnam
• Bassian Farms — “Best Burgers and Shakes”
• Blue Moon Organics — Berry Sampling & Sustainability
• Brown Sugar Kitchen — Healthy ‘Down Home’ Waffles
• Charles Chocolates — Chocolate Immersion
• Calfia Cafe & Market a Go Go — Book signings and Food Fun
• Chronicle Books — Author Signings
• CleanFish — Digging for Shrimp and Protecting the Ocean Floor
• DooF — Food Backwards Foragers Treasure Hunt
• Sunset Scavenger — Stinky Trash to Black Gold
• Earls Organic Produce — How to Cut Fruit and How to Choose Ripe Fruit
• Eat See India — Mix Your Own Bhelpuri Street Snacks in a Cone
• Google Master Gardener — Planting Demonstration and “H2O Infusion”
• Google Kitchen Tour
• Hippy Gourmet TV — Solar Baked Cookies
• Interactive Parenting Media — Food Face Painting
• Joey Altman — Kitchen Sink Cook Off
• Julia Myall “Cook it in a Cup” Potato baskets
• Kaiser Permanente — Mini-Farmer’s Market
• ’The Best Me’ stage performance
• King of Mushrooms — Informative Booth
• Kitchen on Fire — Crazy Food Science
• Lemon Ladies Orchard — When life gives you Lemons!
• Monterey Bay Aquarium — Seafood Watch
• Monterey Fish — Squishy Squid
• Nick Sciabica & Sons — What’s in the Olive Oil
• Obentec — Make Your Own Pretend Lunch
• Palo Alto Creamery — Build Your Own Sandwich
• Petit Appetit — Personalized Trail Mix
• Planet Organics — Organic Trivia Basketball
• Revolution Foods — Custom Quesadillas
• Slide Ranch — Awaken the Senses
• Straus Family Creamery — Making Butter by Kickin’ It (in a soccer ball)
• Urban Village Farmers’ Market Association — Stone Fruit Bingo
• Veritable Vegetable — “The Root Grow Down and the Plants Grow Up!”
• VW Nutrition — What Would Your Favorite Super Hero Eat for Breakfast?
• What’s Cooking and The Toddler Cafe — Happy Trails Mix – For You & Our Planet

Hope to see you there!

Registration: www.foodbackwards.com/doof-a-palooza/2008/

Check out our 30 second radio ads for DooF-a-Palooza. They’ll be running in English on 98.1 KISS-FM Sundays between 9-10 AM on the Childhood Matters Radio show (also K-Ocean 105.1 FM) and in Spanish on KLOK (1170 AM), Tricolor 99.5 FM, KBBF (89.1 FM), KSES (107.1 FM) and KMBX (700 AM) Sundays from 8-9 AM on Nuestros Ninos.

Check them out!

• DooF-a-Palooza Radio Spot
• DooF-a-Palooza Radio Spot (Spanish version)