Field Notes from a Preservation Station - Incite at Columbia University

Incubated Project

Field Notes from a Preservation Station

Jars of food in a refrigerator

Field Notes from a Preservation Station is a Chicago-based initiative that treats food preservation as a public health imperative. This project addresses two interconnected challenges: the loss of traditional food knowledge and ongoing food insecurity. By bringing people together around the practice of food preservation, this project creates space for meaningful exchange—where techniques are taught, stories are shared, and wisdom passes between generations.

Through hands-on workshops and community gatherings, participants learn preservation methods while building connections with their neighbors. The sessions preserve food for times of need and safeguard cultural knowledge that's at risk of disappearing. The initiative will culminate in a guide, ensuring that these vital skills and stories nourish generations to come.
 

Team Lead

  • 0
    Lori Parett

    Lori Parrett is an artist and cultural practitioner exploring food as memory, craft, and survival. She is the founder of Cakewalk Chicago and the architect of ForkLore, a public preservation kitchen model building community resilience. Her work blends visual art, culinary technique, and social practice.

More Projects

  • go to Making the X Multiple: “Y the X?”
    Making the X Multiple: “Y the X?”
    People behind the X in all their complexity, re/generating a spectrum of (gender)queer meanings while challenging gender markers’ essentialist meaning. Part of the Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project
  • go to Murals of Memory and Dialogue
    Murals of Memory and Dialogue
    Under Taliban rule, Afghan cultural expression is being systematically erased. Yet stories, memories, and traditions persist. Murals of Memory & Dialogue creates space for those stories to be seen and heard. Part of the Global Change Program
  • go to Border Loomers
    Border Loomers
    The initiative preserves heritage while reimagining it as a tool for resilience and cross-cultural collaboration. Through community workshops, artisan interviews, and public installations, Border Loomers amplifies the voices of borderland artisans. Part of Assembling Voices
  • go to The Promise and Paradox of Climate Change Litigation
    The Promise and Paradox of Climate Change Litigation
    Examining ambitious litigation pursued by South African Indigenous groups to oppose mining and protect their way of life. Part of the Breakdown/ (Re)generation Project