• The themes are;

June: Food in the garden
July: Food in the kitchen
August: Food on the table
• Send in your own objects or recipes for the monthly themed Expo contest. Each month there will be a winner awarded with 500 Simoleons. Objects that was already available on the web for a long time can enter the contest, too.
• Send in your favourite links to web pages that you think are related to the monthly theme of the Expo. Links will be gathered on the Food Expo page.
• Share your knowledge of this month's theme by writing a brief lecture to be made available for all neighbourhoods to get from the Food Expo page.

A huge food festival is coming to your neighbourhood this Summer. I ran into Mrs Grumblin who is coordinating it all, still looking for co-hosting neighbourhoods and waiting for more to submit objects related to food in the garden.

Except from champagne and strawberries I never really cared about the nation's food traditions, or what my great-grandparents ate, or whether my pixled body would prefer a flamingo egg over chocolates. Not until I got to know a distant neighbour, Mrs Johanna Grumblin. She has been contributing to Simmerville web for more than a year, and she has already influenced on sims' kitchen routines all over Sim Nation. And she is not satisfied with this - this Sunday she opens the annual SimCity Food Expo 2003!

- Mrs Grumblin, this Sunday must become a big day for you?

- But of course! I've been working so hard with this, and so have several co-hosts. It will be a delight to finally get it all started.

Many volunteers - one goal
The Food Expo will last for 3 months. Never before did the Expo get this much publicity.

- That is right, when I asked the Sim Nation Food Association to host the Food Expo here in Simmerville, my thought was that by having the event ongoing for the entire Summer, there will be less stress and hurry about it. More sims will get a chance to experience the good ol' market atmosphere, and I think it will be easier to reach the goal, too.

- So what is the goal for this huge event, Mrs Grumblin?

- Thank You for asking just that! Well, there is only one goal and that is to reach out to as many sims as possible with food related knowledge and inspiration that will add to the kitchen traditions all over the nation. If we manage to raise the general interest in food, we will have achieved a lot, I tell you!

- How will you manage this?

- We will offer neighbourhoods to become co-hosts. In that way they might form a local Food committee that most likely will consist of the most food interested residents. With some luck these groups will carry on the ideas even after the Food Expo closes August 31st.

The Expo contest is open also to old objects
Secondly, we will invite all sims to create items, accessories, appliances and recipes to be introduced on the many Food Expo markets. Each creator can send in any number of items per month,  but only one item per creator can enter the monthly contest. The winning item will get awarded with 500 Simoleons! Both old items and new items can be sent in to me for participation, and it doesn't mind if the item was already available on the web for years. The point of this all is to reach out, you know, not necessarily to invent everything over again.

- How has the response been this far?

- Depending on what you mean, the response has been quite fine, actually. There are 5 co-hosts, and many sims have signed up for the mailing list to get notified on news. I have also got a lot of mail with questions from people who wonder if they can contribute with objects that was already available on their web page, and of course they can! They also wonder how much work it will be to be a co-host, and a lot of other things, too. It seems like the community at large is quite interested in food related subjects already.

- And, do you tell them that there is a lot of work on co-hosting?

- *shrug* Well, actually the work load couldn't be less, as all they need to do is to prepare a community lot for the expo and some lectures. Then they will need to come to the Food Expo section of my food page here at Simmerville web to get the objects for the Expo once or twice. Finally they will need to send me the result of their judging. This routine must be repeated each month because we will run a new monthly theme. It will be fine though if a co-host want to participate for June and August, but taking July off. Or participating in June and July, skipping August. In a way you can say that the Food Expo this year is a series of 3 festivals, each with a different theme.

Every month a new exciting theme
Mrs Grumblin has made sure to add variation to the long running event, as each month will be devoted to a theme. It's naturally all food related. Starting off in June the theme is "Food in the garden", and this month also include a carnival for kids dressed like according to a vegetable/fruit theme. July is devoted to "Food in the kitchen", and in August we have finally reached the diningroom with "Food on the table.

- I think many sims are most interested in the meal which will be focused on in August. But I also expect that more sims will find the growing and preparing routines more interesting during the Food Expo. A part of the Expo is all the lectures. On the web page local Food Expo committees can find related lectures sent in by other sims. By giving some of those lectures in the market, or using the shared knowledge in other ways, I am sure this will add to the interest in many ways.

- Who will write those lectures, and what is required?

- A lecture can be anything from an article to just a few arguments, or perhaps a guideline for growing vegetables, or some advises related to any food or kitchen subjects. I think anyone who has some experience will be capable of writing a lecture. Just make sure to give the text a title that makes it easy to understand what the content is about.

Any questions can be sent to me at johanna_grumblin@hotmail.com

Anyone can see that this Summer will be special - in the garden, the kitchen or even where you eat your food. I get the impression that the Food Expo will be a rather relaxed festival, with events ongoing for a week each, and plenty of room for local involvement.

- Congratulation with the opening this Sunday, Mrs Grumblin. Is there any details for the opening ceremony that you can share with us?

- Just tell them that I will be there for the opening - *shrug*. Actually I don't think the local opening here in Simmerville is that interesting to all out there. I will announce the program for Sunday on the SUN news board. I expect guests to arrive from SUN Family Exchange, Mister Martin I presume. Ad our new spokesperson Mrs Valentino will give a speech, and so will I.

- Thank you Mrs Grumblin, this all sounds really cool. No junk food on me this Summer, it seems:-)

Check out the Food Expo section at Mrs Grumblin's food page.