What is One Chicken Fest?

One Chicken Fest is a movement aimed at connecting people to the organizations and resources that can help us create positive change in the world. The idea is that “just one chicken” can make a difference, and our aim is to encourage everyone to do what they can, when they can. As problems like global warming and factory farming are starting to become a constant worry and threat to the planet, we’d like to do our part to get everyone involved in working together to make strides in a more positive, healthy direction that takes into account the health of the planet as part of our own health and future.

When Charles and I first decided to do an annual festival, we had been thinking about it for some time. We care a lot about helping the planet, and had noticed that there are a lot of great organizations and programs that many people do not even know about – groups to help conserve water, groups to help us dispose of electronics safely, groups to help us recycle more of our trash – even groups helping with things as specific as spaying and neutering our pets! However, a lot of the people who could really benefit from these services might not even know they exist.

So how do we get people – who, like most of us, are not necessarily thinking about the environment every day – nonetheless connected and involved in the movement to protect our planet? This question led us to the idea of a planet-based festival, which would be fun and entertaining and would draw people in with crafts from local artists, sustainable local food, and interactive booths from local and national organizations.

After connecting with a lot of wonderful people and organizations in the community through festivals in 2015 and 2016, we switched our focus to working with those groups and using the network we had already created to promote small events throughout the year, more in line with our philosophy of making small changes every day to work towards an overall positive outcome.

So…what’s with the chicken?

The idea of the “one chicken” actually came about through an argument – or, as Charles would put it, a “discussion.” Like a lot of people these days, money is pretty tight in our household, and I have always been a bargain hunter. At the same time, we have often talked about “voting with our dollar” as much as possible, and realize that there are larger costs to buying cheap foods full of high fructose corn syrup, and cheap meats from factory farms pumped full of hormones. However – it’s hard to keep that in mind sometimes when you are living paycheck to paycheck. One fateful day, Charles had done the grocery shopping and brought home a roaster chicken to make sandwiches with (anyone who knows my husband would be unsurprised that a big part of our grocery bill goes toward various sandwich fixings). I was a little annoyed, looking at the chicken that he brought home, to see that it was some fancy-schmancy, no hormones, free range creature that cost twice as much as the usual chicken that I would typically buy. After some “discussion,” I asked in annoyance: “What difference does one chicken make, anyway?” To which Charles replied: “That’s all it takes – just one chicken. It makes all the difference in the world.”

Well, okay. I had to admit he had a point. It was then and there that we decided to call our festival “One Chicken Fest.” That’s when the whole idea got a little more real.

Today, another “one thing” Charles and I decided to do to help the planet is that we no longer eat meat. The chicken has become, even more, a symbol of those small things anyone can do to make a difference.

One Chicken Fest Today

While the idea of One Chicken Fest was born a few years ago, it took awhile to get to this point. It was always something that we would do “someday.” Someday when we had more money, more time, more connections, more… something. However, we finally realized that if we continued to wait for the perfect time to do this festival, we would never do it. And just like the whole idea of this festival, we realized that it’s better to get out there and do what we can now – never mind that it’s not perfect, never mind that it’s only one small part of what needs to be done. That kind of thinking will continue digging us deeper, instead of looking for a way to start filling in the hole and climbing out.

The First Annual One Chicken Fest took place in April of 2015, and the Second One Chicken Fest was in October, 2016. The festivals were a lot of fun and helped many people in our community share and discover new ways of making a difference in our lives, our community, and our world! Today, we have switched our focus to promoting activities and events throughout the year, and informing our community on all the small ways we can live a little greener in our day-to-day existence.

It’s important to us that people know we aren’t here to complain about what you could have done, we aren’t here to shame or blame or preach. One Chicken Fest is about discovering that one, helpful change to implement in your life – and then maybe one more. It’s about getting the word out about all of the good in our communities – maybe about your organization – and how we can leverage knowledge, support and personal connections to make even more of a difference in all of our lives.

We also hope to see you around our local community! If you’d like to share YOUR One Chicken on twitter, be sure to use #OneChicken! Please join us in hatching positive change, today and every day!

Charles and Deirdre have been together for 13 years and share a passion for the environment, the arts and doing unusual things. As previously mentioned, Charles also has a passion for sandwiches. While not planning a festival, Charles is a full time musician (www.charleswiley.net) and Deirdre works in communications, marketing and graphics design (www.oakprophetcreations.com).

To contact Charles, email charles@onechickenfest.org | To contact Deirdre, email deirdre@onechickenfest.org