Mission About Us About the Founders & Directors Credits Expositions Media Coverage Lectures & Programs Books Privacy Contact Us	Welcome! This is the on-line home of The FOOD Museum, your source for food exhibits, examination of food issues and resources, food history, food fun, food news on The FOOD Museum’s interactive Blog, answers to your food questions, and the museum’s favorite places and things, including restaurants, cafes, books, and films. The FOOD Museum shop is in the planning stage. Everything you'd expect to find in the world's only independent food museum will be found here. For several years we have been building online exhibits about the world's foods. You can search for a particular food by name, by hemisphere, and by type. We've been putting up actual exhibits for over 25 years, from small galleries in Brussels and Washington to major exhibitions at the Smithsonian and Ottawa's National Museum of Science. Our kiosk-sized food exhibits are available for lease. We also bring food programs to schools, festivals and other gathering places.   Mission The Food Museum examines what we eat and how we eat it, where it came from, how it has evolved, what its impact is on the world, and what its future may be.  It researches, collects, preserves, exhibits and explains the history and social significance of the world's foods.  The museum brings artifacts and programs to where people gather, both in person and on-line. The Food Museum's research is offered on-line to students, teachers and any people seeking answers to food questions. Its collections, covering a wide range of the world's foods, are stored in New Mexico.  Its core collection, The Potato Museum, is the world's largest on the history and importance of the potato. The Food Museum is committed to preserving the history and physical evidence of our world's food heritage.  The Global Food Heritage Project aims to develop a network of food related museums and heritage sites.  The Project's annual Food Heritage Awards recognize outstanding preservation efforts. The museum collaborates with other museums on exhibitions, and also has in-house kiosk exhibits on 15 different food subjects. The FOOD Museum's outreach programs explain the importance of food.  They describe where plants and animals originated, where they have traveled and how they have influenced culture.  The programs explore how people celebrate worldwide with food, and  how food choices influence not only our health, but also our economy. The FOOD Museum is many people. Its founding board, for The Potato Museum, back in 1988, made possible its 501c3 status. Lane Heard, attorney. Marc Messing, environmentalist. Dr. John Niederhauser, professor emeritus, University of Arizona, and World Food Prize Laureate, 1990. Dr Merle Jensen, University of Arizona, closed environment growing expert. Charles G. Burck, editor. Richard Sawyer, former director of the International Potato Center, Lima, Peru. And others, through the years, have contributed to TFM: Prof. Paul Illegems, Antwerp, Belgium Jean-Francois Pacquet, Maransart, Belgium Marie Wabbes, Maransart, Belgium Johan van Geluwe, Antwerp, Belgium James Sidgwick, Boitsfort, Belgium Roswitha and Fred Gans, Corroy-le-Grand, Belgium, Val di Concei, Trento, Italy Sandra Meakin, Brussels, Belgium Mary Ann and Jack Hill, Loudon, TN Jackie and Walter Williams, Seattle, WA Ann and Phil McCracken, Guemes Island, WA Holly le Du, Walnut Creek, CA Anneke Hogeland and Jim Porzak, Ell Cerrito, CA Frank Ward, Los Angeles, CA John Barbey, San Francisco, CA Prof. Jack Hawkes, Birmingham, England Anita Zednik, Doha, Qatar and Santa Fe, New Mexico Mei Su Teng, Washington, DC Charmaine and Ron Shutiva, Albuquerque, New Mexico Gayle Kinsey, Albuquerque, New Mexico Jeremy W. Sayles, Barnard, VT Catherine Dau, Rio Rancho, New Mexico Dr. Marian E. Zonnis, Albuquerque, New Mexico Mark Zifcak, Camp Hill, PA Ib Bellew and Carol Kitchel, Boston, MA & London, England Corie Conwell, Albuquerque, New Mexico Frances Wells, Piermont, New York About the Founders Tom Hughes and Meredith Sayles Hughes, founders of The FOOD Museum, met while studying abroad in Florence, Italy. They have been travel, art and food fans ever since, marrying while serving in the Peace Corps in Iran. After a stint in New York, they moved to Belgium in 1974, where Tom started The Potato Museum with his fifth grade students at the International School of Brussels. Based eight years in Europe, Meredith was the managing editor of the English-language newspaper in Brussels and then oversaw European promotional events for Wrangler jeans. Tom continued teaching and also wrote travel pieces about Belgium. The Potato Museum grew and attracted wide press attention that led Frito-Lay to hire Tom as a spokesman for the potato. He did two national media tours for Frito-Lay. Meredith began work for Macmillan on The Great Potato Book, finally published in 1986. Tom and Meredith settled in Washington, DC in 1983, where their son, Gulliver, was born. They opened The Potato Museum in a gallery on Capitol Hill where it attracted thousands of visitors by appointment only. During the next nine years, Tom taught at a private school while Meredith welcomed visitors to the museum. They traveled to China to speak at the Asian Potato Association and were guests of the Sweet Potato Society in Kawagoe, Japan. Winner of a Klingenstein Fellowship, Tom studied the potato in Peru with Earthwatch and also lectured at the International Potato Center. The Smithsonian Institution discovered them in the late 1980's and soon the Hugheses were guest curating the potato section of the Quincentenary exhibition, "Seeds of Change. "Seeds" explored the interchange between the Spanish and native people of the Americas at the close of the 15th century . At the same time, Canada's National Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa, approached The Potato Museum to work on a 6000 square foot exhibition dubbed "The Amazing Potato." In the early 90's the museum's research and collections featured in both these national exhibits simultaneously. The Hugheses provided material for both the potato and the corn sections of "Seeds," and for its national traveling show, gathering a collection on corn in rapid time. They also contributed to the video and public television documentary which accompanied "Seeds," lectured docents, appeared in panels at the National Museum of American History and lectured at the National Arboretum. In October 1991 Smithsonian Magazine published Meredith's article on the potato's history. After moving to New Mexico in 1992, the Hugheses began collecting artifacts on many of the world's foods, with special emphasis on foods of the Americas. In recent years Tom has continued teaching and doing educational programs for children and teachers, while Meredith completed a ten book series called Plants We Eat, for Lerner Books, Minneapolis. They created foodmuseum.com, an on-line presence for The FOOD Museum, and mounted a kiosk exhibition on food that has appeared at Wild Oats Market in Albuquerque, and at La Montanita Co-op. Meredith writes "Ask The FOOD Museum," a regular feature in Albuquerque's weekly alternative paper, The Alibi. Food is our focus, an all-encompassing subject we pursue with passion. Food is serious business. Ask any hungry person. Food matters. As our motto coined by writer M.F.K. Fisher precisely puts it, " First we eat, then we do everything else." CREDITS Expositions "Seeds of Change," the Smithsonian Institution's Quincentenary Exhibition, guest curators. "The Amazing Potato," National Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa. "Gaelic Gotham-The Irish in New York," Museum of the City of New York. "Seeds of Change II," Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History, Texas. "Heritage of the Andes," Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque, NM. TFM kiosks, Wild Oats Market, Albuquerque. "Voici La Pomme de Terre," International Potato Exposition, Belgium. Professional Organizations (current or former affiliations) Association of Independent Museums American Association of Museums Living Historic Farms & Agricultural Museums New Mexico Association of Museums Media coverage Newspapers     The New York Times The Washington Post The Boston Globe The Christian Science Monitor The International Herald Tribune The Wall Street Journal Albuquerque Journal The Times of London TV/Radio NBC Nightly News Late Night with David Letterman Good Morning, America CBS Overnight with Charlie Rose CBS Radio-Charles Osgood National Public Radio CBC Radio Irish Television Japanese Independent Television Mentioned in these books The Directory of Museums, Kenneth Hudson, editor Little Museums: 1000 American Showplaces by Lynne Arany Organized Obsessions by Deborah M. Burek America's Strangest Museums by Sandra Gurvis Great American Food Almanac by Irena Chalmers Featured in: Denver International Airport Concourse Exhibits "The Irish Potato" a  documentary film   Lectures & Appearances   Asian Potato Association Triennial, Kunming, China The National Arboretum, Washington, DC National Museum of American History, Washington   National Museum of Natural History, Washington National Museum of Science & Technology, Ottawa, Canada Colonial Williamsburg Docent Program Sweet Potato Friendship Society, Kawagoe, Japan. Maryland Old Farm Harvest Days International Potato Center, Lima, Peru Cornell University, Ithaca, NY San Diego Science Museum Quail Run Resort, Santa Fe Anasazi Heritage Center, Cortez, CO. Geography Alliance Annual Meeting, Albuquerque.   Educational programs: Rio Grande Valley Library System Albuquerque Public Schools Isleta Pueblo Gifted and Talented Navajo Pine High School Teen Leadership. Rio Grande Nature Center Texas Pubic Schools Association of Gifted and Talented Sandia Labs Science Teacher Training Albuquerque P.S. Teacher Training El Camino Real International Heritage Center Photo resource for: Smithsonian Magazine The National Geographic The World and I SITES Smithsonian WGBH-TV, Boston Knopf Publishing California Academy of Sciences Books: Gastronomie: Touring the Tastes of France's  Food Museums & Heritage Sites (June 2005) The Great Potato Book Buried Treasure: Roots and Tubers Cool as a Cucumber, Hot as a Pepper: Fruit Vegetables Stinky and Stringy: Stem and Bulb Vegetables Yes, We Have Bananas: Fruits from Shrubs and Vines Spill the Beans and Pass the Peanuts: Legumes Glorious Grasses: The Grains Flavor Foods: Spices and Herbs Tall and Tasty: Fruit Trees Green Power: Leaf and Flower Vegetables Hard to Crack: Nuts Privacy Policy Your e-mail address is used to send you information that you requested. We never sell, rent, or loan our e-mail lists to outside entities.   Contact Us Mail:   La Paz, NW  Albuquerque, New Mexico 87114 USA Phone:   Tel 505 898 0909 Email:foodmuseum@yahoo.com