Jaclyn Hubersberger - The Austinot

Spider House Cafe and Ballroom to Celebrate 20 Years With Epic Party

August 16, 2016 by Jaclyn Hubersberger 1 Comment

Outdoor patio stage at Spider House (Credit: Jaclyn Hubersberger)

An incredible live music lineup, comedy, an array of food trucks and drinks flowing as steadily as the water streaming down the giant, inflatable water slide. These are only a few of the activities that promise to make Spider House Cafe and Ballroom‘s 20th Anniversary Party an event to remember!

Starting at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 20, you can head over to 2908 Fruth St. and partake in the debaucherously good time that has been this iconic Austin spot’s modus operandi since 1996. The price of admission: FREE. [Read more…]

Central Texas Food Bank Expands to Shrink Hunger Gap

July 26, 2016 by Jaclyn Hubersberger Leave a Comment

Exterior of the new Central Texas Food Bank location, located at 6500 Metropolis Dr. (Credit: Jaclyn Hubersberger)

It is well known that Central Texas is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation thanks to an economic boom that has taken place in recent years. But you may not know that despite all of this growth and prosperity, tens of thousands of Central Texans are at risk of going hungry each week, including one in every four children.

Due to the rising cost of living, an increasing number of people in the Austin area are having to choose between food and other basic needs like housing, utilities, transportation and medicine.

New Name, New Location

Central Texas Food Bank (formerly Capital Area Food Bank of Texas) serves 46,000 of our fellow community members per week, from 21 counties across the region, and that number is on the rise. [Read more…]

Top 11 Austin Restaurants for Locavores

July 12, 2016 by Jaclyn Hubersberger Leave a Comment

Credit: Whitney Arotegui

“What is a locavore?” you may ask. No, it isn’t a new diet trend or an exclusive club reserved for those in the know. Locavores are those whose diets consists principally of locally-grown or -produced food. Taking a locavore approach to eating means a step back into simpler times, before the industrialization of the food system. Before the existence of genetically-modified crops and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Before monocropping practices and animal production facilities dominated the U.S. food supply.

The USDA defines “local” as less than 400 miles from the origin of the product, or within the same state where the product is produced. Austinites have the unique opportunity to dine with a distance from farm to table of literally only a couple of miles (and in some cases, only a few feet). That is a big deal, considering the average American meal travels about 1,500 miles to get from farm to plate (source: Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture). [Read more…]

Springdale Farm Partners With SFC to Improve Access to Fresh Produce

June 17, 2016 by Jaclyn Hubersberger 1 Comment

Fresh produce from East Austin’s Springdale Farm (Credit: Springdale Farm Facebook)

The topic of food access is a personal one for me, being from the small city of Pueblo, Colo., where half the population is Hispanic and 32 percent lives below the poverty line. Growing up, I consumed a diet heavily based on fast food, sodas, canned vegetables and packaged foods. I had never heard the word “organic” until my sophomore year of college in Boulder, Colo., when I stepped foot into a Whole Foods for the first time.

It was then that I began to question where my food came from and discovered my interest in nutrition. I now know I grew up in what the Department of Agriculture refers to as a “food desert:” an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.

“Food desert” seems to be a commonly used term nowadays. But beyond the deserts are food swamps, and neither are beneficial to a community’s health. Hilda Gutiérrez, Food Access Manager of the Sustainable Food Center (SFC), informed me that food swamps tend to be of more concern within the city of Austin, particularly in East Austin.

Food swamps are areas saturated with unhealthy food options offered by large corporations that target low-income communities of color. Not coincidentally, this is the population most affected by diet-related, preventable illness, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. Fast food is cheap food. For families struggling to put meals on the table, the road leading to the drive-thru is often well-traveled. [Read more…]

Top 10 Austin Restaurants When It MUST Be Gluten-free

May 23, 2016 by Jaclyn Hubersberger 8 Comments

Guest article by Jaclyn Hubersberger

Dining out is one of my absolute favorite activities. So when I received my celiac diagnosis, I thought my world was ending. No more pizza, pasta or sandwiches. Good-bye to sushi happy hours and baked goods. “Having a beer” was now a thing of the past.

On one hand, it was a relief to know I wasn’t dying, and that by eliminating gluten from my diet I could relieve all the symptoms that had left my life in a state of disarray. On the other hand, I knew future family gatherings and social outings were going to require a certain degree of diligence and abstinence on my part.

For those of us with celiac disease and severe gluten sensitivity, dining out can cause anxiety. Even though we are fortunate to live in a city where almost every restaurant has gluten-free options, cross-contamination and uninformed restaurant staff present a real risk. I had to find this out the hard way while navigating this disease and learning as I went along. Getting accidentally “glutened” isn’t pretty—the symptoms can range from gastrointestinal to neurological, and it can take anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks to recover.

I’m aiming to open your eyes to a world beyond bunless burgers and skimpy salads. Whether you can’t eat gluten or simply choose not to, here are my top ten tried and true gluten-free eats in Austin. [Read more…]

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