The City Harvest truck parked outside Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday showed guests how the organization transports food to hundreds of pantries. A City Harvest driver speaking at the podium gave the image meaning. “I have lived in New York all my life, and until I started driving for City Harvest, I never realized there were so many people in need,” Bill Murray said. “There are people who need food who live right next door to me.”

Promoting New York Farms

President Bush’s niece, Lauren Bush, made sure her mother ate her vegetables the other night.

Ms. Bush, who is dating Ralph Lauren’s son, David Lauren, prepared steamed brussels sprouts.

“They’re my favorite vegetable — when my daughter makes them,” Sharon Bush, once married to President Bush’s brother, Neil Bush, said.

Mother and daughter (a carrot lover herself) told The New York Sun about their nutritious eats at a nutritious feast, a luncheon on Monday organized by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York.

The association educates farmers and consumers about organic farming. Many of the association’s member farms sell at markets in the city.

The farmers and socialites at the event dined on parsnips, potatoes, and beets, and were served “New York water” from the tap.

Jim Gardiner, the owner of Hidden Opportunities, a dairy farm in Otselic, N.Y., felt right at home. “That patch of grass outside there, that’s a salad bowl for one cow,” Mr. Gardiner said, of an oval of grass in front of the catering hall Guastavino’s.

As for favorite vegetables: The chairwoman of the Museum of Arts & Design, Barbara Tober, likes cauliflower gratin. “Anything green” is pleasing to Margo Langenberg. Jamee Gregory and Jane Pflug like broccoli.

So does Christie Brinkley, but she noted one hazard of eating it. “Do I have any organic broccoli in between my teeth?” she said before speaking about her passion for growing vegetables in her garden.

Celebrating Opera Upstate

Farmers don’t have a monopoly on healthful products for city dwellers. Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y., presents imaginative productions during the summer season, while serving as a training ground for promising young singers, lighting designers, set builders, and the like.

Supporters of the company gathered Tuesday night at the Metropolitan Club for a fundraising gala that included performances by four singers who have either participated or are about to participate in the company’s Young American Artists Program: Megan Besley, Christopher Magiera, Alison Trainer, and Ethan Watermeier. Bravo!

agordon@nysun.com