Darn it! Food Day came and went on October 24 this year and I missed the chance to do a blog post about it so I will do one now thinking ahead to next year. Food Day was launched by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. They are to the processed food industry and the restaurant industy what daylight is to vampires. They tell the truth about the bad food that is being sold to the American public by food conglomerates and restaurant chains which has led to changes that are good for the health of our nation. I am for one am a huge advocate for the Center because it educates Americans on making better food choices for the sake of their health.
As I indicated, Food Day was October 24 and should remain that date for years to come so we can plan events in our community to promote healthy eating. As the website says:
Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. We will work with people around the country to create thousands of events in homes, schools, churches, farmers markets, city halls, and state capitals...Transforming the American diet means changing policies as well as changing individual behavior. Agricultural policies should support small and mid-size sustainable and organic farms—and not pour billions of dollars each year onto huge farms that produce monoculture commodity crops. The Americans—and the immigrants to America—who harvest our food deserve protection from harmful pesticides and poor working conditions. And the "factory farms" that hold millions of chickens, pigs, and cows should be replaced by farms that minimize suffering and avoid the pollution of our water, soil, and air.
It's all connected. The diets we select, the foods we grow, the policies we form, and the impact we have. Find—or create—a Food Day event today. It's time to get real about food and in the following ways:
1. Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods.
2. Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness
3. Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
4. Protect the environment & animals by reforming factory farms
5. Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
6. Support fair conditions for food and farm workers
What am I doing in response? I writing this blog post! I promote local farmers in our community. I have a full share and am able to get produce from the farmer year round due to his safe innovative farming methods, like growing greens during our Indiana winters in a retrofitted hog barn. I have put him in touch with local restaurants that now feature his produce. We are working now on developing healthy food products that can be processed on his farm and sold in the community. Once he is certified I will be using his produce in our student run restaurant which I now teach.
The menu we have put together for the John Purdue Room is healthy with lots of healthy (vegetarian) dishes. Since making the menu change and promoting it as a project for the students in my sales class the numbers keep growing week in and week out. If you want to check out our menu and the job the sales class is doing to promote the operation through Facebook type John Purdue Room into the search window at the top of your Facebook page.
If you like the idea of Food Day and doing something in response please share with me by sending an e-mail to
mlalopa@fooded.org. I am happy to post it to the blog to share with others. If you are vehemently opposed to it and have your reasons we do counterpoints, too! It is all in the spirit of education!
