10.24.2011 – The First-Ever Food Day

I spend a lot of time talking about food – from tips on growing your own food to ways to prepare it. Since today is the first ever Food Day I thought I’d spend some time talking about Capital District Community Gardens (CDCG).

First of all, what exactly is Food Day? According to the Food Day website, Food Day is all about pushing for “healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way”. Interestingly enough CDCG’s mission is “to nourish healthy communities by providing access to fresh food and green spaces for all”.

The Food Day movement is all about ‘Eating Real’. Real food. Real ingredients. Real  change.

This means a top-down as well as a bottom-up approach. By top-down, I mean communicating to our political leaders that we, the public, support policies that promote local farms and local food. By bottom-up, I mean that we each need to make choices that support the policies we want the government to endorse. It means getting involved with organizations that work hard providing fresh food access to ALL.

CDCG is one such organization. A friend of mine who knows that I’m into vegetable gardening told me about CDCG a few years ago. I was immediately intrigued and now sit on CDCG’s board of directors. I get to see first-hand the difference CDCG’s programs make – Community Gardens, Squash Hunger, Produce Project, Healthy Convenience Store Initiative – to name a few.

Over the summer I had the opportunity to follow the Veggie Mobile, CDCG’s produce aisle on wheels. On the day that I spent with the Veggie Mobile we visited a senior citizens’ community. In this neighborhood there is no grocery store. Therefore there is no easy access to fresh produce. Additionally, many of the seniors do not have transportation and it’s also difficult for them to carry lots of bags of groceries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNm74uXj5vA

So celebrate Food Day by 1) going to the Food Day website and contacting congress 2) making the choice to eat REAL food and 3) get involved with a community organization (like CDCG) that supports the Food Day mission!

Happy Food Day everyone!