Food Day & PFM
This weekend you might hear talk about Food Day. This isn’t the FOODday, the one our friends at the Oregonian publish on Tuesdays, the one we contribute a bi-weekly article called Market Watch to, this Food Day is like Earth Day, only for food.
On October 24, Food Day promoters encourage people to Eat Real. You can find out more about Food Day by visiting the organization’s website. While none of our Markets fall on the 24th, our Saturday Market at PSU is hosting Farmers Ending Hunger as part of the Food Day Celebration.
All Dressed Up, Ready to go to Food Day
This isn’t a serious polemic seminar*, Farmers Ending Hunger will be making Mr. Potato Heads from vegetables at the market (Technically, this is listed as a kid’s activity, but this looks totally cool & they’ll have to chase me away from the table). At 10 a.m, Chef Michael Broderick from Trader Vic’s, will be doing a cooking demo using ingredients from a typical emergency food box. A brilliant idea that both informs people what comes emergency food box and reinforces the belief that food doesn’t have to be expensive to be good.
With 1,000s of local events being staged across the country, Food Day’s resemblance to Earth Day is no coincidence – event founder Michael Jacobson launched Food Day to raise awareness about, “the declining quality of the American diet.” And Food Day supporter Nora Pouillon, of Washington DC’s Restaurant Nora, co-wrote an essay with Susan Bass of of the Earth Day Network outlining the need for greater awareness of understanding where food comes from. Together they helped bridge the goals of Food Day and Farmers Markets:
Farmer’s markets, which are on the rise across the nation, offer a promising opportunity to help children connect the dots between the food on their plate, their personal welfare, and the sustainability of our planet. In selling locally grown, natural and organic produce and products, farmers have become small scale teachers and naturalists, educating consumers about the superior quality of their products and helping children and families recognize the relationship between food production and the earth’s seasons and ecosystems.“
Well said. PSU Market is Saturday from 8:30-2. Our King Market is open on Sundays through October and if you are downtown on Wednesday, you can shop the last Shemanski Market of the year, 10-2, Park & Salmon (Psst – this will be the location to our Winter Market come January 2012).
*For something closer to a serious polemic seminar, check out Monday’s, Food Day’s, Food Policy Council’s (co-hosted along with City Club) panel discussion on health & equity.
