Food Day Readies its Debut

It sounds a little funny when you say it aloud. Food Day. But a few decades back, Earth Day probably sounded a bit strange too.

In fact, the concept of Food Day is nearly as old as its environmental counterpart and as similarly straightforward in its purpose: devoting a day to awareness, appreciation and action around an enormous and inherent part of life that’s become entangled in a web of policies and politics. This is the behemoth that the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) plans to start chipping away at come October 24, and to continue working toward in the years to come.

At a time when it feels like the nation—or at least the media—has nearly reached its saturation point on the topic of food, the introduction of a day focused on that very subject might seem like overkill. But Food Day campaign manager Lilia Smelkova points out something that has been missing from the conversation and its road to progress, a gap Food Day hopes to fill.

“The idea was that all the groups that work on food in the country work on different issues, and sometimes there is not that much dialog [among them]. The groups that focus on hunger and food access do not dialog with nutrition and public-health groups,” observes Smelkova, who worked for Slow Food International in Italy for 11 years before moving to the U.S. earlier this year to join the Food Day project. “So there is the perception around the country that there is a need for a unified action.”

Smelkova explains that it was Mike Jacobson, now executive director at the CSPI, who initially presented the idea of a food day—nearly 40 years ago. The event was held a few times in the 1970s, but gained too little traction to support an ongoing program. Now, with the recent momentum of health and nutrition talks across the country, Food Day is primed for a new beginning.

An advisory board began to form late last year, and national partners now include the Prevention Institute, Slow Food USA and the Earth Day Network, which the Food Day team has frequently turned to for inspiration and advice. “We look to Earth Day quite a lot, and the way we promote Food Day is by saying ‘Think about it like Earth Day but for food issues,’” Smelkova says. She adds that the organization has garnered a great deal of interest and response from the Department of Public Health and several school districts in addition to a long list of nonprofits. Proposals like the current California Farm Bill petition, a bill drafted in support of farm and food-access funding, reflect the kind of action Food Day hopes to inspire.

Food Day has a three-pronged approach as Smelkova describes it: raising awareness and educating; advocating for policy reform at local, state and federal levels; and strengthening the movement with a unified platform for the wide-ranging issues. That middle prong—government involvement—has been, to put it mildly, less than satisfactory thus far.

“We hoped we would get more participation from the Department of Agriculture and Department of Education,” Smelkova says. “We would have wanted to see the city halls organizing hearings and maybe some public entities announcing their reduction of junk food or some meaningful steps. But,” she adds, “the response from the community groups was amazing.”

Around 1,400 events have been planned across the country for October 24, from San Francisco to Washington D.C. and Anchorage, Alaska, to Ponce, P.R. From conferences and panels, to community dinners and cooking demonstrations, each event will be a nod to six core principles, which have been established as a focal point for organizers and participants—and which neatly sum up a laundry list the leading food issues:

• Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods
• Support sustainable farms and limit subsidies to big agribusiness
• Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
• Protect the environment and animals by reforming factory farms
• Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
• Support fair conditions for food and farm workers

Visit foodday.org to learn more about these goals, find a Food Day event near you, and download the Food Day “Eat Real” booklet, a collection of recipes submitted by renowned chefs and food writers, including Eric Ripert, Mario Batali, Dan Barber and Mark Bittman. Celebrating Food Day can be as simple as cooking at home with family.

Change, as always, starts small. “We hope that maybe someone will decide to drink water instead of a soft drink, or eat more fruits and vegetables, switch to grass-fed beef, and start cooking with family at least once in a while,” she says. With the ultimate goal being to reform some of the nation’s most insurmountable issues today, maybe this unified platform will give some weight to the movement to effect real progress. And maybe, soon, Food Day won’t sound so strange.—Eva Meszaros

Eva Meszaros is the associate editor of foodspring.com
 and author of foodspring’s food for thought blog.

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