4-H at National Food Day Celebration

Mecklenburg County 4-H enjoyed their participation in the 2012 National Food Day Celebration held at The 7th Street Public Market.  This event was designed to highlight REAL food!  4-H was asked to be a part of this event in collaboration with our Food & Consumer Sciences, Local Foods Agent, Kristin Davis.  We shared our 4-H curriculum with those interested, highlighting upcoming pieces that will be dealing specifically with local foods!  We also shared our 4-H youth gardening efforts in hopes to gain interest in our gardening curriculum and a potential JR Master Gardener program.  We also took the opportunity to share with others what Mecklenburg County 4-H is doing and how youth, parents, & volunteers can get involved.  It was a wonderful night of fellowship with others who shared a passion for real foods, sustainability, and the growing urban gardening movement in the Charlotte area.  See below for more details on what all Food Day entailed and for a nice article that sums up the event, including pictures.

  

Food Day Article in Eat My Charlotte Section of the Creative Loafing Charlotte Area Magazine

"Food Day is a nationwide celebration and a movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. In Charlotte we will be celebrating Food Day with a special focus on real, wholesome, local and unprocessed food. Events and activities will be planned for October 16 through October 24, 2012. We invite agencies of all genres to join us as we educate our county on REAL food. The Mecklenburg County Cooperative Extension Service, Family and Consumer Sciences Department and Sow Much Good, INC are the county coordinators for this year's event

It’s time to EAT REAL Mecklenburg! Join us for the 2nd Annual Food Day Celebration, an event to celebrate local, fresh and unprocessed food in Mecklenburg. The event will kick off with a happy hour including local food tastings. Learn about the local food movement with a special guest vendors and chef demonstrations of wholesome food!"

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For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, October 24, 2012

For More Information:
Jillian Mickens, 919-889-1299
Clare Politano, 202-777-8316
North Carolinians Celebrate Eating Real on Food Day

Second Annual Food Day is Wednesday, October 24

RALEIGH—Mayor William Bell of Durham has issued a proclamation declaring October 24 to be Food Day, and he is joined by Mayor Terry M. Bellamy of Asheville and Mayor Bill Saffo of Wilmington. Cities, businesses, organizations, and campuses across North Carolina are hosting special events in honor of Food Day, the nationwide celebration and movement toward healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. North Carolina’s events number among the 3,100 Food Day celebrations taking place across the country, building momentum for the real food movement and pushing for improved food policies.
At the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the Gillings School of Global Public Health is hosting a Food Day Fair to promote access to healthy, affordable, and sustainable food for all people in the Triangle area. The school is also hosting a food drive throughout the week, and a film festival with panel discussions culminating tomorrow, October 25.

"North Carolina's Food Day activities are going to be all about highlighting healthy, local options. We feel that Food Day is a great opportunity to celebrate what's going right with our food system and help people make healthier choices across the state,” said Jillian Mickens, the Chapel Hill community Food Day leader, and coordinator for the Community Nutrition Partnership at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. “UNC and the Chapel Hill community will be celebrating with a full week of activities, and many other campuses around the state are following suit."

Including UNC, 11 North Carolina colleges are participating in Food Day in partnership with Real Food Challenge. The Duke University Real Food Campaign will celebrate Food Day with “Food For Thought,” a real food potluck and discussion on the quad in front of the iconic Duke Chapel while Meredith College hosts an outdoor fair celebrating several local food organizations. Students at both Duke and Meredith hope that their Food Day events will serve as a launch for student support of the Get Real Campaign, the flagship campaign of Real Food Challenge requiring the university to pledge shifting 20 percent or more of their food purchasing budget to “real” food by the year 2020. Appalachian State University, Guilford College, and NC State are among the other college campuses celebrating Food Day throughout the Tar Heel State.

In its second year, Food Day is coordinated by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest with the backing of dozens of state and national partner organizations and an advisory board led by members of Congress, nutrition authorities, physicians, chefs, writers, and advocates for sustainable agriculture, farmworker justice, and animal welfare.

“All around the country, people are coming together to make a change for the better, whether it’s a positive change in their own diet, or a change for the better in the food policies of a campus, a business, a city, or a state,” said Food Day founder and CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “It’s exciting to see so many diverse events and so much momentum building for a food system that is healthy, environmentally sustainable, and fair for all.”