Just in Time for Halloween-- NATIONAL FOOD DAY-- October 24th

Something just for fun...and for health.  You might be interested in National Food Day which is celebrated around the country on October 24th.  Learn more here. National Food Day Website.  Food Day has an amazing collection of political and organizational support and a clear platform of action.  You can find a Food Day event near you on the website. There will be one at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park as well. We have a super-delicious Carrot Soup recipe we'll share later.Here is what they are working on

Food Day Priorities

Food Day's national priorities address overarching concerns within the food system and provide common ground for building the food movement. Food Day aims to:

• Promote safer, healthier diets: The foods we eat should promote, not undermine, our good health. Yet, every year we spend more than $150 billion on obesity-related health care costs, plus another $73 billion in reduced productivity.

• Support sustainable and organic farms: Currently, sustainable farms receive little to no federal support and often lack market access to keep them competitive. Meanwhile, the largest 10 percent of industrialized farms—which contribute to poor health and severe environmental degradation—receive 75 percent of all farm subsidies.

• Reduce hunger and improve food access: Currently, around 50 million Americans are considered "food insecure", or near hunger, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) participation is at an all-time high. SNAP is vital to reducing hunger, but the program’s budget is under constant attack while federal measures to increase food access are minimal.

• Reform factory farms to protect the environment and farm animals: Today, most farm animals are confined in “factory farms”—sometimes containing as many as 50,000-100,000 cattle, hens, or pigs. These practices result in needless animal abuse and illness, environmental degradation, and harm the people who live in and around those facilities.

• Support fair working conditions for food and farm workers: 20 million workers throughout the U.S. food system harvest, process, ship, sell, cook, and serve the food we eat every day. And yet, many farmworkers earn well below poverty levels while the tipped minimum wage for restaurant servers has remained at $2.13 per hour for the last 21 years.

Click on the priorities for facts, resources, and actions you can take to help work towards a healthy, sustainable, affordable, and fair food system!