What is Good Food Day LA and Why Do We Need It?

This coming Saturday is Good Food Day in LA. Does that mean my radio show is taking over the city? Nope. Instead you’ll find a citywide festival focusing on activities that bolster food justice in the city . There will be Food Trucks, gardening and urban farming, Panels (yes with myself and Mr. Gold), and Cooking Competitions. The festival activities are citywide, but several events are happening downtown at Metabolic Studios. Many of you ask me how you can help with food justice issues in LA. Attending a couple of events on Saturday is a good start. Here is a complete list. Good Food Day Activities

Food Policy Council (LAFPC) and the mayor’s office is sponsoring the event along with hundreds of local non profits working in the food justice arena. Hear the word policy and you decided to run the other way? Well I want to talk to you about that. Each year the mayor’s office designates a day to highlight volunteer service in the city.

This year the date coincides with Cesar Chavez Day and is the perfect opportunity to remind us of food and garden centered service activities. The LAFPC’s website states “Good Food Day LA is a citywide event dedicated to learning about, celebrating and volunteering to strengthen our local food system”. And boy there’s a lot of need to strengthen.

We spend hours communing over tables laden with food. We read about the latest farm to table hotspot and rush to make that coveted reservation to the latest hot PopUp. We scroll through OpenTable to decide which talented chef-owner is going to get our dollars next Friday night. Our cups runneth over. Wouldn’t it feel great to give some time to help those whose cups are empty and whose plates are drear?

Los Angeles has it all foodwise. We’re at the center of the “show”, the new “sport” of eating which food has become. But you know what else is at our center? Some not so picturesque things like hunger, unequally allocated resources, and geographic nutritionally dead zones. So why not pay for our pleasure with a little bit of compassionate giving, not just of money, but of ourselves. Use Good Food Day LA to learn a little about food justice issues in your community and commit to a little something.

Nearly forty event sites, (Good Food Day Activities) bringing together thousands of volunteers and participants, will be engaged in activities around the city. Volunteer opportunities will include tons of garden start-ups or refreshers, cooking demonstrations, neighborhood cooking competitions, and food policy trainings and education.