Food Day in the High Country

Thanksgiving is not the only day set aside to celebrate food — Oct. 24 is National Food Day.

Food Day is a nationwide celebration and a movement toward more healthy, affordable and sustainable food, culminating in a day of action on Oct. 24 every year.

According to the Appalachian District Health Department, “Food Day is a chance to celebrate what our food system does right, and take action to bring us closer to a food system with ‘real food’ that is produced with care for the environment, animals, and the women and men who grow, harvest and serve it. Food Day’s priorities are to promote safer, healthier diets, support sustainable and organic farms, reduce hunger, reform factory farms to protect the environment and support fair working conditions for food and farm workers.”

As a region with a strong local and sustainable foods movement, the High Country has much to celebrate. Various campus and community organizations will be sponsoring events on and around Oct. 24, the officials said.

Appalachian State University’s Office of University Sustainability will host “Know Your F.A.C.s,” a food and campus sustainability celebration on Sanford Mall on the ASU campus. The event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25, is open to students, faculty and staff. Various organizations involved in food and campus sustainability will have informational booths.

Several local dinners will be open to the public. The Bread of Life Community Kitchen of the Hospitality House will be providing a local meal, along with tours of the facility and gardens. The meal, which will be provided and prepared by representatives of F.A.R.M. Café and High Country United Church of Christ, will be served from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Dinner is free, but an RSVP to the Hospitality House is requested.

As part of its Food for a Change Dinner Series, High Country Local First will also be hosting a local dinner in honor of Food Day. Tickets must be purchased in advance.

In addition to these community meals, two public film screenings will highlight the local foods movement: “Weight of the Nation” at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, October 24, at the Agricultural Conference Center, and “Greening the Revolution” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, at the Watauga County Public Library and at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at ASU’s Belk Library Room 114.

Numerous organizations partnered to pull together these events, including the Goodnight Family Sustainable Development Program, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture, Appalachian District Health Department, High Country Local First, Building Common Ground Grant, Appalachian State University’s Office of Sustainability, F.A.R.M. Café and Hospitality House.

For more information and to see a complete listing of events, visit http://sustain.appstate.edu/food-and-sustainability. For more information on National Food Day, visit http://www.foodday.org.