Food Day, a national movement for affordable, healthy and sustainable food, came to downtown Phoenix Monday with about a dozen participating restaurants and organizations.
Devour Phoenix, a nonprofit coalition of local restaurants, took part in Food Day. Restaurants including downtown’s Phoenix Public Market, Cibo Urban Pizzeria and Tammie Coe Cakes changed their menus to include locally grown vegetables from the Roosevelt Growhouse, a volunteer-run community garden near Garfield and Sixth streets.
Michael Krassner, owner of Cibo, said his restaurant was getting arugula from the Roosevelt Growhouse for a specially created salad for the occasion.
“It’s a small step because they probably have about an acre of land, but their contribution is big in a lot of ways because they are local,” Krassner said.
Virginia Senior, owner of Urban Beans, a coffee shop near Osborn Road and Seventh Street, said she made sure to participate in Food Day because she believed in the cause being promoted.
“We are passionate about food, where it comes from, how it is prepared, what it does for the community,” she said. “We love to make good food but if we could make good food that sustains the neighborhood and being able to do what we do and help other businesses, that is something really exciting to us.”
Also as part of Food Day, Fair Trade Cafe offered free soup to their customers and took cash donations for St. Mary’s Food Bank.
“We are working towards supporting what everyone eats and we think that healthy and nutritious food should be available to everyone regardless of income,” said owner Michele Lavis-White. “It should be happening; there is plenty of food to go around.”
According to the Food Day website, the event has six goals: “to reduce diet-related diseases 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; and support fair conditions for food and farm workers.”
“The main goal and overall picture is to have better food policies and better awareness of healthy eating,” said Angela Morris, spokeswoman for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which created Food Day.
Morris said few people are familiar with Food Day, but the group is increasing its national outreach throughout different cities across the United States. There have been around 2,200 events held and at least one event in all 50 states, Morris said.
Lavis-White and Krassner agreed that informing people about the issues related to Food Day could make a big difference.
“I don’t think people give much thought about where their food comes from,” Krassner said. “It’s easy for people to go to the supermarket and take things for granted. When they see unlimited choices it gives a concept of where the food is coming from. Connecting the dots and that awareness is crucial and important right now.”
Contact the reporter at lily.zimmel@asu.edu
