Baton Rouge embraces National Food Day

Sustainable, healthy and affordable food has become popular enough in the United States to earn its own commemorative day. National Food Day is now observed Oct. 24 across the country to celebrate and raise awareness about the importance of a good food system and to uphold foods that support good health.

In Baton Rouge, Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden’s Healthy BR program will hold a week of activities leading up to National Food Day to call attention to better eating.

Holden will officially kick off the Food Week festivities at Live After Five Friday, Oct. 18. City Club Executive Chef and locavore Eric Arceneaux will lead a healthy cooking demonstration using regional ingredients at the Red Stick Farmers Market Saturday, Oct. 19, at 10 a.m.

On Sunday, Oct. 20, Slow Food Baton Rouge hosts its first “Slow Food Fall Heat” farm-to-table fundraiser to benefit its farm-to-school program “Greauxing Healthy Baton Rouge.” The event kicks off at 4 p.m. and will be held at the Orangerie at LSU AgCenter’s Burden Center. For more information, read Matthew Sigur’s article here.

A free screening of the food documentary A Place at the Table will be held Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m. at the Dalton J. Woods Auditorium in LSU’s Energy Coast and Environment Building. Healthy BR, Independent Media Network, LSU Campus Life and Slow Food Baton Rouge organized the screening, which will be followed by a panel discussion. This event also offers an opportunity to get involved in local efforts to increase food access through programs such as Baton Rouge Green’s City Citrus and Scotlandville Mobile Pantry, which is a collaboration of Together Baton Rouge and the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.

The Food Access Policy Commission will also present their latest findings to the Metro Council Wednesday, Oct. 23.

Finally, on Oct. 24, National Food Day, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center will have a special nutrition tent at the weekly Red Stick Farmers Market on the Pennington grounds from 8 a.m. to noon. Shoppers can sign up at the tent for a chance to win a farmers market basket.

Mayor Holden will wrap up Healthy BR Food Week with a Love Your Block volunteer service day at the Garden of Champions on Eddie Robinson Drive from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.