This was sent to us from the Organizers of National Food Day.

Dear Friend,

I’m excited to tell you about a major new campaign that we are launching later today with some of the most prominent voices for change in the food policy world. That venture is Food Day!

We’re launching what we hope will become an annual event that is both a celebration of real, healthy food—and a powerful, grassroots movement for change.

We’ve modeled Food Day on Earth Day. It is led by honorary co-chairs Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. Rosa Delauro (D-CT), and is backed by an impressive advisory board including author Michael Pollan, physicians David Satcher and Michael Roizen, professors Walter Willett, Kelly Brownell, and Marion Nestle, and prominent chefs such as Alice Waters, Dan Barber, and Nora Pouillon. Food Day also has the support of a wide range of national and local organizations focused on hunger, sustainable agriculture, animal welfare, and public health.

But the most important ingredient in Food Day is you! We envision thousands of events on October 24, 2011, from coast to coast, ranging
from small events in homes and classrooms, to large rallies in public parks, and hearings in city councils and state legislatures. A Food Day event could be as simple as a vegetable-recognition contest in a kindergarten, a potluck dinner with friends featuring locally sourced ingredients, a spirited debate on a college campus, or celebrating the harvest from an urban garden you start this spring.

Food Day is all about solving local communities’ food problems. Nationally, we’ve identified five key priorities:

• Reducing diet-related disease by promoting healthy foods

• Supporting sustainable farms and cutting subsidies to agribusiness

• Expanding access to food and alleviating hunger

• Reforming factory farms to protect animals and the environment

• Curbing junk-food marketing to kids

Can we count on you to participate in a Food Day event near you, or better yet, will you organize a Food Day event in your community? If none of the topics above appeals to you, is there another food issue confronting your community that needs attention? A growing network of partner organizations, advisors, and Food Day organizing staff is standing by to help you put a Food Day event on the calendar. (In weeks we’ll have a web-based map that lets you schedule or RSVP to Food Day events with just a few clicks of a mouse!)

Please email me at [email protected], or call us at 202-777-8392. Food Day is just a little more than six months out. That’s more than enough time to plan, but let’s get started together, today!

Sincerely,

Michael F. Jacobson
Executive Director, CSPI and Founder, Food Day

P.S. You can keep up with Food Day and other exciting things by ‘liking’ Food Day on Facebook, or following us at our new Twitter handle. And please share this message with your friends and family.