Taylor Owen is a guest blogger from Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota and he is also a Campus Coordinator for Food Day. Below is the first post in a blog series leading up to October 24 in which he will be reflecting on his work and the importance of the food movement.
When I first heard about Food Day, my interest was instantly intrigued. As I imagine most people involved in the Real Food Challenge are, I have been concerned more and more with the issues of food. Food Day seemed like a perfect chance for food activists like myself to bring our issue to the center of the campus discourse. It is only fair that food gets its day. If we look at the food systems of our era, the huge problems they face are evidence that giving attention to food only three times a day isn’t enough. Food, as an issue, needs at least a whole 24 hours of serious reflection. I have been trying to make Food Day that critical day for my campus ever since I discovered it.
I will be organizing Food Day at Carleton College where I will invite a diverse group of students, with opinions towards food that range the gamut. I hope to inspire conscientious students to more actively pressure their community to move in the direction of Real Food. I also hope to motivate as many students as possible to take advantage of the Real Food we’re lucky enough to receive on my campus; I hope they do this at the expense of the factory-farmed food, inorganic, unseasonal food shipped from far away - food that exists as the result of unfair labor practices. If I see results on both fronts, and hopefully come away from Food Day well fed, then I will know that Carleton had a successful first Food Day.
