Food Day is on October 24 this year – only three months away. To help with Food Day planning, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has put together a set of guides.
Food Day is a grassroots event focused on creating and reinforcing healthy, sustainable, and just food systems. While it’s sponsored by CSPI, there won’t be any large events. All events will be local and focused on the communities where they occur.
This local focus will allow communities to look at their own needs and priorities.
Food Day Guides
Even though CSPI won’t be planning individual events, they recognize that many of us have little experience planning community events. They’ve put together some guides and helps for Food Day coordinators.
On the front page of the Food Day site, there’s an interactive map. Just type in your zip code and the map will zoom in. Nearby Food Day events will show up. Mouse over the yellow star and information about the event will show up.
If nothing shows up near you, zoom out one click at a time until something shows up. Or you could plan your own and add it to the map.
The Coordinator’s Guide is a seventeen-page pdf that outlines the steps for a successful plan, from the initial planning session, to reaching out to other organizations, to all those little things that can be easily overlooked (like port-a-potties).
The guide also contains a suggested timeline for planning, a possible schedule for Food Day, and ideas for the events.
The Campus Coordinator’s Guide covers much of the same information as the Coordinator’s Guide, but it discusses concerns specific to college campuses.
It’s the middle of summer and the outdoors are beckoning, but it’s also a good time to start planning, if you haven’t already.
Image by Marshall Astor, used with Creative Commons license.
