How NOT To Celebrate Food Day + Tips To Make It Right

Yesterday was Food Day 2012. And while I try to keep my posts positive, I take a pass on this one.

Here’s the scoop…

I’ve been excited about this day and what it means. I’ve shared ideas for how our readers could celebrate Food Day in their locales. I, however, was in Atlanta traveling for work. And I was exhausted after a few fervently busy days. I enjoyed a couple of “Food Day worthy” meals Monday and Tuesday, but last night, I didn’t have the energy to venture past my hotel lobby’s restaurant. Not good.

My Food Day 2012 dinner experience unfolded as follows:

1. I tried to eat at the hotel restaurant, Schula’s Grill 347. I wasn’t excited. (Chain, chain, chain, as Aretha would sing.) Turns out it was closed for a private party, which forced me to eat in the lounge (which is still part of Schula’s).
2. I’m a bar person, so that’s not usually a problem, but a very talented, very loud jazz band played a mere 12 feet away from me. I tried to maintain a positive attitude.
3. I did have a decent glass of wine, but the menu was generically generic, and the servers (except the lovely gentleman who offered me fresh ground pepper for my entree) lacked personalities. No smiling, no “what can I get you?”, no engagement. As a lover of good food and drink and a person who likes to interact with the people serving me, I was more than turned off. (Maybe they were practicing for their Halloween zombie personas?)
4. I sought to eat my obviously-frozen-drenched-in-butter-wild-mushroom-ravioli-with-spinach as fast as I could. I just wanted to get out of there and back to my room where I had half a bottle of La Vieille Ferme Cotes du Ventoux red wine waiting for me. (Thank you lovely small wine shop in the office building where I am working.)
5. I breathed out and toasted to Food Day and those who make it important and keep it active. And I wrote this post.

A debacle for sure, but I plan to remedy this next year, and I think you should join me in my Food Day 2013 movement as I pledge to:

1. Mark Food Day 2013 on my calendar and refuse to travel for anything other than fun and Food Day festivities.
2. Celebrate Food Day 2013 with people I love.
3. Cook at home or eat at a restaurant focused on sustainable food practices. (Avoid the lousy chains folks!)
4. Get my kids involved (even if I have to use the stick instead of the carrot).
5. Try to eat like it’s Food Day every day.

Eat local. Support sustainable food businesses. Minimize food waste. Buy from farmers and farmers markets. Cook for your family sustainably. Get your family to cook too. Eat better. Drink better.

Doesn’t that sound like a great way to nourish your bodies and those of your loved ones?

How did you celebrate Food Day 2012?