Phoenix College Presents Food Day Events on Oct. 24

(PHOENIX, Ariz., Oct. 12, 2011) – October 24 is National Food Day and Phoenix College will be hosting events throughout the day that address important food-related issues such as childhood obesity, diet-related diseases and factory farms.

“The college is a natural environment for intelligent, civil discussions about food,” said Liz O’Brien, a PC residential faculty member and director of the Honors program who led PC’s Food Day effort. “I’d like to see the campus community as well as the general community get on the bandwagon of making better choices for themselves, their families and the community.”

The events include “Fast” Food Talks led by eight presenters made up of local experts and PC Honors students; tours of PC’s garden led by Garden Club members; and a movie screening (repeated) followed by post-film discussions. Other events include student research displays in the PC Library and a Food Expert display in the campus Bears’ Den.

The events were developed to address food-related issues such as diet-related diseases, reforming factory farms, curbing junk-food marketing to kids and fair treatment for food and agricultural workers.

Phoenix College Food Day is among 1,000 food-related events taking place nationwide on October 24th. Sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and modeling itself after Earth Day, Food Day has set a goal of pushing for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way and changing the way Americans think about food.

“People are starting to intellectually question the ‘food’ that is being placed before us,” said O’Brien. “We are paying horribly in medical costs for the stuff we eat just because it is cheap and accessible.”

PC Faculty Librarian Kelly Lambert has created a libguide that provides details on the campus events and links to the national Food Day website. PC activities include:

Student Research Display at PC Library: All Day

Garden Club Tours of the PC Garden: Come take a tour hosted by the Garden Club. PC's garden is located on 11th Avenue next to the E Building. Tours from 10 a.m. - noon.

"Fast" Food Talks: Join us for several five-minute talks by PC students and local food experts on various food-related topics. It will be moderated by Greg Peterson from the Urban Farm. Experts will be Amy Joon, holistic wellness practitioner, George Brooks, backyard farming expert, Luisa Valdez, herbalist, and Ingrid Hirtz, community cook. Noon - 1:15 p.m. in Student Life. Chipotle will kindly pass out free veggie burritos to 100 lucky session attendees.

"King Corn" with post-film discussion: In this informative and entertaining documentary, two friends follow an acre of corn to learn more about the foods we eat and how we farm. Film showings at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Art Building, Room 119. Post-film discussions moderated by PC Professors Sean Whitcomb (2 p.m. showing) and John Schampel (5 p.m. showing).

For more information on specific events, go to www.phoenixcollege.edu/foodday