Friday May 15th 2015 is the fourth annual Food Revolution Day – a day of global action created by Jamie Oliver and the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation to engage and inspire people of all ages to learn about food and how to cook it.
The focus of this year’s Food Revolution Day – fighting for food education – is something I have been passionate about for years. The day is a natural extension of the after-school cooking clubs for boys I started in 2010, after hearing Jamie Oliver speak about the importance of passing on our food knowledge to the next generation. Five years later, I’m still cooking with my students and Jamie is still fighting for food education.
This year for Food Revolution Day, Jamie’s wish is“to create a strong sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity” and he’s launched a global campaign to make food education compulsory in schools. You can read more about it and sign the petition, (it takes 20 seconds!) then share it with everyone you know. We’re hoping for one million signatures this year!
Jamie’s been passionately promoting food education for kids and young people for years now and believes that “getting kids cooking from as early as possible helps them to develop an essential life skill which will have a huge impact on their future health and wellbeing.”
Once again, Food Revolution Day Ambassadors all around the world (over 1300 at last count!) want everyone to get involved on or around May 15th. Your involvement can be as simple as teaching a child to cook a meal from scratch, or checking out some new ingredients at the local farmers’ market. Read about some of the Toronto Ambassador team’s plans for Food Revolution Day 2015 here. Need more inspiration about why we need a Food Revolution? Watch and share Jamie’s TED talk.
How You Can Get Involved in Food Revolution Day
Here are some ways you can get involved this May 15th:
At Work:
- Challenge your work colleagues to a cook-off.
- Ask your workmates to bring in their favourite sandwich fillers and different types of bread for a healthier (and cheaper) option than buying your lunch.
- Drink your greens! Bring your blender into work and ask colleagues to bring in their favourite smoothie ingredients.
- Organize a Food Revolution Day potluck lunch! Print out the recipes you make and bring them in to share.
- Get in touch with a Food Revolution Ambassador in your area to see if they need help at a local event. Maybe your workplace can host an event too!
At Home:
- Round up your friends and host a dinner party, picnic, potluck or barbecue – there’s lots of inspiration on the Food Revolution recipes page. Snap and share your photos with #FoodRevolutionDay.
- Take your kids to a local farmers’ market, try some new ingredients and cook with them from scratch.
- Make a commitment to carve out some time to cook with your kids – it doesn’t have to be every day. Start off slowly once a week – maybe with weekend breakfast or brunch? You’ll come to cherish that time spent together.
At School:
- Sign your school up and download the official schools activity pack!
- Bring in different fruits and vegetables, play “name that produce” and maybe cook up a dish with the ingredients you’ve learned about.
- Encourage the teachers to visit the Food Revolution Day website and check out the recipes to see if some of these might fit in with their curriculum somehow. Don’t forget, cooking is not just about preparing food – it’s reading comprehension, problem solving and math, to name but a few other skills you’re teaching when you cook with kids.
- Ask students to choose healthier options in the school canteen on May 15th (and beyond!) – making sure there’s a lot of colour (vegetables and fruits!) on their plates.
- Take part in Jamie’s “Squash It Sandwich” lesson streamed online on May 15th –everyone can cook along with Jamie!
How can food bloggers fight for food education?
- Sign the petition calling for compulsory food education.
- Talk to your readers/followers about how they can participate - share the information in this post. Imagine if you all took part in Food Revolution Day somehow – that would have quite the impact. If you share your enthusiasm with your reader, they’ll be more inspired to take part too!
- Spread the word! Download the Food Revolution Day digital assets and upload them to your email signature, social media pages or website to show everyone you’re a proud Food Revolution supporter!
- Contact your local Food Revolution Day Ambassador and share your plans with them! Or ask if they might need some social media support for their own event.
- Don’t have a local Ambassador? How about applying to become one yourself?
Don’t forget to follow Food Revolution Day on social media. Share with your readers/followers and use the official #foodrevolutionday hashtag:
Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Pinterest | Instagram
So how about it FBC Members – tell us in the comments – how are you fighting for food education this Food Revolution Day?
Food Revolution Day 2015: Fighting For Food Education was written by Mardi Michels. Mardi is a full-time French teacher to elementary school-aged boys and the author of eat. live. travel. write., a blog focusing on culinary adventures near and far. As part of her job, she runs after-school cooking classes for 7-13 year-old boys: Les Petits Chefs and Cooking Basics. She’s a regular contributor to JamieOliver.Com, one of the founding members of Food Bloggers of Canada, a Food Revolution Day Ambassador for Toronto and Jamie Oliver Super Ambassador for Canada and in her spare time teaches (mostly French pastry) classes (focusing on macarons) around Toronto.
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[…] Friday May 15th 2015 is the fourth annual Food Revolution Day – a day of global action created by Jamie Oliver and the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation to engage and inspire people of all ages to learn about food and how to cook it. The focus of this year’s Food Revolution Day – fighting for food education – is something I have been passionate about for years. The day is a natural extension of the after-school cooking clubs for boys I started in 2010, after hearing Jamie Oliver speak about the importance of passing on our food knowledge to the next generation. Five years later, I’m still cooking with my students and Jamie is still fighting for food education. Food Bloggers of Canada post. […]