Food Day Celebrates Healthy Eating Habits

COURT HOUSE – The Rutgers Cooperative Extension hosted its annual Food Day festivities for the fourth year in a row. Although Food Day is a national event celebrated in most places on Oct. 24, memories of Sandy and the year of the Halloween storm led Rutgers staff organizers like Marilou Rochford to back-up from the late October period.
The day was grey and overcast with a constant threat of rain, but a group of enthusiasts showed up anyway. One focus of the crowd’s interest was the featured appearance of Mike McGrath, host of public radio’s ‘You Bet Your Garden.’
Food Day is an event intended to inspire Americans to think about the food they eat and adopt healthy eating habits. It is also a day to consider national food policies. Spread across the park area surrounding the Rutgers complex on Dennisville Road vendors, farmers and agricultural and food related organizations offered information and fresh foods in an effort to increase awareness of food decisions people make every day. Making bad decisions about food leads to health problems and a number of related societal problems, according to those promoting the event nationally.
Locally, the day attracted a variety of groups intent on making the issue of food choice more explicit and encouraging careful consideration of what ends up on the dinner plate. A poster contest for 4th and 5th graders focused on depictions of a world free of junk food. Chef John gave cooking demonstrations. The delicious results were available for tasting.
Booths were set up to educate participants on the county’s 4-H programs, Atlantic Cape Community College’s Culinary Arts programs, agricultural and gardening course and degree opportunities available through Rutgers and Slow Food South Jersey’s advocacy of a more sustainable food supply.
For those wanting to sample delectable fresh foods, vendors were present offering everything from pastries made without additives of any kind to cauliflower curry to all natural hot sauce. Hank Sauce from Sea Isle allowed people to sample their popular hot sauces with the predictable result of a number of sales. Josh Jaspan explained that three college friends started the business in Florida and soon moved it to the Jersey Shore. “We were all from this area,” Jaspan said. They run a restaurant during the season in Sea Isle but make their sauces on the premises all year round. “The ingredients are all natural,” Jaspan noted.
The biggest attraction of the day was Mike McGrath. His ‘You Bet Your Garden’ show on public radio is in its 16th year at WHYY in Philadelphia. McGrath said that the South Jersey shore area represented one of his shows strongest locations in the state. “Based on the calls to the show and emails we have a very active audience down here,” McGrath said.
McGrath noted that he was happy to be at the event not just because he shared the goal of encouraging health eating, but also because WHYY is always looking for ways to increase its presence in the South Jersey market it acquired when it bought five stations from the old New Jersey Network in 2010.
“Gardening is the biggest leisure activity in America,” McGrath noted. One sign of that was the avid group of fans that braved the less than ideal weather to hear him discuss what could be planted now as part of a year round gardening initiative. A hint to the curious, it’s still not too late to plant garlic.
Food Day offered a variety of ways to arrive at the same conclusion, food matters. The vision for the day was one of healthy and affordable food produced in a humane and environmentally sound manner.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.