The Campaign History
In November of 2006 MPC instituted a campaign of nutritional awareness and food safety called the “Food Safety/Nutritional Excellence Campaign.” This campaign was later renamed the “Eat Real Food Campaign.”
In December of 2006 the coalition formed a committee to create language that encouraged providers, donors, food distributors, and City Government to not only support safe nutritional food ingredients, but to actively promote these types of foods for food insecure and compromised populations. During this time in the history of the campaign the Eat Real Food brochure was created, and through coalition consensus the Eat Real Food Campaign was launched on March 5th 2007.
The campaign was launched with the understanding that this would be a long term campaign, as long as 10 to 20 years, providing education, resources, and product support, encouraging providers to serve wholesome, nutritional food, with safe, non toxic ingredients, while encouraging donors to contribute the same types of foods and food distributors to educate themselves on toxic food ingredients.
The initial Eat Real Food Committee consisted of the following people:
Diane Carmel: Pike Market Senior Center
Anne Alfred: King County Health Dept
Janet Knapp: King County Health Dept
Beverly Graham: OPERATION: Sack Lunch
Mary: Cascade Harvest
Krista Grimm: OPERATION: Sack Lunch
The Campaign Focus
You are what you eat. Organic, local, sustainable foods are in the spotlight right now. Food guru and author Michael Pollan wrote in one of his bestselling books to “eat food”. The USDA is revamping school lunch requirements, now focusing on providing healthy choices instead of using our children as a way to dispose of our agricultural commodities.
Seattle City Council Member, Richard Conlin wrote the local food initiative which was adopted by the city council in April 2008. One goal is to “Improve public health by providing increased access to healthy, culturally appropriate, and locally and regionally grown foods, especially for low income households”. Our local public health agencies have banned trans-fats, require menu labeling, and are partnering with community groups to support healthy eating and active living. A tax on simple sugars, like sodas, may be next.
Meanwhile, the USDA recently announced new numbers for hunger in 2008, and nationally over 14% of the population is “food insecure”. This is the highest percentage of hungry people since 1995, when the agency first started measuring hunger, or lack of calorie supply to a person, in the general population.
Yes, there is a big difference between calories and nutrition. Calories keep one alive, but nutrition supports life. Food banks and meal programs receive food from grocers and distributors. Donated foods are often those with poor nutritional quality calories, donations of sodas and pastries and things that did not sell, have a long shelf life, and are now being ‘surplused’. These foods given to a population that is already compromised by their situation; broke, maybe homeless, perhaps with physical health, mental health or addiction issues.
Those who are economically challenged have a right to eat real, nutritious, even organic-when-available, food.
Somehow, that doesn’t seem radical or outrageous. We should care for those who have received less in this society; a senior citizen with diabetes should receive a fresh vegetable, a high quality protein, a kind word, a child should have a breakfast made up of more than empty carbohydrates and sugar, and a homeless person should have nutrition needs met so that they are able to think clearly and contribute to their own well being. The time has come for “real food” to not be a radical concept, but the bar to set that standard by.
More about the Campaign
The Eat Real Food Campaign is a multiply tiered program that works to educate, encourage, and advocate about and for real whole foods in all people’s diets, but especially in the diets of our community’s most vulnerable residents. By becoming educated as to the importance of food’s nutritional content, and how chemicals affect the physical well-being for those who consume them, we have the opportunity to help improve the health and well-being of people who rarely have a choice about what they eat. In addition, this campaign helps to increase biodiversity within our community by supporting the use of locally grown whole foods.
We ask that you imagine yourself in a situation in which you have no choice about what foods you eat, what time you eat, or how that food is prepared for you. Everyday thousands of people in our greater Seattle community face this situation due to homelessness and poverty. By promoting and providing safe healthy foods we are helping to make a horrible situation a little better for our community’s most vulnerable members.
We ask Donors: To read the label for real food ingredients before you donate it, if buying to donate check to be sure that it is locally produced, donate fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, donate dairy products not treated with hormones or antibiotics, make sure there are no trans-fats in the product, donate foods with low allergic responses, donate meats that are growth hormone and antibiotic free, donate legumes and nuts, donate food that is not genetically altered.
We ask providers: To say no thank you to unhealthy donated foods, use whole grains, use cold pressed plant oils, use yogurt instead of sour cream, avoid simple carbohydrates, reduce sugar and salts, be sure to use safe water, wash all produce before use, wash all poultry, when in doubt throw it out! Always check your ingredients – MSG, BTA, BHT, sodium bisulfate, corn syrup, artificial coloring, preservatives, or sweeteners should all be avoided in your meals.