Food Day 2011 at SASIC Oct 24, 2011

Local Charter School Hosts Food Day Events

-San Antonio, TX.    

On Monday, October 24, 2011 the San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity will host one of the largest Food Day events in South Texas.  Partnering with over 20 other nonprofits, agencies, and organizations this arts-infused charter school has cultivated a day of healthy food-focused educational excitement called “Academia FoodMania”.  Ranging from a hands-on food demonstration by the acclaimed chef, Fred Anthony Garza from Vegeria, San Antonio’s new all Vegan restaurant, to representatives from Sunny Day Animal Sanctuary to spokespeople from The Quarry Farmers and Ranchers Market this day (which is open to the public) has it all.  This kind of endeavor is highlighting the San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity as an exceptional educational forerunner in San Antonio’s quest for healthy living and healthy eating; providing their students and the greater San Antonio Community with valuable information on how to plant and sustain urban gardens, knowledge on healthy choices, and food legislature.

The National Food Day website, www.foodday.org, notates that this year’s Food Day has 5 major focus points- reducing obesity and diet related disease by promoting healthy foods, supporting sustainable family farms and reform the subsidization of huge agribusiness, end food deserts by providing access to healthy and affordable foods, protect the environment and farm animals by reforming factory farms, and promote children’s health by curbing junk-food marketing aimed at kids.  Dr. Debbie DeLeon, SASIC’s Superintendent jumped at the opportunity to be one of only two locations in San Antonio celebrating Food Day.  Dr. DeLeon stated, “As an educational institution, it is our responsibility to educate our student body and our external constituency on healthy eating and living choices.”  She goes on to say that the San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity is expending their already established Community Initiative program by using Food Day as a stepping stone to launch their urban garden on school grounds while partnering with the SA Food Bank drop site located on its campus to provide fresh produce to the local families that need assistance in health food accessibility.

Starting at 8:00 am on Monday October 24, The San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity will be abuzz with students, their families, the public, and most interesting- students from other charter schools.  Gabriel Diego Delgado, the Community Outreach Director at SASIC, confirmed that he anticipates students from Edison High School, Por Vida Academy and Brackenridge High School. “We look forward to working with these students from other schools that have already launched their own school gardens, and see how we can incorporate their best practices.” Delgado reaffirms the need for healthy food access, he says, “ As  a vegan in San Antonio, I find it hard eat out in local chain restaurants and am glad to see the rise in Famers Markets like the ones at the Quarry and Pearl Brewery.”

With Food Day gaining ground in the uplifting sphere of Green lifestyle and being compared to the early days of Earth Day, Dr. DeLeon knew she needed to be supportive of such a culturally relevant national awareness.  Dr. DeLeon says, “San Antonio has one of the highest rates of Diabetes in the Nation, making it a Health Related Epidemic for this region.  We knew we needed to start educating our younger demographic on this very important but also relevant subject.  It wasn’t a question of why to get involved with Food Day, but how. And, with the help of the local nonprofits and community organizations already involved in healthy food related topics we formed a sort of Food Day Conference, one that will bring together all these organizations to one location with the sole purpose of education.”

As the public gains a better understanding of what Food Day is and the many ways it can be celebrated, Delgado brings up a very good point, as his outreach continued in the amassing of the various organizations for SASIC’s Food Day partnerships, he was told by Gary Oppenhiemer, Executive Director of www.ampleharvest.org that “This is the first time I know of that two CNN Nominated Heroes are working on the same national project- Holly Hirshberg, the Executive Director of The Dinner Garden and himself.”  With leadership and talent like this casting their food net across the country Food Day 2012 will be ever so greater.

Highlights from San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity’s Food Day events include free seed packets provided by The Dinner Garden that can potentially grow enough produce to sustain a family of four to the 5 person symposium panel by the Quarry Farmers and Ranchers Market that will cover aspects of family farming, eating healthy, and the need to support local growers.

Events are on October 24, 2011 at 8:00 am at the San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity, located at 4616 San Pedro Ave. 78212 and continue till 4:30 pm.  Call 210-738-0020 for more details.