SoCal > Departures > Departures - Community > Initiatives > Good Food LA > Good Food Day L.A.: How You Can Participate

Good Food Day L.A.: How You Can Participate

by Departures

on March 27, 2012 12:01 PM

On Saturday, March 31, Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles Food Policy Council present Good Food Day L.A. This Day of Service will feature volunteers throughout Los Angeles in a series of activities that work toward a more healthy, fair and sustainable food system. KCET Departures will be at the Urban Semillas Block Party in Glassell Park and Metabolic Studios by the Los Angeles State Historic Park, collecting your stories with a StoryShare event. Be sure to visit this page for details.

In the meantime, since there are so many activities happening all across L.A. County during Good Food Day, we've highlighted a few of the events below to make it a bit easier to digest. Be sure to check the whole listing on this map and see how you can participate.

View Good Food Day LA in a larger map

Urban Semillas, LA Community Garden Council, UC Cooperative Extension, LA Trade Tech, Hunger Action LA
3304 Drew St, Los Angeles, CA 90065
Contact: Miguel Luna (miguel@urbansemillas.com)

Event coordinators will host a street fair/block party that will attract the Glassell Park community and members from other communities/gardens for a ½ day celebration and educational workshop on how to cultivate good food in containers of all sizes that can be grown and maintained in apartment balconies, windowsills, outdoor corridors, private property communal space, etc. Community members will also receive training on how to cook traditional cultural dishes (posole, menudo) using healthy locally grown alternative crops.

Canoga Park Farmers' Market - SEE-LA
Owensmouth Ave between Sherman Way & Wyandotte St, Canoga Park, CA
Time: 9 am - 1 pm
Contact: Joyce Chan (joyce@see-la.org)

Experience Zumba, the Latin dance-inspired fitness program, free at the Canoga Park Farmer's market, provided by SEE-LA. The day will also include healthy recipe sample give-a-ways from local dieticians and healthy food programs; and a cooking demo from SEE-LA's Good Cooking/Buena Cocina Instructor, which will connect farmers' market produce to healthy recipes to be distributed as samples.

Markham Middle School - Enrich LA
1650 E. 104th St, Los Angeles, CA 90002.
Contact: Tomas O'Grady (tomasogradyenrichla@gmail.com)

You are welcome to experience some of the best healthy foods locally available in the newly built garden at Markham Middle School. Students, community members, and enthusiastic Angelenos are invited to also enjoy the plethora of activities planned, including an on-site cooking competition between local chefs, cooking and food preparation workshops, tasting tables where visitors can try new and different healthy dishes made with fruits and vegetables and sourced directly from the garden, and an introductory yoga classes.

Oro Vista Park and Tujunga Wash (Hike and Picnic)
11101 Oro Vista Avenue, Sunland, CA 91040
Time: 9 am - 3 pm
** LIMITED OPENINGS **
Contact: Mary Benson (maryb@msn.com)

Come enjoy a ranger led hike starting at the intersection of Oro Vista Street and Big Tujunga Canyon Rd in Sunland. Choose from either of two hikes: one moderate of about 4 miles and another for 1 mile, converging at the picnic site for lunch. Following the welcome and meet & gather for hiking groups, the moderate hike will leave at 10am followed by the shorter version at 11:30am with all hikers return for picnic lunch at 12 noon for a family -style, "Good Food" picnic. The change in scenery with outdoor eating and the exercise from hiking will not only work up an appetite, but also encourage participants to try new fresh vegetable and fruit options that they can eat whole or salad bar style. Purchases for food will available as be multi-packs of fresh fruit and/or vegetables that will be prepared and taken to the site.

Frogtown Community Garden
1816 W. Blake Ave Los Angeles, CA
** LIMITED OPENINGS **
Contact: (ecoxicano@gmail.com)

The Frogtown Community Garden (FCG), located near the Los Angeles River Bike path, is currently in its germination stage and they need help from volunteers like you to create awareness and local interest. Come help with mulching, removing weeds, and sowing seeds along the border of the garden. There will also be a compost workshop to emphasize healthy soil's connection to healthy plants, and to show participants the basics of composting, so they can compost at home. If you're itching to ride, they are coordinating with other gardens to establish stopping points for a garden bike tour so make sure to contact the organizer for more details.

Venice High School Learning Garden
13000 Venice Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90066
Time: Noon - 3 pm.
Contact: Julie Mann (ma13nn@aol.com)

The Learning Garden, together with Transition Mar Vista/Venice, and the Culinary Arts and Sustainable Agriculture Academy of Venice High School plan to host "The 100 Mile Meal" pot luck at the beautiful school garden on the campus of Venice High School. Lunch will be a pot luck with the assignment to participants to bring a dish made from ingredients from within 100 miles from Los Angeles and will demonstrate the importance of eating fresh organic non GMO produce, supporting local economy and reducing environmental dangers caused by long range transportation. Participants will partake of a wide variety of healthy recipes and be introduced to local community organizations who offer education and avenues to further learn about organic gardening, canning and preserving, seed saving, emergency food storage, composting and healthy cooking. Garden tours and cooking demonstrations will complete the day.

John C. Fremont High School
7676 S. San Pedro St, Los Angeles, CA
Time: 9 am - Noon
** LIMITED OPENINGS **
Contact: Robert Vidana (rvidana@laep.org)

Come check one or all four exhibitions planned to educate and advocate for accessible "Good Food" in and around the Fremont community, including a showcase of the healthy foods cookbook that is being created by the Fremont High School Mentor Program, an after-school cooking class in Fremont. Students will also be available to provide information and data around healthy food access in their community in order to educate people around the importance of advocating for a more just food system. In addition, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust is offering more in-depth information regarding the importance of growing your own food, and will show participants how to grow food in their own home. To fill Fremont's "Good Food" plate, the UMMA Community Clinic will provide workshops on nutrition education and the importance of eating healthy.

Be sure to check back for more highlights later this week. In the meantime, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr for updates and exclusive content.