"FOOD REVOLUTION DAY IS FIGHTING TO PUT COMPULSORY PRACTICAL FOOD EDUCATION ON THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM. With diet-related diseases rising at an alarming rate, it has never been more important to educate children about food, where it comes from and how it affects their bodies." - Jamie Oliver
A brisk Autumnal Friday morning, the animals are awake and the Garden is starting to fill with the rich smell of morning coffees and fresh bread coming out of the oven... the scent of a big weekend ahead!
It's Food Revolution Day and The Grounds of Alexandria are hosting the Lunchbox Angels on a weekend of food education and fun for the whole family!
WORLDWIDE, there are more than 42 million children under the age of five who are overweight or obese and with diet-related illness among the world’s BIGGEST KILLERS – we need a change of attitude, for this we need to EDUCATE.
The Lunchbox Angels have set off on a mission to help change this attitude by taking families back to basic, with their commonsense cooking workshops for kids and their families! Food Revolution Day ignited the idea to bond together to create fun, low cost and simple recipes to make at home through interactive, hands on workshops! The Angels are Caroline Smith-Wright - a Jamie Oliver Food Ambassador, Cookery Author, Stylist and Healthy eating expert - and Lakiesha Mundy - a Food Lover, Blogger and Creator of Fun, Educational Food Experiences. Together with their complimentary skills and passion for helping kids help themselves, the Lunchbox Angels were born..
With the scene set for a weekend of all things food, let the fun begin! First stop The Grounds ultimate selfie back drop... a food covered ute with hay bales for stairs that ascended to a food lover's heaven! Adults turned instantly to 5 years old again when their eyes lit up after hearing the could 'ACTUALLY CLIMB UP THERE?!'
On Friday, even My Kitchen Rules' Robert and Lynzey Murphy came along to join in and share their support for this fantastic cause and got in on the action!
After the "sign it, share it" selfie with ActivEDGE, people made their way through the urban, food hub to the demonstration stage..
Caroline worked with the most amazing fresh produce from Select Fresh Providores when she demonstrated Jamie's Squash It Sandwich!
The Lunchbox Angels also showcased their exciting new recipe "Energy Banana and Chocolate Muffins"! Our friends at The Source, Willoughy have the same ideals about going back to basic and generously donated the yummy wholefoods for this recipe! We would also like to Woolworths (Bondi Junction and Neutral Bay stores) for donating ingredients for these tasty little morsels and the Squash It Sandwich!
The Lunchbox Angels recipe cards were dotted around the event so you can now make the recipe at home, and were kindly donated by our friends at Snap Rosebery! If you missed out here it is... or visit the Lunchbox Angels website for more recipe ideas!
When the kids were bashing a sandwich, there was plenty of other fun activities going on.. we had regular feedings with the animals in The Grounds' farm yard... our favourite smiling face Prem could often be found in the pen with Kevin Bacon and the kids!
We had the most amazing fresh honey and honeycomb from Maya Sunny Honey available the whole weekend, allowing everyone to actually see the bees at work with their fantastic display!
Our good friends from OzHarvest were also running food quizzes and colouring in throughout the weekend with the kids on their BRIGHT YELLOW TABLES. Their amazing volunteers were great with the kids and helped get the message across in a fun, educational way! At the end of the weekend all the remaining fresh produce from the event was donated the OzHarvest as part of their food rescue program!
On Friday morning we needed over 326, 000 signatures to reach the 1.5 million mark on the petition! We are excited to say by Sunday evening it was less than 59, 000! Although not a single handed effort, the amazing awareness created across this weekend definitely made a huge difference to the cause!
If you haven't already.. sign it and share it! Today's count.. less than 28,000!
Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers and sponsors across the weekend, we couldn't have done it without you!
Until next time, keep creating in the kitchen!
xx
