By Racheal Koole

“I decided to become vegetarian again because I couldn’t bare to think of an innocent animal being harmed or eating something that was someone’s mother,” said senior Mariah Isaac.

Isaac recently changed her eating habits from eating meats back to being vegetarian.

National Food Day is an event on October 24, starting in 2011 and will continue in future years, that provides knowledge about all of the healthy choices for food. National Food Day has six principles ranging from reducing diet related diseases to supporting fair conditions for farmers.

This year, Isaac participated in National Food Day 2011 to show her support for healthy food choices. Issac helped coordinate one of Kalamazoo’s food day activities. The event was hosted at Fire, the historical and cultural arts collaborative, on Monday, October 24, 2011. The event helped enlighten about healthy opportunities with food.

One of these events was a food tasting of different dishes that contained healthy options. None of the dishes served had meat in them; instead, they were made out of donated natural vegetables and fruits.

“All of the ingredients are the last available [ from the farmers market],” said the main chef Will Sprague.

That night, the dishes available to sample were Autumn Squash Bisque and Michigan Autumn Salad.

Other food samples included apple peach bars and a fruit smoothie.

The smoothie was made by the Fresh Food Fairy Hether Frayer. She made the smoothie in a mixer which was attached to a bicycle that she had to peddle. Most of the smoothie’s ingredients were donated by local Michigan farmers. Some of the components were raspberries, bananas, and yogurt. All the ingredients, except the bananas, were locally grown.

There are many different actions people can take to support the movement. One action is to research what the person eats on a day-to-day basis.

“To achieve the goals of food day, people can buy produce at their local farmers market, such as Bank Street, or simply vow to remain conscious of what they consume and its impact on the earth,” said Isaac.