Give Food The Love And Attention It Deserves. Give A Fork!

The Give a Fork! Challenge is on for the month of April and I’m going to have a crack at being drop dead grexy. The team over at Sustainable Table came up with the term ‘grexy’ to inject some fun and sexiness into being a greenie (but we already knew we were fun and sexy, didn’t we?).

*GREXY /greksi/adj. used to describe a sexy or appealing person who is also a greenie.

I’m loving the vibrancy of the Give a Fork! campaign which aims to improve our food system by asking people to choose a grexy challenge or dine out at a participating restaurant. Be sure to check out the different challenges and sign up to one. There is something for everyone no matter where you are on your sustainability journey.

Personally, I can vouch for the life changing potential of a month long challenge (Plastic Free July). It can be a motivational way to break old habits, gain new skills and knowledge, meet like-minded people, and get the support you need to succeed.

I’ll be participating in the Drop Dead Grexy challenge because I want to get better at sourcing local (Gippsland as much as possible), ethical food and eating seasonally, whilst sticking with a waste free lifestyle. I think this will raise some interesting challenges for me but at the same time it’s all about taking small easy steps.

Overall, I’m pleased to support the Give a Fork! campaign as a Face of Change because it makes the connection between our food and the problem of disposable packaging. Too often I see food campaigns unwilling to acknowledge or tackle the issue of plastic packaging. It’s a real failing if you ask me and something I want to highlight.

Additionally, I’m concerned that food is not valued in the way that it should be. Food should be considered the most important thing that we can invest in for our health, the communities we live in, animal welfare, and the environment. But instead people expect food to be cheap. Why? So they can spend more money on stuff. It’s how we’ve been conditioned to show success and everyone wants to be successful. We need life-sustaining, soul-nourishing measures of success to help turn this around.

It’s also easy to undervalue food when you have no emotional connection to it, no dirt under the nails, no sense of urgency in lean or difficult times, no sense of joy for abundance. People are disconnected from food production, and many lack the skills and knowledge to cook and make the most of what is available to them.

Finally, one third of our eco-footprint is embedded in our food choices, so there’s no better place to start when it comes to caring for our environment. It’s time to act for a food system that is fair, humane, healthy and good for the environment. This April, vote with your dollar and give food the love and attention it deserves, Give a Fork!

What are your thoughts about our food system? Will you take on a #grexy challenge?