Picnic with a Purpose: Food Activists Stage Labor Day Eat-In

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On a crisp late summer afternoon, Kristi Ceccarossi and her friends shared a home cooked meal spread on blankets on Boston Common. But this was no ordinary Labor Day picnic, it was an “eat-in” in support of legislation to provide children with healthier school lunches.

The Boston Common Eat-In, which was organized by Ceccarossi’s group, Boston Localvores, http://bostonlocalvores.org/, and the local chapter of Slow Food USA, http://www.slowfoodusa.org/, was one of over 300 Eat-In’s taking place across the country this Labor Day.

“Even if you don’t have kids, you’re going to be paying the price in terms of health care and the economy,” said Localvore member Brian Gray. “We have the highest rate of obesity and diabetes in the developed world.”

“It’s fundamental to the way we live,” Ceccarossi added. “Health care costs are directly related to what we eat.”

She glanced across the Common, where a rally in support of health care reform was in progress. The activists shouting into bullhorns didn’t quite manage drown out the sound of birdsong in the trees.

By contrast, the mood at the Eat-In was relaxed and convivial. Participants shared a lunch of black bean salad, tomato and zucchini frittata, and tomatillo salad. All the ingredients came from local farmer’s markets and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture).

Groups like Localvores are part of a larger “slow food” or “real food” movement, which has been gaining in popularity thanks to writers like Eric Schlosser (Fastfood Nation), Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food) and the movie Food Inc.
The Slow Food USA website defines “real food” as food that is “good for the people who eat it, the people who grow it, and good for the planet.”

But for Ceccarossi and her partner, Localvores Cofounder Darry Madden, sustainable eating has been a way of life since “way before Michael Pollan made it cool.”

“I’m from Vermont, where eating locally is part of the culture,” said Ceccarossi. When she and Madden moved to Boston in 2007, they began looking around for local sources of sustainable food. They didn’t have to look far.

“It’s easier than we thought when we came here,” she said. “We’ve been able to source everything right here in the city.”

Ceccarossi and Madden share these resources on their website: http://bostonlocalvores.org