2009 was the greatest year for What’s On Your Plate?! First, we finished a movie! As you know, it’s about kids and food politics. We also saw the Angel Family start up a CSA with the Neighborhood School, both of which are featured in the film. We had our premier at the Berlin Film Festival and we’ve received hundreds of requests for the film and shown it to over 30 audiences already! We also built a grand website that we hope you all enjoy with webgames, a place for your voice, and a spot for us all to meet each other, in the Network of Friends! Towards the end of the year, as we sealed the deal with our distributor, Bullfrog Films, we began blogging regularly. It’s been a great couple of months of tracking food issues, meeting friends through twitter, and generally joining the internet conversation about the food revolution!
We’re looking forward to making big waves in 2010 with our national broadcast on Discovery’s Planet Green on February 6th which will re-air through the weekend and into the next week. This will coincide with the national push to fund and improve the Child Nutrition Act as this may come up for congressional vote as early as February!
We’ve made a few resolutions for 2010: we’d love to screen for and collaborate with Michelle Obama, she’s right on board with child nutrition, sustainable agriculture, and reforming our national food system. We’ve been working on that stuff too! We’d also like to see schools adopt our film and beautiful curriculum (developed with Solar One) in their standard health/science curriculae. We want children across the nation to hear the news: food is delicious when fresh and local! Having a relationship with your farmer is fun and sustaining! Helping all neighborhoods get access to fresher foods means that we all can live healthier lives, with fewer visits to the doctor for diseases related to our food system- this can have a real impact on the health care debate! As the girls say, “Food that’s bad for you is never cheap.”
It costs when you have to pay a doctor. It costs when you have to take medicine. And if you have to take medicine every day you’re paying again… And again… And again. And think of all those millions… And billions… And trillions…Of wrappers… And boxes and packages… And drinking cups… And straws. When the planet has to be cleaned up, we all pay.
We have big plans to get every family thinking about What’s On Your Plate? and making fun healthy choices in their homes, their schools, and in their neighborhoods. Here’s to a happy healthy 2010!