Roger Doiron is the founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International (KGI), a non-profit devoted to promoting kitchen-gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems. He recently emailed me to give me a heads up about National Snack Food Month, a nasty marketing ploy by the Snack Food Association, whose members include companies like ConAgra, Fritolay, and ExxonMobil (apparently big oil permeates every industry, including food). Fortunately, Roger has the perfect antidote - World Kitchen Garden Day, happening this month on Sunday, August 22!

A tireless activist, Roger is perhaps best known for encouraging the Obamas to plant the White House Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn of the White House. Michelle Obama oversees the White House Kitchen Garden, with the help of local school children who help her to plant and grow food that is then donated to nearby homeless shelters. It's a great service to the homeless population in Washington, D.C., but perhaps more importantly, the White House Kitchen Garden educates the nation about sustainable food!
 
Here's what Roger has to say about World Kitchen Garden Day:

"Yes, it's hard to believe but we're apparently not eating enough potato chips, cookies and fluorescent orange cheese puffs, at least not according to the Snack Food Association (SFA) which has joined forces with the National Potato Promotion Board to address this national crisis. Their response: christening February as National Snack Food Month.
 
As advocates for healthy, sustainable and socially-just foods and gardens, we can't let this hijacking of the country's culinary calendar go unanswered. Although we won't be able to outspend the SFA and their 590 members...we can outdo them in terms of people-power, spirit and creativity with a food holiday of our own which is as local, healthy and sustainable as it gets.

World Kitchen Garden Day is an annual, decentralized celebration of food produced on a human-scale. It is recognized each year on the 4th Sunday of August.  It is an opportunity for people around the world to gather in their gardens with friends, family, and members of their local community to celebrate the multiple pleasures and benefits of home-grown and locally-grown foods. Please help us make this year's celebration of Kitchen Garden Day a success."

Here is how you can participate in Kitchen Garden Day:

• "Attend" the event on Facebook and invite your friends to do the same (5 minutes)
• Put your own Kitchen Garden Day marker on the global Meetup map (5 minutes) and use Meetup's tools to bring some like-minded people together in your area
• Share the event on your website, blog, or online calendar using text from this message and one of the graphics here. (10-15 minutes)
• Share this email broadly within your personal and professional networks (5 minutes)

What a great way to fight back against the purveyors of harmful foods! Thanks so much Roger for your dedication to such an important cause!

How do you plan to celebrate Kitchen Garden Day?