Food Revolution Day–part of chef Jamie Oliver’s worldwide campaign to save our children by instilling in them an early love of simple, delicious, healthy food–is coming to Fosterfields Living Historical Park in Morris Township on Saturday, May 21, from 11 to 4.
In his TV show and on his website, jamiesfoodrevolution.org, the British chef campaigns for better school lunch programs and other ways to fight childhood obesity and help Americans of all ages live healthier lives through better eating habits.
A boy at an earlier Food Revolution Day at Fosterfields Historical Farm.
In 2012, when Melanie Bump, curator of collections and exhibits for the Morris County Park Commission, became the first Jamie Oliver Food Revolution ambassador in New Jersey, she saw Fosterfields as a linchpin.
“One of the things we struggle with in the history and museum fields is relevancy,” Bump admits. “This was a really easy connection to make. It’s a farm,” she says of the historical park, “and a lot of the answers to the problems we are having today are rooted in the past.”
Bump helped launch an annual springtime educational program held on Oliver’s Food Revolution Day. Initially a series of lectures by health-care practitioners, it has grown into a family day on the farm, where young people can connect with the food sources and practices that sustained families in the past.
At the 213-acre Fosterfields, visitors can collect eggs and feed chickens as docents in early 20th Century dress bring to life a time when many more people than now were directly connected to the source of their food.
This year’s event–the 5th annual–will feature “a bunch of get-to-know-your-food activities throughout the farm,” says Katie Humphreys, Fosterfields’ historical program specialist. “We are going to have seed identification, wood-stove cooking, planting in our gardens, weighing our piglets and games focusing on healthy food choices.”
One of the pillars of Oliver’s platform is teaching people to cook from scratch. In the farmhouse, a volunteer will demonstrate the preparation of chicken fricassee and biscuits, made with farm-fresh milk, cream, butter, eggs and crops free from synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers, dyes and genetically modified organisms.
Chef Jamie Oliver with kids in his Kitchen Garden Project.
Through events like these, what began as a grassroots nutritional movement has grown to include 160,000 “revolutionary ambassadors” who work to change the world for the better, starting in the kitchen.
Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, $4 for children ages 4 to 16, and $2 for children ages 2 and 3. Children under age 2 admitted free.