Sacramento State celebrated its 4th annual Food Day in celebration of affordable and healthy eating and is now a national tradition that began on the campus.

“Food Day is a way to start a discussion and start a communication with students raising awareness of the things that happen in the community,” said Kristin Kiesel, the organizer of Food Day on campus.

There were cooking demonstrations; powerful films about food; a visit from Chef Bryant Terry; and information sessions about the importance of healthy eating.

Jolie Adams, an education coordinator from the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, put on a cooking exhibition in The Well using natural foods from the Co-op, and stressed the importance of learning how to cook using healthy foods.

“I consider the Co-op to be a healthy grocery store,” said Adams.

She made a healthy frika salad made with frika grain, lemon juice, cucumbers, tomatoes, walnuts, feta cheese, sea salt and mint.

Adams has been working with the Co-op for more than 10 years and said she thinks Food Day is a great opportunity to share information.

“I mean, anything that educates people on healthy eating and teaching people where their food comes from, I think it’s great. We need more of that,” she said.

Maleka Quettawala, a junior health science major who attended the demonstration, said she has never gone to the Co-op and thought the presentation was really interesting.

“I originally thought that you had to be an owner to shop there or that you have to put in some sort of volunteer time so I think that was really enlightening that she told us that anyone can shop there,” Quettawala said.

Bryant Terry, chef and author of “Afro Vegan”, gave a cooking demonstration, but first he stressed the importance of eating healthy and staying true to one’s culture.

He mentioned many of the programs he saw growing up dedicated to helping young people learn about food.

“The program that moved me more than anything were the grocery give-aways,” Terry said. “The [other] one that moved me more than anything was the free breakfast give-aways to young children.”

Terry went on to start his own programs to help educate young people about their food and where it comes from. He spoke of investing in youth because they are the future.

“My work has been very focused on low income people of color, living in urban issues,” Terry said.

He talked about how advertisers spend millions of dollars a day to get people to eat fast food and processed food and called it a form of psychic violence.

“One of the ways we can bring the most people to the table is by using food,” Terry said. “We need to raise people’s food IQ.”

Terry made a dish from his new cookbook “Afro Vegan” and mentioned that healthy food does not have to be tasteless and dry. His cookbook features several vegan dishes that reflect his culture and the foods he loves most.

“We know what the problem is, but how can we get people to change their habits?” Terry said.