For the second year Sobeys participated in Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day, a day of global action meant to emphasize the importance of food education and encouraging cooking skills.
This year Oliver recruited some star power including pop star Ed Sheeran, who wrote an original song for Food Revolution Day on May 15. Since posting the song to Facebook on Thursday, the video has garnered over 32 million views.
Last year Sobeys challenged Canadians to host a potluck party leading up to Food Revolution Day, where participants shared a post or photo of their potluck with the hashtag #PotluckChallenge.
“It’s a positive celebration about the importance of cooking from scratch,” explained Paul Kurvits, director of brand marketing for Sobeys.
Sobeys continued the potluck challenge this year, encouraging each store team to have a potluck as well, but Kurvits said the big change this year included leveraging Sobeys Better Food Fund and Home Cook Heroes food education program to help promote Food Revolution Day.
The Better Food Fund focuses on the mission statement that every family should have access to better food and understand how to choose and prepare food to live healthier lives. The Home Cook Heroes program, which launched last fall, provides students between the age of 12 and 17 with nutritional literacy, food awareness and basic cooking skills.
“It worked out perfectly because what we’re doing with these programs aligns entirely with Jamie’s mission,” said Kurvits. To date, more than 290 schools in Canada have signed up to cook along with Jamie Oliver or host a potluck in their classroom.
To celebrate Food Revolution Day, more than 1,500 students at Northview Heights Secondary School in Toronto took part in Jamie Oliver’s online cooking lesson, where Oliver made a special live video appearance.
This story originally appeared at CanadianGrocer.com.
