Talking Points
What is an Eat-In?
An Eat-In is a group of people gathering in public in order to share a home-cooked meal. It's a potluck. These days, coming together to share a meal is also a political statement, because it challenges our status quo. Eat-Ins give us a reason to get cooking, to sit down with our neighbors and to talk about what we need to do to build communities where everyone enjoys real food.
How can I organize an Eat-In?
1. Invite old and new friends into your kitchen to cook. Invite others to cook in their kitchens. Five or five hundred people can Eat-In.
2. Go to farmers’ markets and locally owned groceries. Shake the hands that feed you.
3. Set your table in a park, on a farm, in front of City Hall or directly across the drive-thru lane of your local McDonald’s.
4. Eat together.
Can anyone come to an Eat-In?
Yes. An Eat-In is a potluck; the food you bring is your admission ticket. Some Eat-Ins may not even require that you bring food. All Eat-Ins are public and open to everyone.
An Eat-In is a conscious effort to bring new people together, to strengthen our communities and to reframe the goals of the food movement. Real food is a right. An Eat-In can demonstrate what real food means: good food, fresh food, healthy food, organic or sustainably sourced food, food made from scratch, non-processed food, food that isn't poison and isn't slowly killing you, food your grandmothers would recognize, food with meaning.
Are Eat-Ins a project of Slow Food?
For now, there is no organizing body planning Eat-Ins. They are organized by active, engaged citizens. The non-profit organization Slow Food seeds and supports Eat-Ins as a tool for grassroots political action. Gordon Jenkins, who is the leader of the Berkeley, CA chapter of Slow Food and was one of the organizers of Slow Food Nation, runs Eat-Ins.org
When did Eat-Ins start happening?
Eat-Ins are not a new idea. The first Eat-Ins (by that name) took place during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Other organizations, particularly Food not Bombs, have been organizing Eat-Ins (mostly by other names) for many years. The “Eat-In” that launched Eat-Ins.org took place on September 1, 2008 when 250 students and young farmers, cooks, artisans and activists gathered in San Francisco’s Dolores Park under the banner of the Youth Food Movement at Slow Food Nation. Those who participated in or were inspired by the Slow Food Nation Eat-In have organized subsequent Eat-Ins on campuses and in communities around the world.
What is Eat-Ins.org?
Eat-Ins.org is a resource to help you organize or participate in Eat-Ins.
What are the future goals of Eat-Ins?
Everyone wants to be healthy and safe and wants their children to be healthy safe. You can't address our health, energy, climate or economic crises without addressing the way we grow, distribute and eat food. It's time to for more people to speak up about our right to enjoy real food and to bring real food into more communities. Eat-Ins.org seeks to build the political will we need to fix the food system by showing the country there's a movement going on. This country is ready to demand change.
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1. Guide to Organizing an Eat-In
2. Ideas for Eat-Ins
3. Talking Points
4. The Pledge
5. The Eat-In Manifesto
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