On Labor Day, 2008, over 250 young people gathered in Dolores Park in San Francisco for the Nation’s first Eat-In. At one long table dressed by Outstanding in the Field, young farmers, chefs, students, and activists convened to protest the industrial food system by sharing with one another good, clean, and fair food they had prepared themselves. At this Protest Potluck, the youth did more than just eat. They pledged a personal action to complete once home in their own communities that would bring the spirit of the Eat-In back to their farms, kitchens, campuses and organizations.

Organize your own Eat-In! Bring your community together to share freshly prepared delicious food and to pledge to take action against homogenization and industrialization. Eat-Ins are happening around the country and throughout the world. Register your Eat-In, share pictures and stories, and connect with other young activists.

Below are the pledges from the Labor Day Eat-In, 2008:

I will work to improve food access in North Minneapolis.

Farm on supermarket rooftops across the U.S.A.

I will make my own pickles.

I will start a Slow Food on Campus at my university.

I will bring low-cost/free events to Slow Food San Diego so that we can engage a broader spectrum of our community in the movement.

I will ask, “Where did the fish come from?”

Share food with people I don’t know.

Plant seeds where I live.

Eating outside with your friends can make you happy. Share your food!

Lettuce! I shall grow lettuce!

I will plan an eat-in at my school.

We’ll have our neighbors over for dinner. And eat locally. Less bananas! More apples.

I promise to abandon fast food.

I will learn apple varieties.

I will weed our gardens!

I promise to help the Eat-In happen at Terra Madre!

I will bring Slow Food into my work.

I will start my own garden in my backyard.

Continue the struggle for farmworker justice! Bring Whole Foods + Chipotle to the table.

Cook more, cure meat and eat with friends!

I will pack my lunch!

Plant a veggie container on my roof to grow and share good food!

I will start a business that facilitates local food.

I will get an internship at a farm.

I will can some summer tomatoes. I will plant my vegetable garden in my front yard.

Hold a dinner party and pass out voter registration cards at each place setting.

Plant veggies in the vacant lot near my apartment.

To get our London Town Slow Food garden and community started and celebrate.

Pack my lunch.

I will spend my Mondays off in a community garden.

I will bake bread with all local ingredients.

I pledge to eat my girlfriend’s cooking.

Pick fruit and share it.

I pledge to host an Eat-In!

I pledge to compost all the food waste at my house and minimize my personal waste generation.

I will start a beautiful rooftop garden at Youth Radio in Oakland.

I will cook Real Food for and with children (with love)!

Enjoy it! Honor where my food comes from.

I will host a community meal in my house with food from my garden.

I pledge a good, clean, fair youth Eat-In to share ideas about Slow Food.

Eat fruit from friends.

Establish a student-farm exchange program with my farmers’ market producers and folks from the local community college.

I will make so much COMPOST that we can stop buying fertilizer for our soil!

Bring a Tupperware to meals with disposable plates.

I will add the principle of massive replicability to the most inspiring small-scale local initiatives.

I’ll learn to make mead…

I will host a harvest dinner to share the pleasure with family and old and new friends!

I will make food for my neighbors that I don’t know.

I will finish a draft of “Our Daily Bread Bake.”

It’s going where we take it. It’s moving how we make it.

I pledge quite simply to eat, breathe and sleep community!

I will write Obama about the importance of food. And help start a farm in my friend’s backyard.

I will introduce SFN to my students at Jr. Chef Central – GO LOVE FOOD MOVEMENT!!

We will pledge to eat more local food.

Compost.

I will plant lettuce and TAKE CARE OF IT!!

I will plant some wheat in my SF yard.

I will copy that guy and find a garden to sing and plant in.

I’m gonna plant a garden at my apartment (illegally).

I will work with kids teaching all the benefits of cooking.

Acknowledge all restaurant workers and the dignity of their labor.

Empower and acknowledge the workers in my dining halls.

I will start my own herb garden.

Spread the love! Serve good food to others.

I’m going to show my coworkers that I’m more than a “foodie.” I’m going to show them how I appreciate food and host an Eat-In with all local (good, clean and fair) foods.

I will make my own limoncello! Faró limoncello!

I will eat 100% locally for a week in Sept.!

Nothing but (edible) flowers!

I will learn more about where my food comes from.

I will make more meals, pack my lunch and eat the veggies in my garden.

I will plant a potato tower and bring the Youth Food Movement to Slow Food San Francisco.

I will share my food.

Be(e).

I will sing while planting.

I will keep a farm/food diary.

I will host my own Eat-In and we will eat slowly.

I will have weekly dinners with my coworkers.

I will work at the community garden.

To spread the love one plate at a time.

Harvest, harvest, harvest and share, share, share!

Find the time to cook at home.

I will tell my mayor (and we will build a farm).

I am going to make my own bread every week.

1. I will learn more about rainwater catchment systems. 2. I will host a Forage Oakland dinner.

I will eat with my neighbor.

I will spread love through food and food through love.

Convince one mother to feed her children 100% good, clean, sustainable food.

I will get our garden’s food enjoyed by the students of the district. I promise.

I will plant my wheat and while it grows, I will bake bread.

I will start saving seeds.

I’ll teach kids how to cook good, clean food in Germany.

Build cold-frames in my school’s garden.

I will cook for and teach immigrant mothers.

I will take food to heart and share my love. I will make a sacrifice for what I value.

I will ask my building about composting.

Kill a chicken.

I will connect kids to good food and cooking.

I will cook a delicious meal for my new roommates.

I will master the art of preserving.

I will share food with those I love. Thanks for the spirit and passion.

I will only buy locally grown produce this month.

I will dedicate myself fully to preserving heritage and native foods and seeds.

I will organize to help feed survivors of Hurricane Gustav through the national grassroots response coordinated by Food not Bombs.

Commitment to getting good food in schools. Feed people delicious food.

Create ‘n’ cultivate Slow Food!

I will host an Eat-In at my endangered urban farm! (Save Drumlin!).

I will get in touch with my campus sustainability chapter ASAP.

I will make cheese.

I will talk to family and friends about eating local and organic food.

I will start growing and rearing my food again.

I will make music part of the language of the farm.

I will ask at least 100 children what they can do to eat good food each day.

Make pickles!!

I will join a CSA.

I pledge to harvest my backyard garden and share the bounty with my neighbors!

Feed more hungry people.

I will host an Eat-In and share the Slow Food love.

I will engage Slow Food leaders to help develop young farmers. I will give seeds to all my friends!