October is a busy month on the food calendar with quite a few awareness days to enjoy.
World Vegetarian Day – 1st October 2022 – World Vegetarian Day was founded in 1977 by the North American Vegetarian Society (NAVS) and was endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978. October 1st is the annual kick-off of Vegetarian Awareness Month. Make a difference this October by informing others about the benefits of vegetarianism. You will be helping to create a better world because vegetarian diet have proven health benefits, save animals’ lives and help to preserve the Earth.
International Coffee Day – 1st October 2022 – International Coffee Day seeks to celebrate coffee from around the world while honouring the farmers, traders, roasters and baristas responsible for creating the coffees enjoyed by so many worldwide. Making the daily journey from tropical Africa to the breakfast mugs of households all over the world, coffee beans have been scattered all over the world for more than 600 years, and their preparation for consumption is an excellent example of metamorphosis. Humanity has been preparing coffee for many presentations: drinks, candies, medicine, and some ancient civilizations even used it as currency! No matter how you take it, coffee can energize you, warm you up, refresh you, keep you awake, and even catch you up with your loved ones.
Coffee Week – 10-16th October 2022 – UK Coffee Week is a nationwide fundraising campaign for Project Waterfall, bringing clean drinking water to coffee-growing communities. Thousands of coffee shops, roasters and individuals across the country take part every year.
The UK Coffee Week website explains that for one spectacular week every year, the coffee industry and its customers come together to celebrate all things coffee while raising funds for the people who make our love of coffee possible.
Hospitality businesses of all shapes and sizes fundraise by donating from every cup or bag of coffee sold, or by running events and competitions.
Whether you serve, sell, sip, or roast our favourite bean, you can participate in UK Coffee Week and support coffee-growing communities.
Since 2011, the UK Coffee Week community has raised over £800,000 for Project Waterfall, reaching over 45,000 people with clean drinking water, sanitation and education.
In 2021, funds raised during the campaign supported their current project in the Jabi Tehnan district of Ethiopia which will change over 10,000 lives.
100% of the money you raise during UK Coffee Week support Project Waterfall’s work to bring clean drinking water, sanitation and education to coffee growing communities.
How do we manage that? It’s thanks to the incredible support of their partners who fund the running costs of the campaign, allowing Project Waterfall to receive every penny raised. For more details on how you can get involved go across to the UK Coffee Week Website.
National Curry Week – 3rd-9th October 2022 – The 24th National Curry Week takes place from the 3rd to the 9th of October 2022. It’s been a difficult year but for one week only, let’s talk about curry instead of coronavirus. Whether you’re heading out to your local curry house or cooking up a storm using our official recipe book, we want you to be rejoicing in all things curry!
Since the 1970s, curry houses have become a staple of high streets up and down the country and millions of curries are consumed every single week. The love affair shows no signs of slowing and that’s what we’re celebrating with National Curry Week!
The very first National Curry Week took place in October 1998 and was founded by the late Peter Grove. Peter was a prominent journalist who had fallen in love with curry. His vision was to drive awareness and appreciation of the burgeoning Indian restaurant industry, whilst also raising funds for charity.
To this day National Curry Week honours this vision with its three core objectives:
- HONOUR THE NATION’S FAVOURITE CUISINE
- CELEBRATE AND SUPPORT THE INDIAN RESTAURANT INDUSTRY
- RAISE MONEY FOR POVERTY FOCUSED CHARITIES
This year will be the 24th National Curry Week. There are lots of details and information on the National Curry Week website.
Apple Day – October 21st 2022 – Apple Day, 21 October, was launched in 1990 by Common Ground. The aspiration was to create a calendar custom, an autumn holiday. From the start, Apple Day was intended to be both a celebration and a demonstration of the variety we are in danger of losing, not simply in apples, but in the richness and diversity of landscape, ecology and culture too. It has also played a part in raising awareness in the provenance and traceability of food.
The success of Apple Day has shown what the apple means to us and how much we need local celebrations in which, year after year, everyone can be involved. In city, town and country, Apple Day events have fostered local pride, celebrated and deepened interest in local distinctiveness. Common Ground would still like Apple Day to become the autumn holiday in Britain. Apple Day is now an integral part of the calendar of many villages, local authorities and city markets. It is a focus for activities organised by the Women’s Institute, National Trust properties, Wildlife Trusts, museums and galleries, horticultural societies, shops and restaurants as well as for schools, colleges and environmental study centres. The first Apple Day celebrations, in the old Apple Market in London’s Covent Garden, brought fruit to the market after 16 years’ absence. Forty stalls were taken. Fruit growers and nurseries producing and selling a wide variety of apples and trees rubbed shoulders with juice-and cider-makers, as well as writers and illustrators with their apple books.
And so the tradition of Apple Day began. Over the next few years, the number of events being organised around the country grew from more than 60 in 1991 to 300 by 1997 and over 600 in 1999, some attracting thousands of people. Apple Day has played a part in raising awareness not only of the importance of orchards to our landscape and culture, but also in the provenance and traceability of food. It has been one impetus behind the developing network of farmers’ markets and is helping people everywhere to discover they are not alone in valuing the links between food and the land, between natural resource use and the impact we have on nature. There is lots more information on the Common Ground website.
World Egg Day 14th October 2022 – World Egg Day will be celebrated across the globe on Friday 14 October.
This year’s theme, ‘Eggs for a better life’ will see egg fans honour the nutritional and environmental benefits of eggs, which improve lives worldwide. Last year’s event saw over 100 countries across the globe celebrate on social media, with competitions, digital campaigns and festivals held to mark the special day.
World Egg Day 2022 will be celebrated around the world on Friday 14 October, highlighting the many benefits eggs bring to human health and livelihoods everywhere.
This year’s theme ‘Eggs for a better life’ shines a spotlight on the power of the egg to improve nutritional and environmental outcomes, leading to better lives for all.
“World Egg Day is all about recognising the humble egg as an incredibly unique source of protein and essential nutrients, all within an accessible and affordable package,” said Julian Madeley, CEO of the World Egg Organisation (WEO).
“This year, we also want to highlight other important attributes of eggs, such as their low environmental footprint and how they are at the heart of so many rural livelihoods around the world.” He continued, “Eggs have the power to play an increasingly important role in our food systems as we look to feed our growing population in more sustainable and efficient ways – all the more reason to celebrate the egg with us this year!”
World Egg Day takes place on the second Friday of October every year, and since the first event in 1996, celebrations have grown and evolved. Last year saw over 100 countries across the globe celebrate World Egg Day on social media, with competitions, digital campaigns and festivals held to mark the special day.
To support egg businesses to celebrate, the International Egg Commission (IEC) has created an industry toolkit which includes themes and key messages, ready-made social media graphics and inspiration from 2021’s activities. Visit International Egg for more details and information.
World Porridge Day 10th October 2022 – World Porridge Day is observed annually on October 10. It was launched in 2009 as a fundraising campaign for Mary’s Meals, a Scotland-based charity which sets up school feeding programs in poor countries, where hunger prevents children from gaining an education.
Porridge is a staple food in many countries, including much of Africa and Northern Europe. It is made by boiling chopped, crushed, or ground starchy plants—typically grain—in water or milk. Grains used for porridge include oat, rice, barley, wheat, buckwheat, semolina, corn, sorghum, quinoa, and others. Some types of porridge have their own names such as Russian kasha, American grits or Italian polenta.
Why did Mary’s Meals create a holiday dedicated to porridge? The thing is that its largest school feeding programs are in Malawi and Liberia, where the children’s ration is based on maize porridge. World Porridge Day was created to show that a handful of porridge can make a difference and become a real salvation for a chronically hungry child.
On the occasion of World Porridge Day, the Scottish village of Carrbridge hosts the World Porridge Making Championship. The Championship was inaugurated in 1994 and has taken place alongside World Porridge Day since 2009. The winner of the competition is awarded a prize named the Golden Spurtle (a spurtle is a wooden Scottish kitchen tool used to stir porridge). Find out more on Any Day Guide.
Source: National Today UK Coffee Week National Curry Week Common Ground World Vegetarian Day International Egg Any Day Guide
