An eat-in is a group of people coming together to share a meal as a political act. The Chicago Eat-In, sponsored by Slow Food, was held in Daley Plaza, the most central public space in the city. The action was to advocate the role of civic engagement in federal policy, specifically for reform of the Child Nutrition Act, one of the largest pieces of funding and policy around child food and nutrition in the US.

In the US, the need for real food at school has never been greater. Today, one in four children is overweight or obese, and one in three will develop diabetes in his or her lifetime. In the face of this crisis, our schools are financially struggling to feed children anything but the overly processed fast food that endangers their health. Funding and policy from the Child Nutrition Act informs how many of America’s children eat on a daily level.

As a call for reform of the Child Nutrition Act, the Eat-In invited people from all over the city to bring their lunch and eat together to demonstrate that the act of eating can be political.

Chicago, 2009