WFU to participate in annual Building Community Day Sept. 19

On Sept. 19, Wake Forest’s Office of Civic and Community Engagement (OCCE) and Campus Kitchen are partnering with Harvest Table Culinary Group and Second Harvest Food Bank for Harvest Table’s annual Building Community Day.

This year’s event is being held from 5 to 7 p.m. at Blum Park, 2401 Ivy Ave., in the city’s Boston-Thurmond neighborhood. Dinner will be served beginning at 5:30 p.m. About 200 people are expected to attend.

Throughout the evening, community residents will engage with vendors to discuss healthy eating and how to prepare nutritious meals. The event also includes a food demonstration from the Kids’ Cooking Coalition facilitated by Wake Forest student leaders. The group will prepare a smoothie and chili and perform an activity around sugary drinks. Wake student-athletes will lead neighborhood kids on an obstacle course to show them being active can be fun.

“We’ve been a vendor at Building Community Day in years past through Campus Kitchen, but this year we brought Imagine Forsyth to the table and helped to do some outreach alongside them,” said Shugoll. “It’s Wake Forest’s way of continuing to expand our participation in community-wide events.”

Danish Khan, senior controller of Harvest Table, is also enthusiastic about this year’s event.

“Every year, thousands of team members come together to volunteer their time and talent in the communities where they live and work,” Khan said. “We’re excited about having 75 team members at Blum Park, who will bring health and wellness education and food tastings that teach Winston-Salem families how to make healthier food choices. We are particularly pleased to once again have Wake Forest employees and students join our efforts.”

According to statistics from Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, in Forsyth County one in five children do not have enough food to thrive and one in seven adults experience food insecurity.

Khan said dieticians and chefs from Harvest Table Culinary Group will design a healthy cookout menu and serve families a nutritious and delicious dinner. Balloon animals, face painting and friendship-making activities will be available for children, and representatives from local agencies will be on hand to provide useful information.

“We want to make sure everybody goes to the different tables so they can learn about how to access resources they might need,” Khan said. “We will give them a card on which they can check off the names of various vendors as they visit with them, and we will provide each family in attendance with supplemental foods.”