Food Empowerment Project founder Lauren Ornelas (Left) sits with chef G.W. Chew, who will be doing cooking demonstrations of vegan food at Vallejo Healthy Food Fest. (Photo courtesy of Lauren ornelas)

Sunday is a day to skip the burgers and fries. This may be a difficult decision for some, but organizers of the first ever Vallejo Healthy Food Fest believe that a few hours at the festival will have patrons questioning their dietary choices.

Vallejo Healthy Food Fest will be an opportunity for attendees to not only get a taste of vegan options from several different cuisines, but it will also make them aware of how few healthy food choices exist in Vallejo. The catalyst for the event was a two-year study put together by the Food Empowerment Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 and aimed at making people aware of their own food choices.

“The goal of the Food Empowerment Project is to create change for all in the food supply chain and to create a more compassionate and just food supply where the least harm is done for all living beings,” founder Lauren Ornelas said.

The organization encourages the humane treatment of animals, making sure farmworkers are treated with dignity and justice and discouraging the purchase of chocolates made in countries where child labor and slavery take place. The Food Empowerment Project’s study, which was requested by founding Black Panther David Hilliard, examined the healthy food options available in Vallejo and will present the results at the event.

“They wanted to release it in an event that would not just inform the citizens of Vallejo about their lack of access to healthy food but how we can become healthier with the food choices we make,” Vallejo community organizer and event coordinator Maria Guevara said.

The study reaffirms that the number of healthy and vegan offerings in Vallejo, both in grocery stores and restaurants, remains slim. Guevara hopes the results of the study cause people to not only think about what is considered healthy but also how to prepare it.

“You can have more access to healthy food and actually know what to do with it, as opposed to saying ‘Here’s a fruit, here’s a vegetable, just eat it raw,’” she said. “There’s so many different ways to do it. People can live longer and their lives can be thriving, but even if you’re living longer but you have ailments caused by the food you’re eating, it’s really not a pleasant way to go. We hope that people can change in all the areas that they can.”

In September, discount grocery chain Grocery Outlet– which has a large selection of healthy and organic foods– opened its second Vallejo location on Marin Street. Prior to that, however, the city had imposed a 15-year moratorium on opening new grocery stores in downtown Vallejo, which left people’s healthy food choices in that part of town even more limited.

“All they had was little, tiny liquor stores,” Guevara said. “That is wrong on many levels to deny an area of Vallejo that is heavily populated with subsidized housing to have healthy food options.”

In addition to the results of the study, the event will also showcase a variety of food and entertainment. Attendees can enjoy a vegan meal of different cuisines, including Filipino pancit noodles, Mexican beans and rice, an Italian mixed vegetable medley, African greens and fruit cups. There will also be vegan cooking demonstrations, exhibits, an area for kids’ activities and live performances from rapper AshEL Seasunz, folk singer Azuah, Ballet Folklorico Vallejo, the Haluan Club of Jesse Bethel High School, the Filipino American Cultural Club of American Canyon High School and Esmeralda Mejia, a Vallejo resident who was a contestant on the Mexican version of “The Voice.”

“The goal of the event is for everybody to embrace the beauty and diversity of their community and also highlight the information of the study that we’ve done,” Ornelas said.

“Our hope is that at least one person can make a condition to make healthier food choices in their life and think about the kind of food they put into their body,” Guevara said.

Additionally, Guevara hopes the city will commit to providing healthier options, even if it means having fruit and vegetable sections in liquor stores.

The Vallejo Healthy Food Fest will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, June 26 at the Dan Foley Cultural Center, located at 1499 North Camino Alto. The event is free for Vallejo residents with proof of residency and $5 for non-residents. Parking is $3. Interested attendees can RSVP at bit.ly/vallejofoodfest. For more information, email info@foodispower.org. To learn more, visit FoodIsPower.org.

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