Wow. What a day we had, at our first annual Bi-Rite/Nextcourse Community Day. We are SO grateful to Sam Mogannam, owner, and genius behind, Bi-Rite market. One of his own customers insisted today – Sam should be Mayor!
Indeed, Sam welcomed our dedicated Nextcourse board members into the store a few months ago, to plan and plot for this day, which celebrated the nutrition, cooking, and food systems work we do in nearby Mission High School, in conjunction with Pie Ranch.
Early today, our Mission High students started rolling in, dawning “Eat Ur Veggies” tee-shirts, designed by our own Midget Beltran. They got to work chopping produce, seasoning salsa, and scooping up Bi-Rite Creamery ice-cream tastings, to lure people into our “Advice Cream” mini nutrition consultations.
It was exciting to watch the co-mingling of our students, the Bi-Rite staff, and the members of the vibrant Mission community, around this healthy food. Sam shared his expert knife skills with one of our young chefs. Passers-by stopped to ask and give tips for, preparing their favorite produce. Even one of our Women’s Reentry Center students, came with her children, to join the food festivities. It seemed everyone was off to a BBQ, on this hot day.
At day’s end, we drew a raffle winner. One lucky entrant took home a basket of Bi-Rite goodies, and a copy of the SoupsOn! cookbook. Along with this gift basket, the divine ice cream, and baskets of fresh strawberries Bi-Rite generously donated for this day, they also gave 5% of today’s food sales, to Nextcourse.
People were asking – when can we do this again!? Hopefully soon. Thanks to everyone, our board members, our students and the entire Bi-Rite/Mission community, for supporting healthy food!
