The second 100-Mile-Meal took place Friday in Marshall University’s Towers Marketplace to celebrate National Food Day.

The 100-Mile-Meal was prepared using only locally sourced ingredients from farmers within the area.

The 100-Mile-Meal was created by Marshall University Student Association of Nutrition and Dietetics to show students the importance of eating both locally and healthy.

Casey Underwood, President of MU SAND, collaborated with local organizations such as The Wild Ramp, 30-Mile-Meal and Marshall to bring the event to campus.

“The 30-Mile-Meal would be a meal consisting of all local foods from farmers and businesses within 30 miles of that meal,” Underwood said. “Tonight, all the food that we are eating is from farmers and local businesses within 100 miles of Marshall’s campus.”

The MU SAND organization believes in connecting the community with locally sourced food and showing how accessible the process is. Representatives hope the 100-Mile-Meal can be a way for students to learn about local food.

“One of the main goals, other than National Food Day and sustainable living, is gaining awareness that farmers are out there and they’re still farming,” Underwood said. “All this food comes from local businesses.”

National Food Day is geared toward helping communities change their diets and improve food polices. The day is celebrated across the country through different events by enjoying “real” foods.

“National Food Day is Oct. 24, so this is our way of celebrating food day,” Underwood said. “We are promoting a sustainable earth and local farming and local businesses are some of the best ways to do that. We also hope to show students that local foods are probably going to be more healthy than the processed packaged stuff that you might get from the freezer section at the grocery store.”

Lauren Kemp, representative for the 30-Mile-Meal organization and The Wild Ramp, shared the importance of creating a relationship between local farmers and local businesses.

“The 30-Mile-Meal is interested in markets and restaurants or institutions like Marshall that want to source local food and connecting those people that want the local food with the actual farmers,” Kemp said. “The Wild Ramp is a great example of what you can do when you get a lot of farmers together in a retail space and so we promote The Wild Ramp a lot through our 30-Mile-Meal program.”

The Wild Ramp is a farmer’s market located in Huntington that only sources local products. The products sold are made or grown within 250 miles of Huntington.

“The goal of the 30-Mile-Meal is to facilitate relationships between farmers and restaurants and then tell the community about these relationships,” Kemp said.

Kelsie Lively can be contacted at [email protected].