The American Way of EatingWinona State University’s Common Book Project will host three events this month to promote The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields, and the Dinner Table by Tracie McMillan.

A panel discussion, titled Food and Action, will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 16, in East Hall, Kryzsko Commons. Panelists include Bernie Hesse of United Food and Commercial Workers, Liz Reach of Bluff County Co-Op, and Randy Shadle of Chartwells.

The panel will discuss how students can become actively involved in changing the eating and food landscape in America. Attendees will learn about acknowledging personal and community-wide issues with food and eating choices.

“Our sense, from teaching the book last fall, was that students recognize the problems McMillan outlines and identify with many of them, but it’s not as easy to know what to do to make changes,” Common Book Project Coordinator Ann-Marie Dunbar said.

In addition to the panel, the Common Book Project will also show two documentaries.

The first film screening is Food Chains at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, in the Science and Laboratory Center, room 120. Food Chains is a documentary film that explores the American industrial farm labor today and where food comes from.

A film screening of Grown in Detroit will be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, in the Science and Laboratory Center, room 120. The film examines a public high school for pregnant and new mothers in Detroit, where the students learn about farming, sustainability, nutrition and other valuable life skills through a large farming project.

For more information contact Ann-Marie Dunbar at ADunbar@winona.edu.