The Story Behind Keep It Fresh Day
Keep It Fresh Day has been in motion since 2011. In 2014, it was declared official by mayoral proclamation in Denver, CO. In 2017, Keep It Fresh Day was recognized by the Mayor of Baltimore.
Keeping It Fresh Since 2011
Since 2011, Keep It Fresh (founded by Green For All) has found exciting ways to galvanize young people into taking action and transforming their environment, including going on tour with Wiz Khalifa and Drake and traveling around to college campuses.
“It’s like EarthDay for food justice and hip hop.”
As a Green For All fellow, Denver native, eco-hiphop artist and vegan chef Ietef “Dj Cavem” Vita decided to ask for an official day as a way of pushing his clean air, clean water, and clean food initiative and use it as a way to highlight people around the world who use food as medicine.
Keep It Fresh Awards
Every year he presents awards to businesses who Keep It Fresh through mindful business practices – and to individuals in service to community who advocate environmental actions through plant-based food, climate action, organic gardening and more.
“I grew up in the five points, breathing in polluted air from local factories. Fresh water has always been an issue, and the freshest thing in my neighborhood was a lemon in a liquor store. I’m really excited that other cities like Baltimore are down with the movement, and my goal is to make this a national day.”
– Dr. Ietef Vita, a.k.a. DJ Cavem
Keeping It Fresh Where You Are
In addition to the Keep It Fresh Awards, everyone is encouraged to take action by taking a picture of food as your medicine (plant-based only) and sharing it to your social media pages using hashtag #KeepItFreshDay.
Last year participants in #KeepItFresh got a chance to win a brand new Champion Juicer and Lucky Bikes Re-Cyclery gave Denver winners bikes at Denver’s Juneteenth event.
Stay tuned for details on upcoming Keep It Fresh events and let us know how you’re planning to celebrate in your area.