This past Sunday, we held our Annual Appreciation Event at Sustainable Food Center, where we celebrated the support that our incredible facilitators, Farm to School Ambassadors, board members, and volunteers provides us. Despite our different backgrounds, our community was formed through our mutual passion to create and sustain a thriving and just Central Texas Food System. As Día de los Muertos approaches, we can’t help but think how food has a way of building community as well as shaping our past, present and future.

Día de los Muertos is a three day festival where food is used to celebrate family, community and life. This Mexican and Mexican-American holiday brings together loved ones to honor the dead and celebrate their memory that lives on. The memory of those who have passed is brought to life again through oral history, stories and remembrances in the form of ofrendas or offerings. These traditional dishes are often eaten at the gravesites of loved ones and honors generations past while renewing kinships and communal ties.

Whether or not you celebrate Día de los Muertos, this holiday takes the time to acknowledge the wisdom and traditions of those who have passed, sustain those memories in the present and passes down those oral histories to future generations. At Sustainable Food Center, we honor those sacred food traditions that have shaped our identity as Central Texans and the identity of future generations to come.