Tag: Food advocacy

24 Carrots Natural Caffe & Urban Juicery to close in December

The popular plant-based 24 Carrots Natural Caffe & Urban Juicery will be closing its brick & mortar location in Tempe in early December after 13 years. “Our landlord decided not to renew our lease at our current location for the next year; therefore we have no choice but to say goodbye to our beloved restaurant,” said owner and founder Sadhana Raj.

Raj will help her employees find new jobs in similar positions with like-minded restaurants around the valley. Raj will continue to use her voice and reputation for community minded projects and food advocacy for healthier eating and food insecurity and plans to stay involved in the industry around Phoenix and elsewhere. She will be donating her kitchen equipment to schools, culinary programs and other non-profits.

She plans to wind down 24 Carrots by December 10th but will continue to offer her Vegan Thanksgiving menu and will sell a good and products at soon to be announced date. Raj said, “We could not have created such an incredible restaurant and cause to fight for without the support of our team and our very loyal customers. We will be eternally grateful to both.”

Blue Watermelon Project connects chefs & farmers with students

Many school aged children don’t have the access to quality foods and rely on lunch served at school for free. Unfortunately after expenses there is only $1 left for the meal for each student which usually buys processed foods. Enter the Blue Watermelon Project, a program from Slow Food Phoenix inspired by chef and restaurant owner at FnB, Charleen Badman.

Blue Watermelon Project connects chefs, restaurants, farmers and food advocates with individual schools in an effort to help students re-think their relationship with fresh and whole foods making them a more adventurous eater. Along with parents and the community they offer taste education and interactive programming to help K-12 aged students become better eaters.

Blue Watermelon’s annual fundraiser, Feeding the Future helps bring awareness about school meal programs and Blue Watermelon’s mission. The 2022 event is Saturday January 22nd at The Farm at South Mountain from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Feeding the Future connects students and their Chef Mentors from Phoenix and Tucson to help create healthy school meals with several meal being judged to win prizes and scholarships. The meals meet the National School Lunch Programs nutrition, cost and other requirements.

Tickets for the event are $25-$75 and can be purchased at Eventbrite.