By Melissa Ilana Cohen, Lucidity Mindful Feeding Maven

(This article was first published in April, 2013.)

Mindful Feeding is an act of eating that creates a feeling of deep gratitude that comes from appreciating and experiencing food in ways that transcend simple consumption.

Mindful Feeding at Lucidity is an extension of a food philosophy so deeply rooted in our human history that it’s hard to qualify.

At this particular point in my food journey, I feel strongly that the linkage between mind, body, and spirit in the context of food-based nourishment is tantamount to our creation.   We are a total energetic expression of the parts of our universe that we consume and in order to be the best possible versions of ourselves, the us that we’ve been so uniquely and perfectly created to be, we must honor our selves with the most mindful of feeding possible.

Nestled under a tree of Sustainable, Organic, and Local branches, the Mindful Feeding team has been working to grow the many roots that will feed a festival.

The Healthy Build is an intention to ensure that those who are working to create the canvas of our playground are nourished in the best possible ways.  The collaboration between our Mindful Feeding team and our build crew has facilitated an integrated build-week schedule of food sharing, rest, and healing.

The dining space that serves our crew and volunteers has been created in the most noble practice and purpose: visual art meets edible art to fill and fuel from the brain to the heart to the stomach.

The offerings in our food vendor village seek to complement an overall festival experience that values the many senses and purposes that eating mindfully can foster.  When linked, they artfully sync together a holistic and delicious community of culinary-creators that provide the foundation of a journey hugged in intentions of physical well-being and the true potential for transformation.

By utilizing the tactic of participatory activism, the Lucidity Festival is fostering completeness in what should always be the circle of eating mindfully.

Integrating the goal of 95% landfill diversion rate has raised the bar for a young festival with limited resources.  A zero-waste zone of nourishment combining efforts between the festival commissary and food vendor village is a hub of recycling, compost, and dish-wash stations.  Bring your own plate/cup/bowl or participate in our dishware share-cycle.

Ultimately, the shopping basket is the most powerful vehicle for social change.

Eating mindfully is the end result of participating in a complete chain of conscious consumption.

The closed-loop cycle of fiscal and philosophical foundations that help light our path of evolution toward mutual aid and radical collaboration are another way to strengthen our abilities.

Thus, the Lucidity community recognizes the value that supporting our family of farmers, producers, and locally owned businesses creates.

Your Mindful Feeding Team is so excited to share with you our vision in action sprawled beneath the beautiful Live Oaks at Lucidity.

Melissa Ilana Cohen is a nationally recognized activist in the food cooperative sector.  Her journey toward personal food sovereignty has taken her deep into the food culture of Burning Man, where she ran Feed the Artists for two years, along with co-founding the 30 camp collaborative Community Refrigerated Truck Project.  Her inspirational lectures around food, culture, cooperative business and participatory activism, and the embracing of the divine feminine have become a mainstay at UC Santa Barbara and around the community.  She is currently the General Manager of the Isla Vista Food Co-op, and just completed Project We Own It, the precedent-setting crowd-funding campaign that raised $150,000 for the down payment to purchase the Co-op’s current location.