Kingfield Veggie Chef and Gardener Hosts Dinner and Movie Series

Calling all earth-loving foodies! Interested in eating healthy vittles and checking out the latest flicks that tackle sustainability issues? If you want to hang out with like-minded folks and discuss what we put in our bodies and the environment, then, Marianna Padilla has pulled together a dinner and a movie series that is for you. It will both tickle your tastebuds and tantalize your inner social activist on certain Fridays through September.

The owner of and a noted vegetarian cook, personal trainer and city gardener extraordinaire, Padilla is offering her Friday Night Dinner and a Movie Series which pairs a documentary film about food or water with an optional organic vegetarian meal. It kicks off May 20 with Gasland, about the natural gas industry buying up rural land. 

The Fridays will start at 6:30 p.m. with an optional BYOB dinner for which participants give $18 towards the purchase of the ingredients. Then at 8 p.m. the selected movie will unspool. The film screenings and discussions free if guests are not interested in the meal.

Padilla was inspired to put together the program of films as a way to get people in the community to talk about where their food and water comes from. The ones she's chosen include Michael Pollan's  Food, Inc. and some less famous docs such as The Future of Food, The Price of Sugar and Flow: For Love of Water,

"I feel really passionate about the planet in general and the forms of life that are on it and I'm distressed seeing them diminish, " she said, explaining one the principles that guided her to put this program together and lead her to take on the many

She was part of a food book club, but thought it might be time to take it to the next level, as she believes that the impact of a movie can sometimes be greater than the results of other media. According to her, "If watched as a group you can have a discussion about it and see that we do have some power, although it's going to take collective effort in different arenas to do something."

Padilla will host the films at her house in the Kingfield neighborhood and in keeping with her sustainable ethic, the dishes she serves will have several components that come straight from her garden.

Seating will be limited to twenty per film night, but she is flexible. If more folks want to see the particular title, she'll schedule a second night of it. And, she'll be open to all suggestions about how to make the Friday night events more accessible and interesting. This is an experiment that she hopes will grow a group of neighbors who will take some action to keep our food and eco-system healthy.

"I like inspiring my neighborhood," Padilla told me. So long as the meals are delicious, I'm sure she'll have a rapt audience.

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Friday Night Dinner and a Movie Series

/4416 Pleasant Ave. S - 612.824.9467