A.G. Gancarski
Everyone knows what October in Jacksonville is famous for: clearly, our local celebration of ‘National Seafood Month,” which always earns a commemoration from a local politician.
Last October, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry proclaimed it to be “Seafood Nutrition Partnership” month.
As GroceryHeadquarters.com reported contemporaneously, Curry was “delighted to share in the observance of Seafood Nutrition Partnership Month.”
“The work that Nutrition Partnership is leading is of great benefit to our city and citizens; it highlights the quality seafood offerings of area merchants and restaurants while encouraging nutritional food options for healthy living,” Curry observed.
This year, State Sen. Audrey Gibson promoted the slightly renamed event … establishing that, despite the vast chasm between the right and the left in Jacksonville, everyone can agree on the benefits of seafood, which range from preventing heart disease to providing valuable protein.
Gibson, on hand at the Mary Singleton Center on Jacksonville’s Eastside, was accompanied by a representative from the Seafood Nutrition Partnership; together, they offered cans of tuna and seafood recipes to the senior citizens on hand.
“When I come visit,” Gibson said, “I don’t come empty-handed.”
Gibson lauded seafood as “healthy,” weighing the relative merits of a variety of fish, including tilapia, salmon, swai, and shrimp during her extemporaneous remarks.
“You’ve got to keep your girlish figure,” the senator told the predominately elderly crowd, ahead of a “love your heart, eat your seafood” chant.
Gibson took audience questions as well, including a woman who wondered: “if seafood is so good for you, why is sugar so cheap and seafood so [expensive]?”
Gibson demurred from discussing the complex politics of sugar subsidies and the political connections of Big Sugar, instead noting that “seafood’s got to be freshly caught” and “it takes a little more to acquire seafood.”
“Most things that are better for you cost a little more,” Gibson said, advising seniors to “buy in bulk” and participate in “food sharing” with neighbors.
Also discussed: the nutritional value of the tail and the head of fish.
