Eskenazi Health is celebrating National Kale Day on Wednesday, Oct. 7, and is inviting the public to join the festivities. The day will celebrate kale’s incredible health benefits, highlight kale’s culinary versatility, and promote eating, growing and sharing kale throughout America.

Regarded as a super food, kale provides plant-based power in your diet that goes well beyond just standard vitamins and minerals. Kale is packed with special phytonutrient molecules, making it a power plant that can fight obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

"Eskenazi Health is extremely passionate about kale's health benefits and we regularly incorporate kale into food for patients, visitors and staff. This year, we are making National Kale Day bigger and better than ever with a kale party at The Commonground at Eskenazi Health," said Amy Carter, outpatient clinical nutrition manager at Eskenazi Health. 

Dr. Lisa Harris, CEO of Eskenazi Health, serves on the advisory board for Team Kale, the organizers of National Kale Day. Eskenazi Health has actively participated in National Kale Day for the past three years by serving kale in the hospital’s dining facilities, providing recipes and facts about kale to staff and patients, and taking part in a video streaming that will promote the powers of kale.

A kale party will be featured on The Commonground at Eskenazi Health, which will allow the public to try free samples of kale-inspired recipes, including kale and pineapple popsicles and spicy kale chips. Food demonstrations, 1,500 samples of Simply 7 Snacks chips and free kale plants from The Sky Farm at Eskenazi Health will also be available. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 7, with music provided by kale enthusiast Joel Tucker and Mitch Shiner on guitar and vibraphone to entertain the crowd. 

An exciting kale-inspired menu will be served in the Ingram Micro Mobility Marketplace at Eskenazi Health and Café Soleil at Eskenazi Health on National Kale Day. Menu items that day include spicy rice with kale, kale salmon cakes and kale grilled cheese with caramelized onions. Kale is often used as an addition in a number of menu items served at Eskenazi Health.

In addition to the kale party, Eskenazi Health will be handing out kale bunches and plants at locals schools and at each of its 10 Eskenazi Health Center locations, along with distributing kale throughout Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. Eskenazi Health Sky Farmer Rachel White has grown hundreds of kale plants for the event. 

All of the kale, along with other produce grown on The Sky Farm at Eskenazi Health, is made available to patients, visitors and staff in various ways on the Eskenazi Health campus.

CONTACT: Todd Harper
Phone: 317.880.4785
Pager: 317.310.5972 
Email: todd.harper@eskenazihealth.edu