Healthy Food

_ Say it fast three times: Center City Sips. Center City Sips. Center City Sips. Did you get it right? Reward yourself with a $4 cocktail, $2 beer or $3 glass of wine every Wednesday through Aug. 31 at participating bars and restaurants. Half-price appetizers, too, and some places offer a 15 percent dinner discount after 7 p.m. Find out more at www.centercityphila.org/life/Sips.phpa . Twitter follow @CCDSips. _ Speaking of drinks, how about the Raise a Drink for Tomorrow fundraiser from 5:30-8 p.m. Saturday at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (640 Water Works Drive)

Champagne and hors d'oeuvres are in order from 5-8 p.m. Friday as Weavers Way Co-op ( weaversway.coop ) holds an open house to celebrate the co-op's new wellness and pet supply store, Weavers Way Across the Way, at 608-610 Carpenter Lane. It's across from Weavers Way's Mt. Airy store, currently undergoing renovations. Street food enthusiasts have narrowed the field a bit, but there are still difficult choices to be made as 12 food-truck vendors compete in the Philadelphia Vendys, 3-7 p.m. Saturday?

A sobering new report on obesity has more bad news about the country's losing battle against the bulge. Americans are getting fatter, but at a slightly slower rate, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, more than a third of U.S. adults are obese. But the numbers will likely jump drastically by 2030 to include an additional 32 million people. The report said 42 percent of the population will be obese and 11 percent will be severely obese — 100 pounds or more overweight.

IT REALLY angers me that there is still hunger in America, knowing that we are more than capable of feeding each and every citizen - but don't. As far as I'm concerned, access to healthy food should be an inalienable right. Don't you agree? Sadly, every day in these United States, 50 million people, including one in four children, are food insecure, which basically means that they're hungry and not sure when or from where their next meal is coming. The recent documentary "A Place at the Table" removes the veil on this hidden-in-plain-sight national disgrace.

The Diggity Dudes four-member band, who play hip music for hip kids, are known for their infectious grooves and will bring their show to the World Cafe Live in Wilmington on Saturday. Their songs, combining melody and humor, are about kid-centric topics, but are adult-friendly. In 2011, the title track from their debut album, My Science Project , ranked No. 3 on WXPN's Kids Corner Philadelphia's top songs of the year. The performance starts at 11:30 a.m.   The Diggity Dudes, 11:30 a.m. Saturday at World Cafe Live at the Queen, 500 N. Market St., Wilmington.

ARE YOU COOKING with a clear conscience? When it comes to guilt-free eating, the concept should extend beyond overindulging in fried foods and rich desserts. It's possible to "green your cuisine," according to Louisa Shafia, Philly-born author of "Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life" (Ten Speed Press, $22.50), by making Earth-friendly food choices, sourcing animal products ethically, buying local to reduce your carbon footprint, gardening and more. Shafia, who'll sign books at Terrain at Styers in Glen Mills on Saturday and do a cooking class at Reading Terminal's Cucina at the Market on Jan. 21, founded a New York-based catering operation called Lucid Food in 2004.

By Linda Bonvie I guess I really must be out of the loop, because I've just discovered that I live smack in the middle of a "food desert. " Living in a food desert, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, means I have "low access to a supermarket or large grocery store" - defined as being more than one mile from such a store in an urban area or more than 10 miles in a rural area such as mine. According to the experts, this results in poor food choices, a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, and dinners composed of chips and soda from the corner convenience store.

The schoolyard at Fairhill Elementary School was abuzz. Today, a very important person with a fancy car, a lot of bodyguards, and the ear of the president will descend on the North Philadelphia school, and the students were ready. Angelica Negron, 10, was "happy and excited" about Michelle Obama's visit to talk about healthy food. Angelica said she hoped she'd be picked to meet with the first lady. "I think she's going to talk about vegetables, because a lot of kids, they eat a lot of junk food," Angelica, a fifth grader who wore a ball cap fashionably askew, said yesterday.

On Sunday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Longview Center for Agriculture in Collegeville, Greener Partners will host its weekly Tiny Test Kitchen workshop for ages 5 to 9. The theme is Jack and the Beanstalk and the feature ingredient will be the green bean. Vegetarian farm volunteer Jacqueline Melendez will teach participants about local and seasonal eating. Kids will tour the farm, pick the vegetables, and clean and chop them on their own. After the tour kids will create their own green bean dish.