Kendall College School of Culinary Arts Chef Instructor and alumna Dana Cox will present the keynote address on her one-year “Honest Meal Project,” which concluded Labor Day, at this year’s Locavore Picnic Supper co-sponsored by Green City Market and held at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum on Wednesday, September 21, from 6 to 8 p.m.

The supper celebrates accomplished locavores, introduces them to each other and furthers the conversation about seasonality and sustainable food in the Midwest. It also marks the conclusion of Green City Market’s annual Locavore Challenge, which encourages market-goers to pledge to eat only local foods to the best of their ability for two weeks.

Cox will speak about her unique project, during which she consumed only foods grown on family farms—no processed foods—and in the process lost 50 pounds. (The project is the basis of a book Cox is writing.)

“The goal of the project was, first, to prove that it is possible, and second, to inspire others to make whatever incremental change they can toward supporting local farming,” says Cox, a 2005 culinary graduate of Kendall College who operates a successful personal-chef business, Old Stove LLC. “This knowledge will be shared with my students and the general public via my blog, the book and every day in my classroom as we discuss sourcing, purchasing and marketing foodstuffs.”

Cox will also cook for the Locavore Picnic Supper alongside Rita Gutekanst, co-owner of Limelight Catering in Chicago, and Sarah Stegner, co-chef/owner of Prairie Fire in Chicago and Prairie Grass Café in Northbrook.

Tickets are $30 per person and can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/194347. For more info, contact Green City Market at (773) 880-1266, admin@greencitymarket.org, or visit www.greencitymarket.org.