Food Choices Retreat with Mick Kelly
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📅 Date: Multiple Dates
⏰ Time: 10AM - 4PM
📍 Location: GROW HQ, Waterford
Standing in a supermarket shouldn’t feel like a moral exam — but for many of us, it does.
Should I buy organic or local?
Seasonal or imported?
Is this ultra-processed, or just convenient?
Am I doing enough — for my health, for the planet, for my kids?
Most people sense that something isn’t right with the modern food system, but the noise, contradictions and guilt can leave us feeling stuck, confused, or quietly overwhelmed.
This immersive Food Choices Retreat, hosted at GROW HQ in Waterford, is about cutting through that confusion — and helping you feel calmer, clearer and more confident about the food choices you make every day.
From confusion to food empathy
Led by GIY Founder Mick Kelly, the retreat is grounded in what he calls Food Empathy — a way of thinking about food that reconnects us with where it comes from, how it’s produced, and how our everyday choices shape both our own health and the health of the planet.
Rather than rigid rules or perfectionism, Food Empathy focuses on five powerful food behaviours that genuinely make a difference:
- Eating with the seasons
- Supporting local producers
- Reducing your food pollution (cutting back on ultra-processed foods, eating more organics and reducing your packaging waste)
- Eating more plants
- Reducing food waste
These ideas aren’t about doing everything “right”. They’re about doing what matters most — consistently, realistically, and with enjoyment. AND it's about progress, not perfection.
Why this matters now
We are living through a quiet but vast food experiment.
Diets have shifted rapidly from predominantly whole foods to predominantly ultra-processed ones — now accounting for almost half of the national shopping basket — with profound consequences for our health, our climate and biodiversity.
GIY has spent nearly two decades “pushing the piano back up the hill”: helping people rebuild food knowledge, confidence and connection through growing, cooking and eating real food. This retreat brings that work together in a personal, practical and inspiring way.
Leave with clarity — not guilt
At a time of deep global uncertainty, this retreat offers something simple and powerful:
clarity, confidence and connection.
You’ll leave feeling recharged, inspired, and better equipped to make food choices that are good for you — and gentler on the world we all share.
