New Macon food-themed week encourages healthier eating

On the heels of Macon Burger Week comes the Macon Salad Week — not as an antidote to the load of beef consumption, but rather as “a companion week.”

Ashley Foy, the creator of Macon Salad Week, said the celebration is not “anti-burger week” but a way to encourage people to be more balanced in their diets.

Foy, among friends who were pumped to try all the beef burgers during burger week, felt left out as someone who follows a plant-based diet.

She hopes salad week can be something for plant-based eaters to be stoked about.

Many of the restaurants are including salads that are already on their menus, which means salad week comes at no additional cost to the restaurants.

“It’s a chance to promote healthier, greener options and highlight our local restaurants,” she said.

Several restaurants are participating, including Oliver’s Corner Bistro, Ocmulgee Brewpub, Fountain of Juice and Grow Fresh Local Food.

The Salad Palace’s entry into Macon Salad Week, the Lucy Special, is named after a longtime customer and based off of her everyday order.

“Everything we do is fresh,” owner Tasha Williams said. “We hand-cut. Nothing is from a bag.”

The Salad Palace opened in January of this year in a strip mall off Eisenhower Parkway. The restaurant sells over a dozen different types of salads, with several dressings to maximize variety.

Williams started Salads 2 Go in 2014 when her mother passed away at the age of 62. She had tried to get her mother to make healthier choices, but it was not enough.

Williams said she wanted to have a place where people could go to have healthier food that still tastes good.

She’s also fought through her own health complications. After having a stroke at 37, she’s taken up eating a diet with more fruits and vegetables and tried to stay off her medication.

“Every corner is a dialysis place, every time you go to the doctor they give you a new prescription,” Williams said. “You train yourself to not eat that type of stuff, you feel better.” 

Salad Week started Nov. 11 and will run until the end of the week.