Because of you, more children will start the school day ready to learn, without the pang of hunger as a distraction. Our Back-to-School campaign reminds us that along with pencils and paper, children need a daily supply of food to take on new concepts, run on playgrounds, and socialize more successfully.
Our Community Health and Agriculture Education teams have collaborated to develop the new Food Shuttle Academy, an online learning platform with free, self-paced lessons on health, nutrition, agriculture, and more!
Our Spring Match challenge, made possible by generous funders, including SOLV Energy and the Mead Family Foundation, exceeded the $105,000 goal, raising an additional $70,000 to erase hunger!
Love, Tito’s has a heart for community gardens and increasing access to fresh, healthy foods. Their philanthropic Love, Tito’s Block to Block program, reconnects neighborhoods and creates community gardens and farms throughout the United States. Our hearts are in full bloom knowing that our Camden Street Garden will be the next beneficiary of Block to Block, allowing neighbors with mobility challenges to access our many activities more easily.
Check out this awesome video of the kids at the Mayview Community Garden doing a rap!
Also, here are some pictures of volunteers and kids from Mayview picking greens, playing with worms, and enjoying time together in the community garden on a nice spring day. Thanks to NC State student and Food Shuttle volunteer photographer, Graham Bruns, for taking the pictures!
View the rest of Graham's pictures from Mayview Community Garden.
We’ve selected our third Hands on Health neighborhood and are ready to get it going! Come out Saturday and help us work at the new Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's Community Garden at Alliance Medical Ministry.
VOLUNTEER TIME & EVENTS:
PAR (Plant a Row) Kickoff – sign up to become a member or drop off site!
LOCAVORE LUNCH - This week’s topic: Planning for the future of the Locavore Lunch.
Every Wednesday at noon we are holding local agricultural discussion groups at Farmhouse Pizza, 3011 Hillsborough St. in Raleigh. We will be serving a pizza made using some (hopefully soon to be all) local ingredients from NCSU's Farmers' Market. Please RSVP to Steve (steven.p.horton@gmail.com) so he knows many pizzas to have made. If you can contribute, he is asking for a $5 donation... if you can't afford the cost we’ll gladly cover you in return for good conversation! A portion of the proceeds will go to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. This week we will meet to discuss ideas and thoughts for this year’s locavore lunches including volunteer coordinators and guest speakers.
FARMS & GARDEN BLOG
Keep up with what’s going on with our Farms & Gardens and PAR programs through the IFFS blog farmsandgardens.wordpress.com. Use the blog to check out weekly ripe recipes, find yourself in photos of weekly crew calls, hear from other volunteers, and stay up to date with activities at IFFS. Let us know if you’re interested in contributing to the blog!
GARDEN SUPPLIES:
We are still in need of hand-tool donations. We gladly accept new and/or lightly used equipment. Thanks to all who have responded.
New Volunteer?
If you have not filled out a volunteer form or have a friend who is interested in helping out please email Janet at RGSJRS@aol.com.
Hope to see you all this week and weekend!
Katherine, Sun, Amanda, & Steve
The following is a blog from NC State student Holly Starks. It is the 1st in a series of 6 posts she will be writing chronicling her experience as a Nutrition Instructor for a OFL Class she is teaching. Holly is teaching OFL as part of a Service Learning Class that has teamed up North Carolina State Students with the Inter Faith Food Shuttle’s OFL/Nutrition Program. Through this partnership, the Food Shuttle and NC State hope to engage students in service learning and community nutrition while expanding the reach of its OFL program. After a successful graduation last week for our previous Operation Frontline class, Sara, Salena, Avram, and I started teaching a new group of families at the Crosby Head Start Center! This class is also learning the Side by Side curriculum which focuses on teaching families to cook and eat healthy together. By the end of the six weeks we hope that the families will be excited about making more meals at home with the family, and will be able to use helpful tips for cooking healthy with a budget and a busy schedule.
We started the families’ first lesson with nutrition, which introduced the new food pyramid to them. The families had not seen the new food pyramid and were surprised to see that it had changed. As a class we discussed what the different parts of the new pyramid now represent. For instance, the food groups are now represented as vertical instead of horizontal on the pyramid. This shows that each food group is important in the diet and that one group is not more important than the other. Many of the families were also surprised to learn that the oils are not part of the five food groups. Instead of resting at the top, the oils are represented as a small, vertical portion on the new food pyramid to show that they are not a food group but are still essential in the diet in very small amounts. By consuming the other five food groups, grains, meat and bean, dairy, fruits, and vegetables, we generally consume the amount of oils that we need each day.
I also taught the class that some groups appear larger than others because we need more of some food groups than others. For instance we need to consume more servings of grains than we do of meats and beans. Another interesting aspect to the new food pyramid is that the base of each group is larger at the bottom and gets smaller towards the top of the pyramid. This gradual decrease in size represents that there are some foods in each group that should be consumed more than other foods. For instance, in the dairy food group, low-fat options are going to be represented towards the bottom while higher fat options like whole milk and whole cheese will be closer to the top because they are less healthy options. Lastly, the addition of the stairs to the new food pyramid is important because they represent that being healthy includes both eating healthy and exercising. Exercise not only helps us to maintain our weight, but it also helps to reduce the risk of chronic disease and other illnesses. If you would like to learn more about the new food pyramid, check out the website at www.mypyramid.gov.
After the class learned about the new food pyramid, Avram introduced gardening to them by sharing some of his own family experiences and by reading a fun book about pumpkins to the kids. The cooking portion was then led by Sara, as she introduced the families to safety rules such as proper handling of a knife and proper hand washing. She also demonstrated some simple cutting techniques to help the parents cut up the veggies for the hearty egg burritos we made. The kids had fun cracking the eggs while the parents measured out the spices and herbs for the recipe. While the parents helped Sara cook the egg mixture in the kitchen, the rest of the instructors helped the kids grate the mozzarella cheese. When the mixture was done, Sara assembled the burritos for each family. Everyone expressed how delicious the burritos were as we sat around the tables eating together. It was exciting to see that the families made a goal to make the recipe again at home with their families. Join us again in two weeks to hear about what these families will learn about and get to create. There may be some gardening involved next time!
That's right, a month-long celebration of the ancient literary art that enriches our lives and societies. We'll be doing some special things on the Behind-The-Scenes blog to recognize this wonderful event. What does National Poetry Month have to do with innovative solutions to the problem of hunger? Not much! But one half of your loyal Communications Department toiled away for many moons in the mountains of North Carolina to get a coveted Bachelor of Arts in English (with a focus on poetry, American, early 20th century), so we'll figure out a way to make it work. But this celebration doesn't come without cost. The other half of the Comm. Dept. is not as enthused about our undertaking and the harmonius work environment we've worked so hard to develop is threatened! Such are the sacrifices that have to be made for poetry. To whet your appetite for the month ahead, here's a short poem from a Modernist Master. Maybe you remember this one from a freshman English class? Enjoy! and we'll have more tomorrow.
so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.
Today’s guest post is from Amanda Sajczuk, one of our hard working
Nutrition interns. You might remember Amanda from her previous guest blog post and her office workout video. She is the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Team Captain for the Pound for Pound Challenge at Meredith College, and has a passion for sharing fitness tips and healthy recipes through her personal blog. Her guest posts are just one of the many things that Amanda does to get the community involved and further the Challenge’s efforts!
Eating small healthy snacks between meals will keep your metabolism going and also keep you from being too hungry by the time your meal comes which will help you to not over-eat. Keep in mind that a good snack shouldn’t be more than 150-200 calories, should contain a protein and 1 other food group, and you should try not to over-snack between meals.
Items to Have on Hand:
Mix and Match Ideas:
Things to Avoid:
Dont forget that it's not too late to pledge for the Pound for Pound Challenge! Click here to find out how!
Who: Suzanne Szymendera What: Sorting after-school snacks into different bins for different locations for the BackPack Buddies Program.
When: Every Tuesday.
How long: A year and a half.
Why: "I just feel strongly that no child should be hungry, and whatever I can do to help I want to do!"
Suzanne sorting after-school snacks
To learn more about BackPack Buddies and what Suzanne is doing, click here!
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Chief Development Officer, Melissa Wanjert Hartzell, decided to pledge weight for a Pound for Pound challenge created by NBC’s The Biggest Loser, General Mills, Subway, 24 Hour Fitness and Feeding America. For every pound of weight participants pledge to lose, a pound of groceries will be delivered to a local food bank.
Hi, I'm Julia. I am a communication intern with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and have written a few blog posts on the Behind the Scenes blog about my first-hand experiences with the Food Shuttle! One of those experiences recently involved the Farm and Gardens crew. The work we did is more behind the scenes-type work, that you might not know about, and may give you a glimpse into what it takes in preparing for a new community garden opening. I spent my afternoon with them by helping canvass the surrounding neighborhoods for the new garden site out at Alliance Medical Ministry in Raleigh. We went to speak with residents in the surrounding neighborhoods to ask about their interest in the gardens and inviting them to a community forum that the Food Shuttle was holding on at Alliance Medical.
At the homes I went to while we were canvassing, everyone seemed really interested in the garden and what it could bring to their community! A lot of the people who I talked to were excited to have a garden in their community and were looking forward to seeing it bring the community together in a healthy way.
According to Sun Butler: The community garden at Alliance Medical Ministries holds great promise and will be a focal point for increasing awareness about the importance of good nutrition and fresh local produce in our diets. If you would like to volunteer, the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Alliance Community Garden will be a rewarding and exciting experience!
Canvassing itself was a unique experience, because it’s not very common anymore. I enjoyed being able to use my outgoing, friendly personality and interpersonal communication skills (I’m glad my major at NC State is being put to good use!) to greet these people and tell them about the Food Shuttle and our new garden. I also enjoyed spending a warm sunny afternoon with Amanda and getting to know her better! If you haven't met her yet, I highly recommend coming out to one of the Gardens on a Friday or Saturday and volunteering at a crew call and meeting her there!
The Alliance Medical Community Garden is now our 3rd community garden! We are really excited to get things going out there so that you have more opportunities to work at crew calls! Keep an eye out for updates on the Alliance Medical Community Garden!
The following post is written by NCSU student, Madelaine Frye. It is the first in a series of 5 blogs she will be writing chronicling her experience as Nutrition Instructor in her second section of spring OFL classes.Madelaine is teaching OFL as part of a Service Learning Class that has teamed up North Carolina State Students with the Inter Faith Food Shuttle’s OFL/Nutrition Program. Through this partnership the IFFS and NCSU hope to engage students in service learning and community nutrition while expanding the reach of its OFL program. Hello! My name is Madelaine Frye and you might remember me from blogging about the OFL Side by Side class held at the Knightdale Head Start Centerheld on Thursday afternoons from a few weeks ago. We just recently graduated one class and have now began another. Once again the stars of our class are parents and their pre-school children who are trying to learn the best way to live a healthy lifestyle and enjoy the wonderful benefits of cooking at home, safely and efficiently, with their families. Our Side by Side class is taught by myself, Madelaine Frye, (the nutritionist) and four other NC State students: Jay Seman the chef, Mary Andrews the class manager, Kelsey Wilson the community liaison, and Byron Green the gardener. We also have one fellow student, Victor Saxena, who volunteered to aid us with translation.
For our first class lesson, we discussed the sections of the food pyramid and how all of our favorite foods fit into the five food groups. The five food groups are grains, fruits, vegetables, milk, and meats and beans. Each family got to share their favorite foods and, along with their classmates, helped me place them in the correct categories. One thing we learned was that some food items, such as sandwiches, salads, and pizza, can fit into many groups at the same time! Sometimes we like foods that aren’t as healthy as others, which is why we should eat them in small amounts. Each of the five food groups gets skinnier at the top showing us that we should consume more of the healthier foods at the bottom and all of our treats in small amounts located at the top. It is always best to try to vary our food groups that we eat each day. Make it a fun goal to eat at least three different food groups in every meal!
In class, we also discussed the importance of exercise along with consuming nutritious meals, and how it is a step-by-step process on our main mission of eating healthy. We picked things that we like to do everyday that might help us exercise a little bit more than usual, such as jumping jacks, taking the stairs, playing on the playground, and walking our dogs. Some children even had examples of exercise moves that could be easily done in your home right before bedtime!
Gardener Byron spent some time sharing gardening experiences of his with the class and finding out some of the things that each family may have participated in on their own. Many of our fellow classmates had planted flowers and small vegetable plants before. We had a wonderful conversation about the reasons why we enjoy cooking at home and how much fun it can be to help out our families.
The most exciting part of our afternoon was learning cleanliness, knife safety,
and how to chop with Chef Jay. Both parents and their children learned “the claw”, which is a fun way that we all learned to hold our foods properly when we cut them to avoid any injuries. If we use the claw while cutting, there is no possible way to cut ourselves! We also learned the proper way to hold a knife, at the bolster with our thumb and index fingers holding either side of the knife. This ensures that we have the most control over the knife while using it. Also, if you move the knife back and forth like a saw, it will make the cutting process so much more smoothly. Cutting round vegetables can be very hard, so chef Jay taught us to always create a flat surface with our foods to help us have more control while cutting. Don’t forget to always wash your food before cooking with it!
At the end of the evening, we all sat down and enjoyed a scrumptious meal together. Cleaning up was also a group effort and was a fun end to an exciting day. All of us had a great class and are very excited to meet again in the five upcoming weeks!
The recipe we made this week was
Serves 4, 1 1/2 cups per serving
Ingredients:
Optional ingredients:
Directions:
TIP: If you cook more rice than is needed for this recipe, you can use it for another recipe later on in the week.
The following blog post is written by Madelaine Frye. It is the last blog post (be sure to catch up on week 1 , week 2 , week 3 ,week 4 and week 5 if you haven’t already!) in a series of 6 blogs she will be writing chronicling her experience as a Nutrition Instructor. Madelaine is teaching OFL as part of a Service Learning Class that has teamed up North Carolina State Students with the Inter Faith Food Shuttle’s OFL/Nutrition Program. Through this partnership the IFFS and NCSU hope to engage students in service learning and community nutrition while expanding the reach of its OFL program. Graduation day is finally here! My name is Madelaine Frye and I am a senior Nutrition student at NC State. I have been reporting to you all on how our Side By Side classes at the Knightdale Head Start location have been progressing through our six-week healthy lifestyle adventure. Week six in the OFL Side by Side class was full of excitement and anticipation for everyone to receive their diplomas!
This week in class we played a review board game in the form of Jeopardy, which went over all of fun and informational lessons we experienced in the first five weeks. The topics of the game included MyPyramid, fruits, vegetables, and grains, label reading, kitchen smarts, and planning family meals. The family pairs did a great job answering all of the questions and even our group of class teachers joined in on the fun. We learned a lot of new facts such as the many ways to defrost meats properly all while having a great time together.
After our game, we cooked up some quick recipes of baked chicken fingers and sweet potato fries. Working with raw meat is a difficult task but we all worked together and made sure to be as sanitary as possible. The children in our class wore gloves and loved helping roll the chicken in the yogurt and spices along with shaking them in the bag filled with Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. We made up a song as a class that every sang and enjoyed while we shook the chicken.
The afternoon ended much too soon but everyone was thrilled to eat as a group and enjoy the wonderful meal we had made together. Chef Jay also brought a dish that he had made at home with whole-wheat pasta, avocados, chicken and grated cheese. When asked what everyone’s favorite part of their class experience was, Nate stated that loved trying new recipes and enjoyed the baked chicken fingers the most. Annette loved the broccoli soup made in week two so much that she had already made it at home twice. All of the children enjoyed learning the parts of the plant with our Gardener Byron and had blossoming snap pea plants at home.
Congratulations to all of our graduates! Enjoy some of our favorite recipes at your home, too!
serves 8
Ingredients
Directions
Chef’s Notes:
*For extra flavor, try adding ¼ teaspoon of one of the following seasonings to the yogurt mixture: cayenne pepper, dried thyme, dried oregano, garlic powder, or paprika.
serves 6
Ingredients:
Directions:
Chef’s Notes:
*For easier cleanup, line the baking sheet with a layer of aluminum foil and coat with non-stick cooking spray before placing the sweet potatoes on the sheet.
*White baking potatoes can be substituted for all or part of the sweet potatoes.
*Increase the amount of cayenne pepper in the Cajun seasoning to make it spicier.
