Come out and join the fun this weekend!
Eating Veggies in the Garden
A group of 3rd and 4th graders visited the West End Neighborhood Community Garden on Thursday afternoon. IFFS’s Nutrition Education Program, Food Matters, was there to provide a healthy snack demonstration with recipes provided so the kids could make the snack again at home. The demonstration showed kids how to prepare their own lettuce wraps that are eaten like tacos for a healthy snack! Fillings included a mix of black beans and garbanzo beans, strips of peppers, cucumbers, onions, carrots with salsa and garden-fresh herbs, like cilantro and parsley, to top it off.
IFFS Durham Community Gardens coordinator Elizabeth Newman said,
"The kids ate the lettuce wraps like their bodies craved this wholesome food. We had a hard time getting them to stop eating so we could do some gardening activities. It was pure pleasure to watch them eat this super healthy snack with such gusto!"
A few neighborhood kids came to play basketball next to the garden and they were interested in what these other kids were doing. The Food Matters crew invited them over, and they dove into the lettuce wraps, too. The jar of salsa was all but empty, but one little boy pushed his lettuce down into the jar to scrape the sides of the jar and then licked his whole hand, which was covered in salsa! The participants took bags of lettuce and peppers home with them, and ran back to say thank you before they left.
Elizabeth added, "That one Food Matters nutrition experience was worth a million dollars. I’m sure those children will think differently about all those veggies next time they see them."
Alchemy!
Teens at Parrish Manor made breakfast burritos with eggs, beans, and veggies as well as pineapple and cucumber salsa...
After a tasty meal, we composted the scraps in the neighborhood community garden!
YFTP Apprentices and PAR "Dig In!"
Kicking off the 2012 Spring Workshops for IFFS Nutrition, Farms, and Gardens, on Saturday, March 10th, we took part in Wake Advocates for Health in Action (AHA) “Dig In!” event for school, community, and backyard gardeners at Marbles Kids Museum. There were two tracks for participants - one for those interested in starting a garden and one for those who already maintain a garden interested in taking it to the next level. The IFFS Young Farmer Training Apprentices (YFTP) also led their own workshop! The apprentices talked to the group about farming, gardening, and making your garden the right fit for you, whether you’re young and spry or not, what your interests are, and what will most engage you in the garden. They also asked participants to consider what they want out of their gardens both specifically and generally, what they're willing to put into it, and what the land they're working with can do. They talked about garden layout and organization and also shared some of their favorite plants!
The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Plant-a-Row for the Hungry program was there with an educational booth to tell folks all about how to become a member and donate their homegrown produce to their neighbors in need.
2012 Spring Workshop Schedule for IFFS Nutrition, Farms, & Gardens
We’ve planned a great spring full of opportunities to learn and share about growing, cooking and eating healthfully. Please join us as often as you can on the farm and in the gardens to grow our community health and wealth. Everyone is welcome!
* Please see each workshop description for fees based on instruction materials. IFFS always provides scholarships and work exchange options to make sure everyone can join us . All proceeds go towards the IFFS Nutrition, Farm & Garden programs. Please note many workshops request an RSVP.
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Dig In!
Saturday, March 10th
Marbles Kids Museum, Raleigh
Across Wake County, people are digging into gardening--in their backyards, at schools, churches, and in neighborhoods...just about anywhere they can find some dirt and sun. AHA presents Dig In on March 10 in Raleigh to help gardeners and budding gardeners start and maintain gardens in the Triangle. IFFS YFTP Apprentices will be leading their very own workshop. Registration is $10, but space is limited so register now at www.advocatesforhealthinaction.org
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Meredith College 4th Annual Film Feastival: FOOD STAMPED
Sunday, March 25 7-9pm
Meredith College, Jones Hall Auditorium, Raleigh
4th Annual Film Feastival description: The Durham-Chapel Hill Dietetic Association and Meredith College Master of Science in Nutrition Program, and Inter-Faith Food Shuttle are proud to present the 4th Annual Film Feastival - Featuring Food Stamped, with guest panelist, filmmaker Yoav Potash; and a special display of The Hunger Project - A Portrait of Hunger in North Carolina, by photographer Donn Young.
Proceeds benefit Inter-Faith Food Shuttle!
Registration & more information: http://filmfeastival.blogspot.com/
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Seed & Seedling & Scion Swap and Potluck
Saturday, March 17 11am-1pm
IFFS Teaching Farm, 4505 Tryon Rd, Raleigh
Calling all gardeners! Bring your extra seeds, seedlings, and scion wood from fruit trees, meet new friends, and share a delicious potluck meal at our teaching farm. Tours will be available, please bring your own envelopes/bags for seeds, and your own plate/utensils for lunch.
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Home Gardening & Beekeeping; Community Garden Collaborative: Growing Together series
Sunday, March 18th 1-3:00pm
Home of Kristin & Joel Bulpit in Cary
To promote sharing urban gardening knowledge and skills, IFFS is working with local experts and educators to offer FREE monthly workshops in community and backyard gardens around Wake County through the Community Garden Collaborative: Growing Together. Participants will learn from each other and experts, plus have hands-on time to work on a garden project for the host garden.
Join us for an introductory workshop on beekeeping with Patrick Hartzell at the home of Kristin and Joel Bulpitt. We’ll start with a tour of Kristin & Joel’s yard to see a successful example of growing fresh fruits, vegetables & honey within city limits. Patrick will then discuss the components of a hive, basic bee info (types of bees in a hive, honeybee life cycle, honey production), and the role of a beekeeper. Afterwards, Kristin will lead a few short activities and projects that will allow for hands-on learning about beehives and seasonal planting. Please RSVP to Amanda by Friday, March 16th at Amanda@foodshuttle.org
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Summer Crops Planting Workshop
Saturday, March 24th 10am-12pm
IFFS Teaching Farm, 4505 Tryon Rd, Raleigh
April is just around the corner so start planning your summer plantings right away! The key to a successful summer garden is to plant early and often. Multiple plantings assure a steady supply of early summer greens and root crops and mid to late summer tomatoes, melons, squash, beans, corn and peppers right up until the first fall frost. Come learn with us! In addition to planting and planning tips, we’ll also cover weed suppression and beneficial bug habitats to keep your garden growing through the Dog Days. Time’s a wasting! Sign up now! $10; RSVP by March 29th to Sun@foodshuttle.org
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IFFS Spring Fling – Farm Festival for the whole family!
Sunday, April 1st 12pm-3pm
IFFS Teaching Farm, 4505 Tryon Rd, Raleigh
Join Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in ending hunger and celebrating the abundance of our Raleigh farm!
12:00 – 1:00 chef demo, food, music
1:00 - 1:30 farm tour
1:00 – 2:00 kids activities: grow your garden (with a plant to take home!), natural egg dying, egg hunt, photo scavenger hunt, face-painting, games and more!
1:30 – 3:00 workshops: farm healthy cooking and composting demonstration
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Grow & Share 2012 Seed & Seedling Giveaway and Festival
Saturday, April 14, 12-5pm
Norris Creek Outdoor Entertainment Complex, 751 Old Halifax Road - Louisburg, NC 27549
Live music, food, and fun. FREE plants and seeds in exchange for signing a pledge to share with your community! Learn how to grow fresh veggies to help feed the hungry. IFFS will be at the festival to promote healthy, seasonal cooking on a budget. We will have interactive nutrition games with prizes and prepared foods from our farm for seasonal taste testing.
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Organic Pest Control in Your Garden
Sunday, April 22nd 2:00-4:00pm
The Wedge Garden
To promote sharing urban gardening knowledge and skills, IFFS is working with local experts and educators to offer FREE monthly workshops in community and backyard gardens around Wake County through the Community Garden Collaborative: Growing Together. Participants will learn from each other and experts, plus have hands-on time to work on a garden project for the host garden.
Come celebrate Earth Day by learning how to control common garden pests without toxic pesticides! Join Master Gardener and Master Composter Connie Schultz and Ana Duncan Pardo of Toxic Free NC in Raleigh on Sunday, April 22nd from 2-4 p.m.
We'll cover how to control common garden pests (such as squash bugs, harlequin beetles and squash vine borers) WITHOUT using toxic chemicals that can harm our health and the environment. We'll start with a short discussion on the role of pests and beneficial insects in the garden, as well as a brief overview of the concerns around pesticide use. Then we'll move next door to the Wedge Community Garden to discuss and demonstrate pesticide-free strategies for combating pests. Afterwards, Connie will lead a demonstration on how to create a healthy, functional compost bin! Please RSVP to Amanda by Friday, April 20th at Amanda@foodshuttle.org
About the presenters:
Ana Duncan Pardo has a BS in Botany from NC State, is the Communications Coordinator at Toxic Free North Carolina , and is one of the founders of the Wedge Community Garden.
Connie Schultz holds an Advanced Master Gardener certificate in Sustainable Gardening, and volunteers with Johnston County Cooperative Extension and the NC Community Garden Partners . Connie is a member of Toxic Free NC's Community Leadership Council .
WHERE:
Multi purpose room at the Alexander Family YMCA 1603 Hillsborough St. Go to the front desk and ask to be directed to the multi-purpose room.
Please call Ana if you have any trouble locating the YMCA or the garden: 919-818-5933.
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Composting in the Garden at Enloe High School Community Garden
Saturday in May
Location & Time TBD (check our website again soon for updated information)
To promote sharing urban gardening knowledge and skills, IFFS is working with local experts and educators to offer FREE monthly workshops in community and backyard gardens around Wake County through the Community Garden Collaborative: Growing Together. Participants will learn from each other and experts, plus have hands-on time to work on a garden project for the host garden.
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Growing a Gourmet Garden
Saturday, May 12th 10am-12pm
IFFS Teaching Farm, 4505 Tryon Rd, Raleigh
There is so much more to the Southern garden than Better Boy tomatoes, yellow squash, Silver Queen corn and Lima beans. Heirloom tomatoes, mixed baby lettuce, fingerling potatoes, purple mustard greens and Candy Cane beets are just a few to whet your appetite. Learn how to spice up your garden and turn your meals into a thru-the-garden gourmet experience. Then come back next week for the mushroom workshop and Bon Appetit! $10; RSVP by May 7th to Sun@foodshuttle.org.
Apple Crisp
During a celebratory Cooking Matters class graduation, kids at the Lyon Park Community Center in Durham make apple crisp using whole grain oats, whole wheat flour, and fresh apples!
Cooking from the Garden
The following story is written by IFFS garden and Cooking Matters volunteer Kevin McDonough. Kevin is currently volunteering in a Cooking Matters for Teens class at the Durham Teen Center. Before class, Kevin frequently walks with the teens down to the IFFS West End Neighborhood Community Garden to harvest greens and herbs to use in class. A lot of what the Food Shuttle accomplishes happens in brief moments or almost-unnoticeable exchanges. Something is shared, something is learned or realized, a connection is made. It is these immeasurable events that make our work powerful and meaningful.
One such event happened just before a recent Cooking Matters class at the Durham Teen Center. As the garden contact for the class, I walk with some of the teens to the nearby IFFS community garden to harvest greens. A supervisor at the Teen Center, Mr. Q, joined us on this walk. As we meandered our way through the streets of the West End Neighborhood, Mr. Q spoke to me about the lack of opportunity in the neighborhood and how a lot of kids just grow up in this neighborhood without ever being exposed to anything different. A lot of what he said was not new to me but, in this particular instance, there was a certain depth and reality to it that I had never experienced before. To discuss these issues in a meeting or classroom is one thing, but to walk the streets where this is reality and to be with the youth who are living that reality is totally different. I think the teens (who weren’t paying attention to us), Mr. Q, and myself, were all, to different degrees, unaware of what his message was communicating in that moment. In looking back on it, however, I think that moment gave me a glimpse into the lives of these youth that I had not had before. It was a sort of shift in perspective that is hard to re-create or explain.
When we reached the garden, it was Mr. Q who would have his own shift in perspective. With a little bit of encouragement from myself and one of the braver teens, the whole group tried tasting mustards greens, broccoli, arugula, and cilantro. Some thought it was disgusting and some liked what they tried. There was a mixture of excitement and nervousness as we walked around the garden beds. For Mr. Q, it seemed to be a sort of revelation. He made such exclamations as: “you can eat that?!” and “this tastes just like mustard!” (referring to mustard greens). His enthusiasm about trying things and excitement about these plants actually being edible seemed to charge the teens and make them more willing to try things themselves. His excitement grew to the point that he felt he had to call his wife and tell her what had happened. In his conversation with her, he told her that they were going to plant their own garden at their house.
As we made our way back to the Teen Center, Mr. Q and I talked about growing food as something that nourishes and empowers people. He was so receptive and enthusiastic about all these ideas and seemed to be making all sorts of connections about the garden and food and the meaning of community gardening.
Later that day, after the cooking class, I was reflecting about what had happened in our visit to the garden. The thought just dawned on me: “this is exactly what community gardening is about!” I laughed a bit and said to myself: “that was it!”
Learn more about Cooking Matters, IFFS Nutrition Education programs, Community Gardens, and volunteer opportunities at our website. www.foodshuttle.org
IFFS Mobile Markets & Food Matters
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle holds over 30 Mobile Markets a month in Wake, Durham, Orange, Edgecombe, Nash, Chatham, and Johnston counties. Once a month, we bring fresh produce and groceries to communities in need. At many of these Mobile Markets, Food Matters, one of our Nutrition Education programs, provides quick, easy, healthy cooking demonstrations and tasty, healthy samples. The recipes incorporate the types of seasonal produce available that day at the mobile market, so everyone can try cooking it at home!
You can become a nutrition volunteer at mobile markets, too! Find out more on our website here.
Tough Choices
Do you know where your next meal is coming from? Have you ever had to choose between buying food to feed your family and paying your bills? Feeding America, the national network of Food Banks of which we are a member, created this interactive tool to simulate these tough decisions that too many of our neighbors are forced to make on a too regular basis. Having to face these decisions unfortunately is not an uncommon phenomenon – one in four children in North Carolina is hungry. Each day there are thousands of people in our community who wake up hungry and have no means to satisfy this basic human need. Some have lost their jobs. Some hold two jobs. The challenges of daily survival for these individuals and their families are daunting and don't simply disappear. At the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, we not only rescue and distribute food to those who need it, we also teach people and communities how to grow their own food with workshops and programming in our community gardens and on our teaching farms, empowering them to take back control of their food choices. We equip them with the knowledge and skills to grow, select, and prepare healthy foods at home on a limited budget through our nutrition education programs like Cooking Matters. We work to feed, teach, and grow, addressing both access and income barriers to food security.
We also work on income and economic development solutions, providing an opportunity for those who may be going through the lines at soup kitchens and shelters to break the cycle of poverty. These solutions include:
- Culinary Job Training Program – we provide an opportunity for life-challenged individuals to break the cycle of poverty and gain culinary skills needed for steady employment in the food service. The 11 week intensive courses are taught by professional chefs, a job placement counselor, and a case manager. Students transform raw product that arrives in our warehouse into healthy, appetizing meals to be distributed on our trucks to agencies that feed the hungry.
- Catering with a Cause program hires graduates from our CJTP program and serves as an extended training program for CJTP graduates to learn catering-specific skills before beginning a career in the food service industry. Meals are prepared in the kitchens of our headquarters and InterAct's Family Safety and Empowerment Center, and the program generates revenue to help fund our hunger-relief programs.
- Young Farmer Training Program – this paid multi-year farming apprenticeship teaches teens in Wake County how to co-design and implement profitable farm plans, market their farm products while keeping good records, cook and share healthy meals, teach the community about farming and gardening, and advocate for a better food system.
- Second Chances: Inter-Faith Food Shuttle actively hires people who have faced adversity. 46% of our staff including full-time, part-time, and interns have faced employment adversity.
You can help - take the “Tough Choices Challenge.” Just taking the challenge provides a day’s worth of meals for a person in need through Feeding America.
Another interactive tool created by one of our partner agencies, Urban Ministries of Durham, to simulate tough choice: http://playspent.org/
Learn more about how we feed, teach, and grow here: www.foodshuttle.org
Become a Nutrition Volunteer!
For more information or email Nutrition@foodshuttle.org.