Bill Shore and Jeff Bridges of Share Our Strength have been named by Whole Living Magazine as food visionaries who are "changing our food world for the better." Read the article and see what other people are revolutionizing the way we look at food!
A Post-Halloween Treat: Little Goblins and BackPack Buddies
The Riehs family (Lorie and Arno, and their daughter Katelyn) loves Halloween, and they love planning fun Halloween parties. But for the second year in a row, they decided to make their annual Little Goblins Halloween Party an event with a cause. They asked their friends to consider supporting Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s BackPack Buddies program, which provides weekend meals to children in need across the Triangle area, reaching almost 1500 hungry kids. The Riehs family knows that we can reach more. They offered to match each dollar donated up to a total of $500….and together they raised almost a thousand dollars, plus pantry items for BackPacks! In addition, Lorie Riehs’s employer, Cisco, has a matching program, which brings the grand total up to $1500! That will ensure that at least 4 more children will have weekend meals for an entire year!
Lorie Riehs and her husband Arno decided to support Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s BackPack Buddies program after Lorie became involved stuffing BackPacks at a work team event with Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina. Lorie says,
“Providing healthy food options to children in our community touched our family, especially given we have a 3 year old at home. As first time parents, we also wanted creative ways to encourage our daughter to help others and give back to her community. Seeing the children arrive at our home, dressed in costumes and helping parents carry canned food, is priceless. My greatest wish is that our family provides learning opportunities for the children and parents that join us, as well as encouragement for each member of our community to come up with their own creative ways to fight to end hunger. We are already looking forward to next year!”
Efforts like those of the Riehs are truly inspiring to us at Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, and make it clear to us both that we are a part of a wonderful and caring community, and that it is by all working together that we will truly be able to end hunger.
You can find out more about BackPack Buddies on our website here, and start your own fundraiser here!
Part 3: Gardening Class for Teens at Parrish Manor
Students from NC State University (NCSU) have partnered with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle to conduct a gardening class for teens in the community garden we manage at Parrish Manor, meeting once a week from Sept. 27 - Nov. 15. On the day I visited, NCSU Soil Science students Natalie and Jacob were teaching a lesson on compost. They brought with them a bag of un-enriched potting soil and some finished compost. As an experiment, they asked the class participants to fill 6 mason jars with the following: Potting soil + vegetable scraps; Potting soil + paper scraps; Potting soil + plastic scraps; Compost + vegetable scraps; Compost + paper scraps; Compost + plastic scraps.
The teens in the class then talked about which material might break down the fastest, considering factors like the amount of micro-organisms present, the amount of nitrogen, etc. Their hypotheses: The vegetables will break down in compost fastest, and the plastic in potting soil will break down slowest. They’ll monitor the jars in the coming weeks to see if their hypotheses are correct.
Natalie and Jacob also taught the class about waste management and jobs that involve waste treatment and composting. They began the lesson by asking the class to draw where they think waste from our toilets goes after it’s flushed, and ended by highlighting ecological waste water treatment practices like those in the EcoVillage of Findhorn, Scotland. They discussed job opportunities in composting, such as vermicomposting mico-enterprises, where such nutrient-rich worm castings are sold as natural fertilizer, and composting operations like CompostNow (another IFFS partner). It was clear to me these teens were seriously interested in this stuff –Kiara, who also works in the garden, is even thinking about changing her major at Wake Tech to something involving agriculture!
The following week, they nailed together compost bins for the garden, and the teens got to create their own vermicomposting bins!
Fun fact: Did you know that worms can eat twice their body weight in one day? Wow!
See what else has been happening in the Parrish Manor community and community garden in Part 1and Part 2 of this series.
Part 2: Youth Work in Parrish Manor Community Garden
In checking out what's been going on over at Parrish Manor lately, I also had a chance to talk with three young people who Inter-Faith Food Shuttle has employed to work in the community garden with Lara Khalil, our Wake County Community Gardens Coordinator and Urban Ag Program Manager. Seth, age 13, Kiara, age 20, Seth, and Mario, age 14, all pictured above, have been out there working in the soil three days a week since this summer.
Kiara says her favorite part of working in the garden is “…getting to see the hard work you put into it shown by growing. That’s my favorite part, just watching it grow.” She had grown vegetables in containers before, but had never really worked in a garden. Now she said she has learned about leaf mulching, what compost is, and what kind of things you can compost! “Like table scraps!” Mario added. Mario likes planting, digging, and getting rid of old roots in the garden.
The youth have also been working to put up a fence around the garden, weeding, watering, composting the old plants, and getting the garden ready for fall.
They also learned more about the benefits of using leaf mulch on garden beds to slow the growth of weeds, retain moisture, protect the beds, and put organic matter back into the soil over time.
I was impressed by the knowledge they have gained from working in the garden already. Seth had even done some research on kohlrabi before planting it – I had only heard of the vegetable a few months ago, and, I confess, have yet to try it. But the kids in the Cooking Matters class seemed very willing to try new things, so perhaps I’ll take a note from them and pick some up at the Farmers Market this week!
Another benefit of working in the garden for these young people is getting to bring the fresh food they’ve grown back home to their families. Kiara says she brings jalapeno peppers to her uncle, and her grandfather is always asking for peppers, too. She says her grandmother, who lives in Parrish Manor as well, is sick of peppers, but she’ll never be sick of sweet potatoes! Kiara and her grandmother have that love for sweet potatoes in common. The sweet tubers are her favorite thing that’s come out of the garden so far. She says, “sweet potatoes are unique tasting.”
Of the garden, Kiara says, “Whatever is grown there is welcome for everyone to take – it is a community garden.”
With no grocery stores nearby, the garden provides a bounty of fresh food to residents to eat – but it’s also a place where they can learn how to grow their own food, connect to the Earth, learn about where their food comes from, get some physical activity, and develop gardening and leadership skills. Not only do they know where the fresh veggies on their kitchen table came from – they can take pride in having had a hand in growing them and providing for themselves.
Check back soon to learn about a gardening class for teens that students from NC State have partnered with us to run at Parrish Manor - compost and worms, oh my!
Cooking Matters and More at Parrish Manor
Community. Opportunity. Learning. That’s what is growing at a place called Parrish Manor, a manufactured housing community where Inter-Faith Food Shuttle works with neighborhood teens to manage a community garden. Chris Parrish, who runs the park along with his father, Charles Parrish, has aimed to create a place that provides not just a home, but a community full of activity that prioritizes health, wellness, and opportunity. Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is proud to be a partner in these efforts, employing young people to work in the community garden, hosting nutrition and cooking classes, and partnering with NC State University (NCSU) Soil Science students to host gardening classes for teens.
Cooking Matters
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle recently conducted classes for third to fifth graders based on our Cooking Matters for Kids curriculum. These cooking-based nutrition education courses are designed to teach low-income adults, families, teens, and kids how to prepare healthy, tasty meals on a limited budget.
I had the great fortune to sit in on the second class, which focused on fresh fruits and vegetables. The kids were asked to try each kind of fruit or vegetable and record its color, texture, size, and taste, deciding whether they liked it…or whether it was something they might try again later. Describing a whole kiwi that the group passed around, one participant noted, “it’s kind of squishy, and really rough!’
At the end of the exercise, nutrition instructor Katie asked each member of the class to name their favorite sample from the ones they tasted, and one fruit or vegetable they tasted but had previously never tried.
The class also talked about where the food they were trying comes from, and what parts of the plant different fruits and vegetables are (roots, stems, leaves). How fortunate that these kids can also venture out the Parrish Manor community garden and see some of the things they tasted growing right now!
Cooking Matters classes teach culinary skills, too, so kids can learn how to make simple and healthy meals for themselves at home.
The group made veggie wraps with zucchini, onion, carrots, lettuce, fresh herbs, cheese, avocado spread, and hummus on whole-grain tortillas.
Some kids got a little over-zealous filling their tortillas with the fresh cut veggies – proud of their hard work, their eyes were a bit bigger than their stomachs – or mouths!
When everyone had assembled their wrap, they sat down to eat together with a fruit salad made with the types of fruit they had tasted earlier.
Check back soon to find out more about what's happening in the community garden!
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and Food Day 2012: Eating Real, for Everyone
Food Day is a nationwide celebration of and movement toward more healthy, affordable, and sustainable food culminating in a day of action on October 24 every year. Created by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest and driven by a diverse coalition of food movement leaders and citizens, Food Day aims to bring us closer to a food system with “real food” that is produced with care for the environment, animals, and the women and men who grow, harvest, and serve it. This year, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is participating in Food Day events all across the Triangle! We believe it is crucial to increase access to “real food,” empower people to meet their own food needs and grow a secure, healthy, just, and sustainable local food system that feeds everyone healthy, nutritious food. All of our programs address the two main barriers to food security: lack of income to purchase enough food and lack of access to enough healthy, nutritious food. Find us at these events to learn more:
- UNC Chapel Hill’s Food Day Film Festival– UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health will be hosting a four-day Food Day Film Festival on UNC’s campus. Each day will feature a film that touches on a specific Food Day priority, and each film will be followed by an expert panel discussion that delves deeper into the film’s topic and provides an opportunity to engage in conversation. All films will be screened at 7:00 pm and are open to the public.
- On Monday, Oct 22, Ricky Bratz, our Young Farmer Training Program Coordinator will speak on a panel following the film The Greenhorns
- On Wednesday, Oct 24, Maurice Small, our Urban Ag Program Educator, will speak on a panel following the film, Food Forward.
- UNC Chapel Hill’s Food Day Fair Wednesday, Oct 24. 11am-1pm, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Hooker Atrium. Learn more about how local organizations like Inter-Faith Food Shuttle are working to promote access to healthy, affordable, and sustainable food for all people in the Triangle area. Come talk to our Nutrition Education team to learn more about the work we do to increase food access and justice, and how you can get involved.
- Duke Real Food Campaign’s “Food for Thought: A Dinner Celebration on Chapel Quad” An outdoor dinner will be held on Chapel Quad 5:00-6:30pm at Duke University to support Real Food - food that is community based, fair, humane, and ecologically sound. Our Local Produce Coordinator Lindsay Perry will be there along with students, faculty, farmers, activists, food providers, and sustainable restaurants to share a meal and ideas about how we can make a more sustainable food system possible.
- Meredith College’s Food Day 2012 – We’ll also be at Meredith’s first-ever food event 11a-2pm in Meredith’s Belk Courtyard. Find us among farmers, fresh produce, chefs, vendors, chickens, a beekeeper, and more! The purpose of the fair is to educate attendees what real food is and what contributes to producing, consuming and procuring food in relation to the consumer, the environment, producers and community.
Find us at these events, or volunteer with us to make EVERY DAY a Food Day. Find out more about our programs at www.FoodShuttle.org
Connecting for Local Food Access at NC WIC Conference Reception
Last week, two members of our Nutrition Education team, Food Matters Coordinator Katherine Moser and Nutrition VISTA Morgan Medders, attended the NC WIC Conference reception, Making a Difference with the NC 10% Campaign held at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center in Durham. The NC 10% Campaign encourages consumers to commit 10 percent of their existing food dollars to support local food producers, related businesses, and communities in order to build North Carolina's local food economy. At Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, we are committed to growing a local food economy that is accessible to all and feeds everyone healthy, nutritious food. At the reception, Katherine and Morgan were able to talk to attendees about Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's proactive hunger-relief programs. They also had the opportunity to talk with WIC directors and nutritionists from across the state about the Shopping Matters for WIC Parents curriculum, which entails guided grocery store tours that help low-income adults to make healthy and affordable choices at the supermarket. Our nutrition education programs aim to educate and empower our neighbors and community to select, grow, and prepare nutritious foods on a limited budget. Participants in Shopping Matters tours learn information and practice skills that help them to understand how to purchase fruits and vegetables economically, save money by comparing prices, and make healthier choice by reading food labels and ingredients lists.
This video about our field gleaning program, which makes local food more accessible by helping to get fresh produce from local farmers' fields into the hands of those in need, was played during the reception.
The NC WIC program also held a food drive at the evening reception benefiting IFFS’s BackPack Buddies program, which provides weekend meals for children in need!
What a great event for raising awareness of the importance of nutrition education and building a secure, healthy, sustainable, and just local food economy as key pieces in the fight to end hunger!
Cooking Matters Graduation!!
This Wednesday evening eight adult participants graduated from Cooking Matters at Alliance Medical Ministry in Raleigh! With help from an amazing team of volunteer instructors, these ladies learned new cooking techniques and shopping strategies to benefit themselves and their families. Some of the recipes they tried out in class included ratatouille, vegetable pizza, and herb roasted chicken and vegetables. For their final celebration together they showed off knife skills and food prep know-how while making a delicious peach salsa, baked whole wheat tortilla chips, black-eyed pea and corn salad, and hummus! The group also reflected on their favorite recipes and new-found knowledge:
"I learned how to use eggplant in many different ways. That's something I never knew before!"
"Before, I never washed my canned goods, but now I ALWAYS wash them!"
"My favorite recipes were the pizza and herb roasted chicken. I feel a lot more comfortable cooking meats."
"Now, I buy the whole chicken and cut it up. It's a lot cheaper; and now that I know how to do it, it doesn't seem as much of a chore."
"This class really helped me focus on eating healthy, and paying attention to my health. I really enjoyed everything."
Great work team!
Cooking Matters Class Graduates!
All fifteen participants graduated last Wednesday from the Cooking Matters for Adults class at Community Workforce Solutions in Raleigh. Participants were enthusiastic as they learned from their wonderful volunteer instructors about knife skills, reading food labels, and new recipes for healthy snacks that they can prepare themselves. Some of the recipes they tried included Mini Pizzas, Baked Pita Chips with Hummus, Peanut Butter Banana Roll Ups, and Barley Jambalaya. Check out the photos of some of the great foods they put together in class! Community Workforce Solutions is an organization dedicated to supporting persons with disabilities or other barriers to employment as each individual strives to achieve the employment and community integration goals of their choice.
You Can CompostNow!
Looking for a new way to support Inter-Faith Food Shuttle? Want to start composting? Here’s your chance! We recently partnered with CompostNow, a community food waste shuttle. They’ll pick up your food scraps, compost them into nutrient rich soil that's great for growing produce, and give the soil to us for our community gardens! All you have to do is go to http://compostnow.org/ and click "Sign up and support this garden."
Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture are one way Inter-Faith Food Shuttle partners with communities to improve health and nutrition. We provide the agricultural education to empower community members to take control of their food choices and increase their access to fresh produce. The process provides leadership development, community building, and physical activity, as well. At many of the urban sites where our gardens are located— in communities most in need of fresh produce— the soil is either too contaminated or too poor to grow food. What’s the solution? Building raised beds on top of the ground! In order to do this, we need to bring in new soil, and composting is vital to our efforts. In fact, we require more than 40,000 pounds of compost each year. Help us build community health, wealth, and security by donating your compost. Every bit counts!
Composting is another great way to reduce food waste - something Inter-Faith Food Shuttle tries to do at every level of the food system. We rescued over 7.1 million pounds of good food last year across the Triangle that otherwise would have gone to the garbage, making sure it got into hungry hands instead.
While the bits and pieces of food scraps and old food you might throw in the garbage may not be good for human consumption any more, they are still full of nutrients that are great for worm and micro-organism consumption, and can be turned back into soil to grow more food. It' s all part of a sustainable cycle! Compost reduces the amount of the greenhouse gas methane that landfills produce when food waste is added, it helps retain water and nutrients in soil, and it reduces the need for fertilizer and pesticides-- so it's better for the earth, too! It’s a winning situation all around, and it just makes sense.