School Garden: the perfect marriage of ideas

An inspiring example of what Slow Food members are doing all over the country, and a great way to protect yourself from the winter blues.

by Slow Food USA intern Becca Chelton

At this time of year we are right in the middle of the harvest, and we will soon have a long winter to get through. However, it’s never too soon to start looking forward to the spring, especially if you have a new school garden to plan. One Slow Food NYC member has a new school garden project in the works that will bring a much needed school farm to Brownsville, Brooklyn. It’s an inspiring example of what Slow Food members are doing all over the country, and a great way to protect yourself from the winter blues. The project is being spearheaded by Nora Painten, who spent this summer running a very successful summer garden program for the local children. Seeing the overwhelming support of the community inspired Nora to start a new farm in a vacant lot near Public School 323.

“I was working in Brownsville this past summer, and every day I would bike past a lot of vacant lost, but this one stood out because it was big and sunny, so I looked it up and it turns out that it was owned by the city. I wasn’t totally sure that I would be this supported and encouraged, but since I have, it’s been moving really fast and snowballing. There is a public school about half a block away, which I had never noticed, but once I found the space and started looking into the school, it was just the perfect marriage of ideas.”

Nora’s plans include a new water system (as there is currently no water running to the property), growing beds, and fencing. These three basic elements will allow them to start sowing seeds, planting flowers, fruit trees and perennials, and installing a chicken coop.

If everything goes according to plan, classes will start in May 2012. Teachers of all subjects can teach aspects of their curriculum in the garden. A core group of older students will become garden stewards, who help tend it over the summer and distribute fresh food throughout the community. This project is just one example of how an individual member can make a huge difference to a community in need. Nora spoke to us about how she got inspired.

“The most important part of the project is to bring food education and fresh produce into a neighborhood where there is very little of that. Diabetes and other health problems can be avoided by a decent food education. I think it’s important to consider all neighborhoods in NYC when thinking about greening cities and gardens. Often it’s done in places where people can afford to spend time thinking about these things. It’s about getting to all kids early and turning them into life long healthy eaters. If they become healthy eaters as kids, that turns into demand and buying power at the farmers market and for local food products.”

Nora hopes to have the necessary funds raised by November 27th so that she can start clearing out the lot over the winter and making plans for construction in the spring. Donors are invited to get involved in the garden on it’s completion. See the garden’s donation page for more details on what the garden will look like, and how you can help. So far they have reached 60% of their goal. If you have questions or would like to get involved, you can contact Nora at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Budget cuts could be a recipe for change or disaster

Congress is planning dramatic cuts to the American budget and anything and everything is on the chopping block. The agricultural sector is likely to take a big hit but will the special Congressional “super committee” make positive change or keep pandering to Big Ag?

Behind closed doors, lobbyists for food system giants are pressing lawmakers to continue the status quo or make cuts elsewhere. Whose belts do they think should be tightened?

• NUTRITION: nutrition programs that provide critical access to food in this time of economic crisis. These programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called “food stamps”), the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and affordable school lunch. When nearly 50 million people in the U.S. live in constant threat of hunger, cutting the budget for these programs is an outrage.
• JOB CREATION: programs that support family farms, create jobs, and keep money in rural communities. In a recent letter to the co-chairs of the “super committee,” House Agricultural Committee Chair, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D, ME) wrote “While efforts to reduce the federal deficit remain paramount, we must place an equal if not greater emphasis on policy changes that will put Americans to work and boost economic growth. Local food systems can yield significant benefits to the economy and create thousands of jobs. According to a recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a modest amount of funding or 100-500 farmers markets could create as many as 13,500 jobs over a five-year period.”
• SUPPORT FOR FARMERS AND FARMLAND: a hodgepodge of programs to address environmental quality and to provide essential support to vegetable farmers, beginning farmers, and socially-disadvantaged farmers. One of the most puzzling parts of the Food and Farm bill is that the majority of the foods that we eat (things like vegetables, fruits, and beef) are referred to as “specialty crops.” Cutting the already meager portion of Food and Farm Bill funding that goes to producers that make real food- not corn for ethanol and animal feed- is egregious. As the average age of US farmers steadily reaches retirement age (the majority of farmers today are in their 60s) it’s critical to the future of our food and agricultural economy that we continue to support the next generation of farmers, especially those from diverse communities. Related to that is ensuring that developed farmland continues to be used to grow food instead of being developed and thus saying goodbye to the investments that generations of farmers have made to the soil and surrounding terrain. And yet programs for supporting new farmers and farmland conservation are instead treated like an ATM for subsidies for Big Ag. Under a Senate Ag committee proposal, these programs could lose up to $4 billion. That’s nearly 20% of their current budget.
• FOOD SAFETY: FDA funding which goes towards (already underfunded) farm inspectors who we need more of to keep us safe from outbreaks of food-borne illness. Unless the “super committee” comes up with a better plan, FDA funding could be reduced by nearly $200 million from the 2011 level. This would lead to fewer FDA staff, including those who inspect our domestic and imported foods. Large food facilities are already sorely under-inspected- just look to recent deadly food-borne illnesses in eggs, cantaloupe, and spinach.

That’s no way to balance a budget: that’s a recipe for disaster.

Click here to tell the super committee to follow our recipe for change.

More after the jump

Celebrate National School Lunch Week with a FREE Nourish DVD

This week is National School Lunch Week, to celebrate we’re asking you, “How can we can we create a better school food system?” Answer to win a free copy of Nourish Short Films: 54 Bite-Sized Videos About the Story of Your Food.

This week, October 10-14th, is National School Lunch Week, a time to raise awareness about the importance of school meals in children’s health and our food system.

This month, Nourish, an educational initiative designed to open a meaningful conversation about food and sustainability, particularly in schools and communities, is showcasing perspectives on school lunch, from farm to school programs to parent activism. In this new video from Nourish Short Films: 54 Bite-Sized Videos About the Story of Your Food, food journalist Michael Pollan advocates for a better menu for America’s children.

In addition to Michael Pollan, the Nourish short films features segments with Jamie Oliver, Alice Waters, Bryant Terry, and other voices of the food movement, and such topics as “Edible Education,” “Grow, Cook, Learn,” and “Youth Making Change.” Our own Josh Viertel remarked that, “These short films bring to life a vision of a world where food is good for the people who eat it, good for the people who grow and pick it, and good for the planet.”

To celebrate National School Lunch Week, we’re giving away one of these free Nourish Short Films DVDs! But we want to hear from you first. Leave a comment below in answer to the question, How can we can we create a better school food system? We will select a winner at random, so there are no right answers, but send us your answers now – the contest will close on Sunday October 16th.

“Feeding Garden” in South Africa gets a kickstart from Slow Food NYC

Slow Food NYC has gotten its hands dirty in school gardens throughout the city with its Urban Harvest program. This summer they took those organizing skills to South Africa to partner with a local school to build a garden that gets more fresh fruits and veggies into the cafeteria.

by interns Sasha Hippard and Alaena Robbins
Artworks for Youth, a volunteer driven not-for-profit based out of New York City, provides year-long after school art instruction to under-served students across South Africa. Last year, they became interested in starting school gardens due to a necessity they saw when the school district could no longer feed a meal to the children during the day. Instead of just continuing to provide meals to the students, Artworks for Youth approached Slow Food NYC’s chapter leader Sandra McLean to take on a garden project at one of the South African schools. Sandra’s mission was to travel to Joe Slovo primary school, located in the Joe Slovo township, and help develop a school “feeding garden” that would serve both educational as well as practical purposes. With the help of $800 from fundraising and anonymous matching donor, Sandra was able to get to South Africa and collect the supplies needed to get the project started.

More after the jump

Fresh From the Farm Cooking Classes for Kids

Participants of the Willamette Food and Farm Coalition’s Farm to School project make frequent trips to local farms to learn and see first hand where their food comes from.

by intern Sasha Hippard

The Willamette Food and Farm Coalition’s Farm to School project just finished their spring season with great success! Through lessons both on the farm and in the kitchen, students left with an increased knowledge of where their food comes from, how to prepare it, and the benefits of eating local and healthy ingredients.

The Willamette Food and Farm Coalition is a community based non-profit based in Lane County, Oregon. They represent a diverse group of stakeholders in the local food systems, from farmers and producers to restaurateurs and consumers. The Farm to School project is aimed at educating Lane County kids about where their food comes from and working to incorporate locally grown produce into the meals served in schools.

As participants of the Farm to School project, students make frequent trips to local farms to learn and see first hand where their food comes from. However, thanks to the recent Anolon donation which included veggie peelers, cooking pots and pans, measuring cups, spoons, and spatulas, students can take this experience one step further. Not only can students see where their food comes from, but learn how to use it as well. From the farms, fresh fruits and veggies are harvested, and eggs gathered. Once in the classroom, students get busy cooking in small groups. By cooking up a snack with the food they’ve harvested themselves, students not only learn valuable lessons on food production and farming, but also tasty ways to use the ingredients they just saw produced. 

With help from adult volunteers, kids have whipped up corn cakes with fresh strawberries, green salad with veggies and home-made ranch dressing, and scrambled eggs with sautéed greens. In the fall, the groups will return to the farms to harvest. Plans are being made to extend the repertoire of recipes further and make things like fresh salsa, potatoes with leeks and broccoli, and veggie soup with noodles.  Yum.

Having good cooking supplies makes cooking fun and easy and connects kids to the source of their food to inspire healthy eating habits. The next master chef or revolutionary organic farmer just might come from this group of inspired (and full) kids!

Gardens contribute to food sovereignty in Africa

Slow Food chapters around the world are embarking on an ambitious project: creating 1000 food gardens in 20 countries across Africa.

Slow Food members from all parts of the globe are partnering with African communities in order to cultivate more sustainable and healthy regions. Slow Food USA encourages you to get involved, as several chapters in the US already have. 

Want to learn more? Here’s what Samuel Muhunyu, one of the people most responsible for getting the program started, had to say about the genesis of the gardens and the impact they’re already having. We’ll continue to tell the story of how Slow Food members are making a difference with this program through our blog. More contact information and web resources at the end of the post.

More after the jump

Tools for Transforming the Kitchen into the Classroom

The recent donation of cookware from Anolon to Slow Food Skagit Salish Sea means the families of Lincoln Elementary can keep on cookin’!

by Sasha Hippard, SFUSA intern

The recent donation of cookware from Anolon to Slow Food Skagit Salish Sea means the families of Lincoln Elementary can keep on cookin’!
The Lincoln Elementary Family Cooking Classes, started in 2009 by the Slow Food Skagit chapter in Washington state has been providing 1st through 6th graders and their extended families with inspiring opportunities to make and enjoy home-cooked meals together. Since the program’s establishment, Slow Food Skagit has served 30-40 students and families annually, teaching approximately four cooking sessions a year. These fun, educational, hands-on sessions incorporate seasonal produce from Lincoln Elementary own school garden whenever possible and teaches students and parents alike how to make their food good, clean, and fair.
Along with high quality cooking pans of a variety of types, Anolon’s donation also included cookie sheets and a number of different kitchen tools like spatulas and garlic presses. This new cookware has changed what volunteers have been able to cook with the students and families at Lincoln Elementary.

Cooking classes like the ones at Lincoln Elementary are a great way to not only bring families together, but promote healthy and responsible eating habits. It’s so much easier to incorporate simple, yet powerful change into your everyday life when the whole family gets on board and has fun while doing it!

There are endless dishes to try that are healthy, delicious, and responsible, but only if you know where and how to look for the recipes and inspiration. The addition of the Anolon supplies means that the Lincoln Elementary cooking classes don’t have to be limited to a few simply dishes. The sky’s the limit for these families and they are free to explore, experiment and sample all kinds of healthy and delicious meals.

More after the jump

Shaping a Movement over a Meal

It’s called the food movement, but what does that really mean? Students and campus dining workers come together to show us that it’s about building community and making change.

by Hnin Hnin and Kyle Schafer

When Slow Food on Campus and UNITE HERE’s Stir It Up Campaign celebrated National Food Month together with Eat-Ins—part potluck, part protest—across the country, it signaled a small but inspiring convergence of two worlds: sustainable food & sustainable jobs.

Over 300 people participated in 6 Eat-Ins hosted by students and local union members at Northwestern, Wesleyan, and Harvard and Yale (jointly) and by SFOC chapters at Hamilton, Vassar, and Clemson.  While each Eat-In was unique, they all shared the goal of building community to create change for good food and food workers—including everyone from the farmers and farmworkers who produce the food to the campus dining workers who serve it up.

It’s not a new idea, but it is just now starting to grab the attention of the on-campus food movement: the fight for sustainable food is tied to the struggle for sustainable jobs.  Processed food requires less skill to prepare.  Lower skills requirements means lower wages for food workers.  So when food preparation consists of switching knives for scissors to open bags of processed food, we have to ask ourselves: what’s the difference between skimping on fair wages and benefits and skimping on fresh, healthy food?  By sharing stories over a meal, students and dining workers get a chance to hear how the same broken food system impacts one another on both sides of the counter.  They get inspired to change campus food together.

More after the jump

Slow Food Charleston Moves to the Semi-Finals

When local chef Nathalie Dupree suggested Slow Food Charleston enter the Let’s Move for Healthy Kids Contest, they had no idea it would be a hit; they’re now one of fifteen semifinalists across the country!

When local chef Nathalie Dupree suggested Slow Food Charleston enter the Let’s Move! Recipes for Healthy Kids Contest, they had no idea it would be a hit; they’re now one of fifteen semifinalists across the country! Partnering with local school food service directors, chefs, local culinary schools representatives, and MUSC Lean Team! advocates, the team got to work. The group worked quickly to bring together a team of students from Burke Middle/High School, a Title One school. Together they collaborated with students to create a kid-approved Southern-style soup that met strict nutritional guidelines. They call it Confetti Soup.

The Recipes for Healthy Kids project marks the beginning of a larger Chefs in Schools initiative developed by Slow Food Charleston. As part of the new initiative, the chapter hopes to improve the quality of food in schools, and with it, create a new generation of healthy eaters. Chefs in Schools will provide ‘taste education’ to students by working directly with area chefs to make great tasting healthy food and provide food service personnel with the tools necessary to bring fresh, healthy meals to students by funding classes at nearby culinary schools. The pilot program is set to begin this summer in two counties.

In the meantime, Burke Middle/High School and Slow Food Charleston are enjoying their semifinalist status, and looking forward to the next stages of the competition. This spring a team of USDA judges will visit the school to try out the Confetti Soup and determine whether or not the group will move on to the final round. You can show your support by voting for the group’s Confetti Soup recipe as the People’s Choice. Simply visit this site (click here) between now and May 15th to cast your vote!

The winning team is pictured above (left to right): 

Ms. Carol Rivers (Burke Culinary Arts Teacher)
Jennifer Moore (MUSC Lean Team and Slow Food Charleston)
Auja Ravanel (Burke Middle School student)
Keshawn Jones (Burke Middle School student)
Craig Deihl (Executive Chef- Cypress Restaurant)
Quantifah Lockwood (Burke High School student)
Tyler Manigault (Burke High School student)
Erin Boudolf (CCSD School Nutrition Services Dietician)
(not pictured-Coleen Martin- MUSC Lean Team)

Slow Food University of Wisconsin & Family Dinner Night

Every Sunday night at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one might find students gathered for a shared meal of any type of theme or global cuisine.

by Claire Brandow

Every Sunday night at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one might find students gathered for a shared meal of any type of theme or global cuisine.  Dinner could be Vietnamese banh mi, a feast of Indian aloo mater and kheer, or an impressive spread of ramp pesto and sorrel soup for a local foods dinner.  Though the food and atmosphere change weekly, the objective stays the same:  with each of these Family Dinner Nights, the members of Slow Food University of Wisconsin put the philosophy of Slow Food into action.  Every meal is a chance to educate and promote the value of good, clean, and fair food in a convivial atmosphere.

Slow Food University of Wisconsin-Madison is particularly active in two venues: improving the campus food system and campaigning to raise awareness about food and agriculture issues.  The Family Dinner Nights are at the core of SFUW’s work.  Each night includes a cooking lesson followed by a communal dinner.  SFUW recently received a gift of pots, pans, and kitchen gadgets from Anolon Cookware as part of the company’s “Creating a Delicious Future” initiative.  Everything from the cooking to cleaning is communal: not only is the food prepared and enjoyed together, five people each week sign up to help with cleaning in exchange for a free meal.

The two-year tradition of Family Dinner Night now attracts as many as 100 students each week.  SFUW uses each night to educate on a different topic, whether it is a cultural lesson on the country of that meal’s origins or a lecture on the food movement and food sovereignty.  Dinners also often serve to benefit local family farms and promote local producers and vendors.

SFUW co-leader Danny Spitzberg insists newcomers should always feel welcome.  “We don’t bite until dinner is ready!  We’re an evolving community.  We always welcome anyone interested in eating good food, meeting new people, and having good old fashioned fun.”