So the big Expo is coming up this Thursday, May 7th. During the expo we will showcase all that we have learned and all the agencies we worked with this semester. We have invited community partners from organizations we connected with during the course of the workshop and will be showing a short video Freesia and I compiled with interviews of the students involved. The event should be great and we look forward to seeing all the material from the other Issue Workshops put on by the Service Learning Office.
Stay tuned for the complete Food and Kids Issue Workshop film!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
More reflections on Service Issue workshop
I've enjoyed this workshop enormously over the course of the semester. It was always a bit crazy, because it was squeezed in on Thursday afternoon between everything else in our crazy, busy lives, but for me, it acted as a blessed respite from the craziness. I feel sometimes that my life at Warren Wilson is constantly going from one activity to another, without really feeling like I'm accomplishing anything valuable.
Just about every afternoon that we went out through this workshop, whether it was to a school garden or a food bank or a community center, felt genuinely valuable, along with the work we did. Even if it was something small that we weren't sure about how much good it would do in the end, felt like a tangible good: We packed those bags full of food, which will go to these children; we dug that garden bed; we set up stakes for pole beans. So for at least a couple hours every week, amidst a life that feels like its lived in the abstract an awful lot of the time, I had something I could point to and say I felt proud to have been a part of.
In terms of the relevance of this workshop, to me the issues of food, how its grown, and how its consumed are some of the most critical of the time we're in right now. Even though we are still an extremely wealthy nation, and for the large part having access to some sort of food- even if its not particularly healthy or nutritious- is not an issue for Americans, I think that's going to change in the next few decades. Our industrial system of growing food has failed our environment, our health and well being, as well as our society. I don't think it will last, and what will replace it will have to involve a lot more people participating in the growing of our food.
So the idea of having vegetable gardens in schools, where children are raised from an early age being comfortable and at ease working with the soil, with vegetables that they help to grow themselves and eventually eat, is one of the biggest and best ways we can begin to recreate a culture where ordinary people are taking responsibility for their food. Whether this was at a place like Isaac Dickson Elementary School, MANNA Food Bank, the Black Mountain Community Garden, or the wonderful EMMA Family Resource Center, the message is the same, and equally powerful in its quiet way: We have the power to improve our lives, starting right now. Maybe puttering around gardens, putting in tiny seeds and whacking away at roots with over-enthusiastic third graders doesn't seem like the quickest way to save the world, or to start a real revolution. But I've found it to be the most satisfying way, and I know I'll want to keep both gardening and getting children involved in gardening part of my life into the future.
Just about every afternoon that we went out through this workshop, whether it was to a school garden or a food bank or a community center, felt genuinely valuable, along with the work we did. Even if it was something small that we weren't sure about how much good it would do in the end, felt like a tangible good: We packed those bags full of food, which will go to these children; we dug that garden bed; we set up stakes for pole beans. So for at least a couple hours every week, amidst a life that feels like its lived in the abstract an awful lot of the time, I had something I could point to and say I felt proud to have been a part of.
In terms of the relevance of this workshop, to me the issues of food, how its grown, and how its consumed are some of the most critical of the time we're in right now. Even though we are still an extremely wealthy nation, and for the large part having access to some sort of food- even if its not particularly healthy or nutritious- is not an issue for Americans, I think that's going to change in the next few decades. Our industrial system of growing food has failed our environment, our health and well being, as well as our society. I don't think it will last, and what will replace it will have to involve a lot more people participating in the growing of our food.
So the idea of having vegetable gardens in schools, where children are raised from an early age being comfortable and at ease working with the soil, with vegetables that they help to grow themselves and eventually eat, is one of the biggest and best ways we can begin to recreate a culture where ordinary people are taking responsibility for their food. Whether this was at a place like Isaac Dickson Elementary School, MANNA Food Bank, the Black Mountain Community Garden, or the wonderful EMMA Family Resource Center, the message is the same, and equally powerful in its quiet way: We have the power to improve our lives, starting right now. Maybe puttering around gardens, putting in tiny seeds and whacking away at roots with over-enthusiastic third graders doesn't seem like the quickest way to save the world, or to start a real revolution. But I've found it to be the most satisfying way, and I know I'll want to keep both gardening and getting children involved in gardening part of my life into the future.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Nutrition/quality dispairity
The school meal programs are under heavy budget constraints. Federal funding is largely absent, except through funds tied to nutrition mandates. The National Student Lunch Program allocates some funds based on the level of students who meet the requirements for free or reduced meal plans and provides some surplus commodities. North Carolina only provides the NC standards for public schools, which is an unfunded mandate. Notwithstanding these inputs, the school meal programs must operate independently. This creates a squeeze between meeting nutrition standards and provide food of a decent quality. Also, the cafeteria workers wages are set against quality food for the children. The incentives created by nutrition policy works to undermine the health of the whole cafeteria system in many ways. While it is difficult, or impossible, to provide a remedy by changing parts of the system, decentralization in the food system is a solution which can be comprehended by the society which is actually engaging with these school meal programs.
Relevent Topic
A large aspect of this service project is school and community gardens, as local food systems are the most direct way of ensuring food security and human nutrition. Effort toward the creation of stable, sustainable food systems will only increase in relevance as time progresses and our collective habits as a society prove shortsighted. This issue workshop provides a general understanding of the current food system and obstacles to its improvement, with a concentration on child nutrition.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Mid-Workshop Reflection excerpts by Geoff Trowbridge
Speaking of a visit with Leigh Pettus, Director of Programs and Agency Relations, Geoff said: "It was pretty serious to learn that 1 in 6 Western North Carolinians are classified as food insecure, when the national average is 1 in 8. I wonder how much that's going to increase because of the current recession. I don't think lots of middle class people are necessarily going to be begging on the street soon, but if people are getting laid off from work in big numbers, they're going to be focusing on feeding themselves and may stop giving to the food pantries that form the safety net for the truly destitute. And then it seems to me that those people who are already at risk and just barely getting by due to the help of food pantries may be left out, and then we could be in trouble."
"The way I look at, if people are really hungry, they're going to be hungry today, and though I know the local food pantries and soup kitchens are there for that, if they're sourcing from the big food banks like MANNA, and if those sources get cut off, then they don't have much to fall back upon. "
After the visit to Manna FoodBank where the group spent several hours packing food for the backpack progam: "It was a situation where I wish we all could've slowed down, stopped packing bags, and thought about, okay, what are the ROOT causes of hunger, of food insecurity, of lack of access to healthy, nutritious food? What can we do to address those root causes? Because until we do, I think a lot of the work against hunger, as incredibly important work as it is and will continue to be, may sadly be in vain in the long run."
"The way I look at, if people are really hungry, they're going to be hungry today, and though I know the local food pantries and soup kitchens are there for that, if they're sourcing from the big food banks like MANNA, and if those sources get cut off, then they don't have much to fall back upon. "
After the visit to Manna FoodBank where the group spent several hours packing food for the backpack progam: "It was a situation where I wish we all could've slowed down, stopped packing bags, and thought about, okay, what are the ROOT causes of hunger, of food insecurity, of lack of access to healthy, nutritious food? What can we do to address those root causes? Because until we do, I think a lot of the work against hunger, as incredibly important work as it is and will continue to be, may sadly be in vain in the long run."
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Issue Workshop Schedule
January 27th------Molly Nicholie, ASAP (speaker)
January 29th------Leigh Pettus, MANNA FoodBank(speaker)
February 5th------MannaBundance Backpack Prgm. (service)
February 10th-----Lynette Vaughn-Hensley, BCSD Child Nutritionist (speaker)
February 12th-----Isaac Dickson Elementary School Garden (service w/s students)
February 19th-----Isaac Dickson Elementary School Garden
February 26th-----Isaac Dickson Elementary School Garden
March 5th---------Isaac Dickson Elementary School Garden
March 12th--------Black Mountain Comm. Garden (service w/students)
March 26th--------Tim Rhodes, DSS (speaker)
April 2nd----------Emma Family Food Resources (tour/service)
April 9th-----------Finish up meeting/EXPO (of all WWC Issue Workshops)
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