One of the farmer visitors, Michael Blair from the Urban Owl grew a whole crop of carrots just for students from Reilly Elementary.  He harvested the carrots and brought them to the school on the same day. Students might turn their noses up at carrots that have been shaped and wrapped and shipped, but these carrots had their tops left on and a farmer was handing them out!

Paige Hill from Urban Patchwork Farm teaches students at Pickle Elementary about the farming life.

The Farm to School program brings our Texas bounty straight from area farms to students’ plates. Students have been learning how sweet a fresh strawberry can be, discovering the tartness of a Texas orange, and they’ve been tempted to try local lettuce. And, with these visits from local farmers, students were able to learn the stories behind their food. Combine this with the students’ experiences gardening at their schools, and students can begin to understand our complex food systems.  All this has lead to a greater excitement in the schools about eating fresh fruits and vegetables. And that leads to better health for our children!

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A Ray of Sunshine

Maplewood Elementary School Wins Award for Excellence in Texas School Health

Maplewood Elementary School in the Austin Independent School District was presented the 2010 Award for Excellence in Texas School Health at a recognition ceremony hosted by the Texas School Health Association at their Annual Conference Awards Banquet on January 28, 2011. Honoring the school’s ‘Salad Bowl Project’, Maplewood Elementary received a $1500 prize award for their project in the Discovery Award category. Only Three Discovery Awards are presented each year to current school programs addressing the health needs of Texas school communities. The state-wide award is sponsored by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), School Health Program and funded by the Texas Health Institute (THI) and the Texas Pediatric Society Foundation (TPSF).

The Maplewood Salad Bowl Project was conceived in 2007 and implemented by the Maplewood school community of students, teachers, parents and grandparents. The Project combines a variety of health and wellness programs that promote the interrelationship between nutritious foods, physical activity, and artistic endeavors. At its core, it is a school community gardening effort. Principal Vickie Jacobson explains, “Using the garden as the classroom, our students learn that the food they eat doesn’t just come from grocery store, but is grown from the earth, water, sunshine, and air around them.”

Working with parents, community volunteers, and their teachers, students at Maplewood raise vegetables in the gardens outside each classroom. The students learn about the growth of their plants from seed to harvest, and enjoy Harvest Lunch salad bars held twice during the school year. Each class also works with Maplewood’s art teacher to make their own clay Salad Bowl to use at the salad bar, enhancing pride and ownership for their work in the garden.

Maplewood Parent Dusty Harshman describes the Harvest Lunches, “At our Fall Harvest Lunch, we used 19 different vegetables and herbs from the class gardens, and we prepared them in nine separate dishes for the students and staff at Maplewood. From the traditional mixed salad to baked kale chips, warm arugula greens, beets and tabouli, the kids learn that tasty, nutritious foods come in all shapes and flavors. The Salad Bowl Project is really a core program at our school and ray of sunshine for our kids. We are very appreciative of the award as it recognizes Maplewood’s whole-child approach to education.”

A large number of farmers and ranchers sell their produce, eggs, meat and cheese at SFC Farmers’ Markets, the largest certified grower-only market network in the state. Correspondingly, over a dozen chefs who have gone unmentioned in the GroACT list have for years supported our local farmers. For that reason, we feel it is necessary that those supporters of and participants in our local food system also receive a mention.  Shawn Cirkiel of Parkside and Backspace, for example, a founding member of SFC Farmers’ Market when it began in 2003, was omitted, as was Andrew Curren of 24 Diner, both of whom have demonstrated – and continue to – a huge commitment to buying food from Central Texas farmers.

Aside from restaurants, we applaud the fact that St. Edwards University Cafeteria made the list, but inclusion of other leaders in the area of institutional food service deserve a mention, too. These include the Seton Family of Hospitals, which pioneered local food procurement in partnership with SFC over seven years ago, and University of Texas, where Chef Robert Mayberry and others have led a local purchasing initiative since 2006  Austin ISD and the KIPP Austin charter school district have been partners in SFC’s Sprouting Healthy Kids farm-to-school program for four years, not only purchasing locally grown foods but also facilitating gardening and healthy cooking education led by SFC.

SFC is eager to see the next version of the Gro-ACT survey, and will certainly lend whatever support we can to ensure the inclusion of more farmers and ranchers, and more restaurants and food service outlets.  In the meantime, we agree that individuals should seek out local products and “ask as many questions as possible about where their food comes from.”

Note: SFC submitted this letter to the Statesman on February 16th, a day before the article on local procurement in The Chronicle was released. Readers are asked to bear in mind that this letter is not in response to The Chronicle article of Feb. 17th.

Did you know that Mark Winne’s latest book, Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners and Smart Cookin’ Mamas:  Fighting Back in the Age of Industrial Agriculture features one of SFC’s programs? Click here to read more! Also, mark your calendars for May 31st at 7 pm at Austin’s own BookPeople where Mark Winne and the The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre Smart Cookin’ Mamas will make an appearance!

Mark Winne in the back observing cooking class for his book research, 2009

Well, according to Cecil Winzer, SFC’s fearless market manager, “We have we collected 215 Bags of Recycling (8,170 gallons), and 228 Bags of Compost (8,664 Gallons).  There were 95 Bags of landfill (3,610 gallons) and we diverted the sum of recycling and compost (16,834 gallons) from the landfill”.

That also means we have had 1-2 volunteers at every bin, twice a week, touching trash. It’s not a pretty job, but I’m so glad someone wants to do it. And there are 3 individuals that we owe a large portion of this thanks to: Andrew Liguori, Marla Dawn and Max Gallegos. Max has been doing this almost a year, several times a month. He has always recycled at home but composting was new. As is shopping at the market! What’s Max’s favorite part of being at the market? “The people. Everyone’s recycling and wanting to learn. It’s the best atmosphere in the morning”. And Marla? Marla’s been doing this since the beginning and I can’t tell you how many folks she has trained for the job and ALWAYS with a smile (rain or shine). And our newest member to the kiosk crew, Andrew. After diving right into it every week, Andrew claims, “this is just a really chill way to start my Saturday off and a really good way to honor the universe”. We think so too! And we certainly couldn’t do this without you guys!

And we must mention a couple of folks that as soon as they have the time, their first stop: kiosks. Annie, Chris, Juliet (and so many more!)- you all help the kiosks go ‘round. Annie tells her fellow volunteers that being “zero-waste conscious” spreads to the rest of our lives and “makes us all conscientious of our trash and where it goes”.

Hey, we all have trash. It’s learning what to do with it that we’re working on. And without the help of these dedicated volunteers, that 8,664 gallons of compost would be sitting in the landfill. So next time you’re shopping, stop and chat with your kiosk volunteers. Learn a little something about our waste and thank them for doing all this work!

- Rebecca Saltsman, Volunteer Coordinator and Development Associate

Andrew Liguori & Chris Grivas teach the children well

Join Sustainable Food Center’s The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre™ for our upcoming 6-week cooking and nutrition class series. We will cover the basics of how to cook with whole grains, how to get more fresh and local produce into your diet, how to use lean proteins, healthy fats and fresh herbs to make delicious everyday meals plus so much more. Classes are appropriate for both beginners and experienced cooks, as we will all learn together in a fun and interactive environment.

When/Where
Congregation Beth Israel, 3901 Shoal Creek Boulevard
Austin, TX 78756
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30PM
6 classes
February 24-April 7 (no class on 3/17)
cost: $145 per person*

To register contact Katy Levit at 236-0074 x103 or katy@sustainablefoodcenter.org

*cost includes all 6 classes, a bag of groceries at each of the 1st 5 classes to try that week’s recipe at home, a copy of the THK Cookbook and multiple nutrition handouts.

All class fees go towards supporting SFC’s mission of strengthening the local food system and improving access to nutritious affordable food.

Here in The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre™ (THK), we often hear people tell us that they’d love to take one of our 6-week cooking and nutrition class series if only they had the time to devote to it. It’s also not unusual that, after one of our 6-week classes, a participant asks if there are any other THK cooking programs they can attend. Well, we listened, and now we are excited to say, “yes!” there is another THK program that is just what you are looking for!

THK is now offering a variety of one-time workshops. With workshop topics like “Quick Weeknight Meals on a Budget,” “Making Soups from Scratch,” and “Learning to Cook without a Recipe,” you are bound to find a class that fits in with your interests and lifestyle.

Just like with our 6-week class series, workshops are offered both for free at select locations and for a fee to the general public. Through SFC’s Cultivating Healthy Communities initiative, we will offer a number of free cooking workshops this spring.  Our primary audience for many of our free workshops and classes are parents whose children are enrolled in partner schools with SFC’s Sprouting Healthy Kids farm-to-school and food-systems education project. We offer our public classes at congregations, community centers and other locations around Austin.

Maria Raper recently attended our “Quick Weeknight Meals on a Budget” workshop at Congregation Beth Israel on Shoal Creek Blvd. Along with 16 other participants, Maria learned how to cook a variety of quick and easy recipes such as Home Made Chicken Stock, Chicken and Dumplings, Fried Rice and Chicken and Celery Salad. Each recipe featured locally raised meat and produce. Maria learned that you don’t need to spend a lot of time or money to serve your family quality home-cooked meals. After the workshop Maria sent us a lovely note expressing her thoughts on the class (see it below).

If you are interested in hosting a workshop at your school, worksite or congregation please let us know. We can even teach a workshop in your home to a group of your friends. What a great way to gather friends together, learning to cook delicious, healthy, local and sustainable food!

For more information on THK workshops or to be added to our email list to receive notice of upcoming workshops, please contact Katy Levit at 236-0074 x103 or katy@sustainablefoodcenter.org.

Thank you note sent after a recent cooking workshop at Congregation Beth Israel

Waco, TX –   To promote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of building broad and diverse community coalitions, the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition (UGC) is coordinating gardening projects throughout the city of Waco as part of the MLK Day of Service. From noon until 3:00pm on January 17, volunteers from across the greater-Waco area will be working in 15 garden sites to grow gardens, create art, eat food and meet neighbors.

Kicking off at noon, the MLK Day of Service will begin with Baylor Campus Kitchens serving a healthy bagged lunch for participants at each gardening site, followed by an MLK Reflection Activity led by members of Communities-In-School AmeriCorps.  To promote creative solutions to childhood obesity and food insecurity, youth participants will create Health and Wellness Journals with the Community Health Corps, in addition to helping around the garden – by preparing and planting vegetable beds, cleaning up and beautifying surrounding areas, and other projects specific to the gardening site.

Special events will be held at the garden-groundbreaking of two new gardens:  the Hewitt Community Garden – located at Hewitt First United Methodist Church – will hold a dedication ceremony and mayoral proclamation in their garden at 1:00pm, while the Baylor Campus Garden – located behind Browing Graduate Student Housing on the corner of 9^th and James – will dedicate the new garden with a ribbon-cutting by Baylor President Kenneth Starr at 1:30pm.   Events will wrap up around 3:00pm.  The UGC hopes people from across Waco will join together in serving the Waco community with their friends, families and neighbors.  As Dr. King said, “Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.”

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For more details about the 2011 MLK Day of Service, visit the Urban Gardening Coalition’s website:  http://hotugc.org.  To volunteer for the event, register at the Baylor Campus Kitchens website (http://www.baylor.edu/campuskitchen/) or  contact Kelly Baker (kelly_l_baker@baylor.edu). Or contact Bethel Erickson (vista@worldhungerrelief.org) for general information and to register for the Winter Vegetable Garden Workshop.

About the Urban Gardening Coalition

Since its inception in the spring of 2005, the Urban Gardening Coalition (UGC) has served as a unique group facilitating discussion and organizing activities for individuals and organizations who are interested in gardening as a means of building community. Our current garden activities include after-school gardening programs partnered with CIS schools as well as coordinating gardening activities at many churches and community organizations across the Heart of Texas. UGC is a recipient of 2010 UnitedHealth Heroes Award, which funds projects developing semester long service learning projects to combat childhood obesity.  The UGC is using these funds to support garden programming at gardens hosting events on the MLK Day of Service and throughout the spring growing season – including the Harvest Celebration in April.  More information on the Urban Gardening Coalition is available at hotugc.org.

About the Campus Kitchens Project

The Campus Kitchens Project (CKP) is giving $40,000 to 20 student-led, community-based programs across 15 states all committed to highlighting their work on National Day of Service, January 17, 2011. This year’s MLK Jr. Day of Service grantees represent the largest and most diverse group since the CKP grant program began in 2009. Since 2001, CKP has provided healthy meals to their neighbors in need by harnessing the spirit of student volunteerism within local communities.  Now in its eighth year, CKP operates on 25 college, university and high school campuses, providing meals to individuals and families in their communities. Thanks to the support of Sodexo, General Mills and the Corporation for National and Community Service, Campus Kitchens continues to grow.  More information on the Campus Kitchens Project is available at www.campuskitchens.org.

When: Wednesday, January 19 6:30-8:30 PM

Where: Congregation Beth Israel, 3901 Shoal Creek Blvd, Austin, TX 78756

Cost: $35

To Register: contact Katy Levit at 236-0074 x103 or katy@sustainablefoodcenter.org

Registration Deadline: Monday, January 17

The 2010 conference was a big success, and we’re looking forward to an even bigger event in 2011.  You can help make this happen! We’re looking for volunteers to help coordinate marketing, outreach, exhibits, volunteers, give-aways, and food.

Interested in finding out how to help? Contact Rebecca: rebeccavore (at) austindiscoveryschool (dot) org or attend the next ASGN meeting on 1/12/11, 6-8pm – RSVP to Jess: jess (at) sustainablefoodcenter (dot) org. Thanks for supporting school gardening in Austin!