Jason: Food Day!

Healthy Food at Green Charter School

Food. We eat it everyday, but many young people have little understanding about where it comes from or how it came to be. We at FirstLine Schools believe you are what you eat, so let’s eat smart!

In November 2010, Congress designated October as National Farm to School Month as a means to improve child nutrition, support local economies and educate children about the origins of food.  Food Day – held on October 24 – was created by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest to advocate for a healthier and more sustainable food system.

Edible Schoolyard NOLA targeted middle and high school students, staff, and families at all five FirstLine campuses to teach them about important issues like:

•  Promoting safer, healthier diets
• Supporting sustainable and organic farms
• Reducing hunger
• Reforming factory farms to protect the environment and animals
• Supporting fair working conditions for food and farm workers

Learning about composting at Dibert

Green Charter School held the event in their café with over 10 activity stations, starring a variety of community partners, such as: Tulane’s Center for Culinary Medicine, Market Umbrella, and The New Orleans Food Co-op. There were food samples, including a highly popular African Peanut Stew served by ESY NOLA’s Budding Entrepreneurs team.

Students from grades 6-8 toured the room with their families. There were games, demonstrations, mini-lectures, and even prizes. Kelly Miranda – ESYNOLA’s Volunteer, Family, and Community Partnerships Coordinator – leapt onto a table partway through the event and excitedly held a raffle for one brand new 5-piece spice jar set and a couple very useful looking garden tool pouches.

John Dibert Community School set up their tables outside for the school’s 8^th graders, perfect for a sunny fall day. Each station explained one step of the food cycle: growing, distributing, and waste management. As an introduction, Jess Bloomer – Lead Garden Teacher at Green – taught participants about pollinators by offering a taste sampler of local honey. Elsewhere, scholars tried to pinpoint the origins of the produce in front of them by attaching stickers to a map, showing them how far some of our food travels to arrive on our plate. Some wrinkled their noses at the mini-compost pile and live worms set up by ESY’s Program Manager, Rahn Broady.

Blubber burgers at Ashe

Over at Arthur Ashe Charter School, Ruth Korsten – one of ESY’s Volunteer Coordinators through the LA Delta Service Corps – gave her account: 

Kate McDonald from Second Harvest was showing Ms. Sivi Domango – Ashe’s Director – and Ashe 5th graders how much fat (using real lard... ugh) was in their favorite burger chain's product.  It made quite an impact, and one boy I asked said it was his favorite station. That's saying a lot because the parfait stops are always the biggest crowd pleasers.

With the odds very much in her favor, one mother won the raffle prize and she was super excited to take home a pressure cooker!  Several teachers and school support staff also stopped by to see what all the excitement was about.

Enjoying Food Day at LHA

Amy Zelwegger, the Lead Garden Teacher for ESY at Langston Hughes Academy, had the following to say: 

With over 100 participants, Food Day was a smashing success here at LHA! Our 6th graders were eager and ready to learn about where our food comes from, sample some tasty treats, and share take-home info with parents and family. Food Day at LHA consisted of 8 tables, with four tables provided with help of our community partners Hollygrove Farm and Market, New Orleans Children’s Museum, Sankofa Farmer’s Market, School Health Connection and Rethink New Orleans. We learned about the production rows at LHA and the FSA program that will be rolling out in December. We learned about the importance of hydration, eating fruits, and why it's vitally important to support our local farmers. Food Day was a great reminder at how our scholars LOVE to learn about FOOD!!!

Learning about Plant Starts at Clark Prep

 The scholars at Clark Prep High School also participated. Kathleen Duffy, the VISTA Outreach Coordinator placed there, gave this report: 

FOOD DAY!!! Loved it. The turnout was fantastic at Clark, including students, faculty and staff. Students tried the smoothies and breakfast at both ESY tables. They loved Grow Dat, where many are now applying for a Spring/Summer 2013 program. Donnica Conway got some love at her Cooking Up Literacy At Home table, which offered scholars a great recipe book (a favorite was Green Eggs and Ham). Food Day was a very successful health and wellness initiative that will hopefully spark a consistently strong turnout at similar future events. ESYNOLA did a fantastic job coordinating community partners to attend, and Clark loved it! Students talked to me about it today, showed me the plants they won, and we discussed working at Grow Dat.

Whether participants walked away with a snack, a prize, or just a fun learning experience, there was no shortage of smiles throughout the day.

Jason Lacoste is the AmeriCorps VISTA K-8 Outreach Coordinator for FirstLine Schools.