Archive for January, 2010

Posted by Kacie Warner | January 29th, 2010

Do you know any young gardeners-to-be? If so, bring them out to the Washington Youth Garden, a nonprofit organization that’s been teaching our District youngsters about gardening for forty years.

Area schools and youth organizations can experience the child-friendly one-acre organic vegetable and fruit garden on the grounds of the National Arboretum during the spring, summer, and fall months. This free program, called SPROUT (Science Program Reaching OUT), uses the garden as a tool to teach environmental science and nutrition education.

Depending on the season, students could harvest potatoes, plant lettuce, dig for earthworms, stir the compost pile, or pick blueberries. No matter what the season, all students will participate in the making and eating of a healthy snack.

Our goal is to bring this gardening and nutrition experience to one thousand DC youth. So please help spread the word to any people you know who work with students to let them know that this opportunity is available.

We are available Mondays through Fridays,starting in April, to conduct this ninety minute program. For groups who are unable to access transportation, off-site programming can be delivered on a limited basis.

You can find a flyer about the program here. For more information, email kwarner@washingtonyouthgarden.org or call 202-245-2709.

Posted by Kristin Roberts | January 28th, 2010

By Kristin Roberts, Nutrition Associate, D.C. Hunger Solutions

A new report from the Food Research and Action Center shares some shocking new statistics: one in five households in the District of Columbia aren’t able to afford the food they need. The number is even worse when you look at children: the rate for households with children is 40.6 percent.

That’s right. Two in five D.C. households with children say they cannot afford enough food! These findings vividly underscore that more must be done, and quickly, to help struggling families.

These statistics come from Food Hardship: A Closer Look at Hunger (PDF here). This new report analyzes survey data that were collected by Gallup and provided to FRAC. It contains new 2008 and 2009 data on food hardship – the inability to afford enough food – for the District of Columbia and the Washington metro area.

The Gallup survey question on food hardship is very similar to one posed by the Census Bureau and analyzed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its official measure of food insecurity, but because of the large sample size Gallup provides a closer, more localized and more recent look at food hardship. Official government data on food insecurity has a nearly one-year time lag and does not go below the state level.

What does food hardship look like in the D.C. area?

Posted by Liz Whitehurst | January 27th, 2010

I’m sitting across from Robert at the Polo India Club and although we’ve never met, we’re talking about Washington, DC Area Foodshed Map, spirituality, and my (pipe) dream of starting my own farm/cafe/community space.

Each Sunday, the Karma Kitchen, DC’s own gift economy cafe, takes over the Polo India Club and Robert and I are at the community table. Unlike a regular restaurant, you can choose to sit with friends or with strangers who have also come to join this experiment in dining and generosity.

Posted by Carl Rollins | January 26th, 2010

The following is an exerpt of testimony delivered by Carl Rollins, of the DC Environmental Education Consortium, to City Council in advance of tomorrow’s hearing (Jan 26th, 10:30AM in room 120 of the Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW) on the District Facilities Plan.

For those who support protecting the environment and solving health problems associated with food insecurity, the most troubling aspect of city planning and development is the lack of vision when it comes to urban agriculture, community gardens, schoolyard gardens, and facilities to store and process food produced from these activities.

The use of park and recreation land is left to the Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR), which has a Strategic Facilities plan — but this “plan” probably lies in some kind of turn-around limbo like virtually every other substantive initiative within that agency.

Posted by Ed Bruske | January 26th, 2010

By Ed Bruske

Contributing Editor

When I asked to spend time observing the kitchen operation at my daughter’s elementary school recently, I thought I was going to see people cook. The food service provider for D.C. Public Schools, Chartwell-Thompson, this year ditched the old method of feeding kids with pre-packaged meals from a food factory and replaced it with something they called “fresh cooked.” Being one of those folks who’s trying to return to cooking from scratch with fresh, local ingredients, I was anxious to see how Chartwell’s plan would play out.

Was I ever in for a surprise. As I soon discovered, there wasn’t much “fresh” about the food being served at H.D. Cooke Elementary School. When I passed through the doors of the “Kid’s Stop Cafe,” I walked straight into the maws of the industrial food system, where meals are composed of ingredients out of a food chemist’s lab, where highly processed food is doused with all sorts of additives and preservatives in distant factories, then cooked and shipped frozen so that it can be quickly reheated with minimal skill and placed on a steam table.

Like many of the parents who’ve been reading this series for the last five days, and communicating with me via our school listserv, I was perplexed by the sheer banality of so much processed, canned and sugar-injected food being fed to our children on a daily basis; disappointed that no one seemed to take issue with this sort of food service; chagrined that pizza and Pop Tarts and candied cereals were being served so routinely alongside Mountain Dew masquerading as milk–and all of it here in the nation’s capitol, right outside Michelle Obama’s door.

Are these really the lessons we want our kids to learn about food?

Posted by Ariela Summit | January 25th, 2010

Tomorrow (Tuesday, January 26 at 6:30-8pm) the National Building Museum kicks off the 2010 season of its ground-breaking series, For the Greener Good: Conversations that Will Change the World, with an exploration of urban agriculture.

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | January 22nd, 2010

With aftershocks continuing to slam Haiti, we’re all struggling to grasp the losses the earthquake has claimed. Deciding how to help is yet another challenge. Why not start with food? Here are five ways to take action as a food lover and supporter of food access.

Posted by Andrea Northup | January 22nd, 2010

Could a centralized storage, processing and distribution kitchen be key to providing wholesome, local produce to the District’s school children?

“Healthy Schools” legislation pending before the D.C. Council would require that city schools use locally grown farm goods in school meals “whenever possible.” With some 60,000 students to be fed on a daily basis, that certainly would represent a boon to the local farm economy. But is it feasible? How can we convince farmers to bring their products into the District? And how can we store vegetables from a growing season that doesn’t exactly coincide with the school year? How can we get these local foods to schools for an affordable price?

Farm to School stakeholders met to discuss with staff for Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), author of the “Healthy Schools” bill, how legislation could encourage farm to school programs in the District, and solve some of the issues facing existing food programs.