All DC Food For All posts from August, 2010.
[Cross posted from Defeat Poverty DC.] What does access to healthy foods have to do with defeating poverty? Not only does the presence of affordable fresh food in a community have the potential to improve residents’ nutrition and overall health, but attracting full-service grocery stores also can boost the local economy – grocery retail creates [...]
The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has proposed new regulations for food (and other) vending in the District. In these regulations, DCRA has created new mechanisms for enabling sales of healthy food, including at farmers’ markets. D.C. Hunger Solutions commends the agency on its efforts and suggest several improvements to the proposed regulations – with the goal of improving access to fresh and healthy foods for all District residents. [A PDF of the letter is here.]
July 23, 2010
Helder Gil, Legislative Affairs Specialist
Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs
Re: Proposed Regulations to Amend Chapter 5 of Title 24 of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations (Vendors)
D.C. Hunger Solutions appreciates this opportunity to submit comments regarding the proposed regulations to amend the vending regulations set forth in Chapter 5 of Title 24 of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations. See D.C. Register Vol. 57, No. 26 (June 25, 2010). D.C. Hunger Solutions seeks to create a hunger-free community and thereby improve the nutrition, health, economic security, and well-being of low-income District residents.
We support the proposed vending regulations’ creation of a Class C Vending Business License for public markets, which exempts farmers’ markets (and similar markets) from many of the myriad regulations that govern design, placement, and other aspects of traditional of vending trucks, carts, and stands. And we concur with the comments submitted by the D.C. Farmers’ Market Collaborative.
D.C. Hunger Solutions is pleased that the District recognizes the importance of access for all residents to healthy food.
To ensure the success of the healthy food vending, it is essential to create a set of clear, easy-to-follow guidelines for potential vendors and public market managers who seek to sell fresh produce and other nutritious foods. The District also must identify sites that can support the successful sale of produce, in particular, for communities that lack access to sufficient nutritious food and in many cases, are suffering from high rates of obesity.
We look forward to working with DCRA and other agencies (e.g., the Department of Health and the Department of Transportation) to help make healthy vending a success, particularly in areas underserved by fresh produce.
Posted in Government Issues[Cross-posted from Beyond Bread.]
Local. Organic. Sustainable. Great buzzwords. But for an organization dedicated to meeting so many urgent immediate needs, “going green” can seem like a daunting prospect.
Yet even the smallest seed can, with care, grow into great bounty. So, recently, at our Southeast facility, we’ve started planting some seeds in the one part of our building that isn’t already bursting at the seams: the roof.
Up to this point, the roof has primarily been known as a great place to get locked out on. But now it features the budding of a small experimental container garden. So far this season, we have been growing radishes, tomatoes, and several types of herbs, including parsley, mint and oregano. Someday soon, we hope this garden will be the inspiration for lots of inter-generational learning, as well as “some darn good cooking.”
| Sherita Evans, Community Resources Coordinator |
So says Sherita Evans, our southeast community resources coordinator and all-around community advocate, who sees this new project as a logical next step in the evolution of our services to the community. “We lack these kinds of green spaces and educational places here in the community,” she explains. “We’re hungry down here– not just for food but for nourishment of the mind and the spirit. And here at Bread for the City, we’re not just feeding people’s bodies–we feed souls.”
Sherita adds that the recent loss of Food Program Director Ted Pringle has motivated her to redouble commitment to the garden project. “As a site of rebirth and growth,” she says, “this is a proper memorial to Ted.”
Though its productive capacity will be limited, the garden can produce ample herbs to complement the food from our pantry, which will be especially great for our new cooking workshops. This makes it a special complement to our Nutrition Initiative: an opportunity to demonstrate the cooking process from start to finish. “We want to show clients that growing your own food isn’t hard even in small spaces like balconies and window sills,” says Sharon Gruber, our Nutrition Consultant. “And the results are that much better!
 |
| Sharon’s workshops can include basic gardening and the use of fresh herbs and veggies |
Despite the small scale of the project, we see big implications — like the opportunity for parent-child gardening classes, which could bring families closer together while bringing them closer to the food they eat.
[Click below to read the full post. You can support the development of this garden by donating pots, among other things! Contact me Anna at anna.r.melton@gmail.com to learn how you can help.]
Here’s a video of recent Bladensburg High School graduate and aspiring chef Jonathon Gliss cooking a vegetable dish from produce he helps to grow at the Washington Youth Garden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl7H0NFrRHw Jonathon has spent his last two summers working at the Washington Youth Garden. During this last school year, he chose to continue his time with [...]
Posted in AccessKatherine Bryant is an intern with the D.C. Farm to School Network, and a seasoned community food security advocate. This blog describes her recent farm to school “field-trip” to Delaware and the Eastern Shore.
Greetings from the watermelon capital of the world!
I had the honor of joining a small group of Washington, DC school food service providers, D.C. Farm to School Network Coordinator Andrea Northup, and a D.C. City Council staffer on a trip to Delaware – a fitting ‘initiation’ into the role of D.C. Farm to School Network intern. The goal of the trip was to get a feel Delaware’s local food supply, and explore how to connect that supply with the demand for local foods in the D.C. school system. Our knowledgeable and well-connected host, fourth-generation watermelon farmer and Delaware Fruit and Vegetable Association president David Marvel, led our energetic and passionate group on a wonderful journey of learning, networking, and of course – eating!
Just a few hours from D.C., Delmarva (a catchy name for the Eastern Shore region of Delaware Maryland, and Virginia) makes its mark as the epicenter of watermelon production. They produce a notable portion of the country’s corn and lima bean yield as well. Our first stop was the S.E.W. Friel sweet corn farm. We were able to snag a few minutes with the farmers amidst the busyness of the growing season full in swing – which means around the clock harvesting, packing, distributing and marketing of products. We stood in awe of the over 13-feet tall machines capable of harvesting 60,000 lbs of corn per hour. We chatted with some of the many folks who work in concert to bring that sweet corn all the way from seed to harvester to tractor-trailer truck to storage facility to point-of-sale (e.g. supermarket) to a family’s refrigerator.
Would you have guessed that both schoolchildren and Delmarva watermelons use the same form of transportation? In our exploration of the watermelon’s journey from farm to table, we learned that retired school buses are rendered windowless and accompany teams of migrant workers as they walk through fields tossing watermelons on board. The roads of Delaware are flooded with melon-filled busses on their way to washing facilities, auctions or markets. We saw Lakeside Farms, a family-owned operation where watermelons are grown, washed and packed for shipping. And we watched in fascination at the Laurel Produce Auction as truckloads of locally-grown produce were paraded and sold to the highest bidder. From mid-July until mid-September, the Auction sells an average of over 2 million watermelons!
Posted in Schools
There has been a lot of buzz and excitement about the new leadership and direction of the DCPS food services. The conversation continued yesterday at a DCPS Community Forum, where about 60 parents, teachers, food service professionals, and community organizations gathered to ask questions of DCPS Food Services Director Jeff Mills, Chief Operations Officer Tony Tata, and Director of Health & Wellness Diana Bruce.
As an active DCPS parent, and a program director at the Capital Area Food Bank, I recognized almost every face in the room – fellow parent activist Constance Newman; garden educator Kacie Warner; and anti-hunger advocate Kristin Roberts; just to name a few. Each of those wonderful stakeholders could be so much more than just a face in the crowd. We could be valuable assets to the DCPS school meal system, and advocates in support of the changes you plan to make.
Since coming in to town a few months ago, the DCPS food services team has undertaken incredible efforts to transform D.C. school meals. This has been a challenge, given that D.C. school meals have a rocky history plagued by contract mismanagement, financial accountability issues, food safety concerns, and inconsistent leadership. Jeff Mills and his team have inherited a 60,000 meal-a-day beast of a system, and have been quick to make big promises about how they’re going to turn it around on a dime. To their credit, they’ve made huge expansions to breakfast in the classroom, piloting supper programs at after-school programs, taking on two new vendors as pilot projects, and hiring new staff. And there are big promises of things to come, such as a garden-kitchen educational program, special celebratory events, a totally new menu based on unprocessed, fresh foods, 20% local produce, and compliance with IOM standards… the list goes on.
But who’s calling the shots? What is the end goal? Where are we headed?
All the people in that room last night are on the same side as Jeff and his team. We want the great things for our kids and our community that they rattled off – more fresh, unprocessed foods, more local produce, better access to school meals. But we understand that it won’t be easy to get those foods on D.C. cafeteria trays, and then get kids eat them. You’ll need the community to be your allies in this. But a few things need to change.
First, you must engage us. We need a formal system for providing input and giving feedback. It is not enough for you to stand in front of us and tell us what’s happening. We need to have a formal “Advisory Committee” comprised of a wide swath of community members and national experts to be a part of the planning and execution of the new DCPS school meal operation. We need this NOW, as plans for the future are being shaped and defined, not after they have already been developed.
Second, slow down. Nobody is expecting a barrage of reforms that will solve every aspect of the DCPS school meals all at once. The issues plaguing the DCPS school food system run deep, and have been decades in the making (as you probably know better than we do). We would rather see a few simple, measurable goals achieved than dozens of efforts pulled together quickly.
Third, show us a strategic plan. This city has seen too many well-intentioned but piecemeal efforts to improve the health and well-being of our youth. We need to be thinking not months, but years into the future at what DCPS food services will look like. Tony Tata himself said that DCPS has no idea what this operation will look like after this year, and that’s unacceptable. Other large, urban school districts have overcome the same issues we are facing and are serving the types of meals we strive to serve. Let us learn from their successes and failures, and develop a strategic plan to get where we all want to go, with attention to the unique strengths and weaknesses we have here in the nation’s capital.
Fourth, be transparent. Keep us in the loop with your plans, the criteria you use to evaluate foods, how you spend our taxpayer dollars, where your food is coming from and what’s down the pipeline. It’s not enough for you to give us vague responses to our questions from time to time – stay ahead of the curve and provide us with concrete information.
You can have our 100% support in these efforts if you engage us, and make calculated, strategic change towards our common goals, and are transparent with the community you’re serving. And believe me, it is going to take our support and buy-in on a much deeper level to realize the ambitious goals that we all have for D.C. school food. We owe it to the thousands of children who depend on these meals each day to work together on this while we have the chance. Let’s get it right.
[Cross-posted from Beyond Bread]
Communities east of the Anacostia River suffer from an infamous shortage of grocery stores, and here at Bread for the City we’re doing our part to counteract that lack: we’ve made our food pantry a lot more like the shopping experience.
We’ve previewed this new project on Beyond Bread before: in A Week of Choice, food pantry coordinator Jeffrey Wankel told you that, “after two successful dry-runs, Client Choice…went live for an entire week at our Southeast Center,” teaching us all a very important lesson. “Our clients love the ability to choose what food they receive from our pantry. This alone makes it a priority for us to implement Client Choice as a permanent feature of our food program.”
So we’re pleased to report that the Southeast pantry is now all Client Choice all the time–to the rave reviews of clients, staff and volunteers.
According to Food Coordinator Tony Weldon, the Client Choice program “sets us apart from a church basement, or something like that, even just with the visual effect,” he explains.
The pantry now boasts new shelving units and a layout that is carefully constructed to guide clients through the array of options. After a few months of tweaking, Jeff is proud to note that the “cycle time” (i.e., the average length of each client’s time checking in and receiving their bags) is now comparable to the previous system.
Most of all, the clients love it. “This is their words,” Tony said: “‘Wow! Ya’ll stepped your game up!”
Another positive side-effect of this new system: volunteers and clients actually get to know each other. “Client choice has opened the lines of communication..and there is noticeably more constructive feedback.” Volunteers are able to learn more about the clients they serve, and clients enjoy seeing familiar faces month after month.
Meanwhile, Client Choice has made our staff less busy. That may seem counterintuitive, since there are more decisions being made with every single bag we give out. And yet, prior to Choice, Tony and his food pantry staff were responsible not only for distributing bags to clients, but also for supervising the volunteers who stuffed bags. Managing both sides — on top of the day-to-day logistics of orders and deliveries and so on — stretched pantry staff to their limits. With Client Choice, clients pack their own bags, while volunteers guide them from station to station. It’s all one process. Tony and his staff still oversee pantry operations, but they’re left with more time to chat with clients, get to know volunteers, and tinker with big-picture aspects of the system.
Ecolocity DC, a local Transition Towns and community sustainability group, is hosting two gardening workshops this upcoming week. Both of them are focused on ways that you can build good soil, therefore enabling you to grow great food. The first is a “Composting 101″ workshop this Saturday, August 14, with Ed Bruske, “The Slow Cook.” [...]
Posted in Access
