Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Posted by Sharon Gruber | October 27th, 2010

Most of the food in Bread for the City’s pantry is purchased directly by us from the Capital Area Food Bank – putting your donated dollars to great bulk-scale use. (And it’s not too early to give to our Holiday Helpings campaign, which starts next week!)

Posted by Caitlin Krieck | September 8th, 2010

The most lasting habits are those learned young, something BFC Nutrition Consultant (and mother of two) Sharon Gruber knows well.

Sharon, who conducts nutrition classes and cooking workshops with Bread for the City’s adults clients, featured a Family Fun Party at each of our centers (Northwest in Shaw and Southeast in Anacostia). “I thought it would be great to provide a fun, health-focused outing for families the week before DC public schools start for the year,” said Sharon.

About 25 mothers, grandmothers and children of all ages were in attendance. Children and caregivers alike enjoyed bananas rolled in sunflower seeds and whole-grain cereal, “sandwich on a stick” and “stuff your own tacos”, just to name a few. By Sharon’s count, one of the crowd favorites was “plain, low-fat yogurt that the kids sprinkled with cinnamon themselves. The then dipped apples into it, and for extra fiber and nutrients, the apples still had the skin on. No need for the sweetened stuff!”

For many of Sharon’s clients and their families, meat is the central element of each mean– and sometimes diets can lack the proper balance of vegetables and fruits. These classes were designed to explore the possibilities of fruits and vegetables and they were a hit with both children and parents. One mother remarked, ” I’m filled up….Who knew it was possible? You really don’t need meat.”

Recent research suggests that activities like these may be an effective tool to change childhood eating habits permanently….

Posted by Caitlin Krieck | August 23rd, 2010

[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.]

Posted by Sharon Gruber | June 14th, 2010

[Cross-posted from Beyond Bread.]

Last month, Gary Imhoff of DC Watch had some salty words to say about health and nutrition. Just as the innovative, promising Healthy Schools Act was making its way to become law, Gary objected to the efforts to reduce the consumption of sugar and salt in our schools. These ingredients, Gary claimed, “pose no real dietary or health dangers to the average person.”

Unfortunately, one third of Americans are far beyond average: they are either overweight or obese. A major factor in this health crisis is overconsumption of sodium, which contributes to heart disease among other illness. The Washington Post recently reported that the Center for Disease Control estimates that an average of 77 percent of our sodium intake actually comes from packaged food — the canned, boxed, and bottled foods we buy at the market. That article also reports that the federal government is taking this health threat seriously with a new effort (not yet officially announced, but planned to span a 10-year period) to curb the amount of sodium in processed food and restaurants.

It’s great news, and I hope the federal government follows through. Indeed, here at Bread for the City we’ve already started down that path. In the past few years, we have greatly reduced much of the sodium in the items in our food pantry.

Yet Gary objects to “food police” who he says wants us to live in “a world without flavor.” The good news for Gary is that ours is a wide world full of flavors, with many ways of preparing food that is both tasty and healthy.

Here at Bread for the City, we’re able to go beyond the pantry to explore this world of healthy food. Each month at both the NW and SE sites, BFC holds nutrition and cooking workshops, geared toward helping clients make tasty, easy-to-prepare, healthful, inexpensive foods at home.

Just a few weeks ago, I gathered with Bread for the City clients from age 3 to about 73, as we spent an hour peeling, chopping, stirring, and laughing. We talk a lot about salt in these classes. With chili pepper flakes, vinegar, garlic, onion, and lemon as the seasonings on these dishes, the flavor was plentiful — all without using any salt. Participants knew that if they chose, they could add salt to the food on their own plates. But, remarkably, every participant declined to add any.

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | May 27th, 2010

As a recent American Prospect article made clear, not all farmers markets are geared toward shoppers who need fresh fruits and vegetables the most. Yet two markets in the District have opened or expanded this season to address that critical constituency.

The Howard University Hospital (HUH) began hosting a twice-weekly farmers market Tuesday, May 11, and will continue to feature produce from Pennsylvania and North Carolina farmers each Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the hospital courtyard. The hospital is located in Ward 1 at 2041 Georgia Avenue NW, near the Shaw/Howard University Metro and steps off several Metrobus routes. The market accepts WIC and Senior CSFP vouchers.

The purpose of the market, according to a Howard press release, is to help address the scarcity of fresh fruits and vegetables in African American communities. With its location in Ward 1, the campus is a good place to start. The market is a project of the program HUH CARES, and has been commended by Dr. Denia Tapscott, a bariatrician and program director for the Center for Wellness and Weight Loss Surgery, as a service that can address the obesity epidemic among African Americans. The market may get a mention as part of EBONY Magazine’s year-long coverage of the center.

The Ward 8 Farmers’ Market starts its season on Saturday, June 5. The market, which carries a social justice mission, is now entering its 12^th season of bringing fruits, vegetables, herbs, plants, and more from Pennsylvania and Maryland to the heart of Congress Heights.  The market will be held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot of the old Congress Heights School at 500 Alabama Ave. SE, near the Anacostia and Congress Heights Metro stations on the green line. For years, this area suffered from a dearth of grocery stores but an abundance of small corner stores, where fresh food makes up only one percent of the offerings.

The market will expand this year, creating the only weekday farmers market east of the Anacostia River.  Beginning on June 8, it will operate from the parking lot of the United Medical Center at 1310 Southern Ave. SE near the Southern Avenue Metro station on the green line. The market will run each Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. through October. Also new this year is a website for the market: www.ward8farmersmarket.com.

Both Ward 8 Farmers’ Market locations will accept EBT cards issued in D.C., SNAP cards issued in Maryland, the new WIC Cash Value Checks (CVC), and other food assistance coupons such as those offered by the WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.

The market continues to provide vegetables and fruit to corner stores in Congress Heights, with the help of a grant from the Capital Area Food Bank, in exchange for the promise that they are sold to the public at reasonable prices.

Posted by Caitlin Krieck | May 25th, 2010

There’s been lots of talk here regarding the FY 2011 budget is the proposed D.C. Beverage Tax, a 1-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary-drinks and sodas in District grocery stores. Opponents have gained momentum and as Councilwoman Mary Cheh and her colleagues reconsider their options, I think it is important to look at the potential impacts this tax (and it’s alternatives) could have on Bread for the City clients and other vulnerable families in Washington, D.C.

The 1-cent-per-ounce tax was first proposed by the federal government last year– like the D.C. tax, the legislation would increase the cost of a 12-pack of soda by $1.44 and a 2-liter bottle by $0.68. Since then, 30 states have put a small sugary beverage tax into place, although only 2 (Arkansas and West Virginia) have taxes specifically on sodas. D.C. would be the third local government to impose such a tax on the voting public and despite reassurances from the Council, opposition has loomed large.

Mary Cheh, the councilwoman who first proposed the bill as part of her Healthy Schools Act of 2010, says the tax would generate between $6 million and $9 million, money earmarked for improved physical education programs, school nutrition and building grocery stores and farmers markets in the poorest Wards of the District (5, 6, 7, and 8).

The American Beverage Association (ABA), however, says this is not the way to raise money. “We understand that governments are facing tough budget challenges,” Susan K. Neely, president and CEO of the ABA, said, “but singling out one item for taxation completely misses the mark in having an effect on the national challenge of obesity.” And even the council members admit that the tax would have little if any impact on obesity itself. (In fact, studies show a tax would have to be as high as 18% to make any significant dent in obesity in the District). Additionally, opponents argue, the tax would negatively impact low-income families, who now, more than ever, cannot afford to pay more for their groceries.

And here, we get to the heart of the matter. As an employee of a local grocery store and an intern with Bread for the City, a local non-profit that provides food, medical, legal and social service to low-income D.C. residents, I have found this is an issue to be tackled head on, with facts in hand and an open mind.

Posted by Jody Tick | May 20th, 2010

What’s the Issue? 43% of students enrolled in city public schools are overweight or obese — one of the highest rates in the nation The District Government spends more than $400 million annually to treat obesity Childhood obesity causes diabetes, hypertension, liver disease, sleep apnea, heart disease and is linked with higher rates of cardiovascular disease [...]

Posted by Kacie Warner | March 23rd, 2010

For the last eight years, the Washington Youth Garden has hosted a gaggle of families every Saturday morning from early spring until the end of the summer. The program, called Growing Food…Growing Together, brings twenty five to thirty families together to grow and prepare their own organic food. Each week, families work together to tend [...]