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Imagine a forest that is open to all, providing food and sanctuary, right in the middle of Washington. While it might sound like a fairy tale, Ecolocity D.C. is developing a miniature version in the Pleasant Plains neighborhood and hopes to expand this vision throughout the city. While the sun powers the growth of the [...]
We’re not just growing vegetables on our rooftops here at Bread for the City. We’re growing gardeners.
Some of our clients have never really seen a garden before, let alone worked in one themselves. Many people, however, have fond memories of gardening in their youth (as part of family and community traditions), but no longer have access to green space these days. For all, our rooftop gardens are an opportunity to learn about food at its source, and to develop some capacity for growing it ourselves.
So in addition to our daily open hours (Monday through Thursday, 9-11am), we’re also conducting gardening workshops to learn and practice together. In these workshops, a mix of staff, volunteers and clients learn how to make their own containers, how to plant them, and facts about different herbs. We learn the science behind the plants and then we our hands dirty. Participants also enjoy lunch prepared with fresh ingredients grown right there in the garden. At the end of the workshops, clients receive both produce and potted plants to take home for their own budding gardens!
Brenden Armstrong, a local professional horticulturist, has been joining us to share best practices and ideas for how to grow vegetables and herbs in containers. Here’s what Brenden says about the class:
During the first class clients had the opportunity to plant basil, tomato, and pepper plants. For the second class they planted more herbs including thyme, oregano, lavender, and mint.
All of these plants were chosen because they are easy to grow both within and outside of the home, and they also provide good yields. Most herbs will supply plenty throughout the year when harvested correctly; basil, for instance, can be harvested every few weeks. Tomatoes and peppers can also be grown easily and grow enough that a couple of plants will suffice for each person in the household.
Throughout the workshops we emphasized the opportunities to use materials around clients’ homes to reduce the costs of gardening. We talked about how you can make everyday items such as yogurt cups and plastic juice jugs into containers for growing vegetables and herbs.
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Food advocates these days don’t have it easy. There’s plenty written on the ways that poverty, access, and obesity influence what we eat — now fair food activists are exploring what resources, approaches, and strategies are successfully changing how we eat. Just last month, a UNC-based study found that simply improving access to supermarkets in [...]
A Spring Harvest Celebration in D.C. Schools
“Salad greens! Salad greens!” was the surprising, yet endearing chant heard loud and clear in the cafeteria of Bancroft Elementary of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood at DC Farm to School Network’s 2nd annual Strawberries & Salad Greens event on May 25, 2011.
Strawberries and salad greens from farms of the mid-Atlantic region were incorporated into the lunch menufor the day in all 123 DCPS elementary, middle, high schools and educational campuses. Other schools in the city to participate included Friendship Public Charter Schools, CentroNia/D.C. Bilingual PCS, E.W. Stokes PCS, Cesar Chavez PCS (all campuses), Yu Ying PCS, Washington Jesuit Academy, Next Step Public Charter School, and The SEED School.
33 cafeterias across the city also featured a “Where Food Comes From” table. Educational materials provided for those tables included a map and pictures of the farmers who harvested the plants, packets of seeds to grow the plants, and a strawberry and salad green plant to discuss with the kids
the process of how part of their lunch was planted, grown, and then harvested.
Festive stickers with the Strawberries & Salad Greens logo were also provided to all students, which they wore proudly on shirts, hands, and even foreheads, as they munched and commented on the special additions to their school lunch: How does it taste? Sweet! Do you know where strawberries come from? The farm! A garden! What do you think these seeds need to grow? Water! Sun! Love! What do you eat strawberries in? Smoothies! Cake! Salad!
Strawberries & Salad Greens is just one example of how DC Farm to School Network is helping introduce fresh produce to kids and create an interest in tasting and learning about where nutritious food comes from.
For more information on upcoming DC Farm to School Network events, please visit www.dcfarmtoschool.org
House party/barn dance/potluck to celebrate the first year of Beet Street Gardens and donate to raise a (small) barn for the garden at Bruce House, a program of Sasha Bruce Youthworks! The actual (quite small) barn raising (definition here) will be raised by volunteers in the spring, just before the planting season.
The party is Saturday, December 11th at 1412 Parkwood Pl NW. Potluck dinner at 7:00. Contra, two-step, square dancing, fire pit, and good company ’till late.
$10 suggested donation. No one turned away. All proceeds go to Beet Street.
There will be a fire pit on the porch, a keg of beer, and a pot of mulled wine. We will have Gabe Popkin calling dances and old timey tunes from local musicians.
All are welcome. RSVP here.
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!)
We truly value the generosity of our donors. Yet because we also highly value the health of our clients, we hope to channel the energy and commitment of our donors to ensure that clients receive foods that best support their health.
Research shows that there is a much higher incidence of diabetes and heart disease among populations that include our clients . These diseases are largely preventable through lifestyle changes like diet and exercise. By contributing foods that do not contribute to these diseases, donors can help Bread for the City be a part of the solution to this community health crisis.
With this in mind, we respectfully share our updated nutrition guidelines for donations.
Please keep in mind that we cannot accept the following:
• canned or boxed soups that are not labeled low-fat, low-sodium
• ramen noodles
• pastry items, candy, other sweet snacks (cookies, Jell-o)
• drinks that are highly sweetened or artificially sweetened (sweetened fruit juice, soda, sports drinks, sweet tea)
• cake and brownie mixes
• boxed macaroni and cheese
Instead we encourage:
And we discourage but will accept:
• canned vegetables and beans that are not labeled low-sodium or unsalted
• fruit canned in light or heavy syrup
• sweetened cereal (Raisin Bran, Honey Nut Cheerios)
Thank you for joining us in this broad effort to improve the health of our community! To sign up to run a Holiday Helpings drive in your workplace or community, please contact Nathan LaBorie at nlaborie@breadforthecity.org or 202.386.7611.
“We are surrounded by food deserts,” states Laura Fox, the Program Coordinator for Baltimore’s Virtual Supermarket Program. We are at the Sustainable Food Block Party at Bread for the City, organized by the Hip Hop Caucus, as part of 350.org’s 10-10-10 Day of Action. A map chalked on the wall behind us illustrates our purpose for gathering today: it shows the areas of DC which are classified as food deserts.
Laura is representing Baltimarket, an innovative social enterprise designed to combat food deserts that is run by the Baltimore City Health Department. Baltimarket offers an online grocery ordering system through which residents of low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore can purchase food, which is then delivered the next day to one of two library sites. Participants can pay for their groceries using cash, credit, debit, or food stamps, and they only pay for the food they order; delivery to the library is free. In the half a year that they have been open, they have had 50 customers, 200 separate orders, and around $7,000 worth of groceries purchased.
Baltimarket is a truly local organization on all levels, from the design of their logo (done by students at the Maryland Institute College of Art) to their grocery provider (a local grocer, Santoni’s Supermarket, which has served the people of Baltimore since 1930). Baltimarket has targeted neighborhoods with a large concentration of corner stores and fast food outlets, both of which provide unhealthy foods that have led to high rates of diabetes, heart disease, and strokes in these neighborhoods. Its first two libraries are in neighborhoods that are more than a mile away from any full-service grocery stores.
The use of libraries as sites of grocery distribution is a tactical strike against food deserts in other ways, as well. As Laura explains, “Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, and in Baltimore there are so many wonderful libraries, and these libraries happen to be centrally located within many of the neighborhoods. The two neighborhoods we have the VSP in are low-income neighborhoods.” By working with infrastructure and institutions which already exist in low-income communities, Baltimarket engages directly with residents whose use of the service allows them to save the valuable time and money that they would otherwise have expended traveling to grocery stores via pubic transportation or taxi.
While Baltimarket does not put limits on the types of foods that can be purchased, they do try to provide incentives for people to make healthy choices with their purchasing and eating habits. For the first and fourth orders that a person makes through the program, they get $10 off the price of healthy foods (with the health department providing a detailed list from which to choose these products.) Additionally, the health department gives cooking demonstrations and hands out healthy recipe books at the libraries during the hours when food orders are being taken.
Unfortunately, the future of Baltimarket is uncertain. The money they initially received from the federal government is on the verge of running out, and they are in the process of applying for grants in order to keep the program open. “This program is wonderful!” Laura exclaims, but if they do not find new sources of funding in the next 60 days the City of Baltimore will not be able to afford to maintain the program.
As people in cities all over the country are searching for solutions to the food desert crisis, programs like Baltimarket suggest that such solutions can be both common-sense and innovative, making a huge difference to a neighborhood’s ability to support healthy residents. But it takes a lot of drive to start a new business during a recession, especially one that targets low-income neighborhoods. The City of Baltimore should be applauded for trying something new to address the problem of food deserts, and hopefully, with hard work, institutional and community support, and some luck, the program will find success.
The Crossroads Farmers Market has always garnered attention – from the local and federal governments and from the media. Its Fresh Checks program and overall philosophy just seem to pull them. Now, USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon has requested a visit. Concannon, who serves as secretary of food, nutrition, and consumer services, will be at [...]
