More Good News!

Today I was offered an Americorps position with New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) working with the Farm Fresh Initiative. I will be helping either maintain or start up a new Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in an underserved neighborhood in New York City. CSAs are subscription-based food distribution programs that allow participants to pay upfront for a share and receive regular packages of local, in-season harvests from farms. This specific program targets all income levels by providing a variety of payment options including funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

I am so excited to begin working with this program, as it will allow me to address my real interest in working with food-- fighting poverty by making local, organic, nutritious food accessible to people with limited food dollars. While my classes in NYU's food studies program provide an understanding in political, economic and cultural conditions that impact the way Americans eat, this position will allow me to create options for a different way of interacting with food markets.

I am sure that this opportunity will bring about many exciting stories and challenges, and I look forward to sharing with you what I am learning in the coming months.

How Mothers and Mentors Talk about Obesity

I have to admit I am stealing this topic from a classmate. My research methods class allows each student to develop a research proposal about any food-related topic, and for the next few weeks we get to read and comment on every topic as the class comes to an end.

This week I was inspired by the topic of how mothers are identifying with and managing the childhood obesity epidemic in their homes. Because I want to work with kids about food issues, I want to throw myself into this too and include mentors. I remember conversations with coworkers in Arizona in which we talked about our high school views of health--I actually drank Slim Fast for breakfast and ate anything that said low-fat--and I think it is really important to have food role models that guide children and teenagers in eating and health decisions.

Finally, at age 25, I don't think much about my weight, because I think of eating as something much bigger than that. I make food choices based on 100 different things, the last being what the impact is on my weight. I eat responsibly, compassionately, joyfully and industriously, and typically this means healthfully. I eat whatever I want, it's just that "whatever I want" no longer includes processed versions of fat, sugar and salt. But for most of my life I struggled with eating and body image concerns. It was only after I stopped thinking about myself as primary that it was natural for me to eat in ways that nourished me correctly. I am incredibly aware of how my body feels after eating now, and can easily tell what I need to right myself-- more greens, more water, less sugar, etc. I am grateful for this attitude transformation, something I know will persist throughout my life, but I am very curious about how to facilitate this kind of relationship in others.

Though my passions run counter to this claim, I do not think food is something people should obsess about. I mean, of course, that its impact on our bodies should not be an obsession. The competing concerns of overweight and anorexia seem to dominate conversations about young women, which is truly sad (few people will be surprised to learn that robbing children and teens of their innocence and lightheartedness boils my blood). For me, including externals into the conversation changed my habits which in turn allowed me to come to a healthy relationship with food and my body. I don't know if this is what works for other people, but I would like to assume that it is. Therefore, spreading awareness about food security issues could encourage healthy relationships for other people, specifically children that are developing their tastes and habits.

What has influenced your relationship with food and your understanding of health? How has your family played a role in this, and how have things like advertising or marketing been influential? What do you think needs to be done for younger generations to be healthier, and who should be in charge of this?

My guest post on Tanya's blog!

My good friend Tanya, who runs the blog Vegan Faith, asked me to write a post for her while she is out of town. I took the opportunity to talk about a few School Food events I went to a few weeks ago. I always knew that school food was generally not something I'd want to eat, but I didn't know the extent of it until taking part in these events (put on by the Wagner Food Policy Alliance, a group I'm involved with here at school and another blog I work with).

Read through my post below and those I've linked to above, explore What's on Your Plate? and take a look at the resources for making a difference!

"After a year of working with kids to learn about gardening and community food security in Tucson, Ariz., I enrolled in New York University’s Food Systems master’s program to learn about the governmental policies, international relations issues and economic drivers behind why so many Americans do not have access to fresh, healthy food.

"Last week I went to a few events about School Food and got really angry about how we are feeding kids in schools. I learned about a lot of resources for fighting against this dangerous problem and wanted to share the information with everyone.

"Let me start off by borrowing from School Food expert Kate Adamick’s frightening description of added sugars from her review of Jamie Oliver’s television show Food Revolution:

"“Generally speaking, there are 22 to 24 grams of sugar in a typical eight-ounce serving of flavored milk—10 to 12 more grams of added sugars than in a comparable serving of unflavored milk (of equal fat content). There are four grams of sugar per teaspoon, and approximately 115 teaspoons of sugar per pound. Thus, a child who drinks flavored milk every day for lunch consumes 1800 to 2160 more grams of sugar per 180-day school year than a child who drinks an equal amount of unflavored milk. That's 3.9 to 4.7 pounds of added sugars. And, of course, children who drink flavored milk for both breakfast and lunch consume twice that amount.”

"Kids in schools are fed sugar, fat and salt by the pounds every year, and food companies that take free commodities like unflavored milk and raw chicken and process them into chocolate milk and chicken nuggets get rich off of this. We are teaching kids that it is ok for them to think of food this way—that it should be consumed as entertainment, that the only way food can taste good is if it is overly processed, colorful, advertised by a cartoon, and high in sugar.

"This very blog, and my own experiences cooking and eating with my roommates in my little Brooklyn apartment, show us that there is a lot more to enjoy about food. We know chicken grilled with rosemary (I know we weren’t always vegans) is even better than a dinosaur-shaped nugget. None of us buy into the idea that adding sugar/salt/fat is the only way to make food tasty, and we need to show kids that this is true as well—or else there are going to be a lot of diet-related problems for our younger generations.

"I was lucky enough to buy school lunch only a handful of times growing up. Mostly I packed my own lunch every day, or my mom packed it when I was young. I would still buy soda or french fries to supplement what I brought by the time I was in high school, but I had a bagel and some fruit to fill me up. For students on free or reduced lunch, or any other low-income students, there is no nutritional safety net. Cakes and donuts are served for breakfast, chicken nuggets and pizza for lunch, and if there is a salad bar it usually has iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing. For one of the school food events I attended, we picked a number out of a hat that dictated what we could eat for breakfast. I got donuts and cocoa puffs. I ate donuts for the first time in years, and felt sick all day long because of that.

"Two New York public school students made a film about their relationship to food, and the accessibility of fresh, healthy food in their neighborhood and at their school. You can see a trailer for the film here, and if you have resources to purchase and show the film I encourage you to do so—it’s inspiring and really fun. How wonderful that students want to advocate for their own bellies and learn about what it takes to grow healthful food!

"Do you think it is necessary to revamp school food so that it can nourish young minds and bodies? I do not have kids, but I really like kids, and I like kids that are full of curiosity, joy and energy. I think all kids should have a right to live life this way, and I think eating habits are the most basic improvements that can be made to promote quality of life. So that’s why I care. But what if your kids were like me, and had yummy food put in a lunch box every day? The accessibility of junk food undermines kids’ practices or preferences of eating nutritious food. Even if they do not eat the donuts for sale in the lunch line, they might still be influenced by the kids that eat them and talk about how sweet they are. To me—and this is biased because it is currently my life’s work—the cafeteria is the most important educational facility in a school. How can we make it a healthy place to learn?

"School gardens, farm-to-school programs and cooking programs are just a few options, and these are great ways to get involved in your local community (and get access to yummy food to sweeten the deal!). Most successful school gardens I’ve seen resulted from PTA funding or involvement, and farm-to-school programs are beneficial to everyone in the community. Here are some wonderful resources to learn more:

http://www.farmtoschool.org/

http://www.scoolfood.org/

http://www.revfoods.com/

http://www.schoolgardenwizard.org/

http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/

http://www.kidsgardening.org/

"(I have endless resources about school gardening, ask me if you want more help!)

"Thank you for listening to my tirade on what kids eat, and please let me know what your comments and questions are!"

I still find that my primary interest lies in working with schools and students to change perceptions about food and I'm hoping I can find meaningful work doing that. Is this something you care about as well? Please share some experiences you have had with school food (Brant, you shared some info about how it was for you when you were young... how about starting off that comment thread?)

Thanks to Tanya for encouraging me to write... it seems to be the thing that gets lost in the shuffle of everything I'm doing!

I have an internship at an urban farm in Brooklyn

...and you can read about it here!

Today I helped clear away twigs and tree branches that will be chipped for mulch. It was so nice getting my hands dirty again!

My first task is to help with coordinating communication about a fundraising/awareness event we are having Oct. 30. There's a soup cook-off, a bakesale, facepainting and more.

I am really looking forward to being involved with the development of a new urban farm. It will be a great way to learn about gardening here, and I will get the opportunity to feel really engaged in my new community!

Over the past few weeks as I began school I have been inspired to share what I'm learning, so check back again soon--I'm finally writing again!

In the meantime, be well!

I Got Accepted to Graduate School!!

Good news! I was accepted to New York University's Food Systems Master's program! Read about it here. What an amazing opportunity!

I will be spending the next 2 weeks discerning my next step. I feel very blessed to continue my work with Food Security no matter what I choose.

I want to read this book.

Read about it here:

Working in the Shadows

Some things to keep in mind about unskilled workers:
-Above and beyond U.S. unskilled workers, there is demand for more than 500,000 unskilled workers each year. This shows that there is demand for migrant labor in the U.S.
-5,000 Visas are available for unskilled workers each year. This is unreasonable based on the demand stated above.
-Only three of the Visas for unskilled workers are offered to Mexican workers.
-The backlog for legally obtaining these Visas goes back to 2001; so, workers that applied for the "other workers" Visa from Mexico in 2001 are just now being processed. Take a look at the Visa Bulletin for specifics about Visa processing times.

Against Policies that Create a Police State?

More than 800 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were involved in raids this weekend in South Tucson, a lively and mostly latin@ (latino/latina) neighborhood where I go to church and work with a lot of schools. Some were wearing ski masks. The mission was targeted at criminals involved in human smuggling, but many nearby people were taken up as "collateral damage" for not being able to produce documents. Arizona is taking on the trappings of a police state, and this will only continue with the recent passage of a law legitimizing racial profiling.

SB 1070 would give police officers the authority to determine migrant status based on "reasonable suspicion." Do you know how to determine someone's citizenship? Do you know the categories of citizenship and what documents support those categories? Could you correctly uphold such a directive?

Please, help me fight against the fear and hatred of this bill by telling Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto it. If you want to hear more details about why I am against it and what I think would be the results, let me know and I will be happy to share more about this.