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.

Gardening Help

My friend Tanya had the wonderful suggestion that I provide some gardening tips. What a great idea!

The first thing to do is determine your regional planting guide. In Arizona, it is useless to read seed packages for planting seasons. Now, other climates aren't as severe, but it still helps to tailor your planting to the specific conditions in your area. The Old Farmer's Almanac lets you enter your town and state and it will build your planting guide for 2010 based on historical frost dates. Most planting problems stem (haha) from planting at an incorrect time.

The next thing is to really learn and build your soil. Knowing about your soil can tell you how to effectively water, and even poor soils like in Arizona can be amended. Run the Jar Test to see what kind of soil you are working with. Sandy soils don't retain water well, so you should water more frequently for shorter periods of time. Clay soils don't drain well, so you should water less frequently but for longer periods of time. Silt is somewhere in between these two. Compost, along with providing more organic matter for your soil, can improve the soil's ability to retain water in the case of sandy soil and can break up clay soil to increase drainage.

In our beds, we dig 2 feet down, break up the bottom of the bed, and fill it back in with half original soil, half compost. This gives the roots lots of space and organic matter, but it also allows the water to drain so that the roots aren't rotting in sitting water. For any subsequent crops, break up the soil with a digging fork, add 2 more inches of compost and turn that into the rest of the soil. And once your nice, airy soil is prepared, don't step in your bed or you will compact the soil again! You can purchase compost for this first use, but consider building your own compost bin for future use. Everything you need for good soil you already have--and you probably dispose of it--no need to keep buying it!

Okay, that's it for now. More tips to come!

Again--Pictures!

I spent the weekend in the desert and took really beautiful pictures. I think I change my computer background about every week because of all the pictures I take!

My new camera takes great sunset pictures!

Pretty sure this one is in Mexico.

Cerro Del Fresnal-- impressive.

There were about a million caves in those rocks.

The US-Mexico border.

Responsible Citizenship

I am going to steal something from a sermon I heard recently at Southside Presbyterian Church by Pastor Allison Harrington for this one. Why is it that we think that our only political responsibility is voting? We vote, and think we have done our job, think that we can blame problems on those we have voted into office. In fact, every choice we make on a daily basis is a political action. How we get around, where and how we do or do not spend our money, how we eat, what we do on vacation... these are all things that enforce political realities.

My roommates and I were talking the other day about Liberal Arts college students that protest immigration policies--and then go home and smoke marijuana (booo), increasing the demand for drug smugglers that reinforce negative opinions about people that cross the border. To be fair, there is no way to ensure consistent decision-making in a world of such moving targets. But I think it's really important to be educated about the implications of the way we live our lives. Understand where meat comes from, where potato chips come from, where the tomatoes in your Taco Bell burrito come from, (here you go Dad--) where your New Balance shoes and hundreds of straws come from. Whatever decision you make, you're free to make that decision, but you're also responsible for what happens because of that decision.

We all believe in different things, and that's ok, but please, please don't be ignorant about what your actions mean on a broader scale.

Fast for Our Families

A good friend and YAV serving in Miami sent me the information below in an e-mail. I urge you to act in support of this event:

On New Year's Day, a half dozen community members, including people facing deportation, entered St. Ann's Catholic Mission in Naranja, Florida (in south Miami Dade county) and began the Fast for Our Families. This means that they ate their last meal on New Year's Eve and will consume only liquids indefinitely until President Obama hears the voices of families separated by deportation. The fasters are making two simple requests to the Obama administration on behalf of our families:

1. That the Administration acts in its Executive Authority to SUSPEND raids, detentions, and deportations against immigrants with American families until Congress fixes our broken immigration system.

2. That the Administration sends the Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, down to South Dade to meet with the fasters to discuss what is happening in our community -- the daily, violent separation of families.

The fasters will continue the Fast for Our Families indefinitely and ask all who have watched families and communities be torn apart by raids, detentions, and deportations to join with them in solidarity actions and fasts.

Nationwide support for the Fast for Our Families is growing, but we need your support! How you can be involved:

1. Call President Obama and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano & ask them to stop the separation of our families. Their contact information and our policy document can be found at fastforfamilies@gmail.com. You can also call Secretary Napolitano right now at 866-587-3023.
2. Watch live streaming video of the Fasters every day at Noon from fastforfamilies.org .
3. Organize a 1-day Solidarity Fast or other action. If you are in the area, come spend the day with us. If you aren’t, do it from where you are. Let us know who you are, why you are joining us, and when you are fasting by emailing fastforfamilies@gmail.com. And if you want to join the indefinite fast, please let us know.
4. Forward this email to your friends and colleagues!
5. Make a contribution to support the families of the Fasters. You can send a check made out to WeCount! At Box 344116, Florida City, FL 33034. Put Fast for our Families in the memo.
6. Visit the Fasters at St. Ann Mission (13875 SW 264 St., Homestead, FL) - the visits they receive buoy their spirits. Let them know that their friends and neighbors care about them and support them.

Thank you for your support and your good works!

The Fast for Our Families

My roommate is awesome

My roommate Elsbeth works for BorderLinks, a great organization that works to educate people about border issues and immigration. She has taught me a lot, and I really value our conversations because it helps me connect the work I do to larger issues that also really interest me, including public health, international relations, economic disparity, education.... etc. Anyway, recently she told me a little bit about an e-mail conversation she had with a lady who did not understand why she was including discussions about sustainability during a trip that was focused on immigration. Elsbeth was nice enough to send me the conversation, in which she highlighted different sustainability efforts happening near Tucson and how they each played a role in immigration.

I wanted to share her insights with you to shed some light on that interconnectedness, and also introduce you to some of these sustainability experiments. Here is her response (thank you elsbeth!):

"I understand that the purpose of this immersion is on immigration issues and I would like to suggest that sustainability is an immigration issue. In our visits which deal with sustainable living, such as Just Coffee, DouglaPrieta Works, our time in Cascabel, and our visit with Brad Lancaster, we will be talking about sustainability in the context of immigration, because these two broad issues are intimately related.

Just Coffee is a solely Mexican venture that produces and promotes fair and just trade. By growing, producing, and selling the coffee from Mexico, more revenue is kept within the country that is then used for development of resources and people, thus causing less need for immigration. The organization was founded by a man who migrated from southern Mexico after he could no longer keep his coffee plantation afloat and who came to the border looking for work and to possibly migrate. Through a micro-credit loan, he and others were able to start Just Coffee and involve families in southern Mexico and on the border so that less people feel the push and pull to migrate. During our talk, we will hear this story repeated. www.justcoffee.org

DouglaPrieta Works functions along the same lines. One of the biggest reasons for immigration is the lack of jobs and resources for people. What DouglaPrieta tries to do is to provide important skills for people so that they can find and maintain jobs in Mexico and not have to immigrate. They offer workshops in carpentry, sewing, computers, permaculture, and much more. The director is especially interested in permaculture because of its ability to provide nutritious food, a source of income, and the building of community. douglaprietaworks.org

Cascabel provides the opportunity to experience an alternative lifestyle to the one that most Americans live in. Our delegation will offer a lot of perspectives and experiences and we will hopefully be confronted with the fact that a lot of the choices and decisions that we make affect others and ultimately lead to forced migration, especially in Mexico. The time in Cascabel offers us an opportunity to see other ways of living and to challenge our own understanding.

Brad Lancaster has been working on sustainable living programs for a long time and again offers alternatives to the norms that we see in U.S. society. A major hope of BorderLinks delegations is for participants to process the experience and to learn what it means for them and how they can take it back to their communities and incorportate what they have learned into their own lives. Brad challenges us to consider our actions and decisions and to change how we interact with others and with nature.

I hope this clarifies some ideas. I am happy to discuss this in greater depth."

The decisions we make, as Americans, have broad impact on the world. What can you do to help?

Make some Focaccia!

I made this while I was home for Christmas. Making bread is really really fun and this is an easy bread to make. Make this bread and you'll make friends!

From the "Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread: A Country Inn Cookbook" by Crescent Dragonwagon. Yep, Crescent Dragonwagon.

What you need:

1 1/4 cups of water

3 tablespoons of dried rosemary

1 tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of active dry yeast

1 teaspoon of salt

4 tablespoons of olive oil

2 1/2 to 3 cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon of water

Course salt

How to make it:

1. Boil water and pour it over 1 tablespoon of rosemary. Wait until it cools to luke warm, then strain and discard the rosemary.

2. Pour the rosemary water into a mixing bowl. Stir in the honey, sprinkle the yeast over the top and let stand until foamy, 5-10 minutes. Stir in the salt, 1 tablespoon of the oil, then add enough of the flour to make a kneadable dough.

3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, 5-8 minutes. Coat a large bowl with a few drops of olive oil, add the dough, then turn to coat all sides. Cover with a clean cloth and then let rise until double in bulk, about 1 hour.

4. Coat a 14 x 12 inch baking pan with another few drops of the olive oil. Punch the dough down and put it in the oil pan. Pat, stretch and pull it to cover the bottom. Dimple the surface with your fingertips.

5. Beat together the egg yolk, 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 teaspoon of water; brush this mixture over the dough. Drizzle with remaining oil, sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons of rosemary and a little course salt. Cover and let rise until double in bulk, about 45 minutes.

6. About 30 minutes into the final rise, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

7. Bake the bread until golden and crusty, about 25 minutes. Let cool slightly in the pan, then remove to a wire rack.

Then make some black bean hummus to dip it in. Yum.

Pictures!

Here are some pictures from the last week. Yay for the desert!

Sunset from Alyce's house

I love the sun, and saguaros

Tucson! From up high

Somewhere down there is the Marana Farm, a really awesome place.

Hiking in the wash. So much sun.

Mountains are the only thing that exist in the whole world.

The Hard Way

Is there anything more fun than doing things the hard way? I have begun embracing the hard way of doing things, and let me tell you, I am a convert.

What do I mean by this? Biking instead of driving. Writing letters instead of text messages. Singing or playing instruments instead of listening to a CD. Baking instead of going out to eat. Growing instead of shopping. Reading instead of watching the movie.

Of course, I'm sure you all agree with me-- but who has time for all of that, right? We'd all love to cook gourmet meals every night, but there is so much going on. Right? I know for a long time my life was like that. I ate cereal for dinner every night because I got home at 9 p.m.--and what else would you eat at 9 p.m? I was so exhausted from working that I didn't have the energy to go hiking or biking; all I wanted to do was watch NCIS.

But if we know what things make us happy, what else could possibly be more important? It can be really hard. But why even eat if you're going to eat something that doesn't feed you? Why just get somewhere quickly, when you could enjoy the journey of getting there? Doing things quickly and efficiently implies that some parts of life are less important than others, or "wasted time." But it's all part of your life, so why not do things the hard way and see what you might learn from it? Make time for things. It's your life, you get to choose what you do with your time.

My favorite part about gardening

I have really been loving my job so far, especially the mornings I spend in the garden. My favorite part about gardening is that it requires me to really be present in what I am doing--this is something that has greatly changed my views about the way I live.

I remember the experience that led to this revelation. I was checking the greens for cabbage loopers, examining each leaf and spraying with soapy water. After a thorough approach to the first few plants, I started trying to think up more efficient ways to accomplish the task. Would it work if I only looked down into the folds of the plant? Or if I only turned over the leaves that had bites taken out of them? I was taking much too long at this, and there had to be a way to quicken the pace.

The problem was that I am used to planning ahead in everything I do; I'm thinking ahead to the next thing I have to do before I am done with the previous. All the sudden it struck me-- if I missed one cabbage looper, it would eat the other leaves, and it would have been a waste of time to do this work at all. If I'm not trying my best on any task in the garden, if I'm speedy at it, it's not worth doing at all. There will be a long list of maintenance tasks day after day whether I take a long time or a short time inspecting for pests, so why not put forth due diligence and be thorough?

Working in a garden is unlike anything else I do because I'm not attached to the technology that allows me to multitask. I'm not interrupted by e-mails or cell phone calls. The only thing I have to do when I am out in the garden is do a good job at whatever task I'm given.

And the more I think about it, why do anything in life if I don't do it as best I can? If I cannot think of a compelling enough reason to do something the best I can without being distracted, is it worth doing at all?

This might sound so elementary. But for me, it was a life-changing discovery. I have always been a pretty hard worker, but I'm also pretty easily distracted. Striving to be present in everything I do has been extremely freeing for me. I stop worrying, I stop planning--I just do and be. And I have gotten much more fulfillment and enjoyment out of everything because of that.