The Value of Food

Today Elizabeth and I gave a lesson on "The Value of Food" at the Oneota Community Co-op in downtown Decorah. Middle schoolers from Decorah Middle School came to tour the co-op, so Elizabeth and I prepared a short talk and food taste test for the students. We spoke to the students about the business model of the co-op and how it differs from a conventional grocery store, the co-op's bulk section, organic foods, local foods, and the phrase "you are what you eat." We sampled organic cheese, fair trade chocolate, whole wheat bread from a local bakery, local black winter radishes, local watermelon winter radishes (which are beautiful, by the way! I didn't get a picture but you should Google it), local apples, locally-made hummus, and organic peanut butter from the bulk section. The students sat in the cafe's eating area and we passed the different foods around the table for them to sample. Once you read my blog below, you will understand how much I love working with enthusiastic middle school students (note the sarcasm). The students acted completely bored and uninterested the entire time Elizabeth and I were talking, but at least the teacher was really nice. There were also a few mentally handicapped students there and they were super excited and so nice! They made the lesson worth teaching. After Elizabeth and I spoke to the students, they got to do a scavenger hunt throughout the co-op and they got some free food. I guess they liked that part.

After the kids left, Elizabeth and I got to eat the leftover food! It was all so delicious, and even better, it was free! I ate so much chocolate I felt sick afterward!

Here is a picture of our food cart and me with the cart of food that we sampled:

West Central Producer Visit

A few weeks ago, I organized a "producer visit" at West Central Community School. A local vegetable farmer from Maynard (pretty much the only local farmer from the area who grows edible food and not corn or soybeans) came to the school during lunch time and spoke about his local squash. He brought six or seven different kinds of winter squash and set them up on a table for students to feel, smell, and observe. He also donated some acorn squash for the school lunch that day. The food service director at the school used the squash to make "spiced squash cookies." They were pretty good! She also roasted the squash and cut it into small pieces- I passed out the roasted squash to the students for a taste test while Farmer Murray-John walked around and spoke with students. I think the students liked the roasted squash for the most part- some of it was burnt though. And of course they loved the cookies.

The younger students were much more enthusiastic than the older ones. Working with high school and middle school students is such a drag. That's probably my least favorite part about my job. The younger kids, however, are so inspiring and such a joy to be around! The teachers and Iowa State Extension County Youth Coordinators (4-H people) are extremely helpful when I'm at the schools. They always make the kids try the food, keep things organized, and they make me feel like I'm apart of the community!

Mr. Gordon Murray-John and his wife were honestly some of the nicest people I have ever met. Gordon is originally from England, so he has a beautiful accent. Mrs. Murray-John told me the story of how they met while we were cleaning up the squash...it was so interesting! He was visiting the United States and she was on vacation with her family- Mrs. Murray-John invited Gordon to come back up to Michigan to visit her home, and he did! They were engaged three weeks later! It brought tears to my eyes! I'm really looking forward to working with them more. Gordon wants to help West Central install a school garden in the spring.

Mr. Murray-John from Gordon's Garden and Michele Kelly, ISU Extension Fayette County Youth Coordinator

Mr. Murray-John showing kids his winter squash!

Michele making the kids try the squash...she's holding a toothpick with squash on the end of it.

Gordon speaking to a teacher and more students

Grape Harvesting

A few weeks ago, I spent a Saturday in a local vineyard. I received an email about participating in a "crop mob," which I guess is when members of the community come and help local farmers harvest their crops all at one time. We harvested 4 acres of grapes in one weekend! I think they were concord grapes, but I can't remember. They were really sweet and delicious even though they were grapes for making wine! I went with my friends Melanie and Elizabeth to the farm around noon, just in time for lunch. The farmer and his family served us the quintessential Midwestern meal: Sloppy Joes, three different kinds of potato chips, milk, chocolate milk, and tons of pop, bacon and potato soup, apple bars, Special K bars, and a few other things that I can't remember. There was absolutely nothing vegetarian, so Elizabeth and Melanie put potato chips on a hamburger bun for their entree.

I finally tried The Sugar Bowl that night- it's a local ice cream shop that gets its ice cream from somewhere in Wisconsin. Everyone is obsessed with The Sugar Bowl in Decorah, but I much prefer the Whippy Dip.

Harvesting Chickens

I think I may have ended one of my earlier blogs with the dilemma of whether or not I should help "harvest chickens" at a local farm. I decided that I might as well get the whole "Iowa experience" and try it, and if I got too upset I could leave whenever.

Jon, one of the environmental studies professors at Luther College, has a small farm with chickens and cows. He invited the Food and Fitness FoodCorps and AmeriCorps members and members of the community to come help him "harvest the chickens," which I thought was quite the clever euphemism. My friend Stephanie and I went to his farm having no idea what to expect, but it was actually a really enjoyable experience. There were about 15 adults and a whole mess of kids at the event. Everyone was very talkative, friendly, and in good spirits, but most importantly, they were incredibly respectful of the chickens and all the other animals on the farm. Although there were lots of people there to help, only Jon did the actual slaughtering (some of the little kids watched though!). He killed the chickens by chopping the their heads off- he didn't flip them upside down into cones and slit their throats like you often see on small farms. I hid in the barn while the chickens were being killed, but once they chopped the heads off and let them bleed out, I watched them boil the chickens and use a plucker machine to start de-feathering the chickens.

In the barn, I helped pluck the little feathers off that the machine couldn't get and I cut off the chickens' legs. I watched as some of the other adults cleaned out the chicken guts (DISGUSTING)- we kept having to take the dead chickens to the washing station because chicken poop kept leaking out them! It was so gross. That was when I left.

Overall though, it was a really cool experience. I'm so glad I went! I always wash my chicken now before I cook it because I know how easy it is for chicken poop to leak all over the bird while it's being cleaned!

Enjoy the pictures below!

Steph and I plucking the chickens' leftover feathers

Cutting the chicken's feet off

Scared and not knowing what I'm doing!

De-feathering the chickens with the machine

Jon boiling the chickens

The chickens before the "harvesting"

Kale

I know I have been terrible about keeping up with this blog (sorry grandpa!!), but I'm going to write about a couple of different things that have stood out in my mind throughout the past few weeks.

This past Thursday, I went to Maynard to teach a nutrition lesson to a second grade class at West Central Community School. I decided to teach a lesson on local kale, so I made crispy kale chips for taste testing and came up with a lesson plan. I brought heads rainbow curly kale and regular curly kale for students to pass around and feel while I spoke to them about the importance of local food. I also taught them that kale is an excellent source of calcium and vitamin C, and I taught them hand movements to remember the nutrients in kale (punch they air for vitamin C, because it's like a soldier that fights off germs for your body, and give a big smile for calcium because it gives you healthy bones and teeth).

I also broke the second graders up into small groups of four and we did a "kale experiment." I labeled paper bags 1, 2, and 3, and in each bag there was either raw, steamed, or crispy kale. The second graders had to reach into the paper bags and without looking, feel the kale and decide which was raw, which was steamed, and which was crispy. The kids loved the experiment and couldn't wait to yell out their answers!

Then we taste tested the crispy kale and the teacher and the students loved it!! They even wanted to try the raw kale that I had brought! I couldn't believe it. It was so inspiring- kids really will eat their fruits and vegetables, especially if you make it fun for them.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures during this lesson, but I will next time. More coming soon!

Happiness in Decorah

Hello again!

I had a busy week and weekend! I got back from Spicer on Sunday night- it was such a fun weekend. We did a cream can boil for my grandma’s 75^th birthday and we used all local ingredients. We went to the Willmar farmers market on Saturday morning and bought local sweet corn, potatoes, cabbage, sausage, and carrots for the boil. We also bought local cherry tomatoes for a tomato salad and we made two pans of cornbread. It was a delicious meal and I think grandma had a lot of fun.

On Monday, I shadowed my boss Emily while she gave a tour called “The Value of Food” at the co-op. We spoke to 7^th graders about why local and organic food is important, and then we had them do a scavenger hunt around the co-op to get the lay of the land. I get to do the next tour on my own. On Monday afternoon, I carpooled out to West Union, IA, with Lynette (she is the regional youth and 4-H coordinator for Iowa State Extension) and we met with two high school students who are planning an event called F.E.E.S.T. FEEST is the Food Education Empowerment and Sustainability Team. They are a youth-run program out of Seattle, and they host events to “kick it in the kitchen, prepare a delicious and healthy meal, and then eat all together family-style while learning more about food in their communities” (http://feestseattle.wordpress.com/about). FEEST has spread all over the country, and two high school students from West Union and Postville decided to host a FEEST event in their communities. The West Union FEEST is this Sunday and Postville’s is next Sunday.

On Tuesday, I met with North Fayette School District’s food service director, Carol. We spoke about how to incorporate Farm to School into North Fayette schools. Because only one farmer responded in last year’s bidding process (schools need at least three bids to show USDA that they are continuously searching for the most economical food provider in order to receive federal assistance in the National School Lunch Program), North Fayette does not work with any farmers to get fresh fruits and vegetables into their schools. They use a food distributor called Martin Bros. and most of the schools’ fruits and vegetables are canned. The re-bidding process is coming up in December, so I will be working with Carol and with the Northeast Iowa Farm Coalition to get more farmers involved in this year’s bidding process. Until December, Carol and I decided that the best way to incorporate Farm to School was to plan special events that highlight local, healthy, and fresh foods. For example, next week is “Home Grown School Lunch Week,” so I helped Carol order $300 worth of local food from an organization called GROWN Locally (they are a small produce distribution organization, but they are a non-profit). North Fayette schools will be receiving 13 bushels of local apples and 45 pounds of local carrots next week to feature in the school’s breakfasts and lunches. As a reward, FFI is donating $300 worth of kitchen equipment to North Fayette schools. I was so proud and excited! It was my first accomplishment as a FoodCorps service member. Later in the day, I drove to Cresco, IA, and met with the Howard-Winneshiek school district’s wellness committee. They were just going over a grant, so I mostly observed.

On Tuesday night, Stephanie, Melanie, Elizabeth, and I (4 out of the 5 AmeriCorps/FoodCorps members- we were missing our friend Sonja) had a wine and cheese night at Stephanie’s apartment. We bought fresh local cheeses and amazing Persecco from the co-op. It was such a fun and delicious night!

Wednesday was mostly a training day. Lynette came to Luther College and did a cross-age teaching training with the Decorah FoodCorps/AmeriCorps members and the Des Moines FoodCorps members (they drove up for the training). There are 6 school districts that will be participating in a pilot cross-age teaching program with FFI this year. ISU Extension found that high school students teaching elementary students is one of the most effective ways to send messages to younger students. The AmeriCorps members will be coordinating the cross-age teaching. Howard-Winneshiek is the only one of my school districts that is participating in the pilot program.

Wednesday afternoon, we went to a “5^th Season: Stir-fry” workshop that Stephanie had planned. The workshop leader, the Sodexo executive chef at Luther College, taught food service directors how to quickly prep raw vegetables and make a quick stir-fry. Part of the reason why it is so difficult to get fresh fruits and vegetables into schools is because food service directors and their staff do not have the time to prep all of the produce. This forces them to buy pre-prepped, packaged, and canned (and often high-sodium and added sugar) produce. The 5^th Season Stir-fry workshop aimed to address this issue by teaching food service directors fast preparation methods and quick dishes to prepare for school lunches.

Wednesday night I went to the Decorah farmers market and bought beautiful sunflowers, a purple pepper, and blackberries (although they weren’t as good as Florida’s blackberries from Deep Creek Berry Farm!). I also went to a family’s house for dinner in Mabel, Minnesota, because I will be babysitting their son, Asher. We made homemade pizza, which was delicious! The family lived so far out in the middle of nowhere- it was 40 minutes from Decorah and I drove about 10 miles on gravel dirt roads to get to their house. My car is a mess now (don’t worry dad, I’m going to wash it!). They lived in the middle of Amish country so I had to be careful when I drove home in the dark; tons of buggies are out on the road at night! The family is actually Jewish, so I am excited that I will be able to go to synagogue with them in La Crosse on some weekends.

On Thursday, I started my day with a deeelicious latte and a muffin from Magpie (I know mom and dad will be jealous!)- Magpie is my favorite coffee shop in Decorah. At work, I began planning events to help advertise North Fayette’s participation in Home Grown School Lunch Week. Because NE Iowa’s first frost was on Wednesday, North Fayette had cleaned out their school garden. Carol was completely overwhelmed with local food because she had tons of butternut squash and peppers from the school garden, and she knew she would be receiving 13 bushels of apples and 45 pounds of carrots the next week! She and Duane (the superintendent) contacted me about the surplus, so we all decided that we would do some nutrition lessons at the elementary school with the peppers and apples, taste test the squash during one of the days of Home Grown School Lunch Week (I’ll probably set up a booth and make some sort of dish with the squash for students to try), sell some of the produce at the West Union farmers market, and prep and freeze the rest (the AmeriCorps members and I will help Carol since they don’t have enough labor to do this). This will all be in recognition of Home Grown School Lunch Week.

Thursday afternoon I drove out to Maynard, IA, to the West Central school district (they only have one school and it’s K-12 all in one buidling). I met with their food service director, Wilma, and she told me that Martin Bros. is also their food distributor and they also only received one bid from a local farmer. But she is really on-board with local food and wants to do a lot of Farm to School events up until December. Since Wilma already did her ordering for the week, we couldn’t order any local food from GROWN Locally for Home Grown School Lunch Week (HGSLW). Instead, we decided to do a taste testing next Wednesday during the school’s lunch hours in honor of HGSLW. I’m going to be making a local and organic broccoli quiche for students to sample.

After meeting with Wilma, I met with Lauren, West Central’s wellness committee chair. Lauren gave me the names and contact information for the youth wellness team members, so I’m going to be contacting them about helping me cook and serve the quiche next week. Lauren and I discussed how to start implementing West Central’s wellness goals, and we discussed what we wanted to accomplish at West Central’s first wellness meeting next week.

I finally got to go to Rubaiyat on Thursday night for “Mystery Beer Night!” It’s one of the fancier restaurants in Decorah and it is always packed! I didn’t get to try any of the food, but Stephanie, Melanie, Elizabeth, one of the new staff members of Luther’s Office of Sustainability, and I paid $2.50 to draw a coin out of a bag, and the coins all had names of different beers written on them from all over the world. I drew a “Speckled Hen” from England- it was pretty good!

On Friday, we had our usual work group meetings. After the meetings, we ate a delicious local and organic lunch from the co-op! Every Friday, FFI staff members eat lunch together, and the AmeriCorps/FoodCorps members get to plan the lunch each week (FFI pays). This week was Elizabeth’s week to plan a lunch, and she ordered lasagna and salad from the co-op. Next week is my week to plan lunch…I think I’m going to do a Mediterranean platter from the co-op.

Friday afternoon, I planned West Central’s Home Grown School Lunch Week activities. I called the youth wellness members about helping me cook the local broccoli quiche (none of them answered), wrote announcements for the youth wellness members to read each day of the week in recognition of HGSLW (each day during the morning announcements, one of the students will read a quick fact about Iowa farming and a tip for buying local food). I finished the night babysitting for Jon’s (a Luther Environmental Studies professor) two little girls- they are so sweet and nice, I actually had fun babysitting! Jon and his family raise chickens and tomorrow they are having a chicken harvesting event. They will harvest all 55 of their chickens and they are inviting members of the community to come take part in the event. Every person who goes gets a free chicken. I’m trying to decide if I should go…not everyone who goes has to actually slaughter a chicken, but I still don’t know if I can handle it. I will let you know what I decide…

Tons of pictures coming soon!

Thanks for reading everyone!

My second week!

Beautiful northeast Iowa! This was on my way from Decorah to West Union Elementary. I had to pull over- it was so picture-perfect!

What my commutes out to my schools look like the whole way...

Sorting the tomatoes for the school's food service director. These pictures are out of order!

Weighing the tomatoes so we can log our harvests. We let the kids stand on the scale with the tomatoes and then subtract out the student's weight and the weight of the tray.

5th grade students working together to harvest yellow tomatoes. (By the way, all of these students' parents signed a permission form for them to be photographed and published.)

The tomato that looked like a rubber duck- the kids were SO excited! (See my blog for more details!)

The kiddies and me with the "rubber duck."

Helping them harvest the tomatoes!

Luther's convocation with Tracy Kidder

Hi all!

Work is starting to pick up, which I'm really excited about. I'm still having some trouble getting in touch with two of my schools' food service directors and wellness committees, but I've gotten to the North Fayette school district three times now. I sent more emails to all the members of my wellness committees at my two other school districts, so if they don't respond by next Wednesday I decided that I'm going to give them a call.

At the end of last week, I went to Luther College's convocation with my boss Emily and the other AmeriCorps and FoodCorps service members. It really made me miss UF! :( Their convocation speaker was Tracy Kidder, an author and journalist who wrote "Mountains Beyond Mountains" and "Strength in What Remains." I thought it was so funny that Mr. Kidder spoke at Luther's convocation because he actually spoke at UF when I was a freshman as apart of UF's inaugural year of the freshmen common reading program! After hearing him speak, I really want to read "Strength in What Remains." I read "Mountains Beyond Mountains" at UF as a freshman and it was very inspiring.

Last weekend I went to Omaha for a family friend's Bar Mitzvah- it was so much fun to go to my old synagogue and see my grandma and all of my best Nebraskan friends! On Tuesday, I got interviewed for The Jewish Daily Forward- they are writing an article on FoodCorps and Jewish FoodCorps service members. I will post it to my blog when it is done! I also went to North Fayette's first organizational wellness committee meeting in West Union, IA. I got to meet the superintendent, the wellness chairperson (the district nurse), and a couple other important people in the school. At the meeting, we spoke about the schools' wellness goals for this year and their past successes. I also told them a little about FoodCorps, and they seemed super excited about my involvement. The superintendent even wanted to put me in the yearbook and make me a staff ID badge to let the students know who I am and that I am apart of the school's community. I was really excited.

On Wednesday, I went to the West Union Elementary School (part of North Fayette school district) to help harvest muskmelon and tomatoes at the school garden. The school's special needs students came in the morning to help us harvest, sort, and weigh the gardens muskmelon (we only harvested about 12 melons- the rest rotted!). After finishing up with the melons, the school's 5th graders came to the garden to harvest cherry tomatoes. Before they began harvesting, Barb (the garden director) and I went into their classroom and taught the students how to pick the tomatoes and how to sort the good ones from the bad ones. I also got to introduce myself and explain what FoodCorps is (I came up with a standard 30 second speech today to make it easier since I'm always explaining FoodCorps and my role as a service member). The 5th graders had so much fun harvesting the tomatoes! They even found a yellow tomato that was rather deformed and it looked like a rubber duck- the kids LOVED it. I took a picture of it so you can see!

Today, Sonja (one of the AmeriCorps members) and I reorganized our office (yes, I have my own office!). We brought lamps and posters and books to make the office more comfortable. I will have to post pictures of our office later! I will take some tomorrow. I also got a call from a super nice lady who lives 30 miles outside Decorah who wants me to babysit (my boss knows her). She said she is going to invite me to dinner in a few days and I can start babysitting for her regularly! (She pays me for mileage and driving time.) I also scheduled two jobs babysitting for my boss' daughters- hooray for extra money! :)

I'm leaving for Minneapolis tomorrow for my grandma's 75th birthday. I'm really excited to see my mom's side of the family! I will write more next week!

Have a great weekend everyone!