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 75th 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 7th 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 “5th 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 5th 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!
