Behold the (exceptionally fresh) development blog of a farm-to-school program at Foodlink's (exceptionally) Freshwise Farms.
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Attention All Educational Professionals of Rochester: Save the Date!
(this post is also viewable from the Foodlink blog!)
Rochester area educators, food service professionals, and administrators are invited to participate in an evening of brainstorming and collaboration to address and work on creative solutions to a problem that is relatively unique to this generation: how to empower our children to make informed food choices. Teachers from the Rochester area are invited to meet from 4 to 6:30pm on Thursday, February 17th at Rochester Contemporary Art Center (137 East Avenue, between Scio & Gibbs Sts) to engage in a guided brainstorming session to tackle this issue. We want to hear your voice!
Please RSVP to Derek Crowe (contact below) no later than Feb. 8th if you plan on attending!
THIS EVENT IS BEING SUBMITTED THROUGH THE RCSD HEALTH DEPTARTMENT TO COUNT TOWARD YOUR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT HOURS, PENDING REVIEW.
<< What is this?
Freshwise Farms, a social enterprise of Foodlink, is interested in establishing a farm to school program with Rochester area schools. Farm to school is a nation-wide movement that encourages small-scale, local action by bridging gaps between local farms and schools. It unites the community, cafeteria, and classroom by bringing students and lessons to farms while encouraging healthy eating by helping schools source food from local farmers.
We recognize that your input is necessary - this program cannot succeed without it. In the end, it will be the students who design and shape their farm to school program, so the first step in this process is hearing from you; the guardians of their education. You need no prior understanding of farm to school to participate in this evening. Your perspective as an educational professional is what we’re looking for - we need your expertise regarding current educational standards and ideal best practices for integrating agriculture, nutrition, and food systems awareness into our children’s education.
<< What to Expect
- You will be required to commit to attend the event on February 17th from 4:00 to 6:30pm.
- You will be invited to eat some delicious hors d’oeuvres.
- We will ask that you fill out a short bio sheet. (to be distributed upon RSVP)
- You will be divided into teams of 6.
- You will experience the process of ideation, details of which will be explained soon! (it's exciting, we promise)
- Your team will create a SHORT presentation outlining the problem as you see it and some of your ideas to be presented to the group.
<< Why Participate?
- Your ideas will have a real impact with social, educational, political and radical results. This evening is the initial phase in a long term plan for building a farm to school program in Rochester. We will use your input to shape the next event; a charrette in which your students will have the opportunity to design the farm to school program.
- Tackle a real-world problem in a unique way.
- Hear farmers and farm-to-school experts from around the region talk about the problem.
- Be part of shaping the future of this region.
- Work with professionals from other schools within the area.
- Earn professional development hours. (pending review)
If you are interested in learning more, watch this to explore more about farm to school:
You can also contact Derek Crowe at dcrowe@foodlinkny.org or (585) 328-3380 x157 with any questions, ideas, or feedback!
Be sure to watch this site for more updates!
This event is called a charrette (pronounced [shuh-ret]), and consists of an intense design-based collaborative project. Charrettes serve as a way of quickly generating a design solution through interdisciplinary collaborative work, integrating the aptitudes and interests of a diverse group of people. Below is a video documenting a previous charrette on which this meeting structure/form will be based, hosted by COLAB at Syracuse University. *note: this video serves to outline the structiure of a charrette, we will not be discussing 'bright flight' at this event.
Brain Food
(You can also see this post over at the Foodlink Blog)
Guess what kids? It’s time for the semi-annual blog post of blog posts! Get excited, because I’ve rounded-up some real gems from my favorite food blogs and packaged 'em up all nice and pretty for the holiday season. I’m aiming to start a (fairly sizeable) conversation about the way we relate to our food and its role in our society, so I’d recommend you get your reading pants on for this one.
First: food safety. The Senate passed S.510 Tuesday, a bill that will give more power to the hands of the FDA in establishing and upholding food safety regulations. Marion Nestle over at Food Politics summarizes the bill quite eloquently. There was some fear that a watered-down version of the bill would find its way into the final vote but an amendment (discussed on foodsafetynews.com) was passed that will protect small farms and increase food safety regulations. Foodsafetynews outlines the reactions to S.510’s passage, which are overall fairly positive. For example, Dave Murphy, founder and director of Food Democracy Now!, which promotes sustainable agriculture, said that:
"Passage of the bill... is an historic victory for family farmers and the local food movement. In overcoming the backlash of agricultural giants who desperately fought to kill these protections for family farmers, the sustainable agricultural movement has shown that it is a political force to be reckoned with. The bill is far from perfect, but the inclusion of these protections guarantees that farmers that sell directly to consumers, farmers markets, grocery stores and restaurants with sales under $500,000 and sell in state or within 275 miles of their farm or facility are exempted from expensive regulations that could drive them out of business."
One of the most glaring imperfections is that the new bill doesn't control meat, poultry and eggs. Why? Because the Department of Agriculture regulates them…
Whoa. This is getting heavy, and you’re probably hungry. Check out one of my favorite references, World’s Healthiest Foods, and their article about how to eat healthy at work. Or go to the best recipe blog on the internet and make something delicious.
Or you can enjoy Katie Shelly’s Picture Cook, an awesome cookbook that uses illustrations for directions! (scroll to the right…)
Or you can laugh like crazy with the Eggventures of Eggbert or just stare at some amazing winter photography that have nothing to do with food.
Ok, focus.
Next, I’d recommend a quick look at the amazing Civil Eats blog to learn about the new and interactive Factory Farms Map, hosted by FoodandWaterWatch.com.
And lastly, The Slow Foods USA blog posted that the House recently (yesterday) passed the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act! This had been a long road in securing a healthier lunch for school children across the country so this announcement is pretty much the most exciting thing of the year. Although passed, the bill does have flaws - namely the fact that it calls for a use of SNAP (food stamps) program dollars (which feed hungry kids) to, uh, feed hungry kids. Despite its shortcomings however, it is a huge step forward in the road to nutritional lunches. It calls for more money, stricter nutritional standards, and funding for local sourcing of food – specifically for programs like Farm to School! Sorry Mr. Nugget. But not really…
If these topics are hitting home, visit Change.org’s sustainable food section to learn more about how you can affect change, wherever you are, with whatever you have.
And that’s it! You are now equipped with a gigantic pile of food blogs to stare at and fuel your brain’s stomach.
Enjoy, share, and continue the conversation!
Farm to School Planning
Despite the fact that it often features my incredibly well-formulated, relevant, entertaining and (mostly) food musings, this blog is primarily the developmental blog for the Freshwise Farms Farm-to-School Program...so whaddya say we chat about it?
Last Wednesday, we presented our plan for future direction to the Foodlink Board of Directors.
It went smashingly.
In it we outlined the major changes Freshwise Farms will be making in the next few upcoming months, with education and Farm-to-School being a major priority (and in my case, an existence justifier...). I alluded to some of these changes in a previous post but there have been even more!
(Here would be an appropriate time to take note of my recent update on the "about the project" page as well)
So, what will Freshwise Farms look like?
Right now, it looks like it will be soil based, utilizing our upscaled compost operation. It looks like it will feature pigs and chickens and it looks like there will be some apprentices living on site. It looks like it will support Foodlink's urban agriculture initiatives, and it looks like we will be selling our produce to local schools. It also looks like all of the things that it will look like will have an awesomely educational component to them. We don't yet know what that will look like, but that's what makes my job interesting! (I have some fun ideas, but we'll save those for later...)
Also, in case I haven't done a great job expressing what Farm-to-School exactly is - or its potential - here's what the folks organizing the National movement have to say:
Farm to School is a comprehensive program that extends beyond farm fresh salad bars and local foods in the cafeteria to include waste management programs like composting, and experiential education opportunities such as planting school gardens, cooking demonstrations and farm tours. The program teaches students about the path from farm to fork, and instills healthy eating habits that can last a lifetime. At the same time, use of local produce in school meals and educational activities provides a new direct market for farmers in the area and mitigates environmental impacts of transporting food long distances. The Farm to School approach helps children understand where their food comes from and how their food choices impact their bodies, the environment and their communities at large.
Happy November!
Week #9 Update!
It's been a few weeks since my last 'weekly' update, so how bout one of those?
Early October brought the Growing Health Conference and with it a trip to Binghamton, NY. This was an amazing opportunity to talk with established Farm-to-School folks, all of whom have an incredible working knowledge of the barriers that we're going to run into when starting the program at Freshwise Farms. Some of these barriers are certainly a reality but (I think it's safe to say) most are perceptions held by stakeholders in the creation process. Check out these sick lists i made:
Some Real Barriers:
- Training food service workers with little or no experience with preparing, cooking, or storing fresh foods
- Increased labor cost associated with Real Barrier #1
Some Perceived Barriers:
- Despite what our 21st century, individually-wrapped, hand-sanitizing intuition might tell us, schools can buy local, unprocessed produce or even grow it themselves (GASP!). The USDA even tells you how (DOUBLE GASP!).
- Kids won't eat it. O YEAH? ok, seriously though, they will.
Also missed since the last update was a visit to the Mass. Ave Project (MAP). An urban farm located in Buffalo, they have developed some pretty nifty programs, most of which are organized and managed by youth. awesome. MAP will certainly serve as a source of inspiration for our own program here in Rochester.
ALSO ALSO, we had our own little farm visit! Niagara Charter School drove in all the way from Niagara Falls to check out Freshwise Farms. 40 kids poured into the greenhouse last Tuesday, begging to have their brainz packed with farm knowledge and their stomachs stuffed with fresh veggies. Ever say 'no' to a begging child??? I DIDN'T THINK SO. Laura Sugarwala used different aged microgreens and some stellar illustrations to teach about germination, Caitlin got 'em moving with some intense, NAVY SEAL-inspired exercises, I put my nerd hat on and used coffee filters and dirt to demonstrate how hydroponics works (they are officially the first 3rd grade class to be introduced to the periodic table of elements ON A FARM), and T.J. gave a tour of the facilities, focusing on our large-scale compost operation. The gentlemen at the top of this post never had a cherry tomato before his visit and by the time he left we basically had to treat him for lycopene poisoning. That's a lie - you'd have to eat over 200,000 tomatoes for that to even be a possibility. I did the math:
There is about 10ug lycopene/g wet weight of a tomato. If you have a 90g tomato, that's .9mg lycopene/tomato. Lycopene toxicity occurs after ingesting about 5000mg/kg, meaning an 85 lb kid would have to consume 213,867.5 full-sized tomatoes to be sick.
I think he had about 4 cherry tomatoes.
There's lot's more updating to be had, but I'll cut this one off here. Stay tuned for news on the farm strategic plan, which we presented to the board on Wednesday!
Welcome to the Organic Fuel Revolution
(You can also see this post over at the Foodlink Blog)
I don’t know about you, but I clean my plate. My mother’s (admittedly-empty) childhood threats have since subsided, and with them the fear of missing dessert, but despite being left to my own pumpkin-muffin-mongering devices let me assure you - I clean my plate. Throughout the past few years however, this blind dedication has been injected with a hefty dose of reason and my fear off personal loss has been officially transmogrified into a thick understanding of the consequences of food insecurity and – perhaps more relevant to this discussion – food security.
Every year, hundreds of millions of pounds of food are deemed ‘unfit for sale’ in stores across the country for reasons such as cosmetic blemishes, company branding changes or out-of-season/out-of date packaging. (I personally can’t even imagine purchasing those fruit snacks with last year’s hit cartoon character on them – my faux-pax-o-meter reading would be through the roof!) Although some consumers may be unwilling to directly purchase this food, it remains a safe and valuable resource with incredible potential.
Food banks across the nation recognize this potential and work to intercept much of this food before the dump, eventually sorting and delivering vast quantities of food to local community agencies who might benefit. In the case with Foodlink,
“Our goal is to help non-profit agencies save vital dollars on their food budget so their scarce resources can be redirected to their programs to meet the emotional, physical and spiritual needs of clients.”
Despite this redistribution, the wake of our consumption leaves millions of pounds of food expired or actually inedible and it must be sent to landfill.
…or Epiphergy
I had the pleasure of creating a video to highlight the whys and hows, and will maintain that a plain-text explanation would pale in comparison to the finished product.
But I’ll give you one if you disagree…
“Welcome to the Organic Fuel Revolution,” say’s the clean energy company’s founder Graham Fennie. I want him to finish quietly with “…we’ve been expecting you,” but that may be the impending arrival of Halloween speaking.
.derek crowe
Youth Farm Education Coordinator, Foodlink
Weekly Update #3
(Photo courtesy of Gerry Szymanski)
Good news for good food - the movement is apparently now a revolution. The exact position of the line demarcating those qualifiers remains outside my mental reach, so I’ll ask that you excuse the blatant propagation of subjective claims unless they are correct. At any rate, regardless of how you label it, the 1,500 individuals who attended the “first ever international small and urban farm conference” in Milwaukee a few weeks back can attest to the fact that this train is definitely picking up speed. I can too. Because I’m on it. And acceleration is something I can sense really, really well.
Last week was an all-hands-on-deck-man-your-battle-stations-that’s-no-moon-it’s-a-deathstar kind of week as we prepared for this year’s Savor Rochester event. Showcasing over 100 local restaurants, the Festival of Food brought over 1000 people to the public market, all of whom supported Foodlink through their ticket purchases. I videotaped (on videotape, on videotape) the whole thing. See that little guy up there? yeah. HD style. I’ll be editing the 1400-billion hours I recorded into a cute little ad spot that will make you want to hit your head and (re)invent the flux capacitor just to experience it again. Look out for that.
In other news, Freshwise Farm is going to be featured on extreme farm makeover. That’s a lie. EFM doesn’t exist (however, in trying to save you the time of fruitlessly searching the way I knew you would, I discovered that extreme home makeover has made-over some farms, though we sadly weren't (and won't be) one of them). What I mean is that we are working on a new! strategic model that incorporates some pretty exciting endeavors - notably a farm-to-school educational component (the initiative to which this blog is devoted), more urban agriculture, an aquaponics system (AWESOME), the acquisition of livestock, and a re-vamped compost plan. The latter will be featuring an abundance of worms, so we’ve at least got that going for us. These next few weeks I will be spending a great deal of my time compiling research and data into a presentation for the Foodlink board of directors. I love making presentations. Especially epic ones.
I also attended a Women’s Environmental Health Conference last week. Focusing on nutrition and obesity, the talks introduced me to the epigenome. I will use the analogy that Dr. Dolinoy provided; if you think about our genome like computer hardware, the epigenome is the software that allows you to run the hardware. And achieve anything resembling a sense of accomplishment with a computer. Like researching the history of coffee.
How does that have anything to do with obesity? Good question. Some studies have suggested that exposure to certain environmental chemicals, particularly during development, may affect the epigenome in a way that promotes obesity - if the software changes, the computer hardware will run differently.
How does that have anything to do with a farm-to-school program? Better question. As it turns out, some other studies have suggested that the negative effects of exposure can be reversed (to some degree) by changes in our diet. Chemicals may be causing problems, but targeted dietary changes may help fix them. This perspective is different than the previously-held notion that obesity could be linked to genetics alone – postulating that environmental factors outside of our hardware-like genome might play a role in encouraging obesity. This INCREDIBLY accessible, narrated slide show from Dr. Dolinoy’s lab gives a more complete overview of the topic.
Since poverty, hunger, and obesity are all so inter-related, findings like these are incredibly relevant to our work at Foodlink and Freshwise Farm in that they could potentially help shape where we direct our future energies in working to end hunger.
I hope you are all enjoying the fall thus far - I would be remiss if i didn't remind you of how creepy and wonderful it is outside. If you happen to have a silly amount of winter squash lying around and can't fit any more zucchini bread loaves in your oven, try pickling it!
get your blankie out for this one
Let’s start with the new(ish) horror flick Food Inc., which I finally watched this week (with a friend who lives in San Diego…+1 for why teh internetz can be awesome). I think it frightened me more than The Fourth Kind, which featured a really, really creepy owl and an abundance of hypnotized folks screaming ancient Sumatran threats while possessed by aliens.
I had been quite aware of the deplorable state in which animals ‘live’ in our industrialized food regime before viewing the film, but my ignorance to the vast amount of control and power held by a select few and subsidized by a select fewer left me with a sense of other-worldliness. It felt like I was getting my mouth washed out with soap while simultaneously reliving every childhood disappointment (chiefly the realization that Stretch-Armstrong is filled with mere cornstarch, that cookies are a ‘sometimes’ food, that Pluto isn’t a planet, and that I would not receive an invitation to a magical school via owl on my 16th birthday). You should watch it! Seriously though – it is an incredibly eye-opening film and the discussion guide (linked above) would be an excellent way to delve into it with a proactive critical lens. I suggest a movie night featuring your friends, a potluck of local foods, and some dynamic discourse. Make it happen.
Luckily? this issue isn’t confined to the theaters. Provided you haven’t been living under a rock, you are aware of the egg crisis our country is experiencing – a glaring example of the potential consequences of unchecked food-system scaling. Kristen Wartman tackles the nutritional impact of industrialized egg farming and Jennifer Wilkins (who, ummm, just happened to walk into my office...? Yep, literally as I was writing this...) offers a commentary which is refreshingly objective AND highly accessible. High-five Jennifer. (I think we’re going to be friends).
If you need a bit more media to whet your palate and swallow the seriousness of all this, the Slow Food USA blog has a great video to punch you in the head.
ROoOoOooOOOOOoooOOOTs
If you haven't tried being wrong, I would highly recommend checking it out. it's all the craze among kids these days, and everybody's doing it. I'll take you on a quick guided tour so you've got the DL next time you're on the FB. It's just a few easy steps, so pay attention:
- Express whatever is at the threshold of your understanding.
- Admit that your horizon is already someone else's beach. (ooo! that's good - has anyone said that before?)
- Accept that the admittance involved step 2 is crucial to growth. it's allllll about the process.
- Hope that the person who is standing on the beach that is your horizon can hear you expressing your(current)self and is willing to listen and offer constructive feedback. (I almost made an analogy involving a message in a bottle, but refrained. you're welcome)
- Take that 'constructive' feedback and build a boat. (i can't stop, im really sorry, these are just flowing like hot molasses)
- Turn over your Garnier Fructis. They have a pretty solid set of instructions that will take it from here.
Feels good, eh?
The reason I offered such a lesson is because...wait for it...I was wrong! woo hoo! (it really is the best feeling ever...) In response to my last (serious) post, it turns out that there are, as a few beach/horizon-stander-friends of mine astutely pointed out, a number of F2S initiatives happin' in the 585!
Primarily, I'm talking about Rochester Roots. In short:
Rochester Roots works with teachers, students, parents, neighbors, master gardeners and various community partners to transform underutilized schoolyards into urban gardens. Produce grown at the schools is harvested and distributed to students and community members who work in the gardens.
awesome jawesome. They will undoubtedly prove to be an incredible bouncing/sounding/Velcro board and resource hub in my work, so thank you for letting me know!
That being said, if anyone else is aware of OTHER F2S initiatives in the Rochester area, please let me know!
Also, I'm thinking more about this video podcast idea, but need some input - what would you like to see me talk/act about on the farm?? Toss some educationally-related ideas out here and hopefully I can make it happen. I might as well be compared to a low-quality, over-hyped, mid-90's post-grunge rock band seeing just how wide open my arms are to any ideas and/or video editing/podcast generating skillz or energy you want to toss my way.
Weekly Update #2
I have uncovered an abundance of organizations working on farm to school initiatives, a fact that is awesome for more than just the obvious reason that "existing models can be understood and expanded on." The other reason? Nothing is happening in Rochester - nothing that I can see anyway. This isn't awesome in that there are loads of food insecure individuals and families who need access to healthy food, but it is awesome in that we have the opportunity to build something from scratch here. We have the opportunity to leverage established connections to our community to design a comprehensive farm to school program, integrate it into local schools, and support local minds in making educated, sustainable food choices by providing access to previously unavailable resources.
Count it!
Some of those notable organizations include:
- National Farm to School Movement, particularly the NYS division, of which the Cornell University Farm to School Research and Extension Program is the sole advertised member...
- Growning Power, Inc. "a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner."
- Food-Corps. - FoodCorps is an AmeriCorps School garden and farm to school program in development! (its fun because it's what I do already!)
There were also some fun articles in the news this week regarding the F2S movement!
One, discussing the idea of gleaning (which we will be doing here at foodlink!! watch for updates) at a USDA-endorsed model school in Illinois that has incorporated local food into it's cafeterias, and another, about top-level support for fresh, local food in school cafeterias from the food service director of Baltimore city schools. AWESOME.
What's next for this week?
I'll be spending time connecting with the Cornell F2S Program (perhaps even visiting!) to learn more about what resources I have to move forward with building a program, I'll be attending a Women’s Environmental Health Workshop focusing on Food, Nutrition and Obesity to begin to understand some health perspectives valuable to starting an effective program, I'll be continuing to read the Farm to School in the Northeast toolkit/tome, I'll be starting to determine a pricing structure for school-farm visits, and I will be starting to plan a pilot school visit at the farm with Laura, our nutrition educator!
I think it's valuable to visually illustrate groundbreaking realizations
The mechanisms of this phenomenon are still being studied, however some scientists postulate that it is simply due to what they call "acknowledgement." Research shows that some facts, despite their wide acceptance as truths by our society, are simply being "ignored," particularly between the hours of 10:00pm and 2:00am.
Exhibit A: 12 year old McDonald's Burger
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