BELFAST, Maine – In a school lunchroom, it’s common many students are eating sandwiches that mom or dad have wrapped in plastic and put in a brown paper bag. But, lunch at a Belfast elementary school looked a little different Thursday.

Maila Demers, FoodCorps Service Member said, “We can reduce waste, help the planet, but we can also call on the students to help solve the problems of waste in our school.”

Lunch is served at Captain Albert Stevens School. What’s on the menu? Nachos, burritos, and don’t forget the carton of milk. Even though this may look like your typical lunch day, students are thinking about the environment.

“We are reducing the amount of waste that we produce at this lunch to raise awareness about how much trash and other things we are throwing away at the school,” said Demers.

It’s a concept started by the student-run group Belfast Refuse Reduce Reuse Recycle. Demers added, “They really want to reduce the amount of plastic that is being produced, and that’s also ending up in the environment.”

Student at CASS, Rosa, said, “We try not to use plastic straws. For the snack cart, we don’t use plastic bags, we use wax bags.”

It’s a difference you can see – cloth napkins instead of paper and reusable water bottles are in the hands of many. It is all thanks to a grant from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

“We got enough money to get half the students water bottles, and we got water bottle refill stations,” said, Tish Manning, Title I Teacher at Captain Albert Stevens. She added, “It’s something so simple like this that if we can get kids to reuse, they realize they can make a big impact just by reusing something over and over again.”

If you didn’t finish your last bite, there’s a composting station. Manning said, “Our goal is Zero Waste. We are publishing the data so, the kids will actually get to see the data and try to see what they can do to get as close to zero as possible.”

Manning added, “They’re just little shining stars. They really will get in your heart and make you want to bring a zero waste lunch to work.”

“Lunches like these are going to be common. They want to hold three more by the end of the year.”

Read more

The post Maine Elementary School Starts Zero Waste Lunch Program appeared first on FoodCorps.

The post Watch Jonathan Perform His Slam Poem “Roped Wings” appeared first on FoodCorps.

My name is Nadia Haile, I am a Michigan native and first generation Ethiopian-American. I grew up in a culturally diverse household that instilled a love and understanding of the importance of food in me at an early age. I graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Food Industry Management. My options post grad were mostly corporate positions, which were great opportunities, but I felt that I wanted to pursue something more community focused. When I stumbled across FoodCorps at my local career fair, I instantly felt the desire to be involved with the organization. FoodCorps has given me the opportunity to learn more about food, gardening, and nutrition all the while working with amazing students and teachers in a very connected community on the West Side of Detroit. My service site, Drew Farm, is a 2.5 acre urban farm, owned and operated by Detroit Public Schools Community District-Office of School Nutrition. Other than being a supplier of fresh, locally-sourced food for the school cafeterias, we host cost-free field trips for classes from across the district. The joy the students express after trying something new and then being able to teach their fellow classmates about food related topics that they feel passionate about is one of the most amazing parts of my service.

The Strength to Inspire

The sun beating down
Bright red peppers scattered on the porch
Grandma hunched over her chairs
Sifting through the drying rows
I play with my cousins
But stop to watch her
This feels like home.

Seasons change
Years pass
I am busy planning my week
The growers in the fields
Sifting and planting little cream bulbs
I stop to watch them
This feels like home.

Grandma, a strong Ethiopian woman
The Growers, strong Detroit women
All strong Black women
Grandma taught students cooking
The Growers teach students gardening
All deeply care for their communities

Grandma inspire her generations
The Growers inspire FoodCorps generations
All reasons I applied to FoodCorps
All reasons I am proud to serve at Drew Farms.

-Nadia Haile

The post The Strength to Inspire appeared first on FoodCorps.

Watch on Facebook

Meet the Panelists

Hannah Joseph

FoodCorps Alum

Hannah works as a Kitchen Teacher at Edible Schoolyard NYC, after serving with FoodCorps at this same organization.  She loves bringing people together around the table and believes in the power of sharing food and digging in the dirt to build relationships and spark people’s understanding of the world around them.

Nikki Miller

FoodCorps Alum

Nikki graduated from Syracuse University in 2015 with a BA in Psychology and a focus in Child Development. She entered the field of Education after school and served with FoodCorps at Harlem Grown in New York during the 2016-2017 service year. She is now currently working at her original service site, Harlem Grown, as the Farm Education Manager. She designs curriculum for and leads all educational and youth programming on our farm sites. 

Kane Martin

FoodCorps’ Recruitment Coordinator and FoodCorps Alum

Kane has always been drawn to the power food has in building relationships and community. After serving in his home state of Iowa, Kane set out west for Portland, Oregon. He continues to support the mission by helping to grow the FoodCorps family. When not at work, he can be found hiking, camping, and eating his way through the Pacific Northwest. 

MJ Santiago

FoodCorps’ Former Service Member Recruitment Manager and AmeriCorps Alum

Originally from a small town in central Florida, MJ has worked to increase access to critical resources for underserved communities across the nation. Prior to joining FoodCorps in 2016, MJ served a year in AmeriCorps with Reading Partners. When not at work, they can be found visiting museums and parks across New York and beyond.

The post Ask Us Anything! Alums Answer Your Application Questions appeared first on FoodCorps.

As any good science teacher knows, if you get the kids saying, “Ew!” you’ve definitely got their attention.

“Talking about worm poop always gets the ‘ews’ going,” says Jordyn Vitorno, one of a group of ten FoodCorps Service Members working within the 21 elementary schools of Oakland (Calif.) Unified School District (OUSD) to set up worm beds in learning gardens and integrate worm lessons into the curriculum for more than 7,000 students.

According to Vitorno, “a few brave souls got to hold the worms and eventually the majority of students worked up the courage to hold a worm or two!”

Since last fall, the FoodCorps members have been working with Oakland’s Nutrition and Gardening Program, engaging students in collecting food, feeding worms in worm bins, learning fun worm facts and seeing worm anatomy and worm behavior up close.

The lesson also teaches about sustainability. While regular composting is still the main way fresh food scraps are diverted in Oakland schools, worm composting—vermicomposting—isa living lesson in one of nature’s amazing life cycles.

In one class, students played a nutrient cycle card game with six picture cards: a person eating an apple, throwing the apple into compost, a worm eating the apple, the worm excreting compost (called worm casings) and the compost supplying nutrients for an apple tree to grow. To win the game, the cards end up in a circle.

Read more

The post Worms Make Great Compost at Oakland Schools appeared first on FoodCorps.

The Environmental Center in Bend was recently awarded a $5,000 grant to grow its garden education programs in schools across the region.

The sustainability organization will use the grant, from the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation, to fund a FoodCorps service member and support its Central Oregon Garden Educators Network.

The FoodCorps service member, Tracy Ryan, teaches students about healthy foods at Bear Creek Elementary School in Bend and Three Rivers Elementary School in Sunriver.

As for the Garden Educators Network, parents and teachers have gathered a few times a year since 2016 to share gardening ideas. The grant will help provide a training session and two gatherings for the network this year, including a garden site tour.

All of the efforts to train teachers and teach children about gardening is part of the sustainability organization’s initiative, Garden for Every School, said Denise Rowcroft, school gardens manager for The Environmental Center.

“We see it as enhancing the academic strength of the schools by providing hands-on opportunities,” Rowcroft said. “Gardens can be a really hands-on way for kids to connect with nature.”

The sustainability organization has supported 10 school gardens across Central Oregon and is actively working with more schools in the Bend area that are planning to create gardens, Rowcroft said.

At Three River Elementary School, students designed a surprising garden project. Kindergartners through second-graders created mobile indoor garden carts using donated shopping carts.

Ryan, who oversees the students through the FoodCorps program, said the shopping carts allow the students to harvest vegetables year-round because they can wheel the carts outside and back in the school.

In addition to gardening, Ryan talks with the students about nutrition and encourages children to taste the fruits and vegetables that they grow. The children often learn that healthy foods don’t taste as bad as they originally thought, Ryan said.

“If we can get our children to understand how much the food we put in our bodies affects us, they will make better choices at an earlier age,” Ryan said.

Read more

The post Oregon Nonprofit Receives Grant for Garden Education appeared first on FoodCorps.

When I first arrived at the Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders (PS457)/the Family School (PS443), I immediately saw many possibilities for healthy eating and wellness programming. Instead of diving in head first, I took the time to get to know the students, colleagues and the surrounding community to better understand their wants and needs.

Though there is a healthy rivalry between the schools, the schools do have some common goals: enhancing their students’ learning experiences through nutrition education and providing access to healthier foods, especially through garden programming. Unfortunately, both gardens were destroyed last year by scaffolding erected for building repairs. This year, the schools agreed to come together to rebuild their individual gardens with a new component — a community’ garden, grown and maintained by both schools.

Since most of the garden redevelopment won’t happen until the spring, I decided to “bridge the divide” between the schools with a smaller initiative — the Daffodil Project. This project, coordinated by New Yorkers for Parks and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, provides daffodil bulbs to schools and community groups throughout NYC in an effort to beautify public spaces. After speaking with Principals Rowena Penn and Lisette Febus and Assistant Principals Nicole Smith and Jose Gonzalez, we decided to plant the bulbs along the green space connecting the entrances to the two schools. This is the ideal spot for the building’s first joint garden project as it’s the waiting area for parents collecting their children at the end of the school day.

Read more

The post Planting Daffodils Builds a Bridge Between Two Schools appeared first on FoodCorps.

Serving as a FoodCorps AmeriCorps service member can help you discover new, meaningful career paths. Hear from three alumni about how their experiences with FoodCorps led them to exciting and meaningful career opportunities post-service.

Apply now

Apply to serve by March 13.

The post Video: A Year of Service, A Lifetime of Impact appeared first on FoodCorps.

The post Local tuna arrives at Driftwood School cafeteria, along with the fishermen appeared first on FoodCorps.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — The schoolyard at the Lincoln Annex School on Somerset Street in New Brunswick was abuzz on a chilly day in October. The clackety clack of a prize wheel and delighted cries of children claiming their apples and mini pumpkins gave the aura of a carnival, however this festivity was actually a health and wellness-based farmers market. This pop-up version of the New Brunswick Community Farmers Market, is a part of a larger initiative building a healthy food web in New Brunswick.

“Community Connections” aims to build stronger bridges between the local wellness initiatives in the New Brunswick community, and nutrition and health-related activities in New Brunswick’s Lincoln Elementary (K-3) and Annex (4-8) Schools to support a healthier food and active living environment for children and their families. These stronger connections between the school’s activities and the local, environment-based activities are intended to synergistically promote wellness in New Brunswick.

Immigrant families make up a large part of the local community in New Brunswick. When these families adapt to new lifestyles and food choices, children can become the drivers of these changes due to their bilingual skills and greater exposure to the newer food and lifestyle choices, what they learn in the school environment and peer pressure. This is one of the reasons why Community Connections works with the local schools to help promote healthier eating and active living patterns for New Brunswick families.

Community Connections is a collaborative project — in addition to Rutgers Department of Nutritional Sciences, the partners include the Lincoln Annex School administration; New Jersey FoodCorps organization which delivers the educational content to the students; New Brunswick Community Food Alliance, which co-sponsors Hub City Fresh (healthy corner store initiative); and New Brunswick Tomorrow, which sponsors Live Well/Vivir Bien and Ciclovia. While the bridging of these initiatives is a cooperative effort, one person serves as the head engineer–Nurgul Fitzgerald, associate professor and extension specialist in nutrition and public health at Rutgers Department of Nutritional Sciences.

Read more

The post Farmers Market Pops Up at New Jersey School appeared first on FoodCorps.