Kristi Silva, FoodCorps Alumna ’12

“It was difficult for me to believe that FoodCorps could provide more than one life-changing experience, yet there I was, prepping for visits on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. along with my fellow FoodCorps alumni. The FoodCorps Policy Institute gave me the tools to be a more effective advocate in my community and gave me an undeniable edge when interviewing for my current job working for a federal government agency. I’m the President of the Board of Directors for Farm to Table New Mexico, a statewide non-profit that houses the New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council and work as a lobbyist during the State legislative session. Without a doubt, my time as a FoodCorps service member and experience with the FoodCorps Policy Institute has enabled me to be a more effective advocate and marketable professional.

The learning opportunities and conversations with fellow FoodCorps alumni who were people of color not only prompted a shift in my self-awareness, but the ‘aha moments’ brought an invaluable clarity to the equity lens that I apply to my life and work every day.

My mother always told me, ‘Knock on all the doors all the time,’ so when I saw the announcement for the first FoodCorps Alumni of Color Cohort, I jumped at the opportunity. To say the experience was transformative would be an understatement. The learning opportunities and conversations with fellow FoodCorps alumni who were people of color not only prompted a shift in my self-awareness, but the ‘aha moments’ brought an invaluable clarity to the equity lens that I apply to my life and work every day. My experience in the Alumni of Color Cohort lifted up the gift of my identity as a Hispanic woman and grounded me in my responsibility to serve others.”

— Kristi Silva, FoodCorps Alumna ‘12

Katherine Globerson, FoodCorps Alumna ’17

Last year, Katherine Globerson served with FoodCorps at local Portland site Growing Gardens. She credits the community building and training she received at FoodCorps with helping her earn her current role as the School Garden Coordinator at Springwater Environmental Sciences School, a public charter school in Oregon City. “FoodCorps gave me a direct entry point to the heart of the food system community here in Portland,” she says. “Their training opportunities connected me with over 200 like-minded people and helped me to develop a language for this work — and gave me the confidence to use it.”

Demetrius Fassas, FoodCorps Alumnus ’15

“After presenting to a room full of registered dietitians at Montana’s annual Food and Nutrition Summit, I had a thought: Two years of FoodCorps has done more for my career and my ability than two years of graduate school ever could have.

I was given the opportunity to talk for a full hour about a bit of agricultural history (yes, I pulled some ideas from King Corn, a documentary made by FoodCorps’ Co-Founder & CEO Curt Ellis) and the benefits of local sourcing, particularly for the healthcare industry. I spoke alongside people with lots of abbreviated credentials following their names and began to scratch my head about what qualified me to address such an audience. The answer I arrived at was experience, and it’s experience I would never have gotten without FoodCorps.

Two years of FoodCorps has done more for my career and my ability than two years of graduate school ever could have.

FoodCorps trainings taught me how to create learning opportunities from the simplest of moments, how to resolve conflicts when ideas and opinions begin to clash, and how to organize myself and my time to best suit the greater needs of my community. The opportunity to engage with my peers in FoodCorps surrounding my particular areas of interest was also invaluable. At Midyear Gathering, FoodCorps service members from across the West gather for a week of daylong trainings in topics related to our service. Through the “Engaging Your Community” workshop at the Midyear Gathering in Santa Cruz, I was able to dive deep into the community organizing skills necessary for serving in rural Montana and find support when I felt isolated serving in a community of 900 people. Today, as a local food program specialist, still working to create change in the school food environment, I find myself recalling these skills on a regular basis. Working with many individuals that hold a M.S., I don’t think I would have ever been qualified to hold my current career without these experiences from my FoodCorps service.”

— Demetrius Fassas, FoodCorps Alumnus ‘15

Want to read more about what FoodCorps alumni are doing now? Head over to our Alumni Stories page.

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“January-March: ​After members take a much deserved winter break, they come back with renewed hopes and plans for the remainder of their terms. When these hopes and plans don’t immediately come to fruition, it can make it difficult to return to the reality of service. This can be followed by negative feelings about their overall experience and critical reflection and reevaluation of their role in the community. The decreasing sunlight hours and winter weather don’t help as service members have fewer opportunities to engage their students outdoors in the garden and it is too early to start planning for spring.”

Man, the people who write these things sure know what they are talking about. Lack of sunlight? Few opportunities to engage students outdoors? It’s almost like they are living in Michigan, observing our daily lives in the north where “the slump” seems especially applicable.

In this phase of service, “service members may need a little extra support and appreciation. For that reason, FoodCorps holds Regional Mid-Year Gatherings in order to “bring members together, boost moral, and provide fresh insight through training.”

At the end of January, Northern Michigan FoodCorps service members Lindsay Hall and Julia Paige set off to Raleigh, North Carolina to do just that. We left feelings of stagnation behind in Michigan in hopes of gaining some inspiration and a hefty dose of Vitamin D at the South/Central Mid Year gathering. We spent a week engaging with our fellow service members from Mississippi, Arkansas, Iowa, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan, along with FoodCorps staff. We partook in thoughtful discussions, attended inspiring sessions and workshops, and now we’re back home with a little more pep to our step, or “a little more umph and a little less slump”, as our fellow service member, Chandra Brown phrased it.

Although it’s not quite spring yet, we can see the horizon. We have faith that our service and every step along the way is making a difference in our communities.

Below, both Lindsay and Julia recount their favorite part of mid-year gathering, and what they will be bringing back to their service.

Highlights for Julia:

I was really inspired by the peer to peer sessions that I attended. These were workshops put on by service members, for service members. From healthy food marketing in school cafeterias to classroom management, I learned some great tips from my peers. The experience made me in awe of the amount of collective knowledge and expertise that all of us have together.

Highlights for Lindsay:

I think overall what I enjoyed the most was just being able to reconnect with everyone to share our stories and knowledge. It can be hard sometimes to work as an individual in one small community, but by coming together, I’m reminded of this larger movement that we’re all contributing to and it is really affirming.

The post Leave the Slump, Take Some Umph! appeared first on FoodCorps.

I know that nearly 90 percent of the students at the 3 elementary schools I serve qualify for free or reduced price lunch, and thus are likely coming from food insecure families. However, these moments in which I can clearly see the face of hunger still have a great effect on me. Hunger is generally associated with people unable to obtain enough food, and these days, we know a nourishing meal is more than just the quantity of calories; it is about quality. Those two cookies may have had “enough” calories but did not contain the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, fiber and other life-giving components that whole, unprocessed food contains.

As a FoodCorps service member, I help connect kids to real food to help them grow up healthy. I do this by engaging kids directly in growing vegetables in the school garden as well as making healthy snacks in classrooms and afterschool programs. I also work with teachers to have them lead these positive experiences, providing them with training and resources to better incorporate fruits and vegetables and garden activities into their classes.

Through these activities, kids not only eat real food, but learn skills to grow and prepare nutritious meals on their own. However, efforts to expand school gardens, prepare food, or increase access to local produce are a struggle in my schools. Parents cannot support farm to school opportunities because they work multiple low-paying jobs.  Teachers must focus their instructional time on boosting test scores rather than offering food-based activities. Staff turnover is high, preventing continued, high levels of commitment to school gardens.

Though these fundamental issues are nearly impossible to tackle in a short-term position that does not allow political advocacy, my experience with FoodCorps has given me the support to one day become a leader in this field and make significant, lasting change. Service members have the opportunity to join Communities of Learning, Inquiry, and Practice to delve deeper into policy, community organizing, and topics of equity. At national trainings, we get to hear from food system leaders such as LaDonna Redmond and Deb Eschmeyer. We are encouraged to ask tough questions to our national staff, are given platform to our voices through media, and are involved in important changes to our organization and future efforts to foster equity, diversity, and inclusion. These experiences and opportunities for reflection, discussion, and growth strengthen our organization and its emerging leaders in tackling larger issues.

In my years of service, I have helped to nourish kids by increasing access to food that will feed their bodies and minds. But just as importantly, I have had direct connections with hungry kids and the struggles of the communities they come from. FoodCorps not only helps kids to grow up healthy but gives service members the experiences and tools to one day address larger systemic issues that result in hunger.

This essay was a runner up for the 2016 FoodCorps Victory Growers Award. The award, sponsored by C&S Wholesale Grocers,  highlights that many children struggle with hunger and food insecurity, and that the food they receive at school is the most important meal they will get all day.

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The 1st of September marks the beginning of many things: the beginning of the new school year, cooler weather, and also the beginning of service for the service members of FoodCorps Washington, D.C.  After a wonderful orientation this morning, it is not only the beginning of a new service term, but the beginning of a new D.C. adventure.

This morning, 13 passionate, fresh faces came to OSSE in downtown Washington, D.C. to begin their journey building healthier futures for children.  They will be teaching children in D.C. public and charter schools about food and nutrition with activities like gardening and cooking.  The morning began with an introduction from the state fellow Maddie Morales as well as the state Host Site Supervisors, Erica Walther and Sam Ullery.  It was clear that these three make a great team and support system for the D.C. Service Members, providing education tools, expert gardening skills, and a vast knowledge of D.C.

After a few icebreakers and some bonding time, the service members heard from Brian Rohal.  Brian is a longtime history teacher in DC with a background in law, who talked to the service members about the D.C. historical trends.  Whether they were born and raised in D.C. or just moved here three days ago, everyone in the room was excited and captivated by this knowledge of their new service communities. In just over an hour, FoodCorps Washington, D.C. members learned a full overview about how D.C.’s layout was designed and about its diverse and ever changing cultures.

They were also introduced to OSSE’s Healthy Schools Act Initiative Team and learned about the abundant resources and knowledge the team has to offer.  From data and policy experts to fitness specialists to gardening gurus, there is no absence of support for the 13 new food warriors about to enter the city.

Not only did the service members learn about the living, breathing resources available to them, but they also received “goodie bags” as a starter pack to use in the schools and sites they will be working with.  One of the coolest resources was a “Garden Planning” poster that shows every fruit and vegetable you can think of and the best months to start them, grow them, and harvest them.  They received tons of goodies in these bags and were even provided with a buggy to wheel them around the city in!

All this talk about wonderful fruits and vegetables, the service members were ready to eat!  They enjoyed a salad from sweetgreen with the supervisor at their specific community site and learn more about their site.

After a wonderful morning and a great lunch, the service members were excited and ready to head off to orientation at their sites for the second half of the day.  As each FoodCorps service member wheeled their buggies full of goodies out one by one, there was a feeling of incredible potential for a year full of growing, learning, munching, and crunching ahead…

The post And they are off! A second year of FoodCorps DC begins. appeared first on FoodCorps.

Service members lead the Green Team at Asbell Elementary in Fayetteville in planting cover crops.

Hands-on activities included creating vegetable super-heroes with a fifth grade class at Harp Elementary in Springdale and preparing a garden bed, learning about soil, harvesting carrots, and planting a cover crop with the Green Team/Garden Club at Asbell Elementary in Fayetteville. Service members also visited the new community garden at Bayyari Elementary in Springdale and participated in a garden leaders meeting at Happy Hollow Elementary in Fayetteville. On Friday, the team made the two-hour trip east to Marshall, where they started seeds and prepared garden beds at Marshall High School.

“Our orientation was a great way to come together as a state team and learn about where each of our members is serving, as well as grow stronger as a cohort. I am excited to see the impact our service members will make this year,” said Hale.

Kelsie, Cecilia, and Destiny learn tips for talking nutritionwith kids from “Organ Andy” and UofA Family and Consumer Sciences Agent Julie.

Washington County Extension Agent Berni Kurz presented a session on gardening in Arkansas—an important topic, since only one of the five service members is an Arkansas native. During their visit to Marshall, FoodCorps service members met with Searcy County Extension Agent Julie Blair for training in nutrition education. Partnering with other local agencies and organizations is crucial in building and sustaining Farm to School programs, and the team left orientation eager to cultivate community support for their efforts.

In that spirit of partnership (and appreciation for good food), NCAT also hosted a community potluck for the service members so they could meet representatives from several local organizations working in sustainable agriculture and garden-based education, as well as other AmeriCorps members and alumni.

We have a good feeling about this year. Stay tuned!

We stopped for some quality lunch in Leslie, AR.

NCAT has served as the Arkansas Host Site for FoodCorps since 2012. To learn more about our host site, visit ncat.org.

by Robyn Metzger (NCAT), adapted by Rachel Spencer

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As I furiously packed, attempted to reschedule three days of classes, and rushed away early from our annual Food Partnership Council celebration, I couldn’t help but be a bit frustrated that the midyear FoodCorps gathering in Detroit was pulling me away from a busy schedule of spring preparations and the last few months in a community that has very much become home.

But alas, I left Red Lodge at 4AM on Saturday and headed to Detroit.

Someone once told me that what’s happening in Detroit should be a model for the way rural communities can also rebuild themselves after significant population decline. Instead of trying to bring back all the people who left, Detroit is working with what it’s got, building off of opportunities that have come about from the challenges.

Detroit has lost half of its population within the past fifty years, and as a result, efforts across the city are focused on reviving and repurposing abandoned lots and neighborhoods through urban agriculture. We visited and volunteered at D-Town Farm, Flint River Farm, Earth Works Urban Farm, or the Catherine Ferguson Academy for Young Women, learning from the innovators who are rebuilding Detroit, literally from the ground up.

Detroit’s approach of tapping into the resources that it already has can be a model for rebuilding rural and urban communities throughout the country. Our midyear gathering reminded me that as FoodCorps members spread out across the country, we, like Detroit, are also figuring out how to “work with what we’ve got.” We’re all in communities that are resilient in their own ways, and there is no single cookie cutter “FoodCorps approach” that can be applied at all sites.

Hearing stories of bread making, native seeds, and young culinary rock stars from across the country reminded me that the true strength of FoodCorps is the adaptability and creativity of each service member, thriving within communities that are all so very unique. And FoodCorps staff are also tirelessly working to build a FoodCorps that works for each community – taking the time in Detroit to hear from us about how the program’s structure can be modified and improved based on our experiences.

And so as I made my way back home from Detroit, I felt lucky to be returning to a community that offers so much creativity and support to my work everyday, and also lucky to be part of a national network of service members, fellows, and FoodCorps staff who, like Detroit, are working to build healthy food systems with the resources that are uniquely available within each community.

The post Lessons from Detroit: Growing Healthy Communities by Working with what We’ve Got appeared first on FoodCorps.

Whether I’m ready or not, this August I will finish my second year as a FoodCorps member in Red Lodge, and I’ll pack up to head back to Boston, where I’ll be starting graduate school in the fall.

Though my days as a FoodCorps member have been far from the traditional world of academia, I feel so lucky to have been offered another form of education while serving, which has been just as valuable (and challenging) as the research and lectures I will reintroduce myself to next year. With students, farmers, and community members as my professors, and gardens, farms, and kitchens as my classrooms, I’ve learned more here in Red Lodge than I could have ever imagined.

Last week FoodCorps Montana took our learning and growing to yet another beautiful location for our mid-year training. Service members, site supervisors, and presenters from across the state and country traveled to B Bar Ranch in Emigrant, Montana for four jam-packed days of education and reflection.

Each day brought sessions that provided us with specific skills and resources. For instance, staff from the National Farm to School Network and Montana Team Nutrition helped us understand how the National School Lunch program is funded and what we can do to increase participation in our schools. Erica Curry from FoodCorps National then offered lesson plans to teach fourth graders that tomatoes really do come from rocks. And chef Nick Wiseman of Roadside Food Projects taught us that working with kids and sharp knives in the kitchen is possible and not so scary, after all.

Complimenting these sessions, we had workshops that reminded us of the big issues that shape and drive our day-to-day work.  The National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) led us in a workshop on food justice, the importance of role models, and working with youth. Nancy Matheson, with the Montana Department of Agriculture, gave an excellent presentation on Montana’s food and agriculture heritage, illustrating why the number of farms throughout the state has sharply decreased over the past century.

There were always more questions, ideas, and discussion than we had time for in the sessions, but luckily conversations continued over meals and cross country skiing, and we made plans to collaborate in the coming weeks.

So as I jump back into regular lessons, cooking classes, taste tests, and garden planning, I feel prepared and eager to take on the next six months. For while I haven’t been buried in the books and research of academia, my FoodCorps education has provided me with the resources I need to empower, collaborate, and question, heading in the very direction I want to be going.

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