georgia – FoodCorps

8 Times FoodCorps Service Members Inspired Us to Act

FoodCorps — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 22:30:50 +0000

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in serving others. On what would have been his 89th birthday, FoodCorps AmeriCorps service members across the country honored his life of service by volunteering in their communities. Named a National Day of Service by the government agency that operates AmeriCorps, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a day on, not a day off. Here are eight actions that our service members took for their communities on Monday.

Feeding a crowd in Hawai’i

On Monday, Hawaiʻi service members came together to beautify the Waimea Elementary School garden and prepare a locally-sourced meal for 100+ volunteers. Students, families, teachers, staff, and community members spent the morning planting native plants, working in the garden, and painting the campus. The lunch featured produce from local farmers, including kalo (taro) harvested from the school garden that morning!

Long-distance gardening in Arkansas

A FoodCorps elementary school in Springdale, AR donated garden beds to another FoodCorps elementary school — all the way in Van Buren, 70 miles away! On the day of service, many Arkansas service members worked to get the garden beds taken down from Bayyari Elementary, transported 70 miles, and rebuilt at Rena Elementary. Rena had no garden beds before Bayyari’s donation, so this will make a huge difference to the school!

Walking for Peace in Washington, D.C.

Four D.C.-based service members supported the annual Martin Luther King Memorial Peace Walk & Parade, organized by the Coalition for Peace, a “group of individuals and non-profits dedicated to peace and positivity for the Washington, D.C. metropolitan communities.” Service members checked in the parade participants and helped direct them to the right place.

Caring for public land in California

California service member Allison Radoff organized an event with a local stewardship nonprofit, Friends of the Inyo. The organization recently transplanted some bitterbrush plants (a shrub native to the Western U.S.) in a restoration area. She planned to water the plants and pick up any trash left behind by visitors using the recreation area and campground. “I honestly expected it to be just me,” she said, “but over 15 people showed up!” Members of the local indigenous community came to help, and also held a prayer song and smudging of the land to acknowledge its importance. “It was a very positive event, and afterward everyone wanted to do another clean up event soon!”

Sorting food donations in Connecticut

Sixteen of our Connecticut service members volunteered together at Foodshare, an organization that works to alleviate hunger in greater Hartford by distributing large amounts of food to pantries & soup kitchens, mobile food trucks, nutrition education programs, and SNAP outreach. Half of the crew spent the morning sorting carrots (checking for moldy ones, throwing those in the compost, and then re-packing the good carrots), and the other half spent the afternoon sorting onions at Foodshare’s facility in Hartford. Between that facility and their main headquarters in Bloomfield, there were over 100 volunteers sorting through food items!

Bringing in helping hands in North Carolina

Service member Imani Lane organized a garden work day at Fairview Elementary School, one of the schools where she serves. She was joined by our other Guilford County, NC service member, Enekole Ogbole, and 21 volunteers!

Providing extra hands in Georgia

Georgia service members helped out at the West Broad Farmers Market, an Athens-based program that aims to build a neighborhood economy, expand access to healthy foods, and provide a retail outlet for farmers. They spent the day weeding, mulching, and cleaning up their garden!

Sorting clothing donations in Washington, D.C.

Another group of D.C.-based service members sorted and organized clothing donations at Bread for the City, a local nonprofit that helps Washington, D.C. residents living with low incomes to develop the power to determine the future of their own communities.

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WATCH: FoodCorps and Target support Georgia school

FoodCorps — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 19:51:46 +0000

Recently, Target volunteers from Marietta, Georgia spent a day helping out in the garden at Marietta Sixth Grade Academy, a FoodCorps school. Watch the video to see FoodCorps and Target in action!

About FoodCorps and Target

Since 2015, FoodCorps and Target have joined together to connect kids to healthy food in schools. Target, FoodCorps’ National Champion for Healthy Kids, enabled us to launch our Sprout Scouts program in 2016. Sprout Scouts is a national program that provides FoodCorps AmeriCorps service members with the resources and activities needed to teach students about cooking, gardening, and nutrition through hands-on learning. This year, support from Target has enabled the launch of FoodCorps in-school lesson plans, along with the training and coaching that enable our AmeriCorps members to deliver the best hands-on learning.

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How FoodCorps uses nature to nurture schoolkids’ skills

FoodCorps — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 13:50:27 +0000

By C.W. Cameron for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There is no typical day, nor typical week, for FoodCorps service members in metro Atlanta.

You might find one in a school garden helping students plant kale, sugar snap peas or carrots. Another might be in a classroom making a layered bean dip and talking about the similarities between those layers and the layers in a garden. Or one could be teaching a lesson on the importance of compost or playing a game that helps bring home what it means to have limited access to food.

FoodCorps is part of AmeriCorps, the federal program for national and community service. Service members spend time in limited-resource schools, devoting 50 weeks a year of full-time, stipend-paid public service to help children understand what it means to grow, enjoy and share healthy food. Members generally give one to two years to the program.

This year, there are nine women serving in seven Georgia service sites, from Jackson County to Marietta City Schools and west to Carrollton.

After working as a farm aide in Texas, Suzie Pope came to FoodCorps with an understanding of the importance of farming, but no expectation that she’d want a career in garden education. Now she’s sold.

Read

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6 Signs of Spring in Schools

FoodCorps — Mon, 01 May 2017 21:53:40 +0000

As the weather warms up, kids are beginning to get out and garden even in parts of the country not fortunate enough to have a year-round growing season. Here are hints of a healthy school food environment that you might spot at a FoodCorps school near you.

1. Seeds & seedlings

The first signs of spring awakening are seed coming of packets and getting into the soil. Lindsay Hall’s students in Traverse City, Michigan might not be able to pronounce “embryo” and “cotyledon” yet, but they’re excited by how cool seeds are.

2. First sprouts

Jordyn Kessler’s elementary schoolers in Chicopee, MA aren’t daydreaming when the look out their classroom window, they’re peeking at their sprouts! Windows covered by sprout houses and sills covered by seed cups are sure signs of a healthy school food environment.

3. Garden builds and work days

You can’t just jump right into the school garden when the weather starts to warm up. First things first: garden beds need to be built, signs need to be put up, and weeds need to be pulled. Thankfully, volunteers from the school community can help get the job done fast. In just one garden workday, Mariah Marten-Ray in Paso Robles, CA and volunteers prepped 38 garden beds and covered the space in between with wood chips.

4. Dirty hands

It’s not just volunteers getting their hands dirty. The Garfield Elementary chapter of Sprout Scouts, the trademark FoodCorps after school club, recently took advantage of their first sunny day outdoors to prep the soil and plant spinach seeds. “Despite some hesitation, Scouts were pretty excited to show off their dirty hands,” shares Service Member Nathan Spalding.

5. Square feet

Gardens are a fun tool for young mathematicians. Dasia Harmon’s Atlanta students discussed what a square foot is, how to measure one, and how many seeds belong in each square foot of a garden bed. For all of their hard work crunching numbers, the elementary schoolers will soon be rewarded with carrots, beets, and spinach!

6. First harvests

Even in places with mild winters like Oakland, CA, spring can give plants an extra energizing and productive push. FoodCorps Member Lydia Yamaguchi sums it up nicely: “ITS SPRING AND EVERYTHING IS BUDDING AND FLOWERING AND GROWING IN THE GARDEN AND I LOVE IT.”

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FoodCorps Fertilizing Georgia Organics’ Farm to School Efforts

FoodCorps — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 14:45:00 +0000

by Erin Croom, Farm to School Director, Georgia Organics

One of the most successful tactics to get children to eat more fruits and vegetables is to have them plant, grow, and harvest food in a garden, which is one of the core components of a farm to school program. These programs are also a hands-on way to educate students about careers in farming and the wonders of the soil.

And luckily for our state’s young eaters and future growers, farm to school in Georgia is about to get a big boost.

National service organization FoodCorps, which connects children in underserved communities to real food in order to help them grow up healthy, expands to Georgia this month, where Georgia Organics will partner with them and three service sites across the state: The Captain Planet Foundation in Atlanta, Athens Land Trust, and the Northeast Georgia Farm to School Program (Georgia Organics’ pilot program).

Read in full here.

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