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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WHOLESALE GROCERY SUPPLIER TO SUPPORT HUNGER ALLEVIATION EFFORTS IN SCHOOLS

Keene, NH—In honor of National Hunger Action month, FoodCorps and C&S Wholesale Grocers are announcing the winner and runners-up of an essay contest aimed at raising awareness of hunger in schools. The Victory Growers Award contest, open to all 225 FoodCorps service members, prompted writers to share stories of childhood hunger at their service sites and persuade readers to take action. C&S is proud to award the winner’s school with $5,000 toward food education programs. The schools of the two runners-up will each receive $1,000.

Lauren Burke’s winning essay tells the story of hunger on a Hopi reservation in Arizona, where she serves as a FoodCorps service member. Child hunger and food insecurity rates are up to twice as high on Native American reservations than they are in the rest of the country, and Burke argues for a culturally inclusive approach to nutrition education as a solution to hunger. “[Nutrition education programs] must strive not only to serve native communities, but to allow those communities to construct the programming of the future,” writes Burke.

Two runners-up were named. Mary Grace Stoneking, serving in Van Buren, AR, wrote an essay describing the impact of chronic hunger on a child’s education and encourages readers to invest in food education programs. Carly Wyman, serving in Pahoa, HI, submitted an essay discussing the unique challenges of Hawai’i’s predominantly imported food system and argues that hands-on food education is an effective way to address childhood hunger. The essays and photos of the award winners are available at foodcorps.org/stories.

FoodCorps is a national service program that connects kids to healthy food in schools. Its team of AmeriCorps leaders serves in high-need schools to make sure students learn what healthy food is, fall in love with it, and eat it every day. C&S Wholesale Grocers has supported FoodCorps since 2014. In addition to the Victory Grower’s Award, C&S connects FoodCorps to education resources and has partnered with FoodCorps to grow knowledge of healthy food for students by placing service members near its warehouse locations.

About C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.

C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., based in Keene, NH, is the largest wholesale grocery supply company in the U.S. and the industry leader in supply chain innovation. Founded in 1918 as a supplier to independent grocery stores, C&S now services customers of all sizes, supplying more than 14,000 independent supermarkets, chain stores, military bases, and institutions with over 140,000 different products. To learn more, please visit www.cswg.com.

C&S community involvement programs support initiatives to fight hunger and to promote the health and enrichment of communities that are homes to the company’s employees and facilities. To learn more, please visit http://community.cswg.com.

About FoodCorps

FoodCorps connects kids to healthy food in school. Its team of AmeriCorps leaders serves in high-need schools to make sure students learn what healthy food is, fall in love with it, and eat it every day. Its corps members team up with educators to deliver lead hands-on lessons in growing, cooking, and tasting healthy food; partner with farmers and food service workers to create nutritious and delicious school meals; and collaborate with communities to build a schoolwide culture of health. Building on this foundation of direct impact, FoodCorps pursues systemic strategies that will benefit all of our nation’s 100,000 schools. To learn more, please visit foodcorps.org.

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NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk Public Schools has been awarded a $52,000 grant from the American Association of School Administrators. The grant money will fund equipment needed to expand a “grab ‘n go” breakfast program piloted last year at Brookside Elementary School to a majority of schools across the district.

Norwalk Grows and FoodCorps provided Norwalk Public Schools with the opportunity to launch the Brookside breakfast pilot through a Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry mini-grant. Instead of serving breakfast in the cafeteria, the grant helped pay for a cart filled with food that students could grab on their way into class in the morning.

Read

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Most academic programs and fellowships are designed with an emphasis on the experience and learning that participants will gain during their active enrollment. Yet this limited scope ignores an important reality: It’s after students leave campus that an education does its work.

The same is true in the social sector. As leadership accelerators like Echoing Green and national service programs like AmeriCorps proliferate, nonprofits focused on developing human capital need to recognize that if we approach alumni strategy as an afterthought, we will leave some of our greatest potential for impact unfulfilled.

Based on our experience at FoodCorps, the national service organization that brought us together as a funder (Davidson) and social entrepreneur (Ellis), here’s a look at the five common weaknesses built into many alumni programs and what the organizations running them can do better.

Read

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FoodCorps New Jersey service member Erika Schellinger appeared on the Rachael Ray show today and was treated to a special surprise. More from the show:

“Improving school nutrition is a goal that Rach and her Yum-O organization have been working toward for years (she worked with Michelle Obama on the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge and was even appointed to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition during the Obama administration). But she’s worried about the current state of affairs.

“I don’t talk a lot of politics on this show because I really want everybody to feel welcome and included here. We don’t have a political color,” Rach says. “But I am very concerned about the state of nutrition in our public schools.”

But there’s reason for hope. There are lots of folks on the ground making things better, like Erika Schellinger, who works with FoodCorps in Camden, New Jersey. She goes into schools to give kids culinary lessons, teach them how to grow veggies and help them eat a better diet.”

Watch & read more

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Our honorees work tirelessly in service of building healthy, thriving communities and carrying on the values and mission of FoodCorps.

Rachel Spencer ’12, Award Recipient

As a member of our first class of service members and then our first class of fellows, Rachel has been blazing trails and planting seeds ever since she set foot in Arkansas. Her determined energy, drive and charisma have taken her to graduate school at the University of Arkansas and launched her into her current role as the Southwest Regional Farm to School Lead for the USDA. Needless to say, she’s an inspiration to many.

Watching [Rachel] move from FoodCorps service member to fellow to graduate school student to now the Farm to School Southwest Lead is truly inspiring and shows me how high I should truly aim and what is possible with a jump start from FoodCorps, hard work and a ton of determination.” – Service Member Noa Borkan, AR

She radiates the mission of FoodCorps in all aspects of her life, but especially through her work. “Just like when I was in FoodCorps my favorite part of the job is interacting with and supporting people that want to further local food systems work, specifically farm to school and school garden initiatives. I travel to 800 person towns in Oklahoma to connect school districts with aquaponics farmers, work with cities of 5 million to try and figure out their farm to school sustainability plan, and celebrate the small or large victories of food service directors, state agency leaders, teachers, parent volunteers, community members, and also FoodCorps service members across my 5 states.” Rachel has given so much to FoodCorps, quite literally, as she puts it, her, “blood (food processor blade amongst other things), sweat (goes without saying #southernsummers), and tears (of happiness and of darker times).” We are so proud of Rachel and swell with gratitude how she has devoted her life to the cause of healthy kids, thriving farms and vibrant communities.

Lauren Rhoades ‘15, Award Finalist

After two years of service and one year as a fellow in Jackson, MS, Lauren quickly made herself known as an innovative, passionate entrepreneur who values local food, education and community connection. She spends her days making kimchi, sauer kraut, fermented mustard, kombucha for her business, Sweet & Sauer Jackson. Sweet & Sauer is more than just a business – it’s a vehicle for local economic development and for sharing health with her community.

Never one to brag, Lauren has proven to be humble in her FoodCorps leadership accomplishments and business savvy, making a lasting impact on those around her and changing the food scene of Jackson as we know it.” – Service Member Sarah Hazelnis, MS

And as an educator, Lauren believes that, “fermentation is a great gateway subject to a whole slough of science subjects, art projects, and taste bud adventures. I’ve led fermentation demos at three different elementary schools in Jackson, and am currently working on a curriculum about how to teach fermentation to kids. I also think that introducing parents to new foods is just as important, and talking with parents at the farmers market and through fermentation classes has, I hope, contributed to more health-conscious meals for families at home.”

Krizl Soriano ‘16, Award Finalist

Krizl served in her home state of Connecticut for two years, bringing laughter, commitment and passion to each day to her students and FoodCorps community. As an alum,

[Krizl] is busy with many different jobs in food system work, where she holds strong to the FoodCorps mission of increasing access to and appreciation of healthy food for all.” – Service Member Molly Deegan, CT

As an Assistant Camp Director at Massaro Farm she continues to educate youth about their food and the systems that grow it. She is also a mobile farmers market manager, consultant for Connecticut’s “Put Local on Your Tray” program to increase local foods in schools and even acts as a mentor to current service members through her role with New Britain ROOTS. She has found many ways to continue being a leader in her community, and to Krizl, “to lead is to be a mentor, knowing when to step back, showing gratitude, and most importantly it’s to provide support and motivation those you’re leading. [She] can be anyone’s greatest hype woman – in the workplace, in the pottery studio, in the kitchen, or even sitting in the car during stressful CT traffic.”

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Sprout Scouts is a skills-based program developed by FoodCorps and Life Lab that provides FoodCorps service members the resources and activities they need to teach their students about cooking, gardening and nutrition education in a hands-on, fun and engaging way. Similar to Boy and Girl Scouts, Sprout Scouts is built on a series of adventures that develop new and complementary skills.  Through fun, hands-on activities that link to academic standards, Sprout Scouts clubs teach kids how to grow, prepare, and eat healthy food!  My service site, One Cool Earth, was supportive and eager to see Sprout Scouts implemented in the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD).

During my first week of service, I met with the two after school program directors of PRJUSD to introduce Sprout Scouts.  What I thought would be a hard pitch was actually an enthusiastic nod of approval.  After school program leaders are always looking for new activities and lessons to keep children engaged, and many had expressed interest in using the garden. We agreed that we wanted the club to reach every child enrolled in the afterschool programs at the three elementary schools I serve.  The solution: we set up a rotating system with staff training built in!  I co-teach one lesson per week with an afterschool program leader at a school, for instance Max.  Max then teaches the same weekly lesson to rotating groups of students throughout the week. This way, all 150 children enrolled get to experience Sprout Scouts while equipping staff with outdoor garden education skills to sustain the program.

One of the first Adventures we embarked on was called “Dead Heading” and was a lesson about seed saving.  As we cut down tall sunflower stalks and began picking out the seeds, the kids were curious to eat them.  “These taste different than the ones we get from the grocery store,” one kid said in a voice that insinuated “hey garden lady, I’m not sure if you know what you’re doing here.”  We talked about how sunflower seeds in the store are roasted and these are raw.  “Can we roast all the sunflower seeds next time?” asked one girl.  As my mind was racing to come up with a way to accommodate 30 children in the school kitchen, another child said, “Last year in my 2nd grade class we made our own solar ovens out of pizza boxes!  We could make those again but with you to roast the sunflower seeds!”  Is this not the most ingenious idea?  One of my favorite parts about teaching in the garden is there are so many sparks of wonder that I can empower children to explore.  The next week we did just that, applying engineering practices, math, and cooking into a lesson that resulted in warmed (not quite toasted) sunflower seeds that were still a hit.

A couple of months later the Sprout Scouts were going on a bug hunt in their garden, rolling logs over to see what insects and decomposers they could find and drawing their external structures in their Sprout Scouts journals.  We then planted a beneficial insect garden to create habitat for their favorite insects.  In Winter, we had a tea party with mint from our garden.  We learned about the medicinal properties of mint.  Did you know it helps calm your digestive system if you have a lot of gas?  Kids love that fact.  Students collected sticks and leaves to make centerpieces at their desks and made leaf print cards for their families while enjoying their tea.

The garden grew more beautiful, and I was able to adapt Sprout Scouts lessons to a lunch time recess garden club.  As children were released from lunch, I would watch a herd of 60 kids speed walking across the lawn to the garden.  I also started to get a lot of positive feedback. One girl told the principal, “Mrs. Crawford, Wednesday is my favorite day to come to school because it’s garden club.”

“My daughter is on the autism spectrum and never eats anything out of our home garden.  She came home from garden club yesterday and said ‘Papa, I ate an orange tomato today! I guess I like the orange ones in the school garden with my friends.’”

—Parent and Teacher at Virginia Peterson Elementary School

As support grew, the principal became the biggest advocate for the garden.  She wrote it into the time cards to have paraeducators help supervise garden club; she encouraged every classroom to adopt a garden bed and set up classroom experiments; and she advocated for the district to provide funding to pilot an integrated garden program by One Cool Earth at Virginia Peterson next year.

Just last week was open house night, and at one point there were over 150 kids and parents in the garden releasing ladybugs and exploring.  It was a surreal moment listening to children talk to their parents about edible flowers, six plant part tacos, and composting experiments.  Some even introduced me saying “This is Ms. Mariah.  She helped us start Sprout Scouts!”  I realized that Sprout Scouts was the entry point that led to a flourishing gardening program that every child has access to.

The Sprout Scouts program is made possible through the generous support of Presenting Sponsor Target and Founding Partner the Whole Kids Foundation. 

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An intent listener with a belief in the power of human ingenuity, Bill was a co-founder of U.S. Venture Partners and one of our country’s most successful venture capitalists. Throughout his long career, Bill demonstrated a passion for health, education, and meaningful work, from his service in World War II to his final days as a deeply engaged philanthropist.

At FoodCorps, we had the incredible gift of having Bill on our side from our earliest days, as a partner, advocate, and teacher. The William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation has been the biggest donor in FoodCorps’ six-year lifespan, committing more than $6 million to help create healthy schools, empower a new generation of leaders, and benefit vulnerable children for generations to come.

The bold investments of Bill Bowes helped launch big initiatives for FoodCorps: our program’s 2013 debut in California, enabling us to reach more than 15,000 vulnerable children each year; a suite of alumni programming to foster leadership development after corps members complete their service; and a strategic plan for our next five years that will propel us toward our goal of making healthy schools the norm nationwide.

“Bill’s generosity to the FoodCorps community has made a tremendous difference to kids’ relationship with healthy food all over the country,” says Jenny Shilling Stein, Chair of FoodCorps’ Board of Directors and co-founder of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a pivotal early-stage funder of FoodCorps that first introduced Bowes to our work.

Bowes was a deeply invested supporter of FoodCorps, dedicating time to meet the children we serve and the AmeriCorps members who carry out our work. Last year, he visited an elementary school in Oakland, California, to observe a garden lesson led by service members Cassie Spindler and Lydia Yamaguchi. Together, they enjoyed a salad lunch, featuring local produce the service members sourced for the district. Bill had a personal appreciation for FoodCorps’ farm-to-school initiatives: his wife, Ute Lumkemann, is a Bay Area restaurateur, recognized for her pioneering commitments to sustainable sourcing.

“He was so charming and personable, and had such a generosity of spirit,” recalls Cassie, who is now in her second year with FoodCorps, as our California state fellow.

“When I first met him, he seemed truly delighted to see our pictures and hear our stories about our classes, gardens, and students,” says Lydia, now serving for a second year in Oakland. “It was really fun to be able to then show him a school garden and class in person. I wondered a little at what he might think of the controlled chaos that happens during lessons in the school garden, far from the skyscraper offices with a view of the Bay Bridge where we had first met him. He was delighted!”

Curt Ellis, co-founder and CEO of FoodCorps, says it was clear that Bill cared as much about the service members who lead FoodCorps’ work in the field as he did the children they serve, showing a genuine interest in corps members’ experiences and development. “It was clear in his eyes and his laugh––not just his words––that Bill found our service members and their stories infectious. He loved their energy and passion and dedication.”

That commitment to fostering leaders extended to FoodCorps’ own leadership: during their frequent meetings, Bowes would reliably ask Curt: “What mistakes have you made lately?” before offering his advice on building our leadership team, scaling our budget, and honing the impact of our program.

“Bill pushed the limits of what it means to be gracious, what it means to be philanthropic, and what it means to live a life of service,” Curt says. “He gave generously of himself in every way he possibly could until the very last days of his life.”

Continuing His Legacy

Humble and authentic leadership is the hallmark of who Bill Bowes was and what his legacy is. It is why FoodCorps recently established the Bill Bowes Service Leadership Award. Beginning last fall, we invited nominations to recognize the accomplishments of FoodCorps alumni who embody Bill’s spirit of leadership, service, and innovation.

“Our hope is that by sharing the story of alumni who embody these ideals, we will inspire others to carry on Bill’s legacy,” says Robyn Wardell, FoodCorps’ Alumni Manager and a FoodCorps alumna herself. The first award will be given later this year.

While we are saddened that Bill will no longer be able to present this award himself, his presence will be with us as we celebrate an inspiring life and a lasting legacy of impact.

Learn more about Bill and his contributions on Inside Philanthropy and click here to read the release from U.S. Venture Partners.

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FoodCorps, which has been serving Connecticut’s school children for the past four years, today announced a new grant to support the expansion of its healthy food education and access program in Connecticut thanks to Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation.

FoodCorps connects children to healthy food in school, placing AmeriCorps members into high-need schools to make sure students learn what healthy food is, fall in love with it, and eat it every day, giving them a pathway to a healthy and productive future. Service members collaborate with school communities to teach hands-on nutrition lessons in gardening and cooking, make school meals healthier and more appealing to students, and foster a schoolwide culture of health.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation issued a grant to FoodCorps to support increased programming in Hartford, New London, and New Haven. This expansion of FoodCorps’ programming comes as a result of the national service program establishing its first-ever field office, located in Vernon and led by a dedicated team of in-state staff who have grown FoodCorps’ on-the-ground service corps and increased the program’s impact to benefit children statewide. In its last program year (Sept. 1, 2015–July 31, 2016), 15 service members reached more than 12,900 children in 38 under-resourced schools across the state.

“The lived experience of poverty for many children in Connecticut is a struggle that includes both hunger and diet-related disease,” said Jiff Martin, Associate Educator of Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Connecticut Extension, and a key advisor to FoodCorps programming in the state. “They need and deserve better access to healthy meals and increased engagement with food and where it comes from. Having reached over 15,000 children in Connecticut last year, FoodCorps is building a foundation for healthy futures.”

FoodCorps is dedicated to serving communities most vulnerable to childhood obesity: low-income households and children of color. Children who grow up in low-income neighborhoods are twice as likely to suffer from obesity than their more affluent peers. Children of color are 60% more likely than their white peers to develop type 2 diabetes.

In Connecticut, where 108,000 children are living in poverty, one child in three is overweight or obese. FoodCorps sees schools—where children spend nearly a third of their day and often eat half their daily calories—as a critical point of intervention against childhood obesity.

The Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation grant has helped FoodCorps to grow its service corps from 15 to 20 AmeriCorps members, connecting more Connecticut children to healthy food and nutrition education. The new positions have added support in New Haven and New London, and introduced the FoodCorps program for the first time in Hartford.

“FoodCorps has already proven to be an asset to the healthy food network in Connecticut, not only through the direct service of its AmeriCorps members, but by helping connect the work being done on these issues throughout the state,” said Dawn Crayco, FoodCorps Connecticut’s Program Director. “We are excited to expand this leadership in the state, and in New London, Hartford, and New Haven in particular.”

“Kids and teens today face a variety of challenges when it comes to eating healthy. That’s why we support FoodCorps, to help ensure that our youth build life-long healthy habits with a firm foundation of support,” said Jill R. Hummel, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation. “The FoodCorps program is working to build great futures for our kids by changing the opportunity equation to help them make healthy food choices and participate in healthy activities each and every day.”

About FoodCorps

FoodCorps is a national service organization that recruits, trains, and places AmeriCorps members to serve in high-need schools to connect kids to healthy food in school. Serving alongside educators and community leaders across 359 schools in 18 states, corps members focus on delivering hands-on lessons in gardening, cooking, and tasting healthy food; improving school meals; and encouraging a schoolwide culture of health. Building on this foundation of direct impact, FoodCorps pursues systemic strategies that will benefit all of the nation’s 100,000 public schools.

About Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation

Through charitable grant making, the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation LLC, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, promotes Anthem’s inherent commitment to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield serves. The Foundation focuses its funding on strategic initiatives that address and provide innovative solutions to health care challenges, as well as promoting the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative that targets specific disease states and medical conditions. These include: prenatal care in the first trimester, low birth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation. The Foundation also coordinates the company’s Associate Giving program which provides a 50 percent match of associates’ campaign pledges, as well as its Volunteer Time Off and Dollars for Doers community service programs. ®ANTHEM is a registered trademark of Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield names and symbols are registered marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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