healthy food - CANDY, SODA AND SNAP: THE REALITY - SIBEJO

Angered by the federal government�s denial of his request to bar residents from buying candy or sugar-sweetened beverages with SNAP benefits, Maine Governor Paul LePage has threatened to end the state�s administration of the program. Is there any truth to his claim that SNAP recipients spend most of their benefits on junk food?  

• Poor diet quality is a systemic issue and is not specific to SNAP recipients. Research shows that the diets the diets of SNAP participants are only slightly less healthy than other Americans. According to one study, SNAP participants consume more sugary drinks than higher-income people but the same amount as other low-income people who do not receive SNAP. And compared with higher-income people, SNAP recipients are less likely to consume sweets and desserts, salty snacks, and added fats and oils.
• Comprehensive information about how SNAP participants spend their benefits is lacking, but information from Walmart, which redeems a significant portion of SNAP dollars, gives us an important clue. The top items SNAP households buy in Walmart stores are not soda and candy, but basic inexpensive foods, such as bananas, whole milk, Ramen noodles, and hot dogs. These are perhaps not the most nutritious options, but they indicate that families are frequently searching for inexpensive meals, not desserts and drinks.

Source: Urban Institute, 6/27/16, SNAP Realities

healthy food - "Volun-tourism" - is it a good thing? - SIBEJO

Over the weekend, the Today Show has a segment on "volun-tourism," people using their vacations to do volunteer work.

It sounds great, doesn't it?  Visit some new and interesting place and do some good while you're there.  And I've done it myself, if you count church mission trips to Appalachia and Maine.

But seeing it brought me back to Robert Ludlum's book, Toxic Charity, which I reviewed last month.

Rev. Ludlum spends a lot of time in his book on church mission trips and why they often serve the needs of the people on the mission trip more than the needs of the people at the trip's location.  Too often these kinds of activities have middle class Americans swooping in and trying to fix a problem for people they have defined as poor or in need.  In doing so, they can sometimes infantilize the people the people they are serving and take away their right to self-determination.  One example he gave was of a mission group that built a well for a village in  another country, so they would not have to walk miles carrying their water.  Fast forward a year and the villagers were again carrying water for miles.  Why?  The outsiders built a well, but they did not engage the local people in the project, teach them how it works, or what might go wrong and how to repair it if it broke.

The mission trips I went on were powerful experiences for me.  But when I reflect on it, I'm not 100% sure that they were as important or powerful for the people we were seeking to help.  And it should be about the people in need and the local community, not about those of us from the outside, shouldn't it?

Gloria

healthy food - Can emergency food programs end hunger? - SIBEJO

Although it was written in 1998, Janet Poppendieck's book, "Sweet Charity?  Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement," has much to say to us today.

The book describes food charities (food banks, food pantries, community kitchens) functioning as a moral safety valve which have allowed us as a society to accept the erosion of government's role in fighting poverty and hunger.

My favorite part of the book continues to be the chapter on "The Seven Deadly In's of Emergency Food."  The following are among the reasons that private, charitable, emergency food programs like food banks cannot solve the hunger problem:  

• Insufficiency (there's not enough food), 
• Inappropriateness (it's not the right food); 
• nutritional Inadequacy (it's not healthy food), 
• Instability (programs are hand-to-mouth relying on volunteers and uncertain funding streams),
• Inaccessability (people in need can't get to the charities), 
• Inefficiency (the can of food ends up costing several times its real cost from the time someone purchases it and donates it to a food drive until it gets to the person in need), and 
• Indignity (bread lines in America today!).

Almost twenty years later and all of these things are still true.  And yet, we still have politicians calling for massive cuts in federal food programs "because the private charities can take care of it."  The private charities weren't meeting the need in 1998 when Ms. Poppendieck wrote her book and we have fallen further behind every year since.  

We can only solve the problem of hunger with bigger picture, systems change thinking.  That's what we are trying to do at GardenShare and what our slogan, "Healthy Food.  Healthy Farms.  Everybody Eats." speaks to.

healthy food - Farmer Friday - Sawyer Creek Farm - SIBEJO

When people give directions in a small town, the instructions usually go like this:

�Okay, so you�re going to go straight through town past the old Agway. Keep headed down that way until you hit the four-corners with the old dairy farm on the left. When you�ve pass a fallen silo, you�ve reached our place.�

�or something like that.

My visit to Sawyer Creek Farm was a similar experience. Owner Sheila Warden told me to look for her blue house with a red barn, the first one after a right turn. She knew my GPS would certainly fail me once I hit back roads. I pulled into her driveway, disbelieving later that her home was once unlivable in the fall of 1997 when she first moved to the area with her family.

I followed Sheila to the greenhouse she rebuilt last spring after a snowstorm ruined their previous one. Like most farm visits, Sheila doesn�t stop her work just because I am there. This is an act I have come to appreciate because I find the farmers are more in their element. Sheila expressed her hopes to add heat to the greenhouse in the winter as she watered her vegetables because the farm is a zone 3 growing region, unlike the rest of the zone 4 Gouverneur area.

In 2006 after putting their home through a HGTV worthy makeover (I didn�t believe her until she showed me pictures of the transformation), Sheila�s husband brought home a few ewes that needed a rescue home. This was the second time he did this; the first time was over 35 years ago when he got her a ewe for mother�s day in NJ. That ewe was on the plump side, but Sheila assumed the mass of wool covering the presumably nimble frame was the reason. A few days later, the ewe dropped a lamb. Some might say Sheila had the wool pulled over her eyes! Fast forward, to Sawyer Creek Farm in NY and Sheila has been raising sheep ever since. She got back into raising sheep. Starting with the Hampshire rescued ewes, then Dorset�s, then Katahadin hair sheep and finally her favorite, Finnsheep! She has had Finnsheep for 4 years and loves them!!

Sheep jokes aside, Sheila also raises meat/egg chickens, turkeys and pigs. Like many of the farms I�ve visited (Fuller and Smith), the chickens began as a way to save money. Soon friends and family via word of mouth began contacting Sheila for a few chickens and eggs. As she puts it, �As people want[ed] more, I expanded.�

When Sheila first began her meat operation, she knew she didn�t want to have a middleman. Sheila genuinely cares about the product she delivers- ensuring customers get what they pay for without the added markup price stores typically add. As a solution, Sheila does most of the gopher work. In the spring, she calls her regular customers to pre-order an exact amount of chickens/turkeys/pigs/lamb needed (about 150 chickens/season to give an idea). Then, she picks up the animals, raises them to maturation, and personally brings them to a Mennonite butcher who does the processing. From there, she delivers meat directly to customers. The pork and lamb are butchered by USDA certified Red Barn Meats in Croghan. This is repeated three times before October; Sheila understands the want for both fresh meat and freezer space�doing so also divides the labor for her. Sheila charges $3.50/lb. for whole and $4.00/lb. for cut chickens, with the weight ranging from 4 to 9 lbs., although customers can request sizes. Unlike many butchers, Sheila charges by the pound instead of the hanging weight. Again, this practice is for the customers� benefit.

One point Sheila stressed is how Sawyer Creek Farm came to its 95-acre glory. She is proud of what her family has accomplished in such a short amount of time�a feat she attributes to the amount of sweat equity poured into each crevice of the land. Farming aside, Sheila also works as a full-time bus driver during the school year. After working a full workweek, remembering to weed the summer squash or move the portable fence for rotational grazing can be a nuisance. Sheila does it all, but looks forward to the summer when she can focus solely on her animals and plants.

Like Smith Chicken Farm, Sheila strengthens the local food system. The cost to buy, mature, and deliver the small-scale meat does make her prices higher than WalMart or Aldi�s. However, this calls into question of how a local farmer can make a livelihood when they are constantly outcompeted by larger markets. At GardenShare, we stress the importance of buying locally by promoting farmers markets and CSA programs. For every $10 spent at the farmers market, ~$6.20 goes back into the local economy and ~$9.90 out of $10 stays in the state. Contrasting, ~$2.50 remains regional when that same $10 is spent at the aforementioned grocery stores. The need for healthy, accessible food applies to farmers too as they try to create a standard of living while supporting the local community. This is one statement GardenShare seeks to underscore.

Come visit Sheila at the Canton Farmer�s market most Tuesdays and Fridays. There you can buy everything wool in many forms from a raw fleece, yarn, knit items and processed lamb pelts. Also, homemade soap from pork lard and seasonal vegetables. Meat orders taken, but due to food safety the meat will be set up for a scheduled pickup so it will remain cold as long as possible.

healthy food - FAMILIES STRUGGLE TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE - SIBEJO

Nationally, one in six households reported they struggled to afford to buy food in the past 12 months, according to a new report. That�s down significantly from 2013 when nearly 1 in five households (18.9%) reported struggling to find food. In 31 states at least one in seven households (14.3%) said that they did not have enough money to buy food at some point in the past year.  

Source: Food Research & Action Center, 6/30/16, Food Hardship

healthy food - Alaska's food system - is it like the North Country? - SIBEJO

Mark Winne, a leading voice on food system issues has a new blog entry about food issues in Alaska.  I was struck by the similarities to the North Country.  For example, try substituting "North Country" for "Alaska" in his closing paragraph (and ignoring the oil comment):

"How Alaska copes with its multiple food system vulnerabilities bears watching. Resiliency in the face of climate change will take on new and challenging dimensions in this highly exposed northern reach, not the least of which may be the hot, sweaty hordes escaping from the Lower 48. The lessons of oil, the lessons of subsistence, the lessons of the limits of human endurance, and the lessons of public policy that can be farsighted or shortsighted should not be ignored because they come from a place as remote as Alaska."

Read Mark's blog entry in its entirety here:  Roadkill Stew, Bad-ass Cabbage, and the Midnight Sun � Lessons from Alaska

-Gloria

healthy food - Veggie of the Month on 95.3 The Wolf - SIBEJO

Starting with this morning, GardenShare will be featuring a "Veggie of the Month" on the first Wednesday of the month between 8:00 and 9:00 AM with morning show host Tony Lynn on 95.3 The Wolf FM.

Intern Hogan has been prepping the material for these interviews and so he and Amanda joined me in the studio this morning.  After highlighting this month's veggie, we gave away $10 in tokens that can be used at any farmers market in St. Lawrence County.

Listen in each month on the first Wednesday to learn more about GardenShare, farmers markets, and a new veggie each month!

Gloria

July Veggie of the Month is Radishes

• Grown in North America since the early 1600s
• Grown in most states, but California and Florida have the most
• Ideal for children�s gardens because they grow so fast  -  From seed to eating plant in ~25 days
• Nutrition - Radishes are rich in vitamin C and B vitamins. It also contains dietary fibers and minerals such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, copper and manganese and Super low in calories!

Recipe option #1: Roasted radishes

        2-1/4 pounds radishes, trimmed and quartered

        3 tablespoons olive oil

        1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano

        1/4 teaspoon salt

        1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions - super simple

1.     In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Transfer to a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 425� for 30 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring once. Yield: 5 servings.

Recipe option #2: Grilled Radishes, Fennel and Asparagus Salad with a Caper Dressing

?     Radishes are popular in salads, but are generally raw. These are grilled.

?     Good as a side salad or starter

Prep time - 10 minutes; cook time - 5-10 minutes

Ingredients:

?     2 tbsp olive oil

?     2/3 cups (150g) radishes cut in half

?     1 large bulb fennel, sliced

?     3/4 cups (200g) asparagus, trimmed

?     4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

?     1 tbsp sherry vinegar

?     � red onion, finely chopped

?     2 tbsp baby capers

?     Salt and pepper

?     Small bunch of dill chopped

Directions:

1.     Preheat a large griddle pan and lightly dress all the vegetables in olive oil.

2.     While you are waiting for the griddle to warm up: mix together in a small bowl the olive oil and sherry vinegar, then add the onion and capers, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

3.     Grill the vegetables on both sides in a single layer in the griddle pan, until the bar marks start to appear. This usually takes a couple of minutes.

4.     Once cooked, arrange on a serving dish, season with salt and pepper, drizzle over the dressing and scatter with the chopped dill. Serve at once.