healthy food - CONGRESS FIGHTS OVER SCHOOL MEAL MONEY - SIBEJO

Rep. Todd Rokita�s (R-IN) proposal in the House child nutrition bill to conduct a block grant pilot program for school meals in three states �demonstrates a broader effort to block grant the school meal program nationwide,� said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). If the pilot program were approved, states that were chosen would be given a capped amount of money for child nutrition programs to use as they see fit. The one requirement is that they provide at least one affordable meal a day. According to the School Nutrition Association, block granting a program makes it easier to eliminate. The House bill also would raise the threshold for schools to participate in the community eligibility program to 60% of students in poverty, thus eliminating the ability of 7,000 schools to offer free lunch to all students, and would eliminate that option for 11,000 schools currently eligible but not participating.

Source: The Hill, 7/5/16, School Food Fight; Center for Budget & Policy Priorities, 7/8/16, Child Nutrition Bill

healthy food - IS SUSHI HEALTHY? WHAT ABOUT GRANOLA? - SIBEJO

Americans think granola bars, frozen yogurt, and SlimFast shakes are healthy; nutritionists disagree and counter with quinoa, tofu, hummus, and wine.  Why the difference?  One possibility is that everyday Americans don�t notice all the added sugar in the foods they, but not nutritionists deem healthy.  And, many average consumers may not be familiar with newer foods, like quinoa (which many nutritionists praise as a �supergrain), or ethnic imports, like tofu and hummus. There are some areas of nutritional consensus. Nearly all nutritionists and consumers surveyed agreed that oranges, apples, oatmeal, and chicken could be described as healthy and that chocolate chip cookies, bacon, white bread and soda could not.

Source: New York Times, 7/5/16, Healthy Foods

healthy food - FOOD DIVIDE GROWS BETWEEN RICH & POOR - SIBEJO

Overall, Americans are eating better. Between 2002 and 2012, the percent of people eating a poor diet fell from around 56% to under 46%. But it's a different story if you separate people out by income. High-income Americans are eating better than ever � swapping fruit juice for whole fruits, replacing refined grains with whole grains, and eating tons of nuts � while the low-income group has improved much more modestly. Here's how some of the trends break down:

• High-income people are eating a lot more fruit, while those in the low-income group didn't see a significant change. By 2012, high-income people were eating almost two more servings of fruit per week, replacing fruit juice (a less healthy option) with whole fruit.
• Everyone is eating more whole grains, but only high-income people are dropping their consumption of refined grains like white bread and corn flakes.
• Everyone is drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages like soda and sports drinks, but high-income people are drinking a lot less than low-income people. The two are basically falling in lockstep.

Food cost is undoubtedly part of the reason for this gap, but it doesn't fully explain it. Other, less tangible factors also play a role: the time cost to buying foods and preparing them yourself; a nutrition knowledge barrier, and heavy marketing of junk food and fast food to low-income people.  

Source: The Week, 7/4/16, Food Gap

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.