healthy food - Excellus BlueCross BlueShield supports GardenShare - SIBEJO

All Farmers Markets in St. Lawrence County are equipped to accept debit cards or SNAP-EBT benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps).  To use these cards, the customer should visit the Market Manager's booth, where the cards can be swiped and tokens will be provided to spend with the farmers.  GardenShare manages this service for the Farmers Markets and more information can be found here.

GardenShare President Carol Pynchon and Executive
Director Gloria McAdam, accept the award from
Jim Reed. Regional President, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield

This year, thanks to a generous grant from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, GardenShare will be able to double the value for anyone purchasing at the Farmers Market with a SNAP-EBT card.  For each $5.00 charged to the SNAP-EBT card, the customer will receive $10.00 worth of tokens that can be spent for SNAP approved items like fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds, or food plants at the Farmers Market.

In addition, SNAP-EBT customers will receive a frequent customer card.  After visiting and purchasing food at the market five different days, the SNAP-EBT customer will receive an additional $20.00 in tokens to be spent at the Farmers Market for these food items.  This benefit is also supported through the grant from Excellus BlueCross Blue Shield.

healthy food - GardenShare annual dinner - a reflection - SIBEJO

GardenShare summer intern, Amanda, reflects on her first Annual Dinner and Silent Auction, held earlier this week at Jake's on the Water...

"There is some phenomenon about both preparing and sharing a meal with people you enjoy. At Thanksgiving after we carve the turkey, set out the cranberry sauce and test-taste the stuffing, there is a hurried scramble to find the best dark meat. Christmas calls for at least two of Grandma�s famous rolls piled onto already heaping plates. Simple summer barbeques are my favorite with mac salad, dill pickles, hot dogs, hamburgers, potato chips, mixed vegetables and strawberry shortcake feeding the many mouths of our large family.

"I cannot eat a meal like those listed above without thinking about who looked like a chipmunk with stuffed cheeks at the dining room table, who whipped the mashed buttery potatoes, who burned the spicy Italian sausage or who skipped the meal altogether to swim in the lake instead.  As humans, we can separate neither food from people, nor food from memory.

Adirondack Fragrance, Inlay Designs, Gene Newman were 

just a few of our donors for the silent auction!

"This past Tuesday, GardenShare created a seventh annual memory at Jake�s on the Water at its annual silent auction and dinner. GardenShare staff and volunteers arrived early to set up the silent auction, and slowly eighty guests trickled in to share each other�s company. Clinks of glasses and twinkles of laughter filled the room as sponsors, donors, volunteers, friends and neighbors gathered in solidarity to make sure all residents in the county can have healthy and affordable food to eat.

"The event fundraised $6,000, which will go towards GardenShare�s mission of solving the issue of hunger in St. Lawrence County. GardenShare is a keystone organization, promoting both local food systems that produce the food who feed our community and programs that make buying local accessible to low-income families.

Add caption

"Thank you for joining us in a hearty meal that will eventually put another nutritious meal into someone else�s household. The dinner reminded me how fortunate the North Country is to have a unique crowd of individuals who band together for a common cause. Upfront on Tuesday, I witnessed how the people I broke bread with are interdependent with the community. One man I sat with is a full-time professor, a village trustee, a hunger activist, and a husband. This was the case of many people attending the dinner as occupations and passions mingled together over six different courses.  Hunger, approached locally, is a solvable issue. At GardenShare we say 'Healthy food, healthy farms, everybody eats.' Tuesday was a reminder of how strong and true that simple is to our community."

Megan Bowdish donated 120 tomato and pepper plants which were 

used as centerpieces and given to dinner guests.

Jake�s on the Water was the place to be this past Tuesday, 

especially with the warm sunny breeze on the back deck!

This unique presentation of food in a mason jar was filled 

with farrow, smoked mushrooms and pea shoots!

Behind the scenes with Executive Chef Josh, 

offers a peek of how he prepared the smoked mushrooms.

healthy food - Auction at GardenShare's annual dinner - SIBEJO

A silent auction will be one of the highlights at GardenShare's annual dinner (after the outstanding, locally-sourced menu prepared by Jake's head chef Josh Taillon!) coming up just two weeks from tonight.  Hope you're planning to join us on June 14 at Jake's on the Water.

Here are some auction items donated to date:

Potsdam ACE Hardware gift certificate
Adirondack Fragance and Flower Farm gift certificate and gift basket
Potsdam Agway gift certificate
Best Western gift certificate for one night's stay
Brewer Book Store gift certificate
Northwind Day Camp one week campership
Cinema 10 season tickets
Planter and gardening supplies from Coakley's ACE Hardware
First Crush gift certificate
One treatment at Five Elements Living
Glow Skincare and Spa gift certificates
A piece of jewelry from Inlay Design
A pedicure at MH Studio
Ole Deckside gift certificate
A half gallon of maple syrup from the Orebed Sugar Shack
Golf at Partridge Run
Bread from the Potsdam Food Co-op
Golf and dinner at the Potsdam Town and Country Club
Three month membership at the Roos House Fitness Center
Pick-your-own berries at Sweet Core Farm

More auction items are being donated every day.

To learn more about the dinner or order your tickets, go here.

healthy food - GardenShare annual dinner and auction coming up in June! - SIBEJO

GardenShare will hold its seventh annual fundraising dinner and auction on June 14, 2016 at Jake's on the Water in Hannawa Falls.  There will be a cash bar cocktail hour at 5:30 and dinner will be served at 6:30.  The event will feature a locally-sourced, fresh, seasonal menu prepared especially for GardenShare by Jake's head chef, Josh Taillon.  Tickets are $75 each.

 

All proceeds from this fundraiser support GardenShare's efforts to make healthy, sustainable food choices available to everyone in the region.

 

The dinner is sponsored by presenting sponsors St. Lawrence Health System and Stauffer Farms; partnership sponsors County Seat Realty, Green Hammer Construction, and North Country Savings Bank; and friend sponsors Coakley Ace Hardware Stores, Community Bank, Conboy Law Firm, Glow Skincare and Spa, and Save-a-Lot.

 

A silent auction at the event will also support GardenShare.  Early donations of auction items have been received from Brewer Book Store, Coakley's Ace Hardware Stores, First Crush, Inlay Design, MH Studio, Northwind Farm Day Camp, Orebed Sugar Shack, Potsdam Food Co-op, and Potsdam Town and Country Club.

 

Additional information about tickets, sponsorship opportunities, or auction donations is available at www.gardenshare.org or by calling GardenShare at 315-261-8054.

healthy food - GardenShare receives grant from Excellus - SIBEJO

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield selects seven Central New York nonprofit organizations to receive Community Health Awards

SYRACUSE, N.Y. � Seven nonprofit Central New York organizations have been chosen from among a total of 185 applications to receive Excellus BlueCross BlueShield�s 2016 Community Health Awards. Each award recipient today received up to $4,000 of the $87,000 allocated by the company to help fund health and wellness programs in its 31-county upstate New York region.

Through a competitive application process, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield�s Community Health Awards support programs that have clear goals to improve the health or health care of a specific population.

Awards focus on improving the health status of the community, reducing the incidence of specific diseases, promoting health education and enhancing overall wellness and are made based on scope of need, goals of the program, number of people expected to benefit from the program and positive impact on the community�s health status.

The seven nonprofit organizations in the Central New York region selected to receive Excellus BlueCross BlueShield�s Community Health Awards are: 

�         Canton Woods Senior Center, Baldwinsville, to install a hydration station (including a water fountain and bottle filling station) and provide educational information on the health benefits of proper hydration to help improve the health of senior participants.

�         Community Health Center of the North Country, Canton, to make 250 carbon monoxide detectors and 300 informational brochures available to St. Lawrence County residents, 26 percent of whom do not have a carbon monoxide detector in their homes.

�         Cornell Cooperative Extension Association of Jefferson County, Watertown, to fund �4-H Up for the Challenge� at after-school programs in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. The program�s research-based curriculum helps youth set goals and make healthy decisions regarding physical activity, health and nutrition.

�         GardenShare, Canton, to make bonus Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits available to low-income St. Lawrence County residents who shop at farmer�s markets. The bonus benefits will help low-income families increase their consumption of healthy fruits and vegetables.

�         InterFaith Works, Syracuse, to create a Refugee Wellness Program that addresses depression, loneliness and health imbalances among refugees who are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the war, violence and oppression they have experienced.

�         SAGE Upstate, Syracuse, to offer cultural competency training and resources for health professionals who provide services for older gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals in Cortland, Onondaga and Oswego counties. Funds would also be used to produce a resource guide of supportive services for older GLBT county residents.

�         YWCA of Cortland, to support the organization�s newly formed group for girls in grade 6 through 8 who reside in low-income homes and experience stress. The girls will learn many skills, including nutrition, personal health and safety, appropriate social interaction and leadership.

�The company�s Community Health Awards demonstrate a corporate commitment to support local organizations that share our mission as a nonprofit health plan,� said Jim Reed, regional president, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. �These awards complement our existing grants and sponsorships with agencies that work to enhance quality of life, including health status, in upstate New York.�

In the 80 years that Excellus BlueCross BlueShield has been serving residents of upstate New York, the company has supported hundreds of programs that are aimed at improving the health status of area residents.