The Dirt

By Molly Costigan
AmeriCorps VISTA - Community Health Organizer

Sustainable Food Center partners with Marathon Kids to engage with parents, staff, and community members at partner elementary schools and facilitate the formation of wellness teams that participate in health and wellness activities. Wellness teams reach out to SFC for resources and programs, such as healthy cooking classes or school garden trainings. Leaders on the wellness team organize regular meetings and activities, and engage the school community in health and wellness issues.

Norman Elementary parent leader Philimena Dickson, has been involved with Cultivating Healthy Communities for almost three years. Through the wellness team, she has attended SFC’s The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre® cooking class, Basic Organic Gardening class, and School Garden Leadership Training, and she and her family have helped with the installation and maintenance of a community garden at nearby St. James Episcopal church. She also participates in SFC’s Spread the Harvest program for her own family’s garden.

Why did you get involved with Sustainable Food Center and Marathon Kids?
It was definitely the gardening. We had a garden at our home, and I like gardening and knowing that you get fresh food from the garden and can feed your family well.

It is a struggle because sometimes you have sweets and the sweets are not good for you. Or you want to have something quick so you do not have to cook. But once you decide to train yourself you can see what you need to have energy all day.

What are some of your favorite things to grow?
Kale and tomatoes. I have tomatoes right now, at least three of them, that are ready to go into the ground. I will have to try again with carrots. If I have the right type of lettuce, like romaine, then I grow it too. We have cabbage now, and that is a favorite, and onions are pretty good. I would like to grow red onions.

What are some things that you have done here at the school or the church garden?
I am on the wellness team and get information out to the community and the parents. I am talking to more parents about what we do on the wellness team and what we are here to do for the community.

What are some of the things that you have learned as a wellness team leader?
I have learned more about how to communicate with people. If I learn here, I learn in my personal life, like how to keep the information that I have going and then pass it on or keep it on paper—and also trying to put it into the computer. I am starting to use the computer to keep up with names of wellness team members. It is a learning process and I am learning how to be an organizer. When I started I did not know how; I was shaking in my boots!

Why is this important to you?
Because I see how it helps my family, and we all have a healthier diet now.

By Joy Casnovsky
The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre® Director

The foundation of The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre® is the cadre of 40+ trained Facilitators that lead classes and workshops across Austin. These are community members who care deeply about helping others eat healthy and hone their cooking skills and confidence. Even though I adore working at Sustainable Food Center and thoroughly believe in our mission, I still sometimes get stuck in the day-to-day grind of running the Program (yes, I just admitted that!). However, my eyes always light up upon hearing stories first-hand from the Facilitators, like the ones I heard this week. It reminds me of the fantastic work we are doing in the community by cultivating leaders and connecting people to their food.

Ida is currently facilitating a six-week class at the HEB at William Cannon and I-35. As part of our GROW-SHARE-PREPARE model, we always use produce from one of our SFC Farmers’ Market in at least one of the six classes to introduce farmers’ market produce to the participants. Ida went to the SFC Farmers' Mkt -Triangle to buy strawberries and this is what she wrote me about her experience—

I just loved Phil the farmer he was so sweet and kind to me.  He gave me a $19.00 discount since I had bought 16 pints [of strawberries] for the class.  I did some shopping and got 2 more pints for my children.  Then I went back and said Phil you did not charge me right and he said you bought so many I wanted to give you a good deal and he thanked me for being honest.  I thought he did not use a calculator but he is one sharp little old man and he hand-picked all 18 pints to make sure he gave me the best strawberries for the class and they were delicious.  It was my husband’s birthday and I bought a plate full of vegan cupcakes, olive & rosemary bread, wheat bread, and  some Indian food since it was a special day at our home. I was the first customer so I got the best of everything they had.  So I came back with lots of goodies.  So everything went very very well at the farmer’s market. 

Ida eating strawberries from the market

Roseanna is also facilitating a six-week class, but is at the HEB at Rundberg and North Lamar. The six-week model aims to provide a supportive atmosphere for people to make those cooking and dietary changes. This story exemplifies that perfectly!

Tonight the question was asked what they wanted to get out of these next 5 weeks. Almost everyone is having major physical challenges and all of them showed a genuine concern for their overall health and really desired changes. I had some index cards with me and had an idea for this group. I shared with them on how I really applauded their humbleness on what they shared and I wanted them to take it one step further and that was to write down the bullets of what they had shared and tack on there a goal and we would review on the last week. They loved that and I had one come up to me and shared her desire to regain her ability to dream again and set goals for herself so I gave her some tools to help her achieve that. Another came up and really shared some personal info about herself so I made myself her accountability partner if you will for the next 5 weeks. This is a group that really wants it and I am really in a state of expectancy for them.

Roseanna going over The Happy Plate

Citizen Gardener provides a framework for receiving 10 hours of introductory gardening instruction, completing 10 hours of service apprenticing with a more seasoned gardener, and becoming an official Citizen Gardener.

We are profiling one of our newest Citizen Gardener instructors, Wendy Leiva, who debuted in the Citizen Gardener program Citizen Gardener 34 with Dick Pierce.She is also a graduate of the Austin Permaculture Guild’s Permaculture Design course and lives in Round Rock with her family.

How did you hear about Citizen Gardener?

I was looking at a lot of local food organizations and got connected to SFC on Facebook. I was interested in the class because I was about to take the Permaculture Design Course and I wanted to revist introductory level gardening before going in to intensive permaculture. I had gardened on and off before my kids were born, but then after I had my kids and life happened. I fell into that trap of thinking I didn’t have time for gardening. Taking Citizen Gardener reminded me it’s not really that much work, the little bit of work [you put in] yields so much happiness and satisfaction. I was reminded how much I missed gardening.

What did you take away the most from Citizen Gardener?

 The class exceeded my expectations. I thought the class would be just sort of…a list of all the plants you should have in your garden. I was surprised that Citizen Gardener showed me the skills for how to build my garden… I went home so excited and started working on my box but in the first class session I had worked on site preparation so while I really knew how to do that part, I hadn’t learned the details of building the box. I ended up with a wonky box that I ended up rebuilding after the 2^nd Saturday session. Still, I realized how quickly it can be done, easily, and cheaply!

What has teaching been like for you?

Admittedly, I was a little scared because I’d never taught a gardening course before. But, after working with Anne Woods (a fellow Citizen Gardener teacher), I realized I could do it and I could do it well! The experience of teaching was wonderful. We had students from Round Rock, Pflugerville, and North Austin and it was great to connect with people right outside of Austin who are also interested in this movement. I look forward to doing it again!

How has Citizen Gardener influenced your relationship with food?

Citizen Gardener has inspired me to eat more local food and more fruits and vegetables. And it has inspired me to want to grow my own food… which is a big deal because I grew up thinking food is something you buy from a package in a grocery store and now I try to buy local and unpackaged. With two kids I don’t always uphold to [buying local and unpackaged] everyday, but I try. My goal for my home garden is to make it a family space full of edible food! My daughter is only two years old but loves to be outside [in the garden], and my son is ten years old and loves to water the plants.

What are your future projects?

I’m inspired by the work going on in Austin and I feel a little sad that the ‘burbs’ (suburbs) don’t have the awesome resources that Austin does. Round Rock isn’t listed by the US Census as a food desert, but I think there must be underserved areas that lack access to local food. We don’t have much public transportation and we have mostly huge, scattered mega-HEBs. I want to see what I can do to help ignite passion for local food in Round Rock. I’m working on building relationships in the areas north of Austin, starting with places like Monument Café and Jack Allen’s Kitchen.

 Interested in networking with Wendy? Email her at wendy.p.leiva@gmail.com

 Stay tuned for upcoming fall 2013 Citizen Gardener classes, with locations north of Austin by joining the Grow Local monthly- newsletter or checking our events page.

Without its 40+ Facilitators, The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre® would not be able to operate. The Program is built upon the peer to peer model, training community members to become Facilitators. Informative (and fun!) six-week classes and workshops are then delivered to communities in need.  One such Facilitator is FayeLynn, who has been facilitating since 2008.

What made you want to become a Facilitator?

Being raised in a family of Seventh Day Adventists and by a nurse and a doctor, I was taught from early on the importance of food and health. My mom, who is 90, is a fantabulous cook! I grew up with her giving healthy cooking classes and she used to say “a lot of people are digging their graves with their forks.

I first took The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre® class (as a participant) at Dove Springs Recreation Center. I was so impressed with the information and how accessible it was. It was so practical. And I liked the fact that the participants got the grocery bags to go home and practice the recipe at home—that’s amazing! I feel that the Program reaches people that might not have this information, but who need it. I also like that the classes are made up of “real people,” not just professional culinary artists. Everyone has real life experiences, which is important.

Growing up did you ever “rebel” against this healthy lifestyle?

As a child, I got very stick one time. My mom told me I was sick because I wasn’t eating my vegetables. I associated that feeling of sickness with not eating my vegetables and ever since then, haven’t stopped eating them. I rarely get sick. I didn’t have my first Sprite until I was 14!

How has Facilitating affected your own life in terms of healthy eating?

Although I grew up eating healthy and knowing its benefits, I think the culinary skills skipped a generation. Combining food in a way that will be tasty, the art of cooking, that is hard for me. I cannot cook like my mom. I will make dishes for my family that my mom makes and my kids like her version way better! Every time I lead a class as a Facilitator with The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre®, I learn something new.  Facilitating challenges me.

FayeLynn (right) helping a participant read a food label.

Sustainable Food Center is happy to announce the availability of our Program Replication Guides as well as the schedule and location for our 2013 Program Replication Training.

Program replication guides are available for our Grow Local community and school gardening program, Farm Direct farm-to-institution efforts, nutrition programming based on The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre® cooking classes, and the Sprouting Healthy Kids farm-to-school and food-systems education program (combination of Farm Direct and Grow Local). Each guide is based on SFC’s programmatic practices, developed over 40 years of organizational experience. The guides include detailed how-to information for community-based, local food-systems programs, including gardening, farm marketing, and healthy cooking programs. For additional information on content and ordering, please visit SFC’s web store, http://food.convio.net/site/Ecommerce?store_id=1201.

SFC will also offer in-person, hands-on Program Replication Training for each of our program areas. These trainings will be held at Sustainable Food Center’s new facility located in Austin (set to open May 2013), and will begin the morning of Monday, June 10, 2013 and end the afternoon of Wednesday, June 12.

The trainings are led by SFC staff and partners and are designed for community-based organizations, local government entities, and other groups interested in sustainable and local food systems programming. Participants will leave with program planning, implementation, and evaluation tools and resources needed to initiate gardening, farm marketing, and healthy cooking programs within their own communities. Participants will also have access to SFC staff for ongoing technical assistance and consultation. It is expected that participating groups will be able to launch programming within one year of the training. The full descriptions of each program can be found on the SFC website, www.sustainablefoodcenter.org.

For additional information on the trainings, including cost and registration information, please contact:

Andrew W. Smiley, Deputy Director
andrew@sustainablefoodcenter.org
512-236-0074 ext. 102

The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre® started 2013 with a bang—7 six-week classes began since January 15! Partner sites include AISD schools, UT Elementary School, YMCA and People’s Community Clinic. This morning I had a chance to sit in on a class making Baked Sweet Potato Fries from our cookbook. The sweet potatoes were purchased from Johnson’s Backyard Garden, one of our vendors at the SFC Farmers' Markets. In each six-week class series, we use market-fresh produce to reinforce the mantra of Grow.Share.Prepare. So what do you say? Are you ready to do some preparing? Here’s the recipe to get you started!

                                  Liz Aguilar and Lourdes Quijada serving up Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients

4 large sweet potatoes

2 tbsp canola oil

¼ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground coriander

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 400º F.

Scrub well or peel the sweet potatoes.

Cut the sweet potatoes into French fry-sized pieces (approx. ½ in thick)

Sprinkle cumin, coriander, salt and pepper on top.

Mix until the sweet potatoes are lightly coated with the spices.

Lay potatoes out in a single layer on a baking sheet.

Bake for 30-45 minutes or until lightly browned.

Serves 6 at $.49 per serving

By the way, did you know that coriander is actually the seed of cilantro? Wait until May when cilantro starts to “bolt” or seed and then harvest the seed, grind and—voila—you have coriander!

In preparation for the move to our new home in May, SFC had a chance to work with UT Social Work Masters students on a recent community engagement project. This is a great example of how educational institutions and non-profit organizations can collaborate! 

By Rebekah Brown, Kristi Click, Jenny Horton, Katherine Keegan, Katelyn Walbridge

Our project began with an initial meeting with Joy Casnovsky (Program Director of The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre® Program and Sari Albornoz (Co-Director of the Grow Local Program), who were our Project Leaders from Sustainable Food Center. In our first meeting, they introduced us to the programs that SFC runs, the new Center that will open up in 2013, and a brief explanation of what they expected from us. The Project objective was to create ties between organizations within a 3 mile radius of the new SFC home so that SFC could engage with the surrounding community in anticipation of the big move in May 2013. In order to further familiarize ourselves with SFC’s programs and services, we toured the new SFC site as well as participated in the “Germinators” meetings. (The “Germinators” is the group of community members that has been working to develop the St. David’s Foundation Community Garden at SFC’s new home.)

Our first step was to develop a list of non-profit, religious and education-related organizations within a 3-mile radius of the new SFC Center. Sari and Joy then prioritized each organization so we knew the order in which to contact them. Also, as was anticipated, Sari and Joy identified organizations with which they already had a strong relationship, so did not need our help at this point in time in the engagement process. We then developed a brief survey to gauge interest in specific SFC programs among the prioritized organizations.

Sari met with us to discuss the actual engagement interaction. She provided us with talking points and role-played with us to ensure a successful interaction. We divided up the final list of organizations and began making contact. Our general strategy was to either call or email the appropriate people at each agency to provide more information over email or set up an in-person meeting. Using the responses from this correspondence we created a final list of interested organizations, as well as the specific SFC programs that were of most interest to organizations. This data will help grow the awareness of SFC among neighbor organizations and help form partnerships between them and SFC!

                                                                                                            Masters Students Presenting their poster!

Did you know that SFC’s Grow Local program has provided assistance to more than 130 school gardens in the Austin area? These gardens can be found at public schools and private schools, from preschools to high schools and every level in between. Some school gardens are incorporated into classroom lessons or afterschool clubs, others are used to produce food for the cafeteria, farmers’ markets, or food pantries, and still others serve as places for parents and community members to grow healthy food for their families. What these school gardens all have in common is that they serve as places for children (and adults!) to learn about where food comes from, how it is grown, and how delicious and fun eating fresh fruits and vegetables can be!

The assistance that SFC provides to school gardens includes our free School Garden Leadership trainings, Spread the Harvest resources, in-class and afterschool lessons & activities, School Garden Volunteer matching, consultation, grant assistance, and more. SFC’s recent School Garden Leadership training at Mendez Middle School successfully inspired and empowered dozens of leaders to start and expand garden projects at their schools, and we look forward to providing continuing support to these endeavors. Check SFC’s Events page for our next School Garden Leadership training in early 2013. You can find more information about how SFC promotes school gardening success in Austin here: http://www.sustainablefoodcenter.org/grow-local/school-gardens

If you know of any school garden projects that aren’t yet connected with SFC, we’d love to hear from them! Please contact Jess Guffey, Grow Local Co-Director, at jess (at) sustainablefoodcenter (dot) org, to find out how we can offer assistance.

We’ve had a terrific season of Citizen Gardener classes this fall! Citizen Gardener participants learned how to start their own food gardens while helping to establish or enhance gardens at Gateway Church, UT Elementary, Alamo Community Garden, and East Communities YMCA. Participants learned to build their own raised garden bed, a rainwater catchment system, and a successful compost pile, along with a wealth of other gardening wisdom. Participants will now share their knowledge with the community by volunteering 10 hours at partner gardens and farms throughout the community.

Interested in becoming a Citizen Gardener? Stay in touch to register for spring classes via our events page and our Facebook group! We are also looking for eager gardeners with experience to join us as Citizen Gardener teachers. Contact Vanessa Toro at vanessa@sustainablefoodcenter.org for more information.

October is a busy time for local food systems advocates and programs – not only does Food Day fall on the 24th, but the whole month is dedicated to Farm to School activities. With events and activities occurring all over the country, National Farm to School Month provides Austin-area schools participating in SFC’s Sprouting Health Kids program an opportunity to shine a nationwide spotlight on efforts to connect students with healthy, local food.

As part of Sustainable Food Center’s farm to school and food systems education programming, and in collaboration with Marathon Kids, schools wellness teams are planning “Meet the Farmer” days and Veggie Sampling events in their cafeterias, helping to coordinate Basic Organic Gardening classes for teachers and parents, and even hosting School Garden Leadership Trainings, presented by SFC’s Grow Local program. Some schools are planning garden work-days, farmers’ market tours, or healthy local foods classroom lessons, and, all schools are posting colorful posters and other “point of sale” materials in their cafeterias to promote the availability of local foods.

While many events are occurring as part of Farm to School Month in October, we know that interest and activity remains strong throughout the year. Look for photos from the month in upcoming newsletter articles. And, visit http://www.farmtoschoolmonth.org for more info (you may even spot a familiar face in one of their pics!).