Cooking Matters Graduation!!

This Wednesday evening eight adult participants graduated from Cooking Matters at Alliance Medical Ministry in Raleigh!  With help from an amazing team of volunteer instructors, these ladies learned new cooking techniques and shopping strategies to benefit themselves and their families.  Some of the recipes they tried out in class included ratatouille, vegetable pizza, and herb roasted chicken and vegetables.  For their final celebration together they showed off knife skills and food prep know-how while making a delicious peach salsa, baked whole wheat tortilla chips, black-eyed pea and corn salad, and hummus! The group also reflected on their favorite recipes and new-found knowledge:

"I learned how to use eggplant in many different ways. That's something I never knew before!"

"Before, I never washed my canned goods, but now I ALWAYS wash them!"

"My favorite recipes were the pizza and herb roasted chicken.  I feel a lot more comfortable cooking meats."

"Now, I buy the whole chicken and cut it up. It's a lot cheaper; and now that I know how to do it, it doesn't seem as much of a chore."

"This class really helped me focus on eating healthy, and paying attention to my health.  I really enjoyed everything."

Great work team!

The Garden Edge

Inventor of The Garden Edge tool, Chris Martin, contacted the Food Shuttle after reading the recent N&O article mentioning our community gardens. Chris wanted to donate a few of his multipurpose gardening tools to help us maintain our community gardens! Last week Chris stopped by our community garden at Alliance Medical Ministry to demonstrate how The Garden Edge tool can cut down weeding time! Check out the pictures below from his visit.

Many thanks to Chris for donating the useful tools! Watch this video from Chris to see why he chose to donate The Garden Edge to the Food Shuttle:

Friday Farm Fotos

This week's photo is from the Food Shuttle's Community Garden at Alliance Medical Ministry. Belinda Chiu spends the morning weeding and watering the pepper row at our newest community garden in Raleigh.

Do you have a green thumb and a desire to help your community? Join Belinda and the Farms and Gardens crew- volunteer to grow local nutritious produce for the hungry! Email Amanda@foodshuttle.org to get involved.

Steven reflects on Will Allen's visit

I know that Thanksgiving comes after Easter in the calender year, but I did not realize that it comes this early. The past month has brought me an overwhelming amount of support to be thankful for. It all started at Longview School where I did a seed tray demonstration for Mr. Patrick Faulkner's horticulture class. A week or so later our Farm Manager, Sun Butler, said to me that Mr. Faulkner was going to have a visit from Will Allen of Growing Power and that he may need some help setting up the event. To this I exclaimed "No way!" and Sun gave me a hearty "Way."

So it began, the scramble to acquire materials in three weeks time. Some materials we already had, such as wooden pallets from Bland Landscaping and coffee chaff from Larry's Beans. Other materials I had to get for either very cheap, or free; and anyone that knows me knows that I usually opt for free.

Just prior to becoming full-time staff at the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle I had helped get a greenhouse up at Spence's Farm in Chapel Hill. I knew that the farm had composted horse manure (worms love it!) and possibly some hay that I could use. After coaxing my better half into an inquiry with her program director I was given the go ahead on everything I needed. YES! Things were falling into place.

I knew the possibility existed that Mr. Allen would be visiting our newest community garden at Alliance Medical Ministries. Once again we relied on our friends at Bland Landscaping to come till up a few rows and provide us with some compost and fruit trees. Luckily I had some help from the Wake County BGC Teen Center to get some compost spread in the garden. We had received a few flats of plants for the garden from Campbell Road Nursery which is just a stones throw away from the IFFS Farm. If you're ever at the farm you should not throw stones at them, but pay them a visit. Several familiar faces from the IFFS volunteer roster came on Saturday morning to help prep beds and plant the garden, but we also had some new faces from the Raleigh Community Gardens and Triangle Area Homesteaders Meetup groups. These two groups have been helping us canvass and raise community awareness about our garden in the area around Alliance Medical Ministries.

What I did not know was the possibility that Mr. Allen would be paying a visit to the farm and needless to say things were a bit hectic at the farm. Thank goodness for Caroline MacNair! She had her farm manager, Johnny Hassell, and his staff lend us a hand the morning that Mr. Allen would be arriving at the farm for a steak dinner. It's amazing what can be done by a focused group in a few hours time. The farm looked wonderful.

I'd like to thank the Raleigh branch of the USDA's Risk Management Agency. RMA's Ron Brown helped escort Mr. Allen around town. I also have to thank all of the Food Shuttle staff that helped pull this together, especially Chef Terri, who stayed up past her bedtime to prepare and serve delicious food at the event. I may have left some people out, but my point is that it takes a lot of partners to make an event a success. I look forward to developing stronger relationships with the aforementioned groups and hope to create new relationships with our next exciting event! Now its time for my nap.

Cheers,

Steven

To see all the pictures from Will Allen's visit click here!

Pictures from Day 1 with Will Allen

As we've been talking about recently, urban farmer Will Allen (CEO and Founder of Growing Power, Inc.) came to town yesterday to teach workshops to students at Longview High School and will help kick-off Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's Community Garden at Alliance Medical Ministry! Yesterday afternoon, Will Allen flew in to Raleigh and headed to Longview High School where he did a slide show presentation about Growing Power and a quick demo outside about vermicomposting. He even commended Steven Horton (our Farm Assistant) on what a great job he's doing with the worm bins! Afterwards, Will Allen joined some Food Shuttle staff, volunteers and supporters for a nice quiet dinner on the IFFS Farm.

Take a look at some of pictures from yesterday at Longview and the dinner at the Food Shuttle Farm.

More to come tomorrow on Will Allen's visit and the community garden reception tonight! If you'd like to meet Will Allen and celebrate with us as we kick-off the new community garden, open seats are still available! RSVP to cece@foodshuttle.org or call 919-250-0043.

Will Allen - back in Raleigh Monday and Tuesday!

You might remember back in November when Will Allen gave a lecture at the CEFS event on sustainable agriculture at the McKimmon Center. Well, now Will Allen, founder and CEO of Growing Power, Inc., is coming back to Raleigh on April 5 and 6 to hold urban farming workshops for students at Longview High School, and kick off Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Community Garden at Alliance Medical Ministry! Here's a video about Will Allen and his work with youth and communities for urban agriculture.

On Monday and Tuesday, Will Allen will teach workshops to local students from Longview High School about urban agriculture. Topics will include urban farming, vermiculture composting and intensive gardening. His work with local foods and urban agriculture has inspired communities and organizations across the country and we are thrilled to have him join us in Raleigh on Monday to work with the Longview students!

Kick-Off and Reception Details for Community Garden at Alliance Medical Ministry

• April 6, 2010 from 6-8pm
• Will Allen will speak at the kick-off and answer questions for area students and those interested in urban agriculture.
• Food for the reception will be provided by Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Catering With A Cause.
• The kick-off and reception is free and open to those who RSVP by emailing cece@foodshuttle.org or call 919-250-0043

Find out more about Alliance Medical Ministry here.

This week's Crew Call

 

We’ve selected our third Hands on Health neighborhood and are ready to get it going!  Come out Saturday and help us work at the new Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's Community Garden at Alliance Medical Ministry.   

VOLUNTEER TIME & EVENTS:

• New Community Garden Work Day at Alliance Medical Ministry, Saturday 9am-12pm!
  • This Saturday we will be prepping beds and planting at the IFFS’s latest community gardening effort at Alliance Medical Ministry.  We will also be canvassing the neighborhood to recruit residents to come out and join us.  If you want to get dirty or help spread the word and get new people involved please come help us on Saturday.
  • Please email Sun (Farm@foodshuttle.org) if you are planning on coming.

• Community Garden Work times:
  • Neighbor to Neighbor      Thursdays        3:30-5:00pm
  • Mayview                                Fridays              3:30-5:00pm
  • In both gardens we will be working with community members and youth to prep new beds for spring planting!  Please email Amanda (NutritionCoord@foodshuttle.org) if you are planning on coming.
    • The Mayview garden site is located down the grassy hill behind the duplex at 2136 Mayview Rd (backing up to the Jaycee field).
    • Neighbor to Neighbor is at 1200 S Blount Street; 1 story brick building on right with long chain link fence.  Please park on E Bragg street (on right before you get to N2N).

PAR (Plant a Row) Kickoff – sign up to become a member or drop off site!

• • The IFFS PAR program encourages people to grow extra and/or donate excess produce to people in need through IFFS.  We will have weekly PAR produce drop-off sites at locations around our 7 county service area, including at Logan’s on Saturday mornings.
  • If you are interested in becoming a member (donating produce from your own harvest) or know of a farmers market or store that might be interested in becoming a PAR drop-off site please contact Katherine@FoodShuttle.org.

• Wanted: Garden Leaders
  • We are looking to grow our garden team and think you might be the perfect fit!  We are looking for volunteers who would be willing to help lead other volunteers and community members in the gardens this spring and summer at the same time every week.  We will send out more information soon but will likely need at least 1 person for  Wednesdays from 5-6:30pm and another person for Fridays from 5-6pm.  Please email email Amanda (NutritionCoord@foodshuttle.org) if you are interested. 

LOCAVORE LUNCH - This week’s topic: Planning for the future of the Locavore Lunch. 

Every Wednesday at noon we are holding local agricultural discussion groups at Farmhouse Pizza, 3011 Hillsborough St. in Raleigh. We will be serving a pizza made using some (hopefully soon to be all) local ingredients from NCSU's Farmers' Market. Please RSVP to Steve (steven.p.horton@gmail.com) so he knows many pizzas to have made.  If you can contribute, he is asking for a $5 donation... if you can't afford the cost we’ll gladly cover you in return for good conversation!   A portion of the proceeds will go to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.  This week we will meet to discuss ideas and thoughts for this year’s locavore lunches including volunteer coordinators and guest speakers.

FARMS & GARDEN BLOG

Keep up with what’s going on with our Farms & Gardens and PAR programs through the IFFS blog farmsandgardens.wordpress.com.  Use the blog to check out weekly ripe recipes, find yourself in photos of weekly crew calls, hear from other volunteers, and stay up to date with activities at IFFS.  Let us know if you’re interested in contributing to the blog!

GARDEN SUPPLIES:

We are still in need of hand-tool donations.  We gladly accept new and/or lightly used equipment. Thanks to all who have responded.

New Volunteer?

If you have not filled out a volunteer form or have a friend who is interested in helping out please email Janet at RGSJRS@aol.com.

Hope to see you all this week and weekend!

Katherine, Sun, Amanda, & Steve

New community garden means new opportunity for community building

Hi, I'm Julia. I am a communication intern with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and have written a few blog posts on the Behind the Scenes blog about my first-hand experiences with the Food Shuttle! One of those experiences recently involved the Farm and Gardens crew. The work we did is more behind the scenes-type work, that you might not know about, and may give you a glimpse into what it takes in preparing for a new community garden opening. I spent my afternoon with them by helping canvass the surrounding neighborhoods for the new garden site out at Alliance Medical Ministry in Raleigh. We went to speak with residents in the surrounding neighborhoods to ask about their interest in the gardens and inviting them to a community forum that the Food Shuttle was holding on at Alliance Medical.

At the homes I went to while we were canvassing, everyone seemed really interested in the garden and what it could bring to their community! A lot of the people who I talked to were excited to have a garden in their community and were looking forward to seeing it bring the community together in a healthy way.

According to Sun Butler: The community garden at Alliance Medical Ministries holds great promise and will be a focal point for increasing awareness about the importance of good nutrition and fresh local produce in our diets. If you would like to volunteer, the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Alliance Community Garden will be a rewarding and exciting experience!

Canvassing itself was a unique experience, because it’s not very common anymore. I enjoyed being able to use my outgoing, friendly personality and interpersonal communication skills (I’m glad my major at NC State is being put to good use!) to greet these people and tell them about the Food Shuttle and our new garden. I also enjoyed spending a warm sunny afternoon with Amanda and getting to know her better! If you haven't met her yet, I highly recommend coming out to one of the Gardens on a Friday or Saturday and volunteering at a crew call and meeting her there!

The Alliance Medical Community Garden is now our 3rd community garden! We are really excited to get things going out there so that you have more opportunities to work at crew calls! Keep an eye out for updates on the Alliance Medical Community Garden!

Guest post from Julia about our new community garden

It’s Julia again, blogging about my first-hand experiences! Something that is great about being a communication intern is that I get to write about all of the programs at Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. Sometimes that means I get to go out and be involved in them too! Recently I spent my afternoon with the Farms and Community Gardens team by helping them canvass the surrounding neighborhoods for the new garden site out at Alliance Medical Ministry in Raleigh. We went to speak with residents in the surrounding neighborhoods to ask about their interest in the gardens and inviting them to a community forum that the Food Shuttle was holding on at Alliance Medical. At the homes I went to while we were canvassing, everyone seemed really interested in the garden and what it could bring to their community! A lot of the people that I talked to were excited to have a garden in their community and were looking forward to seeing it bring the community together in a healthy way.

According to the Food Shuttle's Farmer, Sun Butler: The community garden at Alliance Medical Ministries holds great promise and will be a focal point for increasing awareness about the importance of good nutrition and fresh local produce in our diets. If you would like to volunteer, the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's Alliance Community Garden will be a rewarding and exciting experience!

Canvassing in general was a unique experience, because it’s not very common anymore. I enjoyed being able to use my outgoing, friendly personality and interpersonal communication skills (I’m glad my major at NC State is being put to good use! )  to greet these people and tell them about the Food Shuttle and our new garden. I also enjoyed spending a warm sunny afternoon with Amanda, the Farm and Gardens Nutrition Coordinator, and getting to know her better! If you want to get to know her better too, I highly recommend coming out to one of the Gardens on a Friday or Saturday and volunteering at a crew call!

The Alliance Medical Community Garden is now our 3^rd community garden! To learn more about the Farm and Gardens, visit the website or our Farms and Gardens Blog.