Because of you, more children will start the school day ready to learn, without the pang of hunger as a distraction. Our Back-to-School campaign reminds us that along with pencils and paper, children need a daily supply of food to take on new concepts, run on playgrounds, and socialize more successfully.
Our Community Health and Agriculture Education teams have collaborated to develop the new Food Shuttle Academy, an online learning platform with free, self-paced lessons on health, nutrition, agriculture, and more!
Our Spring Match challenge, made possible by generous funders, including SOLV Energy and the Mead Family Foundation, exceeded the $105,000 goal, raising an additional $70,000 to erase hunger!
Love, Tito’s has a heart for community gardens and increasing access to fresh, healthy foods. Their philanthropic Love, Tito’s Block to Block program, reconnects neighborhoods and creates community gardens and farms throughout the United States. Our hearts are in full bloom knowing that our Camden Street Garden will be the next beneficiary of Block to Block, allowing neighbors with mobility challenges to access our many activities more easily.
Last week's Driving Hunger from the Community event was a lovely intimate night at the Ingram Collection. Inter-Faith Food Shuttle wants to extend a sincere thank you to Bob and Jeanie Ingram, Rory Ingram, and Cam Ingram for such a splendid evening! Kim Brennan, Kim Brame McGimsey- Board Chair, Jeanie Ingram, Steve Monti, Tiffany Edwards
Stan Taylor, Jill Staton Bullard, Rory Ingram, David Reese, Will Hall
Dena and Charles Silver
Chris and Jessica Gotwalt
We are half-way done with our cooking lessons already! This week was our 3rd week teaching, and each week gets better for us and the teens. We reviewed the Food Pyramid, highlighting fruits and veggies this week. Fruits and veggies have many essential nutrients, including vitamins A and C and fiber. We learned that the compounds inside fruits and veggies can help make you beautiful on the inside and out! The teenagers were definitely interested in learning how vitamin A is good for your skin and eyes, and vitamin C is good for your bones and scrapes.
We prepared Asian Vegetable Stir Fry this week, which the teens loved. They even said it was amazing! We cooked with a variety of colors of vegetables, which meant we got a variety of vitamins from our stir fry. The teens learned how to make stir fry personally modified by adding your favorite vegetables, like onions and peppers or mushrooms and snow peas.
Fall greens are planted. It is time to mulch down those rows and plant cover crops! Come out and join us before your halloween festivities. VOLUNTEER TIME:
FARMS & GARDEN BLOG
Keep up with what’s going on with our Farms & Gardens and PAR programs through the IFFS blog. This is a great place 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!
WEEKLY LOCAL AG Discussion
Crop Circle - a weekly Student Local Ag. Discussion group mediated by Steve Horton and Sun Butler meets every Thursday from 4-6 PM at the Farm House Restaurant at 3011 Hillsborough St. in Raleigh at the corner of Friendly Dr. and Hillsborough St. Outside agitators are welcome. Contact Steve for details steven.p.horton@gmail.com
GARDEN SUPPLIES:
We are still in need of hand-tool donations as well as gardening gloves for some of our senior participants. We gladly accept new and/or lightly used equipment. Thanks to all who have responded.
GROW VEGGIES AT HOME?
Our new Plant a Row (PAR) program has kicked off… We are hoping anyone with home grown vegetables will consider planting extra or just giving any excess harvest to our community members in need.
New Volunteer?
E-mail Janet at RGSJRS@aol.com if you have not filled out a volunteer form, have a friend who is interested in helping out please, or want to be added to the Crew Call e-mail list!
See you on Saturday at IFFS Farm or out at one of the communtiy gardens!
Sometimes people ask us, "What's it like to work at the Food Shuttle?" Well, it's great. The Food Shuttle staff is a truly talented, dedicated and fun bunch.(See the whole cast of characters here. Get to know some of them better here.) Plus, we know the work we do makes an impact for good on many people and communities. What could be better? But still, sometimes we need a break. Not from innovative solutions to hunger, but just a break from the daily grind. A little pick me up. We got that and more last night at the RBC Center. The Carolina Hurricanes, in addition to being the 2006 Stanley Cup Champions, are also champions in the community. Their Kids 'N Community Foundation helps area non-profits like the Food Shuttle continue and expand their work. Read more about the foundation here.
We were thrilled when we learned they had selected IFFS to receive support to feed hungry children. And last night during intermission of the 'Canes-St. Louis Game, the Food Shuttle and other area non-profits were presented checks from the Kids 'N Community Foundation. Read more about it here. On top of that, the 'Canes had the Food Shuttle staff out to watch the game, on the house.
We all had a blast. Just the nice shake-up we needed. Cece took a few pictures on her iphone(!). Check them out below. Thanks again to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Kids 'N Communitity Foundation and a special thanks to Doug Warf, Director of Community Relations for the Carolina Hurricanes and Executive Director of the Kids 'N Community Foundation.
What better time than "cold and flu season" to learn about the vitamins and nutrients we receive from fruits and vegetables!!
This week in our Operation Frontline class we taught the kids about eating enough cups of fruits and vegetables to get their daily requirements and help fight off infection and sickness. The kids loved everything we cooked and did a great job helping to cook and clean up afterwards. They learned that we get important vitamins, such as vitamin C and vitamin A from various fruits and vegetables. It is also important to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables because their nutrient contents vary, so it is best to cover all your bases! Fruits and vegetables also contain fiber, which helps to regulate our digestive system and keep things running smoothly. The best picks for fruits and vegetables that have the most nutrients are those that are red, orange, dark green, and dark yellow. All of these are higher in vitamins and nutrients than other fruits and vegetables! Make a rainbow of color on your plate and feel the difference.
We made fruit smoothies out of vanilla yogurt, orange juice, fresh bananas and fresh strawberries to show the kids that you can get your daily servings of fruits in a fast and healthy way! Try a smoothie for breakfast today to start your day off GREAT!!
After getting lots of feedback from you, we recently consolidated the Plant A Row for the Hungry Blog with the Farms and Gardens Blog. For you plant-a-rowers who are joining us, we're glad you're here. And for our farm-and-gardeners, this is a big day on the blog. Today is first time we'll be featuring a Ripe Recipe in this space. Ripe Recipes were at hit at Plant A Row, and we hope you'll enjoy them as well. Click here for a rundown of previous Ripe Recipes. Today's dish comes comes Sally, our Director of Administration. Sally's recipes have been the talk of the web going back to the summer. Try her Chicken Polenta Stew for dinner tonight!
Heat the oil in dutch oven or large heavy saucepan. Add the onion, garlic, thyme, 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper and cook over moderately high heat, stirring often, until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the kale, cover and cook until wilted, about 8 minutes.
Add 6 cups of chicken stock to the casserole and bring to boil over high heat. Mix remaining 2 cups of stock with the cornmeal, and when the pot is boiling pour in the stock/cornmeal mix, whisking constantly. Lower the heat to moderate and cook stirring occasionally, until the polenta thickens, 20 to 25 minutes.
Stir in the chicken and simmer until cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
We did! Or I should say the dress designed by Tyger Alexis for the Food Shuttle won! That's right, out of the many spectacular designs on display, Tyger walked away the winner. Congratulations Tyger and thanks for the hard work you put in. It was a great night all around. You can read more about it from Lauren Van Hermert, who wrote up a great blog post (with pictures!) of the event. Check it out here.
And special thanks to ME3 for putting together such a fun, successful event!
By: Rachel P. Brian
We held our first OFL class in Orange County last week at McDougal Middle School for Blue Ribbon mentors and the students with whom they work. It was a fabulous class! We had 12 participants and made a delicious "Chinese Veggies and Rice" dish. We added a few herbs to the dish that made for such a great array of flavors -- lemongrass, purple basil, and ginger.Everyone was so enthusiastic about learning how to cook healthy dishes on a budget.
Thanks to Shane Ingram and Elizabeth Woodhouse, two OFL chef volunteers for the class! We are all looking forward to teaching our next class and watching how the mentors and their students bond over cooking and nutrition!
If you spend time with the Food Shuttle, you'll hear us talk about the Food Shuttle Family. It's not a cliche, some very special bonds form when you take part in the amazing process of feeding people. An incredible thing about the Food Shuttle is that everyone who gets involved brings someone else. Today two of our staff bought some special guests to help out in the fight against hunger.
From Lindsay Brantley: Jumpstart Your Day with Grains!
This week we focused on grains and breakfast. Breakfast is a great way to start getting in the healthy grains your body needs for energy. The teenagers were so excited to be in class this week, especially making breakfasts foods. We instructed how you can get many of your whole grains from common breakfast foods, while making little changes to your diet.
This week we made yummy yogurt parfaits and breakfast sandwiches. The yogurt parfaits were delicious, and there are so many ways to incorporate grains with granola, fruits with berries, and dairy with yogurt! We also made savory breakfast sandwiches with whole wheat English muffins, eggs, and turkey bacon. No one could even tell the difference between turkey bacon and regular bacon! Also, we had so much fun taking turns making our different favorite styles of eggs, and learning about each others'. Our class is held in the evening, so the kids were able to learn that breakfast for dinner can be a healthy spin on ordinary dinner options.
From: Meghan Donovan:
This week we had our second class at Parkway where we had a very informative returning member and a handful of newcomers. Our helpful returning member did an amazing job recalling the food guide pyramid which was covered last week. This helped to catch our new members up and along the way we answered a lot of questions. One big one was on how to get children to eat fruits and vegetables.
Suggestions shared by fellow class mates and instructors:
Following the nutrition lesson everyone went into the kitchen to help with making Barely Jambalaya. Everyone seemed to really like meal, even the kids when they joined us. Participants also wanted the salad recipe which consisted of baby spinach, tomatoes, feta cheese, walnuts, and light olive oil as the dressing.
