What a weekend!

So let's recap. Friday morning, we had our annual Turkey Takeout. We distributed 500 Thanksgiving meals to our partner agencies. Here's WRAL's story on the big day here. Our friend Andy Beal (@andybeal) took some great pictures that we've posted to our Flickr site. And here's our Behind-The-Scenes look at how it went down.

Friday night was the benefit concert/dance party put on by NC State Students at the Sky lounge on Hillsborough Street. That was a lot of fun. We are still figuring up how much food and cash we collected. Who knew our very own Cece White could do such a mean Electric Slide? Even the Food Dude was there.

Saturday night was the Carolina Roller Girls Charity Bout. We'll have pictures and a handle on how much food was collected later this week.

This was a great way to kickoff the holiday season. We can't fight hunger across seven counties without support from the community. Great businesses like US Foods, engaged college students, the Carolina Rollergirls, our partner agencies and volunteers--THANKS!

UPDATED! A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering College Students*

UPDATE! There's been a slight change of plans for the benefit tonight. The start time has been pushed back to 9 and instead of local bands, you can come out for the Sky Lounge DJ. Canned food won't get you in, but IFFS will still get proceeds from the cover charge. Thanks agains to Eric and his class for making this happen. Last summer at the Mix 101.5 BackPack Buddies Food drive, I met Eric Fotheringham. Eric teaches Political Science at NC State and was interested including a service learning component in one of his courses.

We exchanged emails about it and came up with options his students could choose to work on over the semester. I went to speak to the class, to tell them more about what the Food Shuttle does. They were very engaged and asked some great questions.

In the end, they decided to focus on two things. One was developing sort of a manual for us on how to get in touch with the elected officials for the counties we serve. This is huge for us. About 97% of all the money we raise goes back into our programs, so we've never had dedicated staff to stay on top of that kind of information.

The other project they wanted to take on was organizing a food drive for BackPack Buddies.That was exciting to hear, because we know how important it is to make sure children have nutritous meals over the weekend. And we were excited to see the energy and creativity a group of college students would bring to the process.

Energy and Creativity? They haven't disappointed. As they thought about how to maximize how much food they could collect, the decided to go a step beyond a food drive. Working on their own, they lined up a venue, some local bands and have organized a concert to raise food and money for us. Check out the flyer above for details.

Thanks to Eric and PS201 for all their work to makes this happen. This is a great example of how anyone can join in the fight against hunger. Start with what you are and where you are. Engage your community. Amazing things can happen.

Come out Friday night to the Sky Lounge for a night of great music and to support the fight against hunger. What's better than that?

*Apologies to Dave Eggers for borrowing the title of his best-selling memoir for this post, but it seemed to fit.

Mayview OFL class update with Lindsay

It is hard to belive that the Mayview Power of Eating Right class only has 1 more week left! NC State student, Lindsay Brantley has been Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's guest blogger providing a behind the scenes look at the class over the previous weeks. Her report from Week 4 can be found here.

Week 5 consisted of learning about the last group on the Food Pyramid, the dairy group. We focused on getting 3 servings each day of milk products. We also emphasized the importance of choosing low-fat options from the dairy since they taste the same and are so much better for your body.

The girls prepared whole-wheat Mac and Cheese with low-fat cheese and milk. They absolutely loved it! We also talked about choosing healthy snacks and beverage options during the day to help get in the daily recommendations of calcium and vitamin D. The girls learned how much sugar sodas and sweetened drinks actually have compared to a glass of low-fat milk, and how few nutrients the sodas contain. Teaching the girls is so rewarding and so much fun!

This week's Crew Call

Crew-Call

 Thanks to so many of you that came out last Saturday. Everyone helped get a lot done and have even more to do this week.  We have lots of fall greens to pick so that we can get them out to agencies and community members. Bring a friend, a neighbor, or make it a family affair and enjoy the beautiful fall weather!

VOLUNTEER TIME: 

• Garden Crew will meet this Saturday November 21^st from 9:00–12:00 PM at Food Shuttle Farm (directions).   Our fall garden is in and we need lots of help harvesting fall greens. 
• Our Nutrition Coordinator, Amanda, and volunteer, Melissa, will be leading the charge at the Community Gardens this year and would love your help in the garden and working with community members.  Please email Amanda at NutritionCoord@foodshuttle.org if you want to join and for directions.  Schedule Below:
  • Tuesdays     4:00-5:30pm  -  Neighbor to Neighbor
  • Wednesdays & Fridays    3:45-5:30pm  -  Mayview
• We need lots of help during the week too!  Farm Manager Sun Butler can meet you on the Farm any day during the week from 8:30-12 PM and  3-6PM. Please call Sun ahead to let him know when you are coming or give him a heads up on your way out there (919.559.2391).  Sun’s number is also posted on the bulletin board at Food Shuttle Farm if you get there and cannot find him.  

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!  

LOCAVORE LUNCH – Every Wednesday!

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.

At this weeks discussion (11/18/09) Steve will be talking about the farmers' markets in the area, specifically focusing on NCSU's student run model. This week is the last week of NCSU's campus market this semester, but the success of the project throughout the year has been very promising. Hope to see you at lunch!

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. 

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.   Check out the attachment, spread the word, and/or get in touch with Katherine if you are interested in finding out more. 

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.  

See you on Saturday at IFFS Farm!

Ripe Recipe: Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Cake

Our resident nutrition guru, Katherine,  has perfected her Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Cake just in time for the last days of fall! Nothing beats the smell of apples and cinnamon cooking in the oven after a cool day! Try this Ripe Recipe for dessert tonight and let us know what you think.

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 ounces block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened (about 3/4 cup)
• 2 large eggs
• Dash of orange or lemon juice
• 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 1/2 cups chopped peeled Rome apple (about 2-3 large)
• Cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Beat 1 1/4 cups sugar, margarine, vanilla, and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 4 minutes).
3. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add juice.
5. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
6. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating at low-speed until blended.
7. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon.
8. Combine 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture and apple in a bowl, and stir apple mixture into batter.
9. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.
10. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan.
11. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.

Note: You can also make this cake in a 9-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch springform pan; just reduce the cooking time by 5 minutes.

Sobering Facts about Hunger

Yesterday, the USDA released a report on the problem of hunger in the US. The numbers are truly heartbreaking. 22.5 % of all children live in households where food is sometimes scarce. 49 million Americans of all ages sometimes ran short of food in 2008. An excellent write-up and link to the report can be found at the Washington Post here. This report coincides with the United Nations Summit addressing world food security. From that gathering, we get this shocking statistic: across the world, 17,000 chidlren die each day due to hunger.  That equals out to 6 million children. Read more about the UN Summit here.

We talked with our Co-Founder and Executive Director Jill Staton Bullard about these new numbers.

As Jill said, WE NEED MORE PEOPLE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER.Your  local pantry or soup kitchen,  faith community, your local food bank, there are lots of options. If you want to learn more about how the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle works to fight hunger or you want to support what we do, please contact us. But this problem is bigger than one organization. Whereever you can, please make fighting hunger a priority.

How are you going to respond to the problem of hunger? Please share your plans in the comments.

Carolina Rollergirls!

This Saturday night at Dorton Arena  staring at 5 pm, the Carolina Rollergirlsare having a double-header charity bout to benefit the Food Shuttle! If you've never been to a Roller Girls bout, believe us, you'll love it. It's non-stop action. They are giving a portions of the proceeds to us, as well as running a silent aution and giving away a Roller Girls poster for anyone bringing in 2 cans of non-perishable food. We can't continue to operate our innovative solutions to hunger without support from the community and the Carolina Rollergirls!

We know you love the type of behind the scenes access you get here at the behind the scenes blog, so we sent The Food Dude out to the Roller Girls practice last week. He got a chance to talk with Shirley Temper and filed this report.

So we'll see you Saturday night!

Hunger Fighters in Durham

We talk about volunteersa lot here at Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, and for a good reason! Running on 80% volunteer support, we simply could not operate without our volunteers! At our Durham Service Center, people like Suzanne Freeman and Gerda Medley load BackPacks in the back of a car and deliver the bags to local schools in Durham on Friday. Thanks to Suzanne and Gerda for being vital hunger fighters and making sure that children in Durham have meals to eat on the weekends!

Join our community of hunger fighters in Durham by e-mailing Jerome Diggs, Durham Coordinator: DurhamCoord@foodshuttle.org