The Food Project: Youth. Food. Community.

Maria Barros prepares bacalhau.Local gardener Maria Barros led friends, neighbors, and food enthusiasts in a cooking class about Cape Verdean cooking at The Food Project’s office this Saturday, January 28.

The ten participants included Cape Verdean Bostonians eager to learn about their traditional cuisine, as well as many local gardeners. As they chopped vegetables for the class, the gardeners discussed last year's cabbage crop and their excitement to plant collard greens for the spring.

Barros led participants in preparing two traditional Cape Verdean dishes called Cachupa and Bacalhau. Cachupa is a stew that contains collard greens, beans, and corn. Bacalhau is a stew containing salted cod. After preparing the two dishes, participants dined together to taste their creations.

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The following blog was guest-authored by Michael Palmer, who is partnering with TFP to spread the message about real food to new audiences.

Why TFP Has a Place in This Thriller Author’s Heart

Oath of OfficeGreetings from Swampscott, Mass. My name is Michael Palmer, I am a NY Times best-selling medical thriller author. A little over two years ago I watched Food, Inc. I know that many of you are familiar with the sobering realities exposed in this documentary: the business of corporate farming, the harmful treatment of animals, and the limited access many people have to healthy food.

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Since October, six volunteers from the Northeastern University Civic Engagement Program have been volunteering their time each week with The Food Project as part of the Food Literacy Team. Every week, they visit the Dorchester and Gertrude E. Townsend Head Start centers to teach the children where their food comes from and how plants grow, encouraging them to be excited about eating vegetables and fruits. What follows is the first of a series of blogs to be written by members of the Food Literacy Team, by Caitlyn Fischman. She reflects on her experience volunteering at the Gertrude E. Townsend Head Start:

It has been a really long time since I have felt passionate about a cause. I feel it is important to educate kids about safe and healthy food choices when they are young, so I chose to volunteer with The Food Project.

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Coming up soon at The Food Project, we’ll be presenting our new “Grow Well, Eat Well, Be Well” workshop series. In these sessions, we will explore gardening topics, share cultural recipes, connect you with other gardeners from your neighborhood, and more. These workshops are the beginnings of some exciting new opportunities coming up – you won’t want to miss them!

Grow Well: Bringing your gardening skills to a new level
Planning Your Garden
* Saturday, January 21, 10:00 – 11:30 A.M. OR
* Tuesday, January 24, 6:00 – 7:30 P.M.

This is the first workshop in our Grow Well series. Through this interactive workshop on designing your garden, you can get help with everything from planning its layout to ordering seeds. Other topics in this series will include: how to start seeds, planting tips, and how to dealing with pests and diseases.

Download a flyer for more information.

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This fall, The Food Project begins commemorating our first 20 years of creating “a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to build a sustainable food system.” In the coming year, through newsletters, events, and on our website, we’ll be featuring profiles of the people – alumni of youth programs and former staff and board members – who helped make The Food Project what it is today.

We’ll also continue looking at our present and future work . From our origins as a project of Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, Mass., we’ve grown into a national leader, unique in our innovative work to integrate youth development with sustainable farming. With 20 years of learning and growing under our belt, we stand poised to push the movement further to make real food – food that is nourishing to consumers, producers, and the environment – a reality for everyone, in Eastern Massachusetts and beyond.

DIRT Assistant Crew Leader Anna leads neighborhood children in drawing activity.The Food Project’s November Market took place in our Dudley Greenhouse in Roxbury on Tuesday, November 22. From 4 to 7 p.m., friends and neighbors came to the greenhouse to buy a variety of root vegetables and greens to enrich their Thanksgiving dinners and to store away for colder days.

Along with the last field vegetables of the year, TFP youth handed out samples of their own Butternut squash soup with croutons, prepared specially for the event. While adults shopped for vegetables, other TFP youth interns led children in special activities around the greenhouse, such as a vegetable scavenger hunt, a potato digging bonanza, herb taste testing, and a lively game of pin the tail feather on the turkey.

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This fall, The Food Project is partnering with Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) and Northeastern University to pilot a new program called the Food Literacy Team. On weekday mornings during the 2011-2012 school year, TFP volunteers will be visiting the classrooms of the Dorchester and Gertrude E. Townsend Head Start centers in Dorchester to engage preschool students in food literacy and nutrition lessons.

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The Food Project’s Board of Trustees has named longtime Managing Director Susan MacDougall as interim executive director. Her appointment took effect on October 20, 2011. As interim ED, Susan will lead the organization while TFP conducts its search for a new, permanent executive to succeed former Executive Director Margaret Williams, who left in September.

“We believe that having Susan in the position will help ensure continuity and stability for TFP during this important period of transition, and we are grateful to her for accepting the responsibility,” said Gene Benson, TFP’s board chair.

The announcement may sound familiar to longtime friends of TFP – Susan was asked to serve in the same capacity in 2007, the last time The Food Project underwent a leadership transition. In addition to her work for TFP, Susan brings a wealth of nonprofit management experience to her new role. Prior to joining TFP, Susan served as the managing director of SquashBusters, another Boston area youth development organization.

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In early October, we started working with nine groups that had submitted proposals when The Food Project solicited suggestions for how the community bay of our Dudley Greenhouse should be used. The greenhouse has been abuzz with activity lately and we're so proud to have partners in this new space.

The Food Project has worked with many of these groups in the past. The Vietnamese American Civic Association (VACA), the Nubian United Benevolent International Association (NUBIA) and the Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center (RIAC) worked with us through the Gardening through Refugee Organizations (GRO) group, which provides refugee and immigrant populations with urban gardening opportunities in Boston.

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Governor Patrick digs in with a broadfork to loosen up carrots at Baker Bridge farm. --Photo by Christopher FowlerMassachusetts Governor Deval Patrick visited The Food Project this morning to celebrate Food Day and join us in harvesting food for local hunger relief efforts. TFP Director of Agriculture Tim Laird led the governor, Food Project youth, and a team from the Boston Area Gleaners working in the field to collect carrots and kale that might otherwise have not been harvested this season.

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