The Food Project: Youth. Food. Community.

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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The following blog was written by TFP Intern Keron Cruz. Keron, along with fellow intern Keely Curliss, represented The Food Project at the RIC (Rooted in Community) conference in late July 2011.

Two weeks ago, my coworker, Keely Curliss, and I had the opportunity to participate at the RIC (Rooted in Community) conference in Philadelphia, PA. The purpose of RIC is to bring together organizations all over the country who work in trying to make a difference in the food system and to learn from one another and promote the movement of food justice.

Despite working at The Food Project for about three-and-a-half years, I had never been involved in a conference where I had the chance to see organizations similar to The Food Project trying to create change. I had no idea what to expect from RIC and by the time the conference came to an end, I learned that there are hundreds on youth like myself who are working hard for a better tomorrow.

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[The first part of this blog was written by Sylvia, a TFP summer intern. In the second part, Sylvia is the featured gardener in this month’s installment of "A Week in My Garden."]

TFP Intern Sylvia at work on her raised-bed garden.My name is Sylvia and I am one of the twelve Boston interns at The Food Project. Our internship is divided into three groups in which we rotate: Agriculture (AG), Teaching through Agriculture (TAG), and Build-a-Garden (BaG).

During our time in AG we get the opportunity to teach community members about the food system through our Food Choices Workshop. As part of TAG, we have the opportunity to educate and inform children from the ages of 5 to 18 about healthy food choices at our Urban Learning Farm (ULF).

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Mayor Menino and TFP youth with the trophy that ended the curse!At our first 2011 Community Lunch in Boston, everyone got a special surprise: Red Sox Executive Chef Nookie Postal, who cooked the delicious meal, brought along the 2004 World Series trophy!

The event was held Monday, July 18, on The Food Project’s urban farm in Dorchester. Every summer, TFP hosts Community Lunches in all the communities where we work. All lunches feature delicious meals prepared by local chefs using freshly picked Food Project vegetables. In addition to their time, chefs generously donate other food items. Chef Postal went above and beyond in bringing along the trophy that ended the curse!

Chef Postal is thanked with TFP gear.Chef Postal's delicious meal was served to top city officials, including Mayor Menino, Superintendent of Schools Carol Johnson, and Public Health Commission Director Barbara Ferrer.

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Application
Deadline:

April 10, 2011

TFP Launches Program to Address Child Nutrition and Obesity

The Food Project is excited to announce a groundbreaking, collaborative project that will improve education about and access to healthy food for schoolchildren, parents, and other members of school communities. A partnership with Cambridge, MA-based CitySprouts, this program will also address childhood obesity and diet-related health problems.

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As we get ready for another growing season, we’d like to thank and bid a fond farewell to departed staff and welcome new members of The Food Project team.


Miriam and son Zalen on the farm.This past December, former Director of Agriculture and long time Lincoln farmer Miriam Stason left us after eight years helping us grow farm-fresh food. In life off the farm, Miriam will be focused on raising her young family, which will grow to four when she gives birth to her second child in late March. Taking up the reins as our new agriculture director is Tim Laird, who will continue to manage the Baker Bridge farm in Lincoln. Pedro Ghirotti will be joining Tim as our new field manager. We're excited to have Pedro working on a soil fertility plan that should help make our fields more productive in the coming season and for years to come.

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Anim Steel, Real Food Challenge cofounder and Food Project national programs director addresses over 500 NE Food & Justice Summit attendees.From where I stand, the weekend was a huge success. It was what we hoped for and more. The event showed that there is a movement ready to burst out there: over 500 youth showed up at Northeastern University. If it hadn’t been for a snowstorm, we would probably have had over 650. The registrations were pouring in at the end.

And this wasn’t just the “choir.” There were many young people there who were pretty new to the issue of food.

The diversity of the crowd was striking in other ways. The Summit was attended by young people from some of the most and least privileged places in this country, from inner cities to Ivy Leagues and in-between. I hope—I think—we created an environment with the ethos of The Food Project: looking injustice in the face while also creating common ground—a deeply respectful space. 

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(left to right) Ken Kaplan of MIT, Food Project Intern Alvin Andino, and Karen Spiller of Boston Collaborative for Food and Fitness take part in a Q & A session at the Museum of Science's Let's Talk about Food forum.On Friday, January 21, The Food Project made a big splash at the first session of the Museum of Science's "Let's Talk about Food" forum series. The many attendees who came despite the evening's cold weather saw the best of The Food Project, represented by Intern Alvin Andino. With passion and poise, he described the organization he's worked with the past two and half years, focusing on the impact TFP youth programs have made on him and other youth he's known.

"It's important to educate people when they're young about good food and healthy eating habits," Alvin told the audience. "These habits can be set for a lifetime so it's important to reach youth with this message."

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Alvin and D.I.R.T. Crew member Peter work to collect surveys at TFP's farmers' market in Roxbury.We are pleased to announce that Food Project Intern Alvin Andino has been awarded a Posse Scholarship. Run by the Posse Foundation, this innovative and highly selective program selects 60 young people from a large pool of applicants (in 2009, the pool numbered about 12,000) to receive full-tuition college scholarships.

Alvin and alumnus Stefan listen closely to Chef Didi Emmons while preparing to serve lunch at the National Governors Association summer conference.In his two and a half years working with The Food Project, Alvin has risen up the ranks, beginning as a crew worker, working as an assistant leader, and now serving as an intern. Currently, he also serves on TFP's board of trustees as a youth member.

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