Mayor McGinn Visits CDSA for Farm to Table Delivery!

Students Eating up Lessons on Healthy Food

Nicole Brodeur – Seattle Times

We all know how to eat well, but it’s easier said than done in the United States, where every day, new research tells us how our bodies are groaning under the weight of our harried lives.

In the war on childhood obesity, Susie Murphy is a four-star general.

As principal at Beacon Hill International School, Murphy has banned cupcakes. Banned.

Instead, her kids celebrate birthdays by feasting on fruit, vegetables and fresh juices.

And when it’s time to fundraise, you won’t see Murphy’s kids peddling candy bars or cookie dough, but pledges for a schoolwide walkathon.

It sounds like a buzz kill (Kids without cake? What would Little Debbie say?). But Murphy is seeing signs of improvement everywhere: slimmer staff members, healthier kids and parents who are willing to drop the chip bag and chop produce.

“It’s been slow in coming,” Murphy said, “but it’s been a revolution at this school.”

So it made sense that when Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn wanted to show off how the city had spent $1.8 million in federal grants aimed at improving access to healthful food, he started at Murphy’s school.

Beacon Hill International is piloting a program called Farm to Table, which connects local farmers with school nutrition providers and child-care centers. The schools use the produce to create meals, build curriculum and invite parents to potluck meals — and then hope the lessons go home with everyone.

It’s tough work to persuade low-income parents to spend more to eat better, said Caryn Swan Jamero, head of the Community Day School Association, which is helping bring Farm to Table to other child-care centers.

“But if they have seen some recipes that work and the kids like it,” she said, “I think we can build inroads.”

On Thursday, a gaggle of kids sat around a table covered with boxes from Full Circle Farm, while about 25 adults watched them lift the lids and pull out huge bags of deep-red radishes and greens.

“This is like Christmas,” said Full Circle CEO Andrew Stout.

Seemed so; within minutes, the kids were crunching away.

We all know how to eat well, but it’s easier said than done in the United States, where every day, new research tells us how our bodies are groaning under the weight of our harried lives.

The federal grant money and the four programs it has funded obviously help, but it is people like Murphy who are making change.

Doesn’t hurt that McGinn is the picture of healthful eating. He has lost 50 pounds since last summer through “clean living,” he told me, along with low-carbs, lots of vegetables and exercise.

After singing the praises of kale and sweet potatoes, and telling the kids not to steal doughnuts (you had to be there), McSlim moved on to the Farmer’s Market and Grocery on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, where owner Nikodemus Teklu is fighting his own battle to sell better food without risking profits.

Teklu is part of the Healthy Foods Here program, which was funded by the same grant as Farm to Table. It helps business owners market and sell more produce, purchase equipment, work with suppliers and get certified to accept WIC and EBT benefits.

Teklu told McGinn how he ate junk food for a week straight and couldn’t sleep.

“It’s not benefiting nobody, the junk food,” he told McGinn, who nodded along, then spent $5.98 on beans, garlic and a cup of coffee before heading out.

“Nice guy, 100 percent,” Teklu said, straightening a basket of oranges outside the store.

A half-block down the road, I saw what Teklu was up against: McDonald’s, where 20 Chicken McNuggets were just $4.99

 

Childcare and Senior Programs in King County Get Taste of Local Produce

By Charla Bear

Over the past few years, a lot of people have pushed to get fresh, organic produce into meals at public schools. Far less attention has been focused on kids in childcare programs. That effort is finally underway.

Preschool students at Beacon Hill Community Day School Association (CDSA) in Seattle already eat fruits and vegetables. The program is required to serve them. The kids are pretty particular about which ones they like, though.

“I don’t like carrots that much and I don’t like tomatoes that much,” says Clara Hanson. “I like mangoes and broccoli.” Adults think kids would enjoy more produce if they could taste it when its fresh. Most of what they eat at preschool is canned or frozen.

Catherine Willis Cleveland, director of development at CDSA, says the organization’s budget is tight.

“We serve 70 percent low-income families and all but one of our schools is a Title 1 school in the most underserved communities in Seattle,” she says. “We have to make choices about where we can allocate our funding resources, especially with all the cutbacks that we’re experiencing.”

A solution could come out of a pilot effort from Public Health – Seattle and King County. It received a $25.5 million dollar federal stimulus grant to promote healthy lifestyles. The agency decided part of it should go toward getting local, organic farms to deliver produce to childcare and elderly programs.

Beacon Hill CDSA is one of 16 sites in the pilot. Its first delivery came from Full Circle Farms. The kids run up and thrust their hands into the brown, cardboard boxes full of potatoes, mixed baby greens, radishes, and carrots. It’s as if the boxes were stuffed with toys.

Despite the excitement, fresh fruits and vegetables do present some challenges. Some kids, like Grace Yee, didn’t care for the produce. She says the carrots are “icky” because they have roots.

“I dont ever eat that before,” she says. “I never eat those roots before.”

It could also mean an adjustment for staff members. They have to learn how to use organic produce before it goes bad. They also have to find a way to keep paying for the deliveries once the money from publich health dries up. The farms do give them a small discount, but each program only received $200 to get started.

Listen to this KPLU report!