Month: October 2011

Linda Vista Food Day – San Diego

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“I say Linda, you say Vista! … I say Food, you say Day” was the cheer that Kate McDevitt used to rally 150 excited 4th and 5th graders around our topic for the day: Real Food. Kate works for the Network for Healthy California and she was instrumental in organizing a fantastic series of Food Day celebrations in San Diego.

I started the day by assisting with Linda Vista Elementary’s Breakfast in the Classroom program. After packing rolling coolers full of bananas and milk, I headed with a group of student “breakfast deputies” to their classroom for a quick glimpse into this school-wide feeding program. A quick meal of an egg & cheese flauta, a banana & milk and we were off to the auditorium for a School Food Tour presentation. The kiddos were a great audience and were extremely enthusiastic to ask questions and participate at every opportunity. We could have done Q&A for hours!

Next we were off to Montgomery Middle School where a smoothie bike demo was set up in the cafeteria. After a quick class presentation the students sampled smoothies, ate a quick salad and then headed out to the garden for some planting. Farmer Dave brought along some plants and the students set to work preparing beds, digging, and searching for grub worms.

A booth at the Linda Vista farmer’s market was the next agenda item for the day. We again had the smoothie bike set up so shoppers could pedal their way to a healthy, fresh snack. The folks from Network for Healthy California secured two bikes to give away – raffle tickets for which could only be procured through a conversation about healthy food and the School Food Tour. As two extremely happy attendees wheeled their shiny new bikes through the stalls of fruit and veggies we packed up our display and were off to the final event of the day.

The University of San Diego along with various other community partners had generously organized a Food Day Kickoff event with myself and Seth Nickinson from Jamie Oliver’s Food Foundation. Our presentation focused on inspiring action from the audience and I think we were quite successful in motivating individuals to get involved in creating healthy change. My portion of the talk can be found below:

It was a fabulous day filled with positive energy and lots of food-related events. Kudos and THANK YOU to Kate & the rest of the planning team for all of your hard work on the SFT San Diego. Keep the enthusiasm alive!

Garden wonders

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The vocab word of the day was Food Miles. Farmer Mike and I thought that this term cleverly meshed concepts from my bicycle trip and food systems issues into a great lesson for his 5th graders in Goleta. We had a fantastic time looking at maps, talking about the distance food travels from farm to fork and planting carrots. The classes also were lucky enough to spot a praying mantis and watch a Monarch butterfly emerge from its cocoon. What a marvelous day in the garden!

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Carpinteria High School – Good (food) things happening!

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“Hey! Are you that girl? The girl who rode from Oregon?” asks a skinny kid as I wheel my bike and trailer onto Carp High’s campus. “Yup.” I answer.  “I bought a road bike because of you!” he hollers as he rounds the corner, rushing to reach his class before the tardy bell. And that was the start of my great day in Carpinteria.

Highlights from my visit include a farm that produces food for the kitchen, administrators who are passionate about health and real food, enthusiastic & creative food services staff and motivated students. One day on campus gave me great insight into the culture at this school and I was mightily impressed with both the changes that have occurred and their vision for the future.

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Construction is underway for a brand-new Culinary Arts classroom that will feature full commercial kitchen stations and a large accompanying classroom. The teacher hopes to move into her new digs by mid-winter. I can’t wait to learn what meals will emerge from this resource! Carp High’s school garden is huge and magnificent. Fruit trees, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, kale, flowers and so much more! Compost plays a key role in the farm’s system and compost tea is always brewing in the shed to help facilitate plant growth. Produce from the garden supplies the daily, beautiful salad bar and I enjoyed a gorgeous plate of greens and veggies for my mid day meal. The kitchen staff proudly showed me around the kitchen and their enthusiasm for the food that they prepare is palpable. If only every school kitchen contained this much passion! Another highlight of my visit was a conversation with a student who recently started a bike club on campus. He was curious to learn about fundraisers and potential events they could host.

This combination of bike love and real food made Carp High a great stop on the SFT. Big thanks to all the students and staff!