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Year: 2016

Let’s Talk About Food Waste

Let’s talk about food waste. You know, the 1.3 billion tons of landfill garbage that accumulates each year worldwide, and a quarter of the waste that US schools produce. Food waste also represents the vast inefficiencies in food transport, grocery store marketing of “ugly” produce, accuracies in expiration and sell-by dates, the amount of time … Continued

I Believe in Fort Apache

Julee Dehose is a White Mountain Apache Tribal member and serves in her home community of Cibecue at the Dish’chii’bikoh Community School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. Julee grew up in Cibecue, a White Mountain Apache village of 900 tribal members, and attended the Dish’chii’bikoh Community School from kindergarten to 12th grade. Julee also … Continued

Garden to Nurse

Nurse Becca is a member of my Healthy School Planning Committee – a team of various stakeholders from the school community who strategize ways to make the school food environment a healthier one.  At East End Community School in Portland, Maine, immigrant and refugee families make up a large part of the student body. With so … Continued

Connectedness

It is no coincidence that when I applied to FoodCorps, my first choice was to serve at the Greater Newark Conservancy in Newark, New Jersey. My family’s history in Newark dates back to the 1900s, so I wanted to serve in the heart of the city to deepen my connections with my family and community. Today, … Continued

The FoodCorps Schlep

Schlep /SHlep/ verb 1. haul or carry (something heavy or awkward). Example: “She schlepped her garden supplies back and forth all day long.” noun 1. a tedious or difficult journey. 2. another term for schlepper When I was younger, my Jewish grandfather used to tease me by kvetching in Yiddish. We were very close — so … Continued

A Place for Everyone (Even a Squash) at the Table

This fall, Polson Middle School garden students organized the third annual Garden Harvest Feast to celebrate a successful growing season and to share their garden bounty with the community. The feast was an incredible undertaking for students and staff; it took an entire year’s worth of planning, planting, and tending to the garden in order … Continued

3 Generations of FoodCorps Allstars Grow Together at Backyard Growers

Backyard Growers, FoodCorps’ local site partner in Gloucester, MA, is a small but rapidly growing community organization that provides support and resources to school, community and backyard gardeners to establish vegetable gardens and become life-long gardeners. It has only three permanent staff and four AmeriCorps members, including one from FoodCorps. When that FoodCorps service member, … Continued

Top 6 Books to Turn Kids into Brave Eaters

For two years now we have been partnering with C&S Wholesale Grocers and First Book to provide our AmeriCorps service members with money to purchase books to stock their schools’ teaching libraries. Year after year, these six books come in with rave reviews from corps members and students alike!  We’ve included some of their testimonies below … Continued

How to deal when FLOTUS visits your school, in 5 phases

From the moment I began working at Philip’s Academy Charter School with ecospaces in Newark, NJ, I knew my service site was special. Rooftop garden, self-operated dining room and locally sourced menus, teaching kitchen: check, check, check! Hundreds of creative, enthusiastic and sassy students and their nurturing teachers: check and check! Philip’s had it all… well, … Continued