Here they are!

The Project School

The Project School’s fourth and fifth grade class and their teacher Sarah Jerasa completed a unit on global and local homelessness and hunger in December, incorporating the What’s On Your Plate? program. They  raised money to carry out projects related to these issues: funding a well for a village in Africa, donating an animal to a community through Heifer International Organization, and donating medical supplies and food to area shelters. Holding a screening of What’s On Your Plate? as a fundraiser worked well because of how closely it relates to their studies. The bundles were used to educate their school and members of their community to promote awareness of larger food-related issues, like food insecurity and local food.

It was a great success, and the response they received from the screening was incredible. The students were able to raise over $300 for their projects and engaged their community in a discussion that later continued into the classroom.

Take a look at some pictures from their screening!

Tribe One

Tribe One of Knoxville, Tennessee is an organization founded in order to encourage leadership skills and economic self-sufficiency in the youth of East Knoxville. Tribe One used What’s On Your Plate? as a part of their after-school holistic health programming in an effort to focus students on the importance of  keeping their body, mind, and spirit healthy.

Here are some pictures showing a few of the kids at Tribe One making Sadie’s Fruit Smoothie at an after-school program:

YUM!

As for Harlem Seeds, we’re expecting an update from them soon. They’re busy organizing events to bring healthy food to kids in Harlem. Watch out for a post about their event soon.

Thank you to all of our Bundle recipients and a very special thank you to everyone who helped us give these bundles away by purchasing one for their home.

Sarah Jerasa’s 4th and 5th grade class project on homelessness and hunger awareness at The Project School in Bloomington, Indiana, is a recipient of the What’s On Your Plate? Buy a Bundle – Give a Bundle Initiative.

Just a few weeks ago, we received a letter from Sarah Jerasa, one of the teachers in a combined 4th and 5th grade classroom at The Project School, a charter school in Bloomington, Indiana. She inquired about hosting a screening of What’s On Your Plate? this December on behalf of her students. She wrote: “Our students and school are truly passionate about working towards making change in our community and reaching out to other communities. I think our work would be really inspiring for others to see.” We are always looking for passionate kids like Sadie, Safiyah and Oliver, who are devoted to affecting positive social, political and environmental change. We did some research and found that The Project School’s mission and Ms. Jerasa’s class proposal were perfectly in line with our goals!

The Project School and What’s On Your Plate?  share a commitment to inspiring kids to engage with issues that directly impacts their lives. The Project School describes their school curriculum as, “project-based, problem-based, and place-based” and “directly connected to issues in their local and global communities.”

Ms. Jerasa’s current class project focuses on issues that What’s On Your Plate? is very much concerned with: addressing homelessness and hunger on a local and global scale. When Ms. Jerasa wrote to us, the class had already watched What’s On Your Plate? and performed the calorie experiment from the film. Her class was so excited by the experience, they decided they would like to host a public screening of What’s On Your Plate? to raise funds to support the following hunger-focused initiatives:

- Funding a well for a village in Africa to provide clean water
- Donating an animal for a community through the Heifer International Organization
- Donating medical supplies and food to local shelters in their community.

The Project School’s focus on community engagement, and the student-led campaign to address homelessness and hunger motivated us to include Ms. Jerasa’s class project in our Holiday Buy a Bundle – Give a Bundle Initiative. We have no doubt The Project School will make amazing use of the What’s On Your Plate? bundles they receive. We hope you will join us in supporting Ms. Jerasa’s 4th and 5th grade class project on homelessness and hunger awareness!

If you have the chance to make it to Harlem Seeds’ Harlem Family Dinner on December 16, chances are you might hear one of the following exclamations around the dinner table:

“This is delicious!”

“I never knew Kale could taste this good!”

And one of our favorites:

“What’s on your plate?”

Harlem Seeds, co-founded by sisters Michele Hatchette and Stephanie Mack, is a Harlem-based non-profit organization dedicated to empowering Harlem youth to fuel their bodies with clean, safe, and healthy foods.

We first met the women behind Harlem Seeds at a community screening of What’s On Your Plate? in Harlem on October 3, 2011. An instant connection was established. We were working towards the same end: educating and empowering youth to make happy, healthy and informed decisions about what they put in their bodies.

In November, we invited Harlem Seeds co-founder, Stephanie Mack, to speak at the What’s On Your Plate? Story Leads to Action event at the 92YTribeca. She was joined by two other panelists: Maritza Owens, founder of the Harvest Home Farmer’s Market and Deb Lewison-Grant co-founder of Food Fight.

Stephanie’s discussion with the audience was uplifting and exciting. She described different components of Harlem Seeds’ programming like the Cooking Club, a group of fifteen students that meet every Friday to cook and learn about making healthy food choices. She also described Harlem Seeds’ community outreach work, and the Thanksgiving Produce Bags they put together for GrowNYC to sell at La Marqueta just prior to Thanksgiving.

Stephanie talked about the philosophy behind Harlem Seeds. She mentioned the inspiring thought that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a right we all share, and if we commit to that idea, making healthy choices can evolve from a burden to a means of empowerment.

Stephanie will be integrating the holiday bundles into the Harlem Seeds Harlem Family Dinner on December 16. We hope you will support their work, and buy a bundle and donate a bundle (or three!) to Harlem Seeds!

Text reads: You can tell if a fruit or vegetable is organic or non-organic by the PLU code. If the number begins with a 9 and is 5 digits, then it's organic. If the number begins with an 8 then it is GM. A label that with 4 digits was conventionally grown.

This picture displays a section of my science project that I did with my friend Petra. We did a project on GMOs. GMOs are Genetically Modified Organisms, which means they were injected with a different animal’s or plant’s genes. All animals, humans, and plants have genes inside their cells. Their genes determine the animal, human or plant’s gender, their eye color (for animals and humans), their height, and so on. Genes are like a computer document that each human, plant, or animal has with information about itself.

What if I told you that when you eat tomatoes that are not organic, you are probably eating fish tomatoes? Eeew, right? Well that is exactly what could be in your tomatoes. The reason it could be a fish tomato is because someone took a tomato gene out of a tomato, and replaced it with a fish gene. Think of it as if genes were guts, and someone replaced your regular insides of a tomato with fish guts. When I first heard this, I was freaked out. I was even more freaked out when I heard that this GMO stuff is not labeled, and therefore, it can be in any food I eat! Then, I learned that there is one type of food that is GMO-free: organic food. Organic foods contain no chemicals, and no GMOs.

Recently, my friend and I found out that there is a way to tell if something is genetically modified, conventionally raised (grown with chemicals), or grown organically. The clue is the PLU codes. What are PLU codes? PLU codes are Price-Look-Up codes. When typed into a certain computer program, they give the price information for a product. Where do you find them? The price-look-up code is only on produce, which means apples, tomatoes, and other unpackaged fruits or vegetables. There are many GMOs that are produce, but most of them are packaged. If they are packaged, they do not need a price-look-up code. Have a look at the PLU codes, and buy organic!

By Morgan Carmen

Milk and Jails, what’s the connection? If jails don’t serve milk to their inmates, how do these two things go together? The organization Milk NOT Jails provides this link, and is in the process of changing rural New York.

Upstate New York used to be affluent in agriculture and animal produce in the late 1820′s, until the infamous car boom. After the transition from boats and railways turned to cars, farmland became abandoned for various reasons, like highways. This is where prisons come in. The government needed space to implement the prison system and the abandoned land of Upstate New York provided it at the time. Now, nearly 100 years later, the American government values the penitentiary system more than much needed agriculture systems, or at least it seems so. I mean, if during the 1990′s a prison was built in rural New York every fifteen days, what does that say about America’s priorities?

The Milk NOT Jails organization strives to change the fact that Upstate New York’s economic success rides on a penal system and they need your help to do so. Join the Milk NOT Jails Campaign by signing up here. Spread the word, email all your friends about them. Fill out their survey that asks about grocery dairy choices by clicking here. For more information on this much needed project please visit their website.

Their main goal is to test theories about farming cities. One of the toughest things about urban farming is irrigation, so the Seeing Green project measures storm water management at two farms in New York City in order to obtain concrete data. There are many benefits to urban roof farming that cities do not acknowledge, simply due to lack of research and concrete data. Tyler and Eric are trying to change this by creating an experiment that can be replicated in cities around America. Part of Tyler and Eric’s research is geared toward making it more feasible for landlords and building owners to host farming on their roofs. There are many rules and regulations regarding this, and Tyler and Eric are trying to convince cities to make it easier for rooftop farming to happen. Tyler and Eric’s goals not only help cities create farms on rooftops, but also help promote food security and economic opportunities are only beginning their

Tyler and Eric, the people behind this research prospect need to raise $12,000 by June 12^th, 2011, in order to pay for the equipment necessary to complete their research. If you are interested in contributing to this innovative cause, please….With a donation of $2,000 or more, Tyler and Eric will even visit your home town and host a workshop in your community to talk about their mission.

First, we used the recipe to see what ingredients we might need at the store. Then, we went to the fridge and found out that we only needed to go out to buy four things missing from our pantry and fridge. Afterward, it was off to the grocery store to pick up those things. The sun came out on a predominantly rainy day for our walk there and back, so we knew we were on the right track. From Kristy, we learned how to find a perfect mango, from Mary, how to choose and ripen an avocado and we all learned that beans are an incredibly inexpensive way to get nutrients (even in the relatively expensive neighborhood of Soho in New York.) Throughout our exercise, mushrooms were a point of contention- some of us disliked them, some of us were prejudiced against them, and some of us loved them. From assessing the fridge, to shopping at the grocery store, to over the stove, we heard strong differing opinions on the fungi. As an extremely biased eater, I’m happy to say that the noble baby portobella mushroom managed to convince at least two more hungry eaters that they aren’t “gross.”

Bria arrived to help chop and share her stories of her plans for her summer, and we set the table using a few of Tenzin’s tips from the WOYP? book: flowers on the table, cloth napkins for everyone, and mismatched dishes for all of our burrito ingredients. We all experimented with new styles of wrapping a tortilla around our piled food, tried at least one ingredient we didn’t think should be in a burrito, and generally enjoyed ourselves.

Bria, Reginald, Kristy, and Jermal

We wish all of our interns the best for their futures and hope to hear great news around the world about each very soon.

How could you turn down a chance to educate yourself about urban agriculture?  Help East New York Farms by participating in fun and exciting activities that will start your summer off right! Below is a list of skills and volunteer opportunities that East New York Farms displays on their volunteer page.

Skills:
- Seeking volunteers, to host 1 hour activity for small children (children ranging 5 – 10 years old).
- Must be enthusiastic, creative, friendly, patient and able to work well with kids
- Must be 18 or over
- Must be available to work outdoors from 11:30 – 1:00 on Saturdays

Volunteers Needed – Children’s Story Hour

Volunteer at our farmers’ market and coordinate Children’s Story Hour. We are looking for individuals who will commit to 3 Saturdays or more during our market season. You would receive community service hours.

Image courtesy of TheNakedLabel.com

Hello, my name is Reginald Greene and I’m an intern at Aubin Pictures. When I found out I would be working here, I didn’t know what to expect. I just believed that I would be working in a field that I want to continue in for the rest of my life, journalism. I began to see perspective in my eating habits and how I wasn’t eating the way I was supposed to. Before I watched What’s On Your Plate?, my eating habits were not healthy.

In the movie, I witnessed many parts that I thought were interesting. In particular, I found interest in the in-depth interviews by the main characters in the film, Sadie and Safiyah. I wondered, as they did, why food that was better for you cost more than fast food? When I finished the movie, I had a revelation about how my eating habits could lead me to become like Caleb’s dad in the movie. I was concerned that I could have a heart attack.

Now, I eat salad and fruits. I haven’t eaten a meal at McDonald’s in a week, and I feel like I haven’t missed anything about it. What I figured out was that the healthier food tastes better and costs less. Pineapples, strawberries, and cantaloupe  are a few of my new found cravings. I always liked fruit, but now after watching the movie, I’m beginning to realize that I’m becoming an adult, and I need to make adult decisions. I’m doing this now by changing the way I eat.