Kid Power DC
Author: Max Skolnik, Executive Director & Founder, Kid Power, Inc.

This month, Kid Power students all over the Washington, D.C., area expanded their garden activities with help from a ConAgra Foods Foundation grant. As part of the VeggieTime Project, they built six new garden beds at Tubman Elementary School, two garden beds at Amidon Elementary School and one large garden bed at the Prospect Learning Center.

The youth planted tomatoes, beans, peas, peppers, eggplant and many other delicious vegetables. Once harvested, the students will share the produce with participating families and sell a portion at local farmers markets. All profits will then be directed towards youth-led service projects in Washington, D.C., focusing on healthy eating.

Editor’s Note: Kid Power is one of the recipients of a 2011 Community Impact Grant awarded by the ConAgra Foods Foundation. 

The ConAgra Foods Foundation will be awarding a limited number of Community Impact Grants to qualified nonprofit organizations committed to fighting child hunger. The initial application period will be open Jan. 3 to Jan. 14, 2011.

Please carefully review our grant criteria available on our website to determine if you qualify.

(Source: conagrafoodsfoundation.org)

October 16 was the grand opening of a new farmers market in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8. This farmers market is important to the Ward 8 community where the rates of poverty, hunger and obesity are some of the highest in the nation. The goal of the farmers market is to provide residents with access to fresh foods as well as information about the importance of good nutrition, physical activity and more.

The Ward 8 farmers market was opened by SHIRE, a nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of health and wellness for all people, thanks to a Community Impact Grant provided by the ConAgra Foods Foundation. We count ourselves lucky to have been there for the opening and to have met the people who are making their community a better place.

Harvesting Good Health
Author: Marybeth Howard with Bowdoin Street Health Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

In April 2010, a group of urban youth were selected as Healthy Champions by Bowdoin Street Health Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and asked to help increase neighborhood access to fresh produce by tending to their own plot of land in a nearby garden. The Healthy Champions program engages youth to become ambassadors of health within their families, schools, and community.

In addition to learning about the role they can play in creating positive change, “the garden teaches them about the vast benefits of incorporating healthy and affordable foods into their daily lives,” says Bowdoin Street Health Center Executive Director Adela Margules. “At the same time, they will help educate their peers in how these foods will serve to reduce prevalent health issues such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes and asthma in their neighborhood.” 

A month later, with support from the ConAgra Foods Foundation and others, the Healthy Champions launched their first Community Gardening Day. Festivities included mapping out garden plots, starting vegetable seeds in cups, and the first annual garden “Dig Day.” These youth leaders have begun to master gardening techniques such as finding appropriate soil composition and ideal seedling placement, the detriments of too much sunshine, and how to thin out plants. Now after months of weeding, watering, and waiting, the Healthy Champions are in the peak of harvest season, reaping basketfuls of cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, basil, and lettuce.

The Healthy Champions are also teaching others about urban gardening, and have launched a mini-marketing campaign to promote fresh produce at the Bowdoin Geneva Farmers Market. (Editor’s Note: Be sure to watch the video above for more information about the Farmers Market.)

What we did this summer: Field trips to local farms
Author: Diane Howard, Director, ConAgra Hearts and Hands Project with LAMP

“We picked eggs today and you can have mine!”  Jason proudly announced to women in the kitchen of the homeless shelter when eggs were needed for the evening meal.

Jason is one of the youth ages 10-18 participating in the ConAgra Heart and Hands Project with Lowndes Association of Ministries to People, Inc. (LAMP) of Valdosta, Ga. During June and July these youth traveled to local farms and orchards throughout six counties in South Georgia, not merely to visit, but actually to pick fruit and vegetables as well as eggs.

The Project funded by ConAgra Foods Foundation is a three-phase, community-wide health and nutrition program for youth of Valdosta area which provides them with the tools and knowledge to develop and sustain healthy bodies and minds.

A typical summer field trip day began at 7:30 AM when the volunteers drove vans throughout the city picking up kids. By 9 AM everyone met at LAMP’s homeless shelter to travel caravan-style to a farm where the grower/producer explained operations and the kids pick fruit or vegetables. Once they ate fresh blueberries, blackberries, peaches, strawberries, corn, peas, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans and peppers, they learned that local, fresh produce tastes better than produce shipped hundreds of miles. Following lunch, they washed, peeled, shelled or cut up their morning’s gathering to carry home to share with families and friends. Some of their harvest was “put up” or canned/frozen for later use.

Besides taking summer field trips, the kids planted their own organic urban garden at the homeless shelter and participated in three health and nutrition fairs along with about 2,000 kids. Thanks to ConAgra Foods Foundation’s Community Impact Grant, these kids enjoyed an educational, nutritious and fun-filled summer.  

Photo Credit: The above photo is used with the permission of LAMP. In the picture, Jason holds a hen during a field trip to a local Georgia farm.

Fighting child hunger at the farmers market
Author: Marita Herkert-Oakland, manager of the Child and Adult Care Food Program

Thanks to support from the ConAgra Foods Foundation’s Community Impact Grant, the Community Coordinated Child Care Child and Adult Care Food Program (4-C Food Program) held its inaugural Farm to Child Farmers Market to bring fresh, seasonal, local produce to Wisconsin’s children.

The 4-C Food Program, part of the National School Lunch Act, reimburses family child care providers for feeding healthy meals to children.  With all of the national attention on child nutrition and hunger, this event brought child care providers, community members, vendors, and producers together to help combat childhood hunger and promote child wellness in our own community.

The day of the Farmers Market brought us perfect weather, setting the stage for a wonderful event!  Nine local farmers and producers participated in the event along with a local garden center, master gardeners, and master preservers.  The children who attended got a chance to meet their local farmers, plant a bean to grow at home and try some new and different produce, like purple carrots and Sungold tomatoes!

This event also kicked off the 4-C Food Program’s Tots at the Table project.  With help from the ConAgra Foods Foundation, throughout the next year we will bring nutrition education, child wellness trainings, and outreach to more than 650 family child care providers across 20 Wisconsin counties, reaching more than 5,000 children.

Photo Credit: The above photo is used with permission of the 4-C Food Program.

Growing sustainable hunger solutions in New Mexico
Author: Nancy Pope, Director of the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger and author of the 2010 New Mexico Plan to End Hunger

With the help of the ConAgra Foods Foundation through its amazing Community Impact Grant program, this summer the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger was able to expand its existing Intergenerational Summer Food Program to more children than ever before, feeding 7,600 children at 62 sites across New Mexico.

Traditionally, the components under the Intergenerational Summer Food Program include:

• Linking free USDA breakfast and lunch to each child;
• Providing, packing, and distributing weekend bags filled with food to children each Friday with the help of local volunteers;
• Utilizing senior volunteers to plant and tend gardens with the children; and,
• Educating children in the subjects of nutrition, outdoor activities, cooking, art and music.

During this year’s eight-week summer program, we were able to distribute 58,000 weekend food bags and plant 24 gardens across New Mexico. This was an increase of 9,000 weekend bags and nine gardens over last year thanks to the generosity of the ConAgra Foods Foundation.

In a state where one in every four children struggles with hunger, especially during the summer months, the support from ConAgra Foods Foundation through this community grant has made a huge impact for our children and their families!

Photo Credit: The above photo is used with permission of the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger. In the picutre, children water a box garden of vegetables and marigolds (used to keep the bugs away!). The children learned box gardens have a built-in irrigation system and provide cover so they are ideal for the parts of New Mexico with higher altitude and poor soil.