Jenifer

Lights Out!

July 16, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

In June, Chester and surrounding counties experienced a line of thunderstorms that produced strong winds, resulting in the disruption of electric service to more than 130,000 people. Some people were without electricity for several days. I know in my community power was not restored for 50 hours and we were not the last ones to have power restored. To save the contents of our refrigerator and freezer, both of which were full of food, my husband bought a generator. We lost very little food. Some of my neighbors, who did not have a generator lost several items in their refrigerator. While buying a generator or replacing food is an expense for which we had not planned, my family and my neighbors were be able to absorb the cost of the new purchase or the replacement milk, eggs, mayonnaise and other lost items.

For my family and my neighbors, this power outage was mostly just a nuisance. For others it was a major setback. While volunteering yesterday, I met a lady who had lost most of the contents of her refrigerator during the storm. This was her first time to the food pantry since the storm, as clients can only come once in a 30 day period, and she was desperate to get some food. My heart went out to her as I counted up the days and realized the storm had happened 3 weeks earlier. She said she cooked up as much of her food as she could, but for how many days had she been scrapping by with almost nothing? We were as generous with her as we could be, giving her a few extra items from our donated food and making sure she got plenty of fresh vegetables.

I had not stopped to consider how potentially devastating a prolonged power outage could be for some folks. How costly it would be to have to replace partially used condiments or precious eggs, milk or meat. Also concerned with the inability of some to replace food items lost in the power outage was 4 year old Dylan. I found out about Dylan from a post on The Chester County Food Bank’s Facebook page. They were giving him a huge shout out of thanks for his effort. He collected 474 pounds of food for the Food Bank after he learned that not everyone could afford to replace all the food they lost during the power outage. I imagine Dylan, like myself, will never just groan at the inconvenience the next time the power goes out. We will be counting the hours and thinking about the folks out there who are hoping the power comes back on before food they can’t replace is lost.

Follow up to a previous post

In an earlier post I wondered if the food pantries would see increased use during the summer, especially among families, because kids who received free or reduced lunch at school, did not have many options to get meals due to a lack of summer feeding programs in our community. Yesterday I got confirmation that the lack of summer feeding programs in our area does take a toll on struggling families. One of our clients said she was having a hard time feeding her kids over the summer. Although she did not ask for help or extra food, we were generous with her as well, focusing on items for the kids like a large jar of peanut butter, donated bread and snack items, and fresh vegetables.

I am always a little conflicted after volunteer days like yesterday. On one hand I feel bouyant because I know I definitely helped people in need. That is a satisfying feeling. On the other hand, I get frustrated and saddened that people, in this country of abundance, have to face these hardships. In the end, I have to remind myself that these are the days that keep me committed and drive me to keep working to find solutions, both large and small.

Sunny Side Up

July 2, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

I took a couple of weeks off. The news of the robbery at one of the food pantries in which I volunteer, coupled with the realization that most of the kids in my school district, who receive free or reduced lunch, will potentially go without some meals over the summer due to a lack of summer feeding locations in our area, caused me to become very discouraged. I felt overwhelmed by the size of the problem and my inability to make a noticeable difference. Rather than spread my pessimism, I decided to take a break from writing over the past couple of weeks. I am happy to say that the tide has turned on my negative attitude.

Even though I was not writing, I continued to volunteer. Last week I volunteered at the food pantry that had been robbed for the first time since the robbery. I was inspired by a couple of things. First, in spite of everything, the pantry was still operating as normal and had been since the robbery. Somehow they had managed to find a way to compensate for the equipment they lost and were still able to give out the items that needed refrigeration–milk, eggs, cheese and frozen meats. Additionally, the staff and volunteers had not let this crime dampen their spirits or commitment to those in need in their community. Our area has had a very hot, humid start to summer, and one of the items taken in the robbery was the air conditioner. Without air conditioning, in a building without windows, sitting in an unshaded parking lot, on a day the temperature was expected to climb into the 90s, the doors were thrown open to those in need and clients were welcomed with smiles and hugs. I was buoyed by their unshakable commitment to provide assistance to those in need in spite of the hardships their organization faced.

This past Tuesday I volunteered in the other food pantry and had different, but equally uplifting experience. Perhaps you have read or heard on the news recently about various states wanting to ban junk food from the allowable items that SNAP beneficiaries can purchase. The reasoning behind this proposed regulation is the belief that people receiving assistance choose to purchase less nutritious food over more nutritious options. I read a great article in Mother Jones magazine by Tom Philpott that sheds light on why SNAP beneficiaries often purchase less healthy items, and also makes a claim that their purchases are not very different from those receiving no assistance. I now have first hand experience showing, that given a choice, people receiving assistance will happily take the more nutritious option. The food pantry on Tuesday had received a huge shipment of produce from the county food bank in it’s weekly delivery. They had fresh cauliflower, broccoli, collard greens, lettuce, red and green cabbage and corn on the cob. Additionally there were frozen blueberries, diced carrots and pureed tomatoes. We had no trouble getting clients to take this produce. Many eagerly took some of everything. It felt like Christmas and I was Santa Claus! Incidentally, the previous week the other food pantry put out some beets and lettuce from their garden, and they too were being readily taken by clients.

The problem of hunger in America is much greater than one person or organization can hope to solve, and it is very easy to allow that reality to weigh one down and bring despair. I am grateful for the my experiences volunteering. They lift my spirits and inspire me to continue doing what I can to help. I have seen the difference that these food pantries and the people who run them make in the lives of the clients who use them.

A Heavy Heart

June 9, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

It is with a heavy heart that I sit down to write today. Some of the weight I feel is still lingering from last week’s post about the lack of availability of summer meal programs in my community for school children who qualify for free or reduced school lunch. Over the past week this topic has come up more than once. I discussed the issue with a couple of people who had read my blog, but it also came up as the topic of a post on a Facebook local mom’s group to which I belong. While those discussions did not change the circumstances here in my community, I am taking some encouragement from the fact that people are starting to realize the existence of the problem and discuss ways in which they can help.

The other reason my heart is heavy is because I found out that one of the food pantries in which I volunteer has recently been robbed. I was supposed to volunteer there this morning, but had a scheduling conflict. Consequently, I do not know what impact this theft has had on their operation. While it probably won’t shut down the pantry all together, it will limit what they are able to distribute. In addition to hampering the pantry’s ability to distribute certain items, the equipment taken will be costly to replace, further restricting the resources this organization has to provide assistance to this community.

I expected, when I began to volunteer in food pantries and research the topic of hunger in America, that I would experience moments of sadness or even a feeling of being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem. For the most part, I have found those instances to have been few in number. I am able to remain optimistic because of the gratitude I have felt from the people I am assisting and the generosity and commitment of the numerous people I have encountered fighting this fight against hunger in America. The reality of last week’s post and this robbery, however, have left me with a feeling of despair. I know it will pass, but at the moment I can’t help but wonder what difference I think I can make when these are the odds faced.

For now I think I will keep this post short to avoid spreading my pessimistic view. For those of you who are local, I will be happy to provide you with contact information if you wish to offer this pantry financial assistance. I will also be happy to collect any donations, monetary or otherwise, and them deliver to the pantry.

Summer

June 5, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

Summer break is almost here! I always view the approach of summer break with a mixture of excitement and relief, but also with a sense of apprehension. It is great not to have all the deadlines of school hanging over the household. To have the freedom to take in a movie, spur of the moment, on a Wednesday night or go on an adventure or just not have to worry about whose assignment is due when. The apprehension comes from past summer experiences. Knowing someone will say, usually within the first week, “I’m bored”, which is usually followed by sibling bickering. Or the dread of the daily battle over the amount of electronic use. One thing I have never had to worry about, though, is whether my kids were going to be hungry over summer break.

According to the Feeding America website, 22 million children receive free or reduced priced meals in schools. What do those kids do in the summer when the school doors close? The Feeding America website also reports that only 2.7 million children receive free or reduced priced meals through the USDA’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). That is a huge difference in the number of children receiving assistance during the school year and the number receiving assistance in the summer. Some children probably receive meal assistance through other summer feeding programs that are not operated through SFSP, but the number of American children that are likely to go hungry this summer is still staggering. Here in Pennsylvania 80% of the children who qualify for summer feeding programs are not receiving assistance, according to a report by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). In my own community, where approximately one third of children in our schools qualified for free or reduced meals, I can only find one program that offers meals for children. It is a Christian-based youth group facility, that offers an afterschool meal during the school year, which they continue during the summer months as well. I have to admit I was a little surprised by the lack of options available, locally, for children on summer break and I find it troublesome.

To be honest, until recently I had not given much thought to what the families of kids in the free and reduced breakfast and lunch program did during the summer to replace the meals provided by the schools during the school year. Now that I know how large the percentage of kids participating in this program is in my local school district and the lack of summer feeding programs in my area, this problem weighs heavily on my mind. Since my eyes are now open to this problem, I’m sure I will see these kids everywhere–in the library, on the playground, passing by on the sidewalk. I wonder if our food pantries see an uptick in the number of families coming in over the summer months, either new clients or previous clients who have not needed to come for a few months. The Chester County Food Bank is currently partnering with the United Way of Chester County in a Peanut Butter and Jelly Drive, so I can only assume they are preparing for this increased need.

While we are talking about kids and lunches, I want to mention the equally troublesome story of Della Curry, an elementary school cafeteria manager in the Denver Metro area, who was just fired. She was fired for giving a first grade student, who didn’t qualify for the free or reduced lunch program, lunch when she didn’t have the money to buy lunch. In an interview she admits this isn’t the first time she has done this and does not regret her actions. In the past few days some questions have arisen about the actual reason Ms. Curry was terminated, but regardless of the reason, this story brings to light the real plight of numerous school children across this country who do not qualify for the free or reduced lunch program, but do not have money for lunch. To be clear, I am not referring to the child who occasionally forgets lunch money. These are children who regularly do not have enough money to purchase lunch or bring one from home. Ms. Curry feels the law governing the free and reduced lunch program needs to be changed. She believes lunch should just be a part of public schooling and available free to all students and has vowed to work to bring about this change.

One school district that recently made this change a reality is Baltimore City Public Schools. All schools in this school district will now offer free breakfast and lunch to every student. Their ability to provide these meals to all students is the result of a federally funded program for school districts where at least 40% of the population is considered low income. This program removes the stigma associated with getting free lunch or breakfast, but more importantly, it will also ensure more children get fed, eliminating the problem Della Curry faced. Finally some good news out of Baltimore! Baltimore City Public School district isn’t the first district to make this change. The program is part of the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act of 2010 and has been made available in certain states since the 2011-2012 school year. This school year just ending (2014-2015) is the first year the program has been made available to all qualifying schools nationwide.

I don’t have any answers or solutions to offer for any of these problems. I just encourage you to be aware. These are kids and they are hungry through no fault of their own. If you are in a position to help, do so. Even if it is only to donate a jar of peanut butter and jelly to your local food bank or pantry.

A Plan of Action

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

I have not been able to volunteer the past two weeks due to family appointments. Even though I know clients will continue to get their food, I feel bad not being there and realize that I am contributing to the instability of emergency food as discussed in Janet Poppendieck’s “Seven Deadly Ins” of emergency food. My inability to volunteer does not mean that I have been idle. This past week I have been thinking about last week’s post and the goals I put forth in it. While looking for inspirational quotes to include in that post I encountered this one and it has been haunting me since. I don’t have any deadlines; I admitted as much in my post. While I am not sure my current family responsibilities will allow me to create firm deadlines, I have decided to shift my attention, slightly, away from strictly blogging and more toward working on my goals and creating squishy deadlines. I plan to take the summer months, when my boys are home from school and my work day will be a little bit more disrupted and noisy, to do some researching and planning.

Toward that end, I started scouring my cookbooks for recipes using oats. Oats, to me, seem like a no-brainer for a food bank or pantry to distribute. They are an incredible source of soluble fiber, more than any other grain, which slows digestion and keeps one full longer. The soluble fiber in oats also helps control blood sugar levels, so oats may help to reduce a person’s risk of Type 2 diabetes. Oats have been proven to lower cholesterol and contain a protein, nearly equivalent in quality to soy protein, which has been shown to be equal to other forms of protein, like eggs and meat. All of these benefits have lead some to label oats as a super food.

Despite all of the benefits of oats, they are not a staple at either of the food pantries where I volunteer. Sometimes donated containers of oats will be available, but more often than not what is available are the packets of instant oatmeal. This type of oatmeal often contains lots of sugar and salt. It has also been processed more, allowing it to digest quicker, reducing the benefits associated with the slower digestion of rolled or steel cut oats. Furthermore, instant oatmeal can only be used for one thing, a warm breakfast cereal. Oats, on the other hand, can be used in many recipes. Without spending too much time I was able to find about a dozen suitable recipes using oats, and I haven’t even begun to probe recipes using oats for side dishes.

Other areas in which I want to invest some time researching are starting a non profit and finding potential seed funding for that venture. I have a neighbor who just used crowdfunding for a video series on horse slaughter in America with the help of Indiegogo. This was a new concept to me, but seemed to be successful for him, so it warrants further investigation. In addition to registering and funding my non-profit, I need to determine what food items I will supply to food pantries and how the distribution will work. I currently see a featured partnering of items with accompanying recipes. For instance, drawing upon oats, I would donate oats and cinnamon to the food pantry. Clients would then be able to take the paring of a container of oats and a bottle of cinnamon along with a handful of recipes. The items partnered together would change with the seasons, featuring items that made sense for the time of year. Lastly, once items to be donated have been chosen, I need to determine how I get the items to donate. Do I partner with retailers and/or wholesalers, accept donations, make purchases or a combination of these options?

Sounds like I am going to be busy this summer! I don’t imagine I will get all those objectives solved in the space of a few months, but I now have a plan of action. Presently I need to return my attention to gathering a few more recipes for oats and getting them typed up. At the same time I need to start collecting some recipes for kale and collards. The Chester Country Food Bank posted on Facebook this week that volunteers harvested 350 pounds of kale and collard greens. I imagine that will start to trickle down to the food pantries soon, as will other vegetables. Can’t wait!

Elevator Pitch

May 21, 2015Jenifer2 Comments

As I started out on this journey, and occasionally over the past few months, there have been two recurring questions I get asked: Why am I doing what I’m doing and what do I hope to accomplish. When asked a version of one of these questions I often get a lump in my throat and my pulse quickens. I think to myself maybe my effort is just folly. What can I hope to accomplish? Then I remind myself that not everyone is aware of the plight of those experiencing hardships and having a difficult time obtaining adequate food. Or some people may just be curious why I picked this cause. Additionally, answering these questions periodically reminds me why I became active in assisting those who are food insecure and keeps me focused on the goals I would like to achieve.

So why am I doing what I’m doing and what do I hope to accomplish? Over the past several years I have been increasingly frustrated with the trendency to blame those in poverty, the insistence that they are in their predicament through some fault of their own or a flaw in their character or the belief that they lack a strong work ethic or feel entitled to a handout from the government. For a humorous, yet spot on, criticism of one media outlet’s negative characterization of those struggling to make it, check out this clip from John Stewart. Those negative stereotypes are not the reality I have experienced when interacting with people less fortunate than I am. I feel compelled to state that just because I have witnessed very little abuse of the assistance provided to those in need, does not mean that I am suggesting it does not exist. Rather I believe it is the exception, not the norm. I have encountered more people working one or more jobs and still not being able to make ends meet, or people who were doing okay until some catastrophy hits, like the loss of a job or unexpected medical bills. The norm is more like Simcha Fisher’s experience, which she chronicled in her blog. Please follow the link and read it. I guarantee it will make you think about how our society views people in poverty.

I grew so tired of hearing the disparaging comments about people who needed assistance, that I decided to channel my frustration into action and do something to help the situation. But what? I wanted to make sure my assistance would be appropriate to the need. Too many times people, with good intentions, try to provide help in unintentionally unhelpful ways. I had some ideas of my own, but decided to volunteer locally to see the reality of the situation in my community. I also created this blog in hopes of sharing my ideas and getting feedback on them, as well as additional ideas.

Before attending the recent conference on hunger, my husband suggested I work on my elevator pitch. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, an elevator pitch is a short synopsis of your idea or vision that you could share with someone during the time span of the average elevator ride. It was a good exercise and served to answer the question of what I hope to accomplish. Here it is:

Short term goal I would like to create recipes, using ingredients found in the food bank or pantry, to make available to clients of that food bank or pantry. These recipes would focus on healthy items like fresh fruits and vegetables or unprocessed proteins like chicken, hamburger and beans.

Longer term goal I would like to start a non-profit business to provide food banks and pantries with items used in healthy cooking that are not regularly found there, like spices, flour and condiments like vinegar. Additionally, I would like this non-profit to provide cooking utensils, implements and small appliances, like crock pots or hot plates, at a reduced cost to those unable to purchase them in regular outlets.

Ultimate goal I would like to sponsor classes, or a series of classes, that would focus on cooking, healthy eating, budgeting and shopping.

Putting your ideas out for the world to see is intimidating, at least it is for me. It is a little bit easier answering those questions now, having started down the path, than it was before I started. I do not know how long it will take me to accomplish my goals or whether they will remain unmodified. I do know that I have received interest and encouragement from most people with whom I have shared my ideas and that encouragement motivates me to keep going. For now I am following the advice of Ghandi and trying to be the change.

Food Revolution Day

May 15, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

Today is Food Revolution Day, sponsored by British chef, Jamie Oliver. Oliver is concerned with the obesity epidemic and believes that if you teach kids in a fun engaging way about healthy food and how to cook it the number of overweight and obese children will begin to decline. He is encouraging people world-wide to sign an online petition urging leaders of all G20 countries to make compulsory practical food education part of school curriculum. Currently the petition has over 1 million signatures from people in 196 countries. The link is below. Check it out. There is also a link on that site to Jamie Oliver’s Food Foundation USA which is worth a look too.

http://www.foodrevolutionday.com/#EjvohQ2bwzSC71eL.97

Bread Need Never Be Wasted

May 14, 2015Jenifer6 Comments

All of the talk last week about the importance of cooking from scratch put me in the mood to write about cooking again. This time I am going to focus on what to do with stale or excess bread. As I mentioned in a previous post, each of the pantries where I volunteer gets bread donated from large retailers who have pulled the bread from sale in their establishments. By bread I do not mean sliced bread for sandwiches, but loaves of bread, like French or Italian bread. These donations come in once a week. Sometimes they are barely enough to distribute to all the clients, but other times they are bountiful. When the donations are large, excess bread is kept in the freezer or refrigerator. When the current week’s bread arrives, any remaining from the previous week must be discarded to make space. A couple of weeks ago I happen to be volunteering when a large bag of bread was brought out to be discarded. It bothered me to see perfectly good, albeit stale, bread being thrown away. I decided to take it, with the idea of finding uses for it.

As I started going through my cookbooks looking for recipes using bread I came across the sentence I used for my title in a cookbook by Alice Waters. Boy was she right! Here are some of the uses for stale bread that I found. The first use for stale bread that immediately came to mind was bread pudding. My mother made this dessert quite a bit when I was growing up. While I was familiar with bread pudding as a dessert, I also discovered recipes for savory bread puddings that can be used as a side dish for dinner. Like adding raisins or other fruit to a dessert bread pudding, the savory bread pudding can be made with vegetable add ins, like winter squash, roasted peppers or eggplant. Sticking with side dishes, a great use for stale bread in the summer when tomatoes and fresh basil are plentiful and flavorful is Panzanella, an Italian bread salad. Fattoush, a Lebanese bread salad, is also good in the summer. It is usually made with pita bread, but I have substituted a cubed sturdy loaf bread in place of the pita bread and it worked just fine.

http://www.momswhothink.com/easy-recipes/bread-pudding-recipe.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/panzanella-recipe.html

Stale loaf bread lends itself to breakfast casseroles as well. My kids love a baked French toast casserole I make or you could just slice the bread and make individual slices of French toast. Additionally, there are numerous variations on the breakfast strata, which is a layered breakfast casserole consisting mainly of eggs, bread and cheese. To those main ingredients you can add any of the breakfast meats and/or vegetables like spinach, peppers or mushrooms. The great thing about most of these breakfast casseroles is that they can be assembled the night before and would just need to be cooked in the morning. The strata I make the most calls for ham, which is a great use for leftover ham as well. I think stratas make a great breakfast-for-dinner meal too, add on a salad or better yet, make the strata with some spinach for a one dish meal!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/breakfast-strata/

The recipes I have discussed so far are dishes using bread, but stale bread can be transformed into other things to be used in recipes. Homemade croutons are a good use for stale bread. Just cube the bread up, toss it with some oil (preferably olive oil) and herbs or garlic, and bake until the bread has dried out. Croutons can be tossed in a salad or served in a soup. Similarly, you can make homemade bread crumbs too. Finally, I have made toasts for snacking. This is particularly good if you have a baguette, as the slices are the perfect size. I mix together spices and olive oil, then brush it on the thinly sliced baguette and bake until the slices are crunchy. The ones I make have a spicy mixture of spices on them, but I have often wanted to try ones with a mixture of Italian spices and maybe some cheese. Finally, bread, wrapped well, can be frozen for up to 3 months, so if you have the ability to freeze it for a later use that is always an option too.

I did not make all these recipes with the bag of bread I brought home, but I have made a version of every recipe I mentioned, sometimes with fresh bread, but most often with stale bread which usually works better. Although not the recipes I used, I have included links to recipes for a couple of dishes I mentioned to give an idea of what the dish is like. One thing did concern me as I was reading over recipes, particularly the ones for casseroles. Most of those recipes called for several eggs and a good deal of milk, or even cream. These ingredients are often precious to people who are struggling to make food last as long as it can. In discussing making bread pudding with my mother she mentioned she sometimes makes her grandmother’s recipe. I knew from stories my mother had shared about lean times during her childhood, that this recipe would be a simple one yet would still taste good. I asked my mother for the recipe and sure enough it uses less eggs, a bit less sugar and omits the vanilla all together, while still being tasty. I have included this recipe below. Thanks Granny, both of you!

Granny’s Bread Pudding

3 cups bread torn into bite sized pieces
2 cups milk
3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
optional ingredients include 1/2 cup of raisins, blueberries or chocolate chips or a sliced banana

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix bread and milk together and let sit for 15 minutes. Mix together slightly beaten eggs, sugar and cinnamon. Add this mixture to the bread/milk mixture and stir. Add any optional ingredients and stir. Turn into an 8x8x2 inch baking dish and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Come Together, Right Now, Over Hunger

May 7, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

This past Monday I had the opportunity to attend an anti-hunger conference, entitled Coming Together: A Community Response to Hunger, sponsored by the Food Bank of Delaware in partnership with Brae’s Brown Bags and the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). The organizers of this conference took an interesting approach and invited both adults and children to attend, so in addition to all the adult attendees, about 200 students representing several Delaware school districts were in attendance as well. The speakers included a nice mix of local and national figures. Panel discussions included speakers from the state government, state and federal governmental agencies, the American Academy of Pediatricians, and local and national organizations working to raise awareness of and put an end to hunger. The attendees, including the students, were given numerous opportunities to ask questions of the panelists. I left this conference with a renewed sense of hope and optimism for the future as a result of the genuine concern and eagerness to help displayed by the attending students. I also was reenergized to continue my journey to assist the food insecure. Additionally, I received validation for my assertion that teaching cooking skills to those experiencing food insecurity will provide them with a necessary tool to use in their struggles against hunger.

The person who inspired me the most was 11 year old Braeden Mannering, who is responsible for Brae’s Brown Bags. In 2013 Braeden attended the Kids’ State Dinner in Washington, D.C. This luncheon was also attended by First Lady, Michelle Obama, who asked Braeden how he was going to “pay it forward.” He didn’t have an answer for her that day, but out of his search for an answer to that question Brae’s Brown Bags was born. Through his foundation Braeden distributes brown bags, containing a water bottle, 3 healthy snacks, and a brochure listing contact information for shelters and other aid organizations, to homeless people in the area. To date Brae’s Brown Bags has delivered over 3,000 bags to those in need. He hopes to include specialty items, like toiletries, gloves in the winter and books for children, in the future. It was inspiring to see what could be accomplished by a single person with an idea and the will to see that idea realized.

http://www.braesbrownbags.org

Not only was I impressed with Braeden, but with all the young people who attended. One panel discussion was geared specifically for them. Two State Senators and the Committee Chairman of the DE GOP sat on a panel and answered questions posed only by students. The students asked well thought out questions on topics including what they could do to best help those who are hungry or whether the legislators would support certain items, like locating a food pantry in every Delaware high school. Perhaps the bravest question came from a young lady who asked what help and advice they would offer to her and her family. She stated that even though her mother works 7 days a week, it still isn’t enough to keep them from being hungry. She completed her question with composure, but broke down after returning to her seat. The legislators were visibly moved, as was everyone in the room. It is easy to talk about hunger abstractly, but much harder when you can put a face on it and that face is standing in front of you.

Numerous topics concerning hunger and food insecurity were discussed during the course of the conference, but a considerable amount of time was given to the discussion of childhood nutrition, probably due to the upcoming opportunity to enact a child nutrition reauthorization bill. On the topic of childhood nutrition, panelists discussed school lunch and breakfast programs, afterschool and summer nutrition programs and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Additionally, Dr. Sandra Hassink, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, spoke about the medical implications of poor childhood nutrition. She remarked that this is the first time in our history that we have both an obesity epidemic and significant incidence of food insecurity occurring at the same time, with the distinct possibility that people could be experiencing both problems. Dr. Hassink also stated that it is impossible to eat healthy if you do not know how to cook and rely on prepackaged, processed foods for your meals.

Dr. Hassink’s comment about cooking wasn’t the only time that topic was brought up during the conference. Other speakers and attendees mentioned either the importance of cooking from scratch or the unfortunate loss of knowledge in how to cook from scratch while discussing the importance of good nutrition or the task of helping people with limited resources stretch those resources. Additionally, the importance of cooking from scratch was discussed at the table at which I was sitting. Joining me at the table was a registered dietician from Nemours and a group of women from the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension who staff the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). This program provides nutrition, cooking and budgeting information to residents of DE who qualify for SNAP, WIC, Head Start or free or reduced school meals. After listening to all the discussion about the importance of cooking from scratch, I believe now more than ever that my concern over the loss of cooking skills is well founded and warrants further exploration into ideas to help people learn cooking and other related skills to stretch their food dollars and eat healthier.

Note of thanks

May 1, 2015JeniferLeave a comment

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to those of you who shared my blog with others. The number of followers of the blog has topped 200. I am grateful to everyone who takes the time to read my posts, reflect on what I have written, leave a comment and offer encouragement!