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While most student brain-power is geared toward planning for finals at this time of year, a group of Campus Kitchen leaders recently joined three DC Central Kitchen experts to discuss healthy meal planning for Campus Kitchen operations.

Joelle Johnson, Local Food Procurement Coordinator, discussed her success with buying local and in bulk to make meals healthier for DC Central Kitchen clients, and how Campus Kitchens can get involved too.

Listen to her portion of the call.

Lindsey Palmer, Registered Dietician for DC Central Kitchen, covered all components of the meal (with good suggestions of how to fulfill them), nutrition education opportunities, portion sizes, and resources.

Listen to her portion of the call.

Allison Sosna, Executive Chef of Contract Foods, wrapped up the conversation with how to make and market healthy foods to children. Find out what she means by “Chipotle” techniques and colored yogurt.

Listen to her portion of the call.

As you listen, follow along using the slides below. Happy healthy meal planning!

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EBT Sign in Los Angeles, California

Think food stamps and envision lines at the local grocery store with people buying fresh produce items and ingredients for healthy, affordable, family-style meals. The last place we expect to see food stamps used is down the street at the local fast food chain.  I was shocked when I first noticed the sign reading “EBT Welcomed” in the window of a Los Angeles Burger King.

Recently, in many U.S. counties, that’s exactly what you’ll see.

Since 2005, participating fast food restaurants have accepted Food Stamps  (termed SNAP benefits) in Los Angeles County for the disabled, homeless and elderly.

SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) provides benefits to those that qualify via EBT electronic benefits transfer. SNAP allows recipients to buy groceries from participating stores. Recipients must only purchase food items that are authorized by SNAP.

Typically, EBT users cannot swipe their cards for pre-made hot meals. But now, many counties in California, Arizona, Florida, and Michigan, are now allowing SNAP benefits to be used towards the purchasing meals in restaurants.

Many attribute this shift to lack of access to kitchens by homeless individuals. Some argue the elderly and disabled may have trouble cooking from fresh ingredients typically allowed by SNAP. This change in rules in Los Angeles County takes these individuals’ needs into consideration, but may do more harm then good.

Restaurants that now accept EBT in Los Angeles include:

• Subway
• El Pollo Loco
• Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Jack in the Box
• Burger King
• Pizza Hut

These eateries have menus that offer a wealth of food high in fat and sugar and low in nutritional value.

The elderly and homeless need options that are nutritious and easily accessible. People deserve hot meals, which is why all of the Campus Kitchens provide meals for those that are most at risk, including: the homeless, elderly, and disabled.  The Campus Kitchens Project is helping those with no access to a kitchen or with physical or mental handicaps. Student leaders recognize these volunteers may not benefit from groceries alone.

In addition, the Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College has made is possible to use EBT cards at their local farmers market with help from the food council in Adams County. Their oversight of the machine allows those who qualify for EBT and have access to kitchens the ability to buy fresh and healthy produce and food.

Ask at your local farmers market if they accept EBT. If they don’t, see what you can do to bring them there, so that lawmakers can start promoting SNAP benefits used on fresh and local product rather than nutrient-lacking fast food.

To read more about the work that the Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College and all of the other Campus Kitchens are doing read our Annual Report.  http://www.campuskitchens.org/national/images/files/financials/ckp_2009ar.pdf

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For anyone graduating soon, what’s up next in your life has probably crossed your mind. If working with Campus Kitchens has inspired in you a love of community nutrition and the desire to work toward providing healthy food for everyone, you may want to apply to participate in FoodCorps.

This new national service program has been designed to provide limited-access high-obesity communities with individuals ready to tend school gardens, source fresher food for school cafeterias and provide nutrition education as part of the school day. This is all part of the plan to serve vulnerable children and improve access to healthy, affordable school meals, and also training leaders for careers in food and agriculture.

Host sites for the inaugural year of FoodCorps were announced in the end of 2010 and include the following:

Arkansas: The Delta Garden Study at Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute

Arizona: The Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health

Iowa: The National Center for Appropriate Technology

Maine: University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Massachusetts: The Food Project

Michigan: CS Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University

Mississippi: The Mississippi Roadmap to Health Equity

New Mexico: University of New Mexico Office of Community Learning and Public Service

North Carolina: North Carolina 4-H and the Center for Environmental Farming Systems

Oregon: Oregon Department of Agriculture

The Corporation for National and Community Service is reviewing the proposal now, but the hope is that 80 motivated leaders will march into these communities in the fall.

If you are interested in applying or want to learn more, join the FoodCorps mailing list to receive more information.

FoodCorps is a program of the National Farm to School Network, developed in partnership with the National Center for Appropriate Technology, Slow Food USA, and the documentary and advocacy organization Wicked Delicate.

Read more about it in GOOD Magazines recent article.

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Or so writes Jeff Yaeger of the Daily Green and author of the recent blog post: “50 healthy foods for under $1 a pound.”  Somehow, Yaeger provides answers – 50 of them – to the questions Campus Kitchen shift leaders ask themselves every day as they consider cheap, nutritional supplements to meals.

Below are  some of Yaeger’s more pertinent suggestions, with additional ideas for how best to use these raw ingredients in Campus Kitchen meals.

For under $1 a pound (on sale), supplement meals with:

• Apples (buy in bulk) – process and use this canning article to store applesauce.
• Bananas – Think Elvis, and use these in peanut butter and banana sandwiches as a meal addition or kids snack for  added protein and potassium.
• Carrots – buy whole and use this video to cut down into carrot sticks for nutrition programming.
• Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans – make your own hummus to serve with those fresh carrot sticks.
• Cornmeal/polenta – an interesting starch to whip up and make fluffy with added milk. Here’s an easy polenta recipe you can use with donated cans of tomato sauce.
• Eggs – if you’re like Jenny Sproul at CKWL, who recently received a donation of 400 pounds of eggs from Walmart, you won’t need to buy them.  But if you do, they make a great egg salad sandwich or ingredient for a quiche.
• Lentils – A great way to add protein to a large, congregate style meal – in soups, salads, or sandwich spreads.
• Oatmeal – a longtime staple of Campus Kitchens, students have thrown the old-fashioned oats in anything from fruit cobbler to an ice cream sundae bar, like the one CKNU helped serve during a recent slow cooker program.
• Pork – use inexpensive cuts, like pork shoulder, to cook up curries and soups, or simply slip them into a slow cooker.
• Squash – try baking acorn squash with a little brown sugar
• Watermelon – a great way to provide a little built-in hydration to community partners during hot summers.
• Yams/sweet potatoes – a dignified “super food”, this is a delicious and versatile starch to add to any type of meal, year-round.

Hungry yet? Get cookin’!

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That’s just what volunteers and staff with D.C. Central Kitchen did on a recent Thursday morning during a trip 45 minutes Southeast of Washington, D.C.  to a farm in Owings, Md.

the youth group from Kansas City arrives

Amidst the fun, the group of ten volunteers – a youth group from Kansas City who came to D.C. with the Center for Student Missions – also helped D.C. Central Kitchen harvest pounds of green produce to bring back to the kitchen.

Bagging the Chinese cabbage

The girls and boys, ages 15 to 17, helped stake and string tomato plants, weed an onion patch, pick broccoli, and cut off lettuce, bok choy, and Chinese Cabbage heads from 9 a.m. to noon.

Farmer Jim watches over us.

Farmer Jim, who owns the Lambs Quarter farm, graciously welcomed the group to participate in gleaning from his organic produce fields – about 5 acres in total.

Bringing home the loot

At the end of the day, D.C. Central Kitchen had accumulated bags and boxes of produce to add to the 4,500 meals that go out each day – giving the hungry a little extra helping of healthy.

The students, who readily jumped to work outside at a beautiful farm harvesting produce, probably had the most fun carrying the Chinese cabbage back in trash bags, perched atop their heads, in single file.

Looking to learn more about Gleaning with D.C. Central Kitchen? Visit the web site and get in on the action!

Several Campus Kitchens have already planned gleaning trips:

Saint Andrews Episcopal High School (will become a Campus Kitchen in Fall 2010)– July 22, August 5

CKWM – August 3

CKUVA – August 12

CKUMES – October 28

View more pictures from the Gleaning trip:

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For those who haven’t: in response to a CDC report that cited Huntington, WV as the most unhealthy city in America, British Chef Jamie Oliver decided to kick-off his U.S. food revolution.

He began by addressing the food being served in one Huntington elementary school. He was given a one week trial period by Food Service in which he had to replace the typical school lunch with  healthier, fresh cooked options and get the kids to eat it. He then tackled similar challenges at a high school, college, and with individuals.

Now he has started a petition to improve school food all across America.

If you want to support his efforts and learn more about the work he is doing, you can check it out here.

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That’s what happened during the three-part slow cooker series and partnership of the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University and Nurture , a local nutrition education organization.

We’ll share stories soon in our next web news feature at campuskitchens.org. Until then, here are some pictures to warm up your stomachs for the main course.

Even the little ones learned to stir

Students worked teaching children basic nutrition lessons

Children mixed art with food

The Group - Nurture, NU Students, and families

The surplus of Campus Kitchen volunteers helped children get more out of the day

A student instructs the class

* Photos courtesy of Nurture

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Chef/Instructor Susan Callahan recently took a slow cooker grant opportunity and turned it into a information packed seminar, led by the Campus Kitchen at University of Maryland Eastern Shore at the Universities at Shady Grove, for community partner: The Dwelling Place.

The video below captures the creativity students devised to run interactive workshops promoting life skills to low-income families without a lot of extra time to cook and clean economically. Take a look. Learn something. Be inspired.

Read more about how the day went here.

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This cookbook will come in very handy over the next few months as gleaning and donations bring in a surplus of whatever vegetable happens to be in season. When you find yourself running out of ideas for dishes calling for collard greens, reach for this book and you may find some inspiration.

Unlike other cookbooks, this one allows you to search by ingredient! So long as you know your ABC’s this cookbook will be a breeze! Another fun fact about this book is that it was created by a Madison, Wisconsin CSA (MACSAC), specifically for people who had recently purchased CSA shares. The hope was that it would provide their shareholders with creative ideas for preparing the (sometimes unique) produce that they would receive.

So to jazz up your summer meals, head on over to their website and purchase this cookbook directly from their CSA!

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