Week Eight at "Food, What?!"

A game of "lighthouse" kicked off the eighth week on the Food What farm. We teamed up with someone we trusted and pulled out the blindfolds. With the obstacle course before us, we led our partner safely through using only verbal directions as guidance. Success! Everybody made it through.

Then it was time to hit the fields. We planted leeks and sweet pepper seedlings ready to thrive. Soon after the seedlings were taken care of we planted summer squash seeds into the ground. We ended up with rows upon rows of little plants and newly-planted seeds promising tons of veggies for summer!  

 

 

Then it was workshop time! This week was all about writing resumes, which is sure to come in handy as we start applying for summer jobs. Doron gave us specific examples of what to include ranging from education and work experience to awards and volunteering. He even taught us how to use sophisticated wording to make our resumes even more impressive and professional.

Then it was veggie pesto pasta time! We got to choppin' onions, kale, and carrots to saute for some extra color in our meal as the pasta boiled on the stove top. When the pasta and the veggies were nice and soft, we mixed in pesto made with the basil grown by FoodWhat's summer crew! We mixed it all together and enjoyed. Our delicious meal ended as we shared our triumphs with the rest of the crew and called it a day.

 

"Dig Day" Alumni Reunion

Over the past seven years, FoodWhat has served over 300 youth through Youth Empowerment and Food Justice programs and this year we decided it was time to get them together! Since Alex (our new Associate Director) began with the organization in November, she has been diligently working on creating a plan for how to best engage and serve Alumni and the “Dig Day” event was the first opportunity to really kick it off. “Dig Day” was planned by Alex and two Alumni Planner interns, Chris and Connor. Together, they created an incredible event that truly spoke to the spirit of FoodWhat and got youth excited about getting back involved.

The alumni began trickling in around 11:45 AM on Sunday morning and started off by writing name tags, munching on farm fresh snacks and receiving their “Food, What?!” Alumni wristbands. Youth who hadn’t seen each other in years were hugging, reconnecting, and swapping stories of their recent accomplishments with Doron and Abby. Everyone was stoked to see familiar faces and share about their lives. We knew right away that this would be a fun afternoon!

After a few minutes of mingling, Abby got us going in the fields with a lofty list of tasks to get the farm ready for the season. We started by grabbing forks and hitting the FoodWhat field to start skimming cover crop, double digging beds and adding compost. The alumni dove right in and we built up enough energy to get all the work done in an hour! When we finished, Abby stepped back and breathed a sigh of relief as she assessed the work, knowing that her farm load had just gotten a little bit lighter.

In keeping with classic foodwhat style, after farm work we headed over to the circle tent to play some games. Chris and Connor led us through “Sprout Ball”, “My Biggest Fan”, and “Opinion Line”. The “Opinion Line” game asked questions such as, “Who thinks applying to college and jobs can be confusing and kind of hard” and then we followed up with answers like, “That’s OK! Because as an Alumni you have access to support on college applications, resume writing, and more!”. This gave us an opportunity to introduce what the Alumni Association is all about in a meaningful and engaging way. At the end of games, Doron and Alex distributed Alumni Evaluations so that we could gather information on how FoodWhat has affected lives and the choices youth have made since leaving the program.

Finally, it was time to eat - and we all know what a big production eating is at FoodWhat! FoodWhat Junior Staff Deonte and Crystal had spent most of the afternoon cooking and they prepared a beautiful spread of beans, rice, meat, veggies, tortillas, agua fresca, fresh fruit, and cheeses. As alumni finished their evaluations, they made their way over to indulge in some organic, healthy, fresh food to complete a fun day on the farm.

As people finished up eating and starting pitching in to clean up, we all remarked to each other what a fun, successful Alumni Reunion “Dig Day” had been. We were able to reconnect with old friends, get a ton of farm work done, learn about everyone’s lives, AND eat amazing food -- not bad for 3 hours on a Sunday morning! We can’t wait to see everyone at the next alumni event.

HUGE THANKS to Chris and Connor for helping make this event happen!!

Week Seven at "Food, What?!"

Week seven at FoodWhat was potato week! Before getting into potato business, we warmed up with a game of "Look Up, Look Down." We stood in a circle looking down and when we looked up, we stared directly at one person within the circle. If that person was staring back at us, we switched places.

We headed over to the fields and learned about how potatoes grow. Roots and shoots sprout out of a potato "eye"and then that one original little potato piece continues to grow into more and more potatoes as we layer soil over them. We dug deep trenches and planted the pieces of potatoes into the ground to start the process.

 

Meanwhile, Doron pulled people aside to interview them for the FoodWhat Summer job! With the interviewing tips we learned in last week's workshop, everyone was well prepared for their interview.  For many of our crew this was their first job interview in their life.

Then we turned out attention to our beds growing cilantro, beets, spinach, peas, and carrots. We worked hard to weed the beds and paid close attention making sure not to pull out any of our baby seedlings!

Then it was time for a workshop on food systems. Doron helped us trace the journey of our food through a few different food systems--buying food directly from a farmer at a farmers' market; the path of a strawberry in January from South America to the grocery store; and a local strawberry going through all the steps to become a pop tart.  We used cards to map out the order of the process our food goes through before it gets to our tables and how this long process effects the environment, the nutrition of our food, and farmers' earnings. After being grown by the farmer, transported huge distances, packaged, transported again, stored, and finally sold, our produce can be worn out and our small local farmers are struggling to make a decent living! This workshop directly showed us the importance of buying fresh, local produce when possible, especially from farmer's markets.

 

After the workshop we headed over to the kitchen where we got started on making latkas! First, we harvested fresh onion to chop up into our savory potato pancakes. We shredded the potatoes, mixing in eggs and whole wheat flour to make our batter. Shaping the potato mixture was difficult but we mastered it in no time to serve up delicious, golden latkas for lunch. After enjoying our lunch, we discussed our many triumphs and called it a day!

 

 

 

Week Six at "Food, What?!"

Week six started off with a memory and attention game. We divided into two lines facing each other and studied the person in front of us, trying to remember every little detail about the way they looked. One line turned around and other other side quickly made changes to their clothing- tucked in a shirt, untied their shoes, turned around a hat- to see if the other team would notice. Each round got trickier as we got more creative with how to sneakily change our appearances to fool the opposing team.

After the game we made our way to the kitchen! Some folks jumped on making corn bread while others got right to chopping up veggies for Stone soup. Mixing up the batter, we were a little surprised to find that corn bread actually has corn kernels in it! We harvested fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme to give our soup an extra kick and tossed all of our colorful vegetables in the pot to stew while we did our farm work.

 

We made our way over to the field to skim beds, dig the rows, and add compost to the soil. After the rows were cleared we planted carrots, beets, and cilantro. All of the hard work the crew is putting into clearing the beds will ensure a bountiful season of veggies!

 

 

 

With the farm work finished, it was time to get down to business. This week's workshop was not only about how to get a job, but also how to keep it! Doron discussed the valuable details of applying for a job that could make or break the opportunity ranging from the cleanliness of an application to communication when handing it in. He gave us some tips for interviewing and stressed the importance of arriving on time. We then talked about communication with employers and how reliable attendance goes a long way. We even practiced the best way to tell a boss if we won't be able to make it to a shift. After all of this talk about jobs, Doron told us about an opportunity right at our fingertips: the Food What summer job! He told us what it's all about and encouraged us to fill out an application.

 Just as we finished up the workshop, the Stone soup was smelling delicious and the corn bread muffins were looking golden and delicious. We served bowls of the colorful soup and enjoyed it oven-fresh muffins (and the kernels tasted pretty good!). Before we left for the day, Doron passed out Food What Summer Job applications to take home and fill out.