Re-imagining the Work of Ending Hunger, Part One

There’s a lot of talk these days about “sustainability.” In the midst of this Great Recession (and from where I stand, it isn’t over yet!), we are all looking for ways to live more simply, support our local economy, reduce our “footprint”, care for those who are struggling to make ends meet, and ensure that we really do make things better in our community for the next generation.

At Elijah’s Promise, we have been talking about “sustainability” for many years. Our approach has been to work on developing more sources of locally grown food through purchasing directly from area farmers and expanding donations through groups like Farmers Against Hunger and Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Middlesex. Staff, volunteers and culinary students work hard to grow food, process this healthy food into delicious meals and freeze and store it for use year round. Imagine ratatouille made from Jersey Fresh tomatoes, squash and eggplant warming the palates and lifting the spirits of the homeless.

Harvesting kale and greens from the “Garden for the Hungry” quarter acre plot at the Cooperative Extension of the Middlesex County EARTH Center

Ratatouille prepared with locally grown ingredients

We are integrating this farm to table system into the soup kitchen, into culinary training, and catered meals for area schools and meals on wheels, and of course the sustainable fare at A Better World Café, all of which add up to over 200,000 meals of fresh healthy food into our local food system this year. Through this farm to table approach, we are combating the long-term and very expensive diseases of diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity; and ensuring that our neighbors have good food to eat.

Each year we train over 70 people in culinary arts and place them in jobs throughout central New Jersey. These graduates, all formerly unemployed, are now working, paying taxes, paying rent, buying food, clothing and other goods for themselves and their families. Instead of taking money out of the “system,” these graduates are now putting significant resources back into our community, making it far more sustainable.

Catering Staff at Elijah’s Promise

We have developed a catering business and a café to create employment opportunities for the very people we feed and train, and at the same time, they generate revenue to support our programs. That’s “sustainable.”

This cycle of social good, which harnesses the power of food to feed people and fuel a stronger, healthier, more “sustainable” community, is taking root all over the nation. It’s about ending hunger, providing access to good food, promoting health, fostering a healthier environment, strengthening our agricultural base, and making thoughtful economic development decisions.

During this recession, as we witnessed the highest levels of food insecurity in decades and the growing recognition that obesity and diabetes are public health issues that are directly connected to diet and food access, there is more attention and greater opportunity to not only ensure people have enough to eat, but that they have access to healthy, good food and the tools to feed themselves.

This “food revolution” as it is referred to, is more than just a call to “eat local,” or “buy organic.” It is a real grassroots movement to re-tool a broken food system that has rewarded the values of fast, cheap and efficient at the expense of nutritious, sustainable and equitable food. From the McDonald’s dollar menu to the local soup kitchen and emergency food pantry, highly-processed food (laden with sodium, high fructose corn syrup and other realities of this broken food system), have forced those who struggle at the bottom of our economic ladder not only to confront the inequities of health, employment, education, and housing (to name a few), but also must hunger for good food—a basic need and a basic right.

If we are to really engage in the work of ending hunger in our communities, then we must do more than collect cans for our local emergency food center. We must work to re-tool the food system from the field to the fork. Join us and many others across the state and nation in this exciting work as we join together to build a healthy, just, sustainable food system, so all may eat, and all may eat well!

This blog was posted in July 2011 on the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Blog.  Our gratitude for their funding and support! For more on their important work, visit them at www.grdodge.org.

Eat Local, End Hunger (part 2)

Volunteers and Staff have been busy processing fresh, locally sourced foods for the past month.  Hundreds of pounds have been frozen to date and are in frozen storage for use later in the Fall and Winter.  As we face looming cuts to our most important supply of food, the government commodity TEFAP program…this supply of healthy, fresh food will ensure that there is enough food to feed our patrons.  Thanks to Ariel Fremed, a Rutgers intern, who helped lead processing efforts this summer.  Her blog follows:

Jersey Fresh!

“This week, I concluded my summer internship with Elijah’s Promise. I was placed at Elijah’s through Rutgers University’s Community Leadership, Action and Service Project (CLASP). CLASP is a service-learning internship program that exposes college students like me to social justice issues in New Brunswick, like poverty and food insecurity, and provides the opportunity to join locally based organizations in working for social change. My big summer project was that of processing. Fresh fruit and vegetables were delivered in larger quantities than were manageable for immediate use, and the volunteers and I worked hard to process it to be stored for the winter. We roasted peppers, shucked corn, breaded and baked eggplant and zucchini, cooked tomatoes, and blanched peaches to be frozen for later use. Together, we processed hundreds of pounds of food that will be used when fresh produce becomes scarce in the winter.  The food we processed this summer will become a key element in sustaining the healthy food initiative taken by the soup kitchen, and will allow for the use of fewer unhealthy canned vegetables. I feel very proud of the work that the volunteers and I accomplished this summer. It is an unbelievable feeling knowing that the hard work of few will benefit hundreds.”

Ariel Fremed

Eat Local, End Hunger (part 1)

This week marks the launch of our first Eat Local Challenge at Elijah’s Promise.  It’s a part of our annual Farm to Table program and includes a week of events and information that we are sharing as a way to help and inspire folks to get excited about what’s in season, and make food decisions that impact our bodies, our community and our environment. (see my earlier post to learn more about it)

Personally, I kicked off the eat local challenge on Saturday at the Rock Hill Farmer’s Market in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in New York, where I spend most weekends in the summer.  There I purchased two kinds of goat cheese made from raw goat’s milk from M & S Farm in Fallsburg, NY, and some cucumbers, corn, lettuce, tomatoes, and patty pan squash all grown on a new farm next to the Neversink River called Trussbridge Farm in South Fallsburg.  I think I am old enough to be the mother of the young man who just started this wonderful farm  

On my way home from NY, I drove through northern NJ and passed by an endless array of farms and farm stands and roadside markets selling fresh locally grown produce.  I stopped at Alstede’s Farm in Chester and stocked up on produce for the next few days…and of course a few cider donuts too!  Clearly, we are in the midst of our most fruitful and abundant growing season. 

Last night was Farm to Table at the EARTH Center, the kick off event for the Eat Local Challenge week.  Chefs Claudette Herring and Lauren Phillips, owners and chefs at Via 45 in Red Bank, along with their friend Chef Laura, prepared a wonderful tasting menu, including a roasted tomato tart, a pizza rustica, blueberry buckle with lavendar ice cream and more.  All of their dishes featured foods harvested at the EARTH Center, and from area farms including Cherry Grove and E.R. & Son Organic Farm.

Chefs Lauren and Claudette of Via 45 Restaurant gathering greens at the EARTH Center

Our tour of the EARTH Center by Dave Smela, a member of the Cooperative Extension of Middlesex team, featured the Master Gardener herb and vegetable gardens, and one of their newest additions, the Garden for the Hungry.  This quarter acre of land is dedicated to growing food for Elijah’s Promise and other anti-hunger organizations through Farmer’s Against Hunger.  Each Wednesday and Friday, we receive harvested veggies and herbs from this garden that are served fresh in the soup kitchen.  Cucumber salad, roasted zucchini, corn on the cob and more, on the menu just yesterday, featuring foods donated by the EARTH Center and Farmer’s Against Hunger.

All of this wonderful bounty from our backyard, goes a long way towards feeding those who are food insecure and hungry.  Just imagine if more people chose farming as a career, like the young man of Trussbridge Farm.  Imagine if more organizations like the EARTH Center dedicated land to growing food for the hungry.  Imagine if our schools could buy their apples from the local farmer.  Imagine if a portion of local park lands would be dedicated to community gardens so people can grow their own food…Part of the answer to ending hunger is in our own backyard.  Join us in the Eat Local Challenge and let’s work together to end hunger in our community.

Via 45, 45 Broad Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701-1902 (732) 450-9945

EARTH Center, Cooperative Extension of Middlesex County http://www.co.middlesex.nj.us/extensionservices/

Cherry Grove Farm, Lawrenceville, http://www.cherrygrovefarm.com/

E.R. & Son Organic Farm in Monroe, erandsonfarm@aol.com

Friends Make Chef’s Night

The Inuits of Northern Canada say “Friends make gifts and gifts make friends.” This proverb speaks to social connection, mutuality and giving. It tells us that reciprocity is based on relationships, and that these relationships are of value in themselves – in fact, are central to reciprocity. It is from this base of relationship that I am motivated / compelled / inspired to contribute to your well-being or happiness.

 “Friends make gifts and gifts make friends” is a saying that captures the essence of giving.  Giving is about reciprocity.  Not in the traditional sense of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”, but in the way that real, true, honest giving is continuous and self sustaining.  It’s a stream of giving and receiving and giving again.  It’s more than a pattern of economic exchange, more than charity…sharing our gifts for the greater benefit of the whole is our role as citizens, and a sign of what makes us decent and honorable and good.

Last night was Chef’s Night.  It’s the largest and most important annual fund raiser for Elijah’s Promise.  It’s hosted by the Palace at Somerset Park in Somerset, a truly enchanted and top flight venue!  Over 450 “friends” gathered for one night to enjoy the talents of some 40 chefs from the areas finest and most generous restaurants.  It’s indeed a great night. Each year, attendees and chefs alike agree that the event is “better” than the last; that the “food is better” than the year before and that “this is the best Chef’s Night yet”!  I couldn’t agree more…except that what I think makes each year the “best” one yet, is not the event…but the people. 

People giving their time and giving their resources to attend, people donating their skills and time as chefs, restaurant owners donating their staff and food, volunteers giving their time to set up and assist, Volunteer Board members and staff selling tickets and organizing the event, culinary students at Elijah’s Promise working with each chef and learning the tricks of the trade…people working together to raise funds to provide culinary training to people who face challenges and barriers to success, and who have a dream for a better tomorrow.  These students are like all of us, learning, working hard, overcoming obstacles, fulfilling hopes, building better lives. 

Last night, as we do each year, we all came together to give our support to Elijah’s Promise and the Culinary School, and in doing so, we bring out the best in each other…and you can see and feel it in the air.  I think that’s why Chef’s Night is always the “best” one yet.  “Friends make gifts and gifts make friends”…I can’t wait for next year.

In the meantime, please support the very generous “friends” of Elijah’s Promise who make our Chef’s Night possible:

A Taste of New Brunswick…The Frog and the Peach * Harvest Moon Brewery & Café * Due Mari * Christopher’s at The Heldrich *  Clydz * O.Q. Coffee Co. * George Street Ale House *  Tula Restaurant  and Lounge * Evelyn’s *  Steakhouse 85 * 

A Taste of Somerset…The Palace* Sophie’s Bistro * Real Jamaican Jerk An’ Ting * The Vine *

 A Taste of the Jersey Shore…Via 45 * Brandl * Jersey Shore BBQ

 A Taste of North Jersey…* Greek Taverna *  Salumeria Biellese *

A Taste of Central Jersey…The Brothers Moon * TPC Jasna Polana * Colavita * Bent Spoon* Lovely Buns  * The Skylark Fine Diner & Lounge * Arusuvai Chettinad *A Better World Café *  Boulevard Five72 *  Akbar * Portuguese Fisherman * La Pâtisserie Rose *  Dani-Lise Sweet Shop * Dove Chocolate Discoveries by Amy *  Romano’s Macaroni Grill * La Bonbonniere Bake Shop * Little Spain Restaurant *Americana Diner * La Tavola Cucina

A Taste of Spirits…Fedway and CMSC Spirits (Love Potion #9)

Eat Local Challenge

Elijah’s Promise has sponsored the Farm to Table program to promote eating locally and a healthy community for the past 8 years. This year Elijah’s Promise is proud to present the Eat Local Challenge. The Eat Local Challenge helps promote eating foods that are produced within 100 miles of New Brunswick. Join the eat local challenge…one week can change the way you shop and eat, and together, ……we can build a stronger community!

Here are some tips on how to eat locally:

1.Shop weekly at a local farmers market or farm
2.Preserve food from the season (Freeze, Dry)
3.Grow your own food (vegetables)in your backyard
4.Ask your grocery store what groceries are locally produced

What are the Benefits of Eating Locally??

1.Supports the Immune System, lowers the risk of diabetes and heart disease
2.Foods that are locally grown are cheaper (More costly when transported from California or Mexico)
3.Local Food tastes better (Usually fruits and vegetables are picked within 24 hours)
4.Eating foods that are locally grown generates more income for the local economy

Here is more information on the Eat Local Challenge and buying locally:

www.eatlocalchallenge.com
www. state.nj.us/jerseyfresh
www.nofanj.com
www.eatlocal.net
www.eatlocal.net/downloads/eatlocal_scorecard.pdf
(Use this great tool to track your progress)

Join us for any of these Eat Local Challenge events: 

July 18, 2011 – Garden Tour and Tasting at Earth Center in Davidson Mill Pond Park featuring Chef Claudette Herring of Via 45 in Red Bank, New Jersey
Suggested donation: $15
RSVP by July 15th to elijahspromise@verizon.net

July 21, 2011 – Promise Culinary School – Tribute to Local Ingredients open house and tasting at 211 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick. Time: TBA
Suggested donation: $15 adults, $5 kids
RSVP by July 15th to elijahspromise@verizon.net

July 22, 2011 – Eat Local Challenge finale – Eat Local Friday Night Dinner presented by A Better World Café in Highland Park, New Jersey
No RSVP required!!

This is a week of fun-filled activities for the entire family. Bring the kids and learn about eating locally.

We want you to join the Eat Local Challenge! Take on one thing for the week…maybe it’s shopping at a farm market, maybe it’s dining at a restaurant that serves locally sourced items, maybe it’s attending one of our Eat Local Challenge events. You decide! It’s that simple. Change the way you eat, and together we can feed and fuel a healthier community!

For more information, please visit our Event page on facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ElijahsPromise#!/ElijahsPromise?sk=events

“Some Friends To Feed”

I recently scored a copy of Pete Seeger’s book Some Friends To Feed, The Story of Stone Soup.  There are many variations on the story Stone Soup from many cultures and lands.  The story follows a soldier returning from the frontlines of war.  He arrives in a small town that is in the midst of a famine, one of the inevitable by products of war and conflict.  The soldier is hungry and he asks the townspeople for something to eat.  They have nothing to share, because of course, they are hungry too. 

So the soldier gets an idea.  He asks someone for a large pot which he sets in the center of town.  He lights a fire and fills the pot with water.  Then he asks some children for stones to make “stone soup”.  No one has ever heard of such a thing, but out of curiosity, they bring him stones and place them in the pot.  The soldier stirs the pot and tastes the soup.  “Ah, very good” he says.  “But it would taste even better with an onion”.  “I have an onion” replies one of the townspeople, and they bring it and place it in the pot.  And another person brings a carrot, and another a potato, and on it goes, until the pot is full.  When the soup is ready, the soldier invites all the town to come and feast on the delicious stone soup.

Today, I was at Giamarese Farm in East Brunswick for a tour of the farm with owner Jim Giamarese.  While I was there, Anneliese Mueller, a regular volunteer at the soup kitchen stopped by to buy some vegetables for the soup she makes each Wednesday for the guests of the soup kitchen.  While Anneliese was at the farm, owner Sue Giamarese donated a couple of boxes of vegetables for the soup.  Ask anyone at the soup kitchen, Anneliese makes wonderful soup. 

Forget Campbells, we only serve Stone Soup at Elijah’s Promise.  Whether it’s the gift of fresh produce from Giamarese Farm (a regular and generous donor by the way), or donations from Rutgers Gardens, the Rutgers Student Organic Farm, the EARTH Center, First Field, Farmers Against Hunger, a local gardener, or food drives and collections by local scouts, congregations, schools, businesses and other groups…all these ingredients and more go into the pot and delicious food is shared with our hungry neighbors.  Good food, good friends, love and hope are the ingredients for stone soup, and for ending hunger. 

Just ask Jim and Sue Giamarese, their farm has been feeding our community for 70 years.  Thanks to them! For more information on the Giamarese Farm – www.giamaresefarm.com.  (They are open for business, so stop by the farm soon!)

Kids Are Hungry in N.J.

This week USDA Secretary Vilsack put out a call to action to individuals, corporations, community organizations, state and local governments, and national non-profits to join the USDA in making a commitment to end childhood hunger in our country.  Despite the success of the nation’s nutrition assistance programs and the hard work of state and local governments and countless organizations, food insecurity persists.  In 2009, nearly one million children lived in households with very-low food security and simply did not get enough to eat. 

In N.J., one of the richest states in the nation, the numbers are startling…

• 11.5% of New Jersey households are food insecure according to Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), a national anti-hunger advocacy organization.  That’s 1 in 9 people who are hungry.
• 317,819 children received food stamps in 2010 according to the NJ Kids County 2011 Report (a 58% increase from 2006-2010)
• In NJ, only 37.6% of eligible children receiving free or reduced price school lunch, were also receiving breakfast according to a report released in January 2011 by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)  N.J. ranks among the bottom ten states in the nation in school breakfast participation among low-income children (46th actually). 

We can do better!  Now is not the time to tear at the vital safety net that protects our children from hunger. 

Over the past month, Congress passed both a continuing budget resolution for the remainder of 2011 and a budget for next year (FY 2012). 

While there were cuts to WIC and the FEMA Emergency Food and Shelter Program for the remainder of 2011, the budget proposal for 2012 contains much deeper cuts to a variety of safety net programs that assist low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities.

The FY 2012 budget proposes devastating cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Food Stamps/SNAP. If cuts to Food Stamps/SNAP are enacted, many struggling families could see their benefits reduced or could lose access to vital benefits altogether. 

There are many ways that you can contribute to ending childhood hunger, and it is going to take actions large and small across the country and across N.J. to reach the goal.  Begin today! Visit the N.J. Anti-Hunger Coalition web site to learn more: www.njahc.org