Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: low-income inner city school children, low-income parents and families, educators, school administartors, homeless men and women Changes/Problems: One of the challenges FareStart faced was finding large schools (250 - 500 children) thatare able to receive hot meals in a family-style format, instead of individual meals. As a result, we changed our third objective to reach out to smaller schools and childcare centers instead of private schools. This still provided growth and new training opportunities for students and increased our ability to provide farm-fresh food to inner city school children. A second challenge was product consistency from small farms, especially for a large kitchen producing food in bulk. Even after the termination of this grant we will continue to explore opportunities to partner with smaller local farms, and will continue to look for ways to mitigate challenges that arise during the growing season. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? During the final year of the grant FareStart graduated over 100 students from the adult culinary training program who had the chance to learn hands-on about farm fresh produce. This greatly impacted their knowledge of fresh, healthy food, their personal eating habits, and their job training skills. Over 80% of these students secured employment after graduating from FareStart's program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective One - Morelow income children and adults benefit from consumption of and learning about healthy, nutritious meals: During the final year of this grant FareStart served 539,252 meals to low-income children and adults, increasing their access to fresh, healthy, and nutritious meals. All meals included local, seasonal produce and fresh components made from scratch. Objective Two - Develop a reliable, year-round market for local producers: FareStart'slocal partnerships includedworking with Abbi's Northwest as well as a variety of local farms and businesses,such asViva Farms, Willie Green's Organic Farms, Full Circle, Oxbow, Hertiage Meats, Medallion Pasta, and Coeur d'Alene Bakery. Objective Three - Subsidize the Farm Fresh to City Schools program by attracting market-rate schools FareStart attracted 5 new school contracts during the final year of the grant, providing more hands-on kitchentraining opportunities for FareStart students while also increasing the amount of children accessing farm-fresh meals.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities:Seattle Tilth did gardens with 3 schools,impacting over 200 children and staff. Tilth focuses on planting seeds,composting and worm bins,and harvesting produce. Parent Meetings-hands-on cooking classes this year to parents in low-income communitiesand food prep demos at parent meetings.We facilitated parent meetings and cooking classes in English and Spanish.Parents sampled menu items and learned to prepare healthy foods at home like kale,beets,quinoa and healthy snacks for kids. Puppet Shows-6 puppet shows were performed reaching 200 children and staff and included hands on cooking activities making carrot and parsnip slaw and sauteed bok choy.Site Visits-18 site visits to schools engaging kids in hands-on activities that support our menu and expose kids to new foods; making kale smoothies and chips, kale/spinach salad, rhubarb yogurt, rhubarb applesauce, rhubarb smoothies, taste-testing tomatoes and berries and making fresh salsa.600 children, staff, and parents were impacted.Data Gathering-Visited 11 schools to observe lunch and child eating behavior to gather feedback about menus, resulted in most items being eaten by children when adults eat the menu items with them. Three new centers signed contracts this year increasing our meals by 180 meals daily. Events-Attended Fresh Food in Schools Summit and Hunger Action Forum. Connected with new farms and vendors at the Fresh Foods summit in Olympia. Services:Training - FareStart provides job training to homeless and disadvantaged people.642 students were trained in school meals, working with local seasonal foods. Products:Menus-created 3 seasonal menus:spring,summer and fall/winter introducing new food items to 1,308 kids in city schools and providing 210,328 meals to these schools during the grant year. Foodsinclude:kale,lentils,quinoa, rhubarb,mushrooms,daikon,parsnip,cranberries,beets,black beans,garbanzo beans,eggplant,yogurt and avocado-based dips.FareStart also provided nutritionally analyzed and qualifying recipes for children on the WA Dept of Ag farm to school website recipe bank. Farms-FareStart continued to buy local products directly from local growers and producers to expand their market and allow communities to provide their own food needs. FareStart directly purchased from 17 local farms and vendors, including Viva Farms,Heritage Meats,Full Circle Farm,Willie's Greens, Medallion Pasta,Oxbow Farm,American Produce Express,Tiny's Organic, Ralphs Greenhouse,Carpinitos,Magana Farm,Mosby Farm,Maltby Farm,Stone Fruit Farm,Sakuma Farm,Pacific Coast Fruit and Coeur D'Alene Bakery. FareStart purchased 19% of school food product on direct local food purchases from farms and local vendors, spending $23,000 for the grant year.Dissemination:more low-income children and adults benefitting from consumption of and learning about healthy, nutritious meals. Local farms and vendors were able to create markets to distribute their product to a larger audience, increasing the supply of and demand for local products. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals: Project manager - Adrienne Easter; Project Coordinator - Sonnet Lauberth; Chefs - Guillermo Valencia, Charmaine Ha, Lai Pham; Drivers - Morgan Riley, Rob Vicks, Michael Cain, Allen Karpinski, Warrick Tulloss; Food steward - Bob VanBogart; Food Broker - Abbi Little; Three dietetic interns working on food service rotations. Partners: 27 schools including FAME, Neighborhood House, Montessori schools, Head Start programs; Washignton Department of Agriculture and King County Department of Public Health. Collaborators: 17 local farms and vendors, including Viva Farms, Heritage Meats, Full Circle Farm, Willie's Greens, Medallion Pasta, Oxbow Farm, American Produce Express, Tiny's Organic, Ralphs Greenhouse, Carpinitos, Magana Farm, Mosby Farm, Maltby Farm, Stone Fruit Farm, Sakuma Farm, Pacific Coast Fruit and Coeur D'Alene Bakery. TARGET AUDIENCES: Low-income inner city school children, low-income parents and families, early childhood educators, school administrators, homeless men and women. Local farms and inner city food distibution channels and markets for produce and local product delivery. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: This year's drought created harsh climates for certain produce making it unavailable or off our normal seasonal rotation, therefore not lining up for purchase with menu rotations. We changed produce vendors to aquire smaller varietal apples and pears for child portions of whole fruit. Local small farms struggle to provide enough quantity of certain produce items or the size and quality is inconsistent and difficult to use in a training production kitchen. We have expanded markets for local farms but we still are required to pick up produce at ceretain farms due to lack of delivery or bad delivery times. Many farms delivery Friday afternoons or evenings for weekend restaurant use but school meal production requires weekday morning and early afternoon delivery, preferably Tuesday-Thursday. Many times we went through large vendors such as Charlie's Produce instead of direct from farms due to poor delivery availability. Also, small farms don't have access to refrigerated vehicles resulting inpoor quality during summer deliveries including produce that had wilted in the heat coming from agricultural areas 2-5 hours away from the city.
Impacts
Change in knowledge: Both parents and FareStart trainees increased their knowledge of local, seasonal produce and were willing to try foods and make new foods at home based on the knowledge of cooking and menu planning. Many parents were shocked to see their children eating new and unfamiliar foods so willingly. In our class on kale and quinoa at Wellspring Early Learning Center, a parent, Mandy, made kale chips with her 2-year old and commented that "it was strange to see him dive in without hesitation." She later told staff "I was impressed. Maybe I should give him more of the foods I don't eat. It gave me the idea to try new things." Another parent in that same class, Rebecca, commented that "it was a really good experience for both me and Sean. I think about healthy eating but am not sure how to do it. Trying that food today was good. Now I know I could make that for myself and kids. Just tasting those different things I know I can do it. We're definitely going to be trying more things now because of today. It was very beneficial. I'm glad I went." Our site visits to classrooms not only increased children's knowledge of unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, but increased staff knowledge as well. Many staff members were previously unfamiliar with local produce like kale and were excited to see how simple it was to prepare. Change in action: As a result of our site visits to classrooms, children began to eat more previously unfamiliar items in their lunch, including kale, salads, quinoa, and baby bok choy. Staff members were also more supportive of our menu and were happy to try new items themselves. Parents also began to cook healthier foods at home. Rebecca's son Sean made kale chips for his older brothers at home and was proud to be able to share something he had made with them. Their family now makes kale chips at home regularly for a healthy snack. All About Kids preschool director in West Seattle writes "I hear Alex (a child who is the MOST picky eater) actually enjoyed the kale smoothies. His mom was so happy and took the recipe home. I have been passing the recipe out to parents, and they were very impressed that FareStart came to cook with their children." Change in conditions: We increased healthy food options at La Escuelita Bilingual School in Greenlake and Columbia City. Their previous food provider was not using fresh meals and now their students and staff have access to healthy, freshly-made lunches on a daily basis. Due to the increasing quantity and complexity of food allergies, we began a stricter tracking system for children with food allergies in our database and kitchen. All children with allergies have specific food labels with their name and allergy attached to their food to prevent cross-contamination and confusion upon serving. We are continuing to explore database options that will help make allergy-tracking more efficient.
Publications
- FareStart Newsletter Fall/Winter, October 2011. Distributed to 27 schools including staff, students, and parents. Highlighting local seasonal food, healthy eating, menu planning and recipes, activities for families around nutrition and access to local healthy food.
- FareStart Newsletter Spring, March 2012. Distributed to 27 schools including staff, students, and parents. Highlighting local seasonal food, healthy eating, menu planning and recipes, activities for families around nutrition and access to local healthy food.
- FareStart Newsletter Summer, July 2012. Distributed to 27 schools including staff, students, and parents. Highlighting local seasonal food, healthy eating, menu planning and recipes, activities for families around nutrition and access to local healthy food.
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Educational Activities: Puppet show -6 puppet shows for multiple childcares and schools totaling 240 kids in attendance. The puppet shows highlighted a rat and chicken character. The chicken loves healthy fresh local produce and the rat eats fast food and junk food. Each seasonal puppet show highlights that seasons produce and the rat learns something new about fruits and vegetables. Gardens- Seattle Tilth provided barrel gardens to four schools for over 200 kids and 15 parents. The gardens are done in a three part curriculum provided by Seattle Tilth that focuses on planting seeds, composting and worm bins, harvesting produce. Show and tell and cooking at schools- Visited 20 school classrooms bringing produce in its raw state for interactive show and tell as well as hands on menu items that the kids created with the seasonal produce. Included: root vegetables, mushrooms, pears, apples, potatoes, asparagus, greens, carrots, parsnip, beets. Parent meetings- Provided nutrition and menu planning classes for parents of the kids receiving FareStart meals. Covered healthy snacking, sugar, how to gets kids to eat vegetables/new foods, menu planning on a budget and cooking with new foods for 242 parents at 7 meetings. Services: Training- FareStart provides job training to homeless and disadvantaged men and women. They are trained in the contract kitchen creating meals for schools. 593 students were trained in school meals, working with local seasonal foods. Products: FareStart created 3 seasonal menus: spring, summer, fall/winter introducing new food items to 1165 kids in local city schools and provided a total of 220,756 meals to these city schools during the grant year. Foods include: figs, jicama, kale, lentils, quinoa, salmon, rhubarb, mushrooms, daikon, parsnip, cranberries. Dissemination: more low-income children and adults benefiting from consumption of and learning about healthy, nutritious meals Products: FareStart developed contracts with local farms and vendors to buy local products directly from local growers and producers to expand their market and allow communities to provide their own food needs. FareStart directly purchased from 5 local farms and vendors including Viva Farms, Heritage Meats, Full Circle farm, Willie's Greens and Medallion Pasta. FareStart increased local food purchasing by 12%, spending over $23,000 on direct local food purchases. Dissemination: Develop a reliable year round market for local producers. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals: Project manager- Adrienne Easter Project coordinator- Sonnet Lauberth Chefs- Guillermo Valencia, Ron Flynn Charmaine Ha, Lai Pham Drivers- Morgan Riley, Jeff McClain, Rob Vicks, Michael Cain Food Steward- Bob VanBogart Food Broker- Abbi Little Partners: 30 schools including FAME, Neighborhood House, Montessori schools, Head Start programs Collaborators: Farms and vendors- Heritage Meats, Viva Farms, Full Circle Farm, Willies Greens, Medallion Pasta Seattle Tilth TARGET AUDIENCES: Low-income inner city school children, low-income parents and families, educators, school administrators, homeless women and men. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: A poor agriculture season in Washington state due to weather delayed growth of crops or resulted in crops production too small for purchase. This reduced the amount of local produce purchased throughout the grant cycle, primarily summer months that typically provide the highest volume of local produce.
Impacts
Change in knowledge: Both parents and FareStart trainees increased their knowledge of local seasonal produce and were willing to try foods and make new foods at home based on the knowledge of nutrition and menu planning. Change in actions: An average of 5 of 7 school children ate new vegetables they were originally hesitant to try after they had experienced hands on interactive play or food production of that vegetable. Greens, specifically Kale was not something kids were willing to try but after tearing the kale, cutting up ingredients and mixing to make kale chips and kale smoothies, the kids were willing to try what they made and reacted positively. We then introduced a menu item, raw kale and spinach salad with pear vinaigrette dressing and the kids ate the salad. Quote: As a result of our puppet show and site visits to their school, her daughter is now requesting fruits and vegetables in her lunch. Her daughter frequently relates herself to the puppet show characters and told her mother she "was eating like the rat and wants to eat like the chicken." They now use the terms "rat" and "chicken" to discuss food choices around their home. Her son talks about Chef Ron and is always very excited when the monthly menu comes home from school. -Parent at West Seattle Montessori , July 2011 Change in conditions: Local farms and producers were unable to deliver local products to inner cities. FareStart's cycle menu using multiple items of local food at a high volume for local schools provided a dependable, stable market for local producers that allowed them to deliver to FareStart. Once they were able to deliver to the city on a weekly basis knowing that we were able to continually purchase, local producers and farms were able to add on to their routes with other meal providers and food services in the city and expand the local market. Quote: This is a powerful grant and your local purchasing dollars are clearly making a difference with small to medium sized producers, manufacturers, and distributors. Because of Farestart's purchasing power and with the help of the grant it is enabling small to medium sized producers to sell large amounts of their products. With your purchasing of local ground beef, Heritage Meats is able to sell other cuts of meat in this marketplace - most restaurants don't want the ground beef. And his transportation costs are lowered with your purchase. Your local dry pasta purchases have enabled a producer, Medallion Pasta (who does not deliver) to be stocked within a larger distributor (Peterson's). Peterson is now positioning this line as a local alternative to Borella or the national brands. -Abbi Little of Abbis Northwest , May 2011
Publications
- FareStart Newsletter Summer, June 2011. Seasonal. Distributed to 30 schools including staff, students and parents. Highlighting local seasonal food, healthy eating, menu planning and recipes, activities for families around nutrition and access to local healthy food.
- Newsletters: FareStart Newsletter Fall, November 2010. Seasonal. Distributed to 30 schools including staff, students and parents. Highlighting local seasonal food, healthy eating, menu planning and recipes, activities for families around nutrition and access to local healthy food.
- FareStart Newsletter Spring, March 2011. Seasonal. Distributed to 30 schools including staff, students and parents. Highlighting local seasonal food, healthy eating, menu planning and recipes, activities for families around nutrition and access to local healthy food.
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