Feeding Community

The past two Thursday evenings I have had the opportunity to cook and serve food at The West Nashville United Methodist Church. Community members (most of whom are homeless) come to the church dining hall every Thursday evening to receive a warm, home cooked meal. Each week meals are prepared by church members and volunteers from the community.

As someone with an interest in the food movement, I work with local produce all the time and think about ways to get local produce on the table. In the process of all of this I often overlook the basic need to get any type of food on the table. It sounds like a silly thing to forget, as this really is (in my opinion) the biggest problem in our food system. How can we create ways to distribute food equally in our community? How can we create a fair food system? I'm sure we have all left food uneaten on our plates before, only to hear from an annoying sibling or friend,  "Don't leave that uneaten! There are starving children in Africa." And yes, while there are starving children in Africa, there are also starving children in Nashville. Perhaps the point of this statement is not to draw attention to the need of aid in Africa, but to point out the absurdity of the abundance of food on my plate, when there are people in the world who don't know where their next meal will come from. I take for granted the fact that I know I will never starve. Between where I work and my family, there is always food available to me.

They are doing their part at the United Methodist Church to get food on everyone's plate. As well as hosting the Thursday community meal, on Saturdays they host "The Little Pantry That Could" in their church basement. Saturday mornings anyone can come by the pantry and receive a bag of food. No questions are asked about income or job and everyone is welcome to come stock up.

Serving the homeless is a good reminder to me as to why I do the work that I do. I hope to make my community less hungry and more healthy.

Kitchen Time

Recently I have been spending a lot of time in our warehouse kitchen. My schedule has allowed me to cook, whether it be when I am teaching or preparing a meal with coworkers. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that the good food crew is all about good eating. Someone is always cooking something in the kitchen, as it is almost impossible not to when one is surrounded with a bounty of local produce. Needless to say, this job has allowed me to cook way more than I ever have before.

Last week I experimented with cooking and canning fruit which I could then offer to the community at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. After I was handed boxes of strawberries I was given the task of cooking them down. Having never done this before I went into the task a little apprehensive, as being a semi new cook I am still not totally confident that everything I make will come out tasting delicious, especially when there is no recipe to follow. Fortunately the strawberries came out quite tasty and I felt pleased with my product as I screwed the lid on the last Mason Jar which now contained a bright red pulp.

When sampling out and talking to people about the strawberries on Saturday I felt a sense of pride in the product I had produced. It made me think about the sense of pride a farmer must feel when they are finally able to sell produce they have been investing in since it was a tiny seed. Not that my task can really compare to the strenuous work that a farmer has to complete each day, but I felt a sense of ownership over my little creation. 

The Beginning

Welcome to my blog! I am so excited to begin this ten month AmeriCorps job with Good Food for Good People and The Carrot Academy. As a Native Nashvillian I am motivated to provide this great city with healthy, fresh, local food.  

Although this will be my second time serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer, what I hope to gain from this experience is a little different than my previous one. Prior to working for Good Food for Good People, I was teaching gardening and science full time in an elementary school. I wanted to teach children about where food comes from and how one can create a sustainable food system in their community. Sounds simple, right? Well little did I know all the factors that would go into making this something the students really understood and cared about. To do so I had to start at square one and teach them what it means to be sustainable in our daily lives and why we want to strive to do so. By the end of the year my students understood why we should eat locally grown produce. This position strengthened my skills as an educator and gardener. 

My current role will allow me keep teaching but also work with a wider range of people. I have set some goals for myself and what I would hope to get out of this experience: 

• Learn effective ways to bring healthy, fresh food to people in low income communities
• Gain new teaching strategies for large groups and older students
• Familiarize myself withe the Nashville food community and where change needs to be made and what needs have to be met
• Have a better understanding of the farm to table movement and learn more about farming and agriculture 

Out of these goals I am positive that there will be other areas I discover.  Please check back for updates on the projects I am working on. Thanks for reading!

-Paige