Drink, Eat at Corks and Crayons and Support Purple Asparagus

Photo Credit, Artisan Events

Imagine a class full of children swearing that they hate vegetables. Not hard to envision, right? Come back in an hour and watch them swarm the teacher’s desk for any leftovers from their veggie tasting. Believe that? I’ve witnessed this transformation on hundreds of occasions while teaching in the Chicago Public Schools for the non-profit that I founded and run, Purple Asparagus.

Purple Asparagus educates children, families and the community about eating that’s good for the body and the planet. Every year, we present Delicious Nutritious Adventures, our cornerstone education program, to thousands of parents and children throughout Chicago at schools, community centers, and farmers' markets. Delicious Nutritious Adventures invites families to explore the foods we eat in an entirely different way. We teach about the farmers who grow the food, the places it comes from, what’s good about food grown close to the earth, and how to prepare healthy, delicious recipes. Combining nutrition education, food literacy, cooking, and fun, our highly popular hands on classes celebrate farm fresh fruits and vegetables.

Obesity is a national crisis, one that’s hit Chicago particularly hard. Overweight and obese children are at greater risk for diabetes, hypertension, increased risk of heart disease, and poor self-esteem. The issue is particularly prevalent in the underserved communities where good food is in short supply. Purple Asparagus is working to combat this issue in these communities by taking a new approach to healthy eating.

While teaching kids about healthy choices is a priority to Purple Asparagus, we’re sneaky about that message. Everything about our classes (even our name) is fun. Kids are more willing to try “healthy” foods when they’re not presented as such. A first grade boy will surely turn up his nose at a chickpea when told that it’s high in fiber and protein. Explain instead that its Italian name comes from its resemblance to a wart on a famous Roman’s face and he’ll climb all over his classmate’s to try it. Describe mint as a gum plant and a child’s resistance to the green leaves will melt. We explore food in a way that’s interesting and fun that makes kids happy to try new foods.

In the 2010-11 school year, we provided 250 hours of free educational programming to schools, community centers, farmer's markets, and health fairs in Chicago serving roughly 2,500 students in over 30 Chicago neighborhoods on a shoestring budget with an all volunteer staff. We also served as a lead partner with Healthy Schools Campaign on the largest coordinated response to Michelle Obama's call to chefs, Chefs Move to Schools. Through this program, we trained over 175 chefs who visited close to 200 schools reaching 8,000 children.

All this is great, you say, but how can I help? It couldn’t be a better week to ask this question. Purple Asparagus’ annual fundraiser, Corks & Crayons Benefit at Uncommon Ground, 1401 W Devon Ave, Chicago, on Sunday, August 28, 2011 from 3-7 p.m. The family-friendly event that brings foodies old and young together to celebrate the joys of family meals and healthy eating all for a good cause. The event will include a mini farmers’ market sponsored by Harvest Moon Organics farm, live music from Old Town School musicians, the Kohl Foundation Storybook Bus as well as Truck Farm Chicago, a traveling mini-farm exhibit connecting kids to food and health.

If you cannot attend, please consider bidding on our online auction. We have some terrific auction items to buy now as well as some new items coming on in the next few days - even for out of towners!

A Family-Friendy Alternative Meal Plan for Let's Move by Parent Blogger Michelle Stern

Not too long ago, I expressed my frustration with the Let’s Move Let’s Cook series of videos on the White House’s website. With poorly written recipes calling for hard to find ingredients (smoked paprika and haricots verts), I think that these meal plans have the potential to do more harm than good. While the White House and Chef Marvin Woods, the author of the original meal plan, ignored my criticisms, the Chicago Sun-Times incorporated them into a larger article on the Chefs Move to School program. Timing couldn’t have been better.

Ever since my critical post, I’ve been prodding several of my favorite bloggers to create alternative meal plans, ones that take into account the realities of everyday families. And today, we release them.

The first comes all the way from California. Michelle Stern owns What’s Cooking, a certified green company that offers cooking classes for children in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not only do her classes teach kids and their families to enjoy delicious homemade foods, but they also motivate families to use food and cooking to help those less fortunate. Like me, Michelle was invited to the White House, where she participated in the launch of Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move to Schools initiative. She has appeared on ABC's View From the Bay 7 times and was recently a guest on a radio show about Childhood Obesity. In addition, her blog won the 2010 Parent & Child Green Blog award from Scholastic. When she isn’t in the kitchen or at the computer, she’s the head chauffeur for her two children, dog walker to her two mutts, and chicken feeder for her backyard flock.

To check out her family-friendly meal plan, visit her blog, What's Cooking.

Action Required: Child Nutrition Act

This just in from the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children:

As many of you are aware, the federal Child Nutrition Act is (over)due for reauthorization. The Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously passed a strong child nutrition bill, Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act (S. 3307), out of committee, and last week, the House of Representatives passed their version of the bill, Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act (H.R. 5504), out of committee. Both of these bills reauthorize several major federal food programs including the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). However, if the Child Nutrition Act is not reauthorized before Congress goes on recess in two short weeks, we risk losing the historic investments and improvements for child nutrition programs included in the bills. For example, although at CLOCC we do not feel that the proposed meal reimbursement rate is adequate, if Congress does not take action now, schools would miss out on millions of dollars in meal reimbursements and the opportunity to finally get unhealthy food out of school vending machines. Please urge your Senator and Representative to work with their leadership to move their respective child nutrition bill to the floor and pass it now.

A model letter/email that you can adapt for your organization and send is provided below. (Remember: The more organizations that they hear from, the better!) Your email today can help make improvements to child nutrition programs a reality by the beginning of the next school year. Thank you for advocating on behalf of these bills.

Model Letter/Email:

Dear Senator/Representative _______________:

Congress has a lot on its plate this legislative session, but it needs to address what's on kids' plates - now! Renewal of the child nutrition programs has been delayed for a year. However, our children cannot wait any longer. More than 12.5 million American children are now considered obese or overweight. Also, in this tough economy, American families are struggling to make ends meet, and depend on the school lunch, breakfast, and other child nutrition programs to feed their families. If (insert the name of the Senate or House Child Nutrition bill) does not pass:
• Unhealthy food remains in school vending machines.
• Schools will lose millions a year in new meal reimbursements.
• There will be no new improvements to nutrition and physical activity in school and child care settings.
Please reach out to your leadership and urge them to move (the Senate or House child nutrition bill) to the floor for a vote now. I look forward to hearing from you about the prospects for passing (the Senate or House child nutrition bill) this summer.

Sincerely,
(Your name)
(Your organization

Growing Healthy Kids

The statistics are staggering. I'm not much for numbers and yet I can even quote the stats by heart:

- 1/3 of American children are obese (2/3 of American adults)
- For the first time since the marvels of modern medicine, health experts are predicting that children will have a lower life span than their parents (2-5 years)
- 10 percent of America's health care bills are obesity-related, whether it be treatment for diabetes, hypertension or joint injury and this doesn't even include mental health related costs
- Illinois has the fourth highest rate of childhood obesity.

It's bad.

To combat this national scourge, First Lady Michelle Obama recently announced her "Let's Move" campaign with an ambitious goal of ending childhood obesity in a generation. While I agree with some commentators that the initiative's dependence on industry cooperation seems too hopeful, I believe that the national attention brought about by this announcement moves the ball far down the field on this important issue.

In light of the recent unveiling of the White House program, I wanted to share some news of a local initiative intended to pool resources in this important battle.

On January 24, the non-profit that I founded, Purple Asparagus, with the help of a tireless committee,* spearheaded the first Growing Healthy Kids event at Logan Square Kitchen. The Sunday lunch meeting brought together approximately 30 organizations dedicated to educating children about nutrition, gardening, the environment, and, in general, how to lead a healthy lifestyle. It was an event that our board had long tossed around at our meetings. Ultimately, we wanted to provide groups working with Chicagoland kids around issues of food and wellness an opportunity to meet and learn more about one another so that we could find ways to collaborate. As we all know, the issues facing our city's children are huge and daunting and no one organization can solve them alone.


Photo Credit, Grant Kessler

In attendance were representatives from the following groups:

Academy for Global Citizenship
Chartwells Thompson Hospitality
Chicago Botanic Garden
Common Threads
Food Atelier
Fooditude
Fresh Connections
Green Sugar Press
Good Food Project
Gourmet Gorilla
Green City Market
Growing Power
Healthy Schools Campaign
NURTURE
Organic Life
Seven Generations Ahead
Share Our Strength
Slow Food
The Kids' Table
Urban Worm Girl
We Farm

Other groups, like CLOCC (The Consortium to Lower Childhood Obesity) and Openlands were unable to attend, but provided their contact information for upcoming events and programs of Growing Healthy Kids.

We were treated to a surprisingly delicious from Chartwells, CPS main food service company, who donated the winning lunch from Healthy Schools Campaign's 2009 Cooking Up Change Event: Chicken Jambalaya and Tomato and Cucumber Salad. We also enjoyed fair trade, sustainably raised coffee from Crop to Cup.


Photo Credit, Grant Kessler

We've heard almost uniformly positive comments from the event - the only small criticism was that it wasn't long enough. Imagine that, a 2 hour Sunday afternoon business meeting that wasn't long enough! It goes to show how much we have to say to one another.

Going forward, the Growing Healthy Kids list will act as a listserv providing to its members news about events like Seven Generations Ahead's Fresh From the Farm Training and CLOCC's meeting of the Healthy Teacher Network. We also plan to meet for an April GHK Green Drinks at Uncommon Ground to continue our networking efforts. Ultimately, we hope to organize a health fair that will be open to parents, teachers, and administrators who will be able to learn about the programs available to promote healthy lifestyles among their parents and students.

In a few weeks, Purple Asparagus will be posting on its site (www.purpleasparagus.com) the first version of the Growing Healthy Kids brochure, which provides information on the mission and initiatives of each of these organizations. It's already been a tremendous resource for those of us in the group and has set off a series of meeting between individual groups. For example, in just this week, I've had meetings or calls with CLOCC, Organic Life, and Fooditude.

If you know of an organization that should have been included, but wasn't, please email me at info@purpleasparagus.com. We want this group to be as expansive as possible.


The only effective way to achieve Mrs. Obama's important goal is to work together, children with parents, parents with schools, non-profits with for profits and of course other non-profits. To borrow a phrase from her campaign, let's stop citing statistics and wringing our hands and let's move.

Are you working on any programs in your communities to combat obesity? Please share any successes, challenges, etc.

*Committee members: Nancy Lufrano, Tim Magner, Nora Gainer, Sara Gasbarra, Melissa Tobias, Trish Rynolds, Ryan Kimura.