picture courtesy FoodCorps
FoodCorps fosters child nutrition education through the institution of school gardens .
Schoolyard community gardens are the centerpiece of one burgeon establishment ’s delegacy to grow a new coevals of participants in the sustainable - food movement . Part of the AmeriCorps meshwork , FoodCorpsburst onto the tantrum last year with accompaniment from a federation of partner organisation , include Slow Food USA and the National Farm to School web . Its missionary station : to combat childhood corpulency through hand - on nutrition Education Department , bringing high - quality local food into public - school cafeterias and creating and tendingschool gardens .
“ Childhood obesity impacts all Americans , ” says Cecily Upton , co - founder and service program director at FoodCorps . “ We link the need for opportunity with the pauperization for more thrill on the ground . ”
FoodCorps plug in multitude who are thirsty to start careers in intellectual nourishment and agriculture with school and organizations that do n’t have the resources to create their own school gardens and related educational programs . Based on the organization ’s reception alone — it receive more than 1,200 app for just 50 Robert William Service member positions for its initiative yr of armed service — this desire to make a dispute by promote youth to take an interestingness in their food is more relevant than ever . And it ’s a worthy cause , considering the U.S. Department of Agriculture ’s data demo that only 2 percent of American child eat enough fruit and vegetable .
FoodCorps is presently active in 10 states — Arizona , Arkansas , Iowa , Massachusetts , Maine , Michigan , Mississippi , New Mexico , North Carolina and Oregon — with military service locations including the John Hopkins Center for American Indian Health , Arkansas Children ’s Hospital Research Institute and the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University , among others . In addition to its boots - on - the - ground approach , the organization has also created a garden grants program , which grant 1,000 grants of $ 2,000 each to help residential district establish school garden on their own .
Since its official launching in August 2011 , FoodCorps ’ first 50 Robert William Service members have wield to place hundreds of pounds of localsweet potatoesonto school cafeteria trays , regenerate and make 137 schooltime and community gardens , and engage 250 volunteer , all with just a modest stipend of $ 15,000 per year and seemingly bottomless quantity of support from their communities . Service penis also receive benefit , include health insurance policy , breeding and mentorship , and fond child care reimbursements .
“ They puzzle out very , very hard , ” Upton says . “ They ’re committed to this work and see so much time value in it . ”
In just six months , the FoodCorps model looks like working . Its programs are thriving . Upton says that more than half of its service of process member go for to stick with the system for another term ( they are modified to a four - year utmost ) .
Not astonishingly , there are cock-a-hoop design for FoodCorps ’ soph year . For the upcoming 2012 - 2013 program , the governance plans to increase its Book of Numbers to 100 service phallus nationwide and , pending funding , add political platform in two additional state : Connecticut and Montana . coating for the upcoming service year will be accepted until midday on March 25 . As the establishment go on to farm and broadcast its semen of change , one question remains : What legacy will it leave behind ?
“ The question of legacy is an important one . That ’s something we ’re asking ourselves right now , ” Upton sound out . “ We need to serve rest the groundwork and capacity so that finally , the residential area understand the value of this type of study and [ is ] able to take it upon [ itself ] to engage the students in this type of learning . ”
