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| What is Food Security? The FRESH Summer Youth Crew learned all about this concept during their six-week crash course in food justice, food growing and food eating.
The 1996 World Food Summit defined food security as existing "when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."
Food Security is something that 1 in 9 people in the world don't have, including more than 21% of children here in the United States. In New London County, almost 13% of residents experience food insecurity. There is great network of community organizations in our area that are working to tackle this problem on multiple fronts.
For FRESH that means teaching, empowering, emboldening young people to take control of their food production and to build a sense of food sovereignty. And what does that look like? To Max, one of our Summer Crew Members, its "picking the weeds, planting the seeds, making some cheese. Sweating bullets, 80 degrees. We're doing good deeds."
The tomatoes are almost ready-- basking in the hot sun, getting riper every day. The kale is steady and hardy. The basil has bolted. Our beds are bursting with peppers-- hot and sweet and mild-- in a rainbow of colors. We have a delicious sofrito recipe to share with you later on in this email.
We are feeling pretty food secure around here. We are working so that everyone feels that way too. |
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In this issue:- Reportback from the FRESHENTATION
- Upcoming Events
- Recipe of the Month: Sofrito
- "I Tried It" by Trajan Murphy, Summer Vista
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This is our FRESHENTATION |
| | The FRESH Summer Crew Shared What They Learned and Loved |
| | | Juan: FRESH is more than just a local garden. FRESH is a place where I can be myself and feel safe.
Jorge: FRESH es un grande experencia
Corayls: I really enjoyed having a relationship with nature... and learning about environmental justice and racial justice.
Malik: I asked everyone to write down a word to describe FRESH. They wrote: Friendship. Cool. Responsibility. Safe. Fun. Someone wrote down "Vital" and I have to agree because FRESH gives us the opportunity to get organic food at affordable prices and gives us options. |
| Melissa Reflects on What Stood Out in Her First Summer with FRESH
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| The Food Sovereignty movement allows communities control over the way food is produced, traded and consumed. It could create a food system that is designed to help people and the environment rather than make profits for multinational corporations. The food sovereignty movement is a global alliance of farmers, growers, consumers and activists.
Most of us know that there is something wrong with the current food system. Most of us know that big businesses dominate our global food system. A small handful of large corporations control most of the production, processing, distribution, marketing and retailing of food.
This concentration of power enables big business to wipe out competition and dictate tough terms for their suppliers. It forces farmers and consumers into poverty and hunger.
Under this system, about one billion people are hungry and around two billion are overweight or obese.
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| Thank You to Everyone Who Helped Out at the FRESHENTATION: OIC and the NL Rec Department loaned us chairs, Robert Ramsey and his staff at the Montauk House Cafe who made amazing food, FRESH board members who brought desserts to share, and everyone who came to support and celebrate the young people of FRESH. |
| | | | Get Your Tickets to This GREAT Event Today! Click HERE for more information |
| | FRESH FARM STAND ON THURSDAYS |
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Come out and buy delicious, healthy produce grown, cared for and harvested by New London area youth.
We accept EBT and Farmers Market coupons.
We accept credit and debit cards.
Come on out!
Thursdays 4-6pm
FRESH Urban Farm Corner of Mercer & Williams |
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| | | | | | | RECIPE OF THE MONTH: SOFRITO |
| | Sofrito is a staple of Puerto Rican cuisine.
It can be used as a seasoning for rice or beans, mixed into vegetable or meat dishes for added flavor and color, or spooned on the side for a extra pizzazz.
Youth Organizer Erick Carrion brought the seeds for the Aji Dulce peppers from Puerto Rico and they have grown very nicely in our greenhouse.
We hope you enjoy this recipe as much as the FRESH youth did! |
| | | | Trajan Murphy, Summer Vista Staff, Reports on His Experiences! |
| I TRIED IT:
Bringing FRESH fruits and vegetables (AND FUN) to the Free Summer Meal Program |
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Okay, here's my story.
I became involved with FRESH about one year ago. Alicia, noticing my skill at talking with people, advised that I serve under Americorps VISTA, which is a federal program dedicated to alleviating poverty. As a VISTA through FRESH, I was to work with the Free Summer Meal Program in which free meals were distributed throughout the city of New London via New London Public Schools.
This job was two-fold. Part one was spreading the word about the free summer meal program. Part two was facilitating fun activities at the summer meal sites. To spread the word, I would knock on people's doors and inform them that there would be various sites in New London giving away free meals throughout the summer. If I had a lot of residences I needed to hit up, I would just hang the flyer on the door. I also contacted churches, local businesses, and health offices (such as dentist offices, TVCCA's, and the offices in Shaw's Cove), to ask them if I could put out some bookmarks, flyers, and/or business cards. Many of these facilities were more than happy to display.
The second part of the job was facilitating fun activities at some of the summer feeding sites. FRESH wanted me to devise recipes featuring fresh fruits and vegetables and have the children try some samples of these recipes. I made recipes such as Mexican inspired salad (a mixture of tomatoes, cilantro, and cucumbers), and strawberry pea salad (a mixture of strawberries, peas, and mint). A few weeks into the program, I asked the children what they wanted to do. Many of them wanted to do arts and crafts, but one site wanted to do dodgeball and four square.
Before I knew it, my ten weeks of service was up. And being a VISTA was definitely an affront to my comfort zone. Alicia may have noticed my talent at talking to people, but I could never start the conversation, I had to have other people do that for me. Now, I had to go up to people I don't know, who are minding their business and speak to them. That's an entirely different story. I was further discouraged by how much rejection I faced. Despite most of the businesses being willing to advertise these flyers for me, I faced a lot of apathy and standoffishness from the people whose doors I knocked. Why would you turn down summer meals? Aren't a lot of you struggling to get by?
The same with doing activities at the sites. I needed to find a way to introduce myself. I wanted to say "Hi everyone. I'm Trajan, and I'm from FRESH. FRESH is a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching the community about the current food systems, how a few corporations control most of the food we eat, and how we can gain that power back by growing our own fresh, healthy food." An eight year old going to these feeding sites is not going to understand that, or why it's important, so I had to find creative ways to better assimilate myself into these sites. I ended up just using stickers to incentivize trying the food samples.
I wanted to be regular at about eight sites. However, some of these sites had zero children going to them. I felt it was more important for me to concentrate my energy on sites that had many children. Doing it this way, I built some beautiful rapport with some of the children there. One of the children taught me how to make a bracelet out of those small silicone bands. I was glad to have been a part of these children's lives.
If I were to do it again, I would revolutionize how I outreached. I would reach out to site supervisors, apartment managers, etc. before I reached out to the children and residents respectively. I wouldn't let rejection, language barriers, and cultural differences discourage me so easily. I would put more effort to talk to my supervisor to make more specific plans with more specific goals. I would have used social media to advertise my exploits with the children. In doing so, I probably would have reached out to a larger portion of the community, and accomplished my goal of getting more children to participate in free summer meals. However, I believe that the people I did outreach, and the communities I did assimilate myself into, I made a significant impact.
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WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
Interested in supporting FRESH with a tax-deductible donation? Of course you are!! Donate Here or follow this link: http://www.freshnewlondon.org/donate/ |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Interested in visiting and volunteering at the farm?
At FRESH, we grow food with the community, for the community!
Our Saturday volunteer days connect you with the land to learn and grow. Whether you are an expert, or not, you’ll share and learn about urban growing, interact with new people from our beautiful community, and you will love your work. We provide volunteers with free snacks and drinks. Students and community members can earn service hours.
Come and work with us, and help us to build a better (more sustainable, more just and more beautiful) food system!
Every Saturday, rain or shine, between 9am and 1pm at our community garden at the corner of William and Mercer Streets.
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