Nearly half way through their year of service, our ten New Jersey Food Corps service members continue to exemplify the three pillars of FoodCorps-knowledge, engagement and access. Here’s an update on a few service members and what they’ve been doing through the colder months until the outdoor gardens can be utilized once again.
Brian Quilty, Rutgers Cooperative Extension Gloucester County
Brian has been doing many cooking activities at seven schools in Gloucester County this winter. To combat the lack of New Jersey produce, he has been introducing more exotic fruits and vegetables to the classrooms. Upon returning to school after the winter break, Brian has done avocado lessons. Needless to say, guacamole was a hit in the classes. Over the next month, he’ll be doing indoor garden plantings to fill the service site greenhouse in preparation for spring!
Thalya (Tilly) Reyes, New Brunswick Farmers Market
At Greater Brunswick Charter School (GBCS), “All About Food” Cooking students from Trimester 1 ended their course in early December 2014 with a sweet treat, Pumpkin Pie Smoothies! Volunteers came up and added each delicious ingredient to the blender including local pumpkin and maple syrup. After the trimester was over, Andres G. (pictured left in blue jacket), a 6th grader, commented, “I wish we were back cooking delicious foods with Miss Tilly!”
Tilly is currently building relationships with the Early Childhood Education centers in New Brunswick, including the Puerto Rican Action Board (PRAB) and Youth Empowerment Services (YES). She is also collaborating with New Brunswick High School, New Brunswick Middle School’s Environmental Club, two PRAB preschool sites and Pine Grove Manor Elementary (Franklin) to help them establish and scale up their school gardens. She is working on grant writing and fundraising as well as providing curriculum support. She is also planning the space for the New Brunswick Community Farmers Market children’s garden which will be renamed “Tierra de Chicos” (Land of Kids) when it is revitalized for the opening of the 2015 market season.
Amy Jacobs, Camden Center for Environmental Transformation
Amy feels settled into her regular programming at five Camden elementary and family schools including Sacred Heart, Sharp, Sumner, H.B. Wilson and Urban Promise. She is focused primarily on programming and in-class taste tests, and regularly sees over 200 students a week. Amy is also working with other FoodCorps Service Members on the Social Justice through a Food Lens for the Mid-Year Regional gathering, is participating in the Social Justice, Racial Equity, and Cultural Understanding in the Farm to School Movement CLIP (a conference-call based discussion group) and is writing her FoodTalk for the Gathering! She, like her fellow FoodCorps service members in New Jersey is staying busy in these colder months, looking forward to the warmer weather to come!
Alexis Sangalang, New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids, Camden
Alexis met with students from HB Wilson School’s “Helping Youth Pursue Excellence” (HYPE) program to “hype” them up about the school’s garden and their responsibilities for the year. Students from HYPE will be helping maintain the garden in the spring, assist in healthy taste tests and will be promoting the garden to their school community.
Alexis will start programming at Cooper B. Hatch School, teaching garden-based science lessons to Ms. Santarsiero’s 3rd and 4th grade classes. These students will be working in the newly built school garden this spring.
HYPE youth leadership students (pictured above) at HB Wilson School with Mrs. Barnes, the students’ wellness buddy, talking about plans for their spring garden.
Jamie Bruno, Greater Newark Conservancy
Hawthorne Ave Elementary School students in the South Ward of Newark, NJ celebrate the future school garden at Greater Newark Conservancy’s Hawthorne Hawks Healthy Harvest Farm (HHHHFarm) with a recently finished banner. The school garden has been long anticipated. HHHHFarm was named a year beforehand by students. A community build is in the works for early spring.
