An Apple a Day Will Transform Traditional Food Drives

As Americans brace for the holiday season, they’ll also take a cue to begin collecting canned vegetables and boxes of rice, pasta and stuffing to donate to local food drives. While this is an important annual tradition for the one in seven Americans relying on food banks, it’s a custom overdue for a makeover.
In hopes of replacing those boxes of canned goods with loads of vegetables, fruits and other nutritious items, the charity platform AmpYourGood is teaming up with nutrition education program Veggiecation to raise awareness through An Apple A Day, an online food drive.
Kicking off on Oct. 24, Veggiecation will launch An Apple A Day to collect a group of ingredients needed to prepare simple, plant-based recipes on AmpYourGood’s crowd-feeding platform. The initiative is part of the annual campaign Food Day, which drives awareness for healthy eating and improving food policies.
AmpYourGood’s crowd-feeding platform, similar to crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, encourages users to purchase nutritious food items that are delivered directly to the organization in need. Instead of donating cheap, unhealthy items, Americans can help transform food drives to focus on fresh, nutrition-rich food.
With more than 50,000 food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and other services helping fight food insecurity in the United States, online campaigns like AmpYourGood’s crowd-feeding platform give Americans an opportunity to help the hungry tackle one of the biggest issues they face: access to nutritious food.
As we’ve learned, when a hungry person on food stamps is given the choice to buy an apple over a carb-laden bag of chips, they’ll likely choose the unhealthy snack to satiate their appetite. But if we could start encouraging more online food drives that instantly provide fresh produce and healthy options, we could begin changing the fundamental ways in how we help the hungry.
MORE: Want to Do Something Easy to Help Feed the Hungry this Christmas? Here You Go.

Big Bets: How to Grow Healthy Eaters

Curt Ellis’ favorite childhood memory is sitting with his father in the family’s garden, watering tomato plants. “There’s something really special that comes from getting your hands in the dirt and doing something that you know how to do,” says Ellis, who co-founded FoodCorps in 2009 with five like-minded friends to give kids across the country that same experience. FoodCorps deploys service members to work with local community organizations in cities and towns in 15 states. They spend a year teaching nutrition, starting school gardens and working with local farms to bring fresh food into school cafeterias.
WATCH: Our Q&A with Curt Ellis and FoodCorps service member Meghan McDermott
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Community Building Through…Baking?

How can you simultaneously teach students about math, science, reading and community service? By baking bread. Through the King Arthur Flour company’s Bread Baking Program, New Hampshire students learn bread baking techniques in school. Then they go home to bake two loaves of bread with their families, and bring one back to give to Rockingham Community Action. The entire student body of Lincoln Akerman School participates in the program: K-3 students create labels for the bread, 4th-7th grade students bake the bread, and 8th grade students bring soup to be served with the bread. Students learn about the process of baking bread, and use math and reading skills to measure ingredients and follow recipes, while giving back to the community in the process.

Want to Teach Kids About Food? Make Them Grow Their Own.

In Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley, community farms are giving students hands-on opportunities to learn about nutrition, biology and food production. Many of the city schools in the area have implemented school gardens, and teachers collaborate with farmers to expose students to agriculture on a larger scale. The educational programs embrace the valley’s agricultural heritage and get more local food into school cafeterias and students’ homes. Kids are not only learning  to cultivate plants and understand life cycles, but also trying healthy foods they may not have eaten before. An added bonus: the experiential learning gets students physically active as they dig, weed, water and plant. Talk about a fresh idea.

Can a Simple Lesson Really Persuade Kids to Finish Their Broccoli?

Kids don’t always take home the lessons they learn in school, but a new study found that low-income kids are improving their eating habits in response to several nutrition education programs. The study evaluated groups of families from three different states who participate in SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and found that certain nutrition education programs were effective in getting those kids to increase their fruit and vegetable consumption. The programs that worked best included lessons in school combined with take-home exercises designed to involve parents in figuring out how to work healthy, fresh foods into the family budget.

How to Teach Kids about Food Beyond the Grocery Store

Most kids in American schools think that food just comes from the grocery store. So a new curriculum for first and second graders gives teachers and students an opportunity to talk about the more complex reality. Jones Valley Teaching Farm, an urban farm in Birmingham, Alabama, uses the curriculum on-site and in schools, teaching students about everything from planting seeds to marketing produce. The farm also partners with Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi to tell the stories of people working in the food industry across the south. A version of the kit for older students is now in the works to make the curriculum available to more schools.