While young people often have the reputation of being picky eaters and filling their plates with only chicken nuggets and French fries, that’s hardly applicable to all teens and twenty-somethings. In fact, in 2014, many youth are working to solve the crucial problems of our food system — including childhood obesity, food deserts and high prices.
Enter Food Tank, a think tank that’s working to build a global community for healthy eaters. It has set its sights on young people who are developing and employing local ideas that can, and already are, having a widespread impact where it really matters. Here, three foodies that make Food Tank — and us — excited about the (edible) future.
Can you imagine having an online cooking show and publishing a cookbook all before you turned 15? That’s exactly what Remmi Smith did — and that’s not all the Tulsa, Okla. resident is doing to inspire her fellow teens to cook nutritious meals. She’s also a student health ambassador for Sodexo, a food service company, and is a member of Future Chefs, which helps urban teens find work in the restaurant industry after graduation.
Tyson Gersh, 25, is playing the long game with Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI), a nonprofit organization he founded that works directly with communities to convert empty lots into working produce farms. With an aim to “promote education, sustainability and community,” as its website says, MUFI’s 2,500 volunteers are creating a new generation of self-sufficient, local food producers, while also making people more aware of the origins of their food.
We all know that kids love sweets, and it’s okay to indulge them once in a while. At the young age of 13, Nicky Bronner wasn’t about to lay down when his parents tried to deprive him the processed junk foods he loved. So he and his father started Unreal Foods, a brand of sweets made from sustainable palm oil, grass-fed dairy and traceable cocoa and excluding corn syrup, GMOs and preservatives. Today, at 17, Nicky’s candy is now available at big chains like Target and Kroger, putting healthier snacking delights into mouths all over the U.S.
Read about the other innovators at EcoWatch.
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Meet The Councils Putting Local Food on Tables Nationwide
It goes without saying that America is a melting pot of different cultures, customs and people. Traveling from one state to another or one region to another can be like entering a new country. But for all of our differences, we’re united by one thing: Our love of food.
And although the type of food varies by state, we all want access to the best — which, for many, means local food. But for others, that isn’t a viable option due to the lack of access or inability to afford it.
That’s where food policy councils come in. A phenomenon found in every state in the country, these conglomerates of stakeholders work to create policies and laws to help develop the economic, environmental and social infrastructure needed in a local food system.
Of all of the councils in the county, Sustainable Cities Collective recently highlighted their top six champion councils. Here’s a look at a few of these pioneers.
1. Knoxville-Knox County Food Policy Council, Knoxville, Tenn.
This group got things started back in 1982, as the first food policy council in the world. It was created by a government law, and when first recruiting members, it had three main criteria: “ties to government, working knowledge of food industry and experience in neighborhood and consumer advocacy.”
Since then, it’s definitely proved its worth. In order to make grocery stores more available to its citizens, it expanded the city and county bus routes and mapped out the local grocery stores. It also worked in the schools, expanding breakfast and lunch programs for students. Local food projects such as farmer’s markets and community gardens have been supported by the council as well.
The Council hasn’t stopped there, though. In addition, it has worked to pass ordinances to ease the local food movement, such as allowing residents to grow hens on their property.
2. Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition, Cleveland, Ohio
In 2007, the Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition popped up. Their focus has been on legislation, as well as creating and operating food programs.
So far, the coalition boasts Urban Garden District Zoning and Farm Animals and Bees legislation and an Urban Agriculture Overlay District Zoning policy on its list of accomplishments. And that’s just at the legal level.
As far as programming, the coalition is working to make farmer’s markets more accessible for low-income residents. Farmer’s markets now accept EBT (electronic benefit transfer) and SNAP as payment. Further, under Produce Perks, customers who use EBT at the market can get up to a $10 match on what they purchase.
Additional resources for residents include community food assessments and guidebooks such as Local Food Guide and Cleveland’s Healthy Food Guidelines.
3. Milwaukee Food Council, Milwaukee, Wis.
The Milwaukee Food Council is another group focused on policy and programming. It’s responsible for the 2010 honey ordinance allowing residents to keep bees and the 2011 eggs ordinance giving people the ability to grow chickens for eggs.
In addition to partnering with many local groups, it works with the University of Wisconsin Extension and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with which it created the Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Audit that finds the possible legal barriers to urban agriculture.
And through its Healthy Food Access Work Group, it works to make local food accessible to low-income residents through incentives and programs.
To check out the other top councils, click here.
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Despite Adverse Weather Conditions and a Transient Population, a Garden Sprouts in a Desert
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While some find rolling hills and crystal clear lakes attractive, it’s an abandoned Las Vegas parking lot for others.
That’s the situation with Rosalind Brooks. Looking at the vacant lot across the interstate from Las Vegas’s moribund downtown, she saw the potential for something foreign in that area: a community garden.
Brooks has a degree in business, a master’s in education, has worked at various jobs and has two children, but from the moment she laid eyes on that lot, she knew this garden was her calling.
That vision came to fruition when the Vegas Roots Community Garden opened in March 2010 — becoming the first community garden in Las Vegas. Run entirely by volunteer labor, the garden covers an acre of land and produces organic herbs and vegetables as well as chickens. Most of the produce is either sold or donated to youth groups and senior centers.
The garden also boasts a demonstration permaculture garden run by the Greater Basin Permaculture. In this garden, artichokes, thyme, Echinacea, lettuce, sunflowers and pomegranates flourish. The garden isn’t just for the group though. Greater Basin Permaculture also hosts classes and weekly work parties to teach participants important gardening skills to keep the crops alive.
And while it hasn’t been difficult to keep the crops alive in the 115 degree Fahrenheit heat of Las Vegas, growing a supportive base in the area has been. Las Vegas isn’t a place where most people settle; rather it’s a place boasting a large turnover rate.
Because of that, many of the garden’s volunteers are from other places in the metro area. But this isn’t a discouraging factor for Brooks. The recent economic crisis has meant that more people are staying in the area.
Beyond that, though, the garden has served as an inspiration for others. Across the city, gardens are popping up in schools and churches, giving kids the access to healthy food, exercise, nature and job skills. In addition, there’s a growing farmer’s market scene.
For Brooks, all of the hard work has been completely worth it and her expectations for the future keep getting higher.
“I see the hand of God in every single thing we’ve done,” she told Grist.
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Purchasing Local Food Is Now Easier Than Making a Trip to the Supermarket
It goes without saying that you can buy just about anything on the internet — electronics, antiques, even the opportunity to find the love of your life. And now, as one Seattle company brings the organic farmer online, you can even purchase local produce.
It’s called Farmstr and it’s run by Janelle Maiocco — farmer, chef and the blogger behind “Talk of Tomatoes.” The website connects customers not just with local farmers, but ranchers and fishers, too.
For Maiocco, the idea sprouted from her concern about the food industry. Over the years, she noticed how many chemicals are ingested through our food, and she wanted to make organic food a viable option. So she started Farmstr, a simple solution with a simple process.
In order to be a seller on the site, the farmer must use all organic processes, which are vetted and checked. Once approved, the vendor can set up a seller profile and post the items for sale. For each transaction, Farmstr keeps 6.5 percent.
When an order is placed, vendors place the goods in one of the designated drop boxes around Washington State to be picked up by the customer. Currently, there are three drop boxes in Seattle and one each in Bellingham, Everett, Issaquah, Redmond and Tacoma.
So why do vendors and customers use the site? For customers, it’s a way to access fresh, high-quality, local food — often for better prices than what are available elsewhere. And for producers, it’s a way to expand the reach of their small farm operations.
Although Farmstr has yet to make a profit, the future is looking bright. As of May 2014, the website has raised $1.3 million in capital funding, and employs four full-time employees, two interns and is looking for two more for full-time workers.
More employees aren’t the only thing this startup is looking to add, though, as Maiocco hopes to expand the company into other areas outside the Pacific Northwest.
“I’m passionate about connecting local produce and consumers,” she told Sustainable Cities Collective. “I’m passionate about making good food accessible…The little guys, urban farmers, hobby farmers ― they need customers.”
And thanks to Farmstr, they have them. From the depths of cyberspace, Maiocco is making organic food a reality for producers and customers, one chemically-free vegetable at a time.
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This Nonprofit Is Helping Detroit Teens Cook Up a Successful Future
Once the bell rings, most high school students are out the door, spending their afternoons participating in extra-curricular activities or at their part-time job. However, for some teenagers in Detroit, the school day doesn’t end with the bell.
Once math, science and history classes are over, these students head to their next set of classes at the Detroit Food Academy (DFA), which instills leadership skills through food preparation lessons. Working with local educators, schools and food businesses, this after-school program shows kids the benefits of creating dishes that benefit people and the environment.
It all started back in 2011 as a summer program known as the Detroit Youth Food Brigade. Back then, the students worked with camp directors and local vendors to make and sell value-added food products at the East Market.
However, after two years, at the suggestion of Detroit Institute of Technology at Cody, and with funding from groups such as the Skillman Foundation and United Way, the year-round Detroit Food Academy was formed.
Now, the Academy operates out of the individual students’ schools. The fall semester is dedicated to cooking and event planning basics, as well as field trips to local farms and businesses where the students have the opportunity to participate in workshops with the owners and workers.
Then during the spring semester, students are given the chance to test their skills. For the entire semester, they develop their own food product, which is then presented at the end of the year “Market Day” event — a meal for family and friends at the school or a market at a local grocery store.
But the end of the academic year doesn’t mean goodbye for every student though. Some lucky graduates have the chance to intern for the entire summer at local businesses or farmer’s markets or be mentored by a local chef. This past year, 100 students from six different public, charter and Educational Achievement Authority schools in Detroit were a part of the after-school program. And of those, 25 had summer internships.
Through it all, the DFA focuses on three main values: people, planet, profit. For students this means that their product and all of their business plans must respect the people around them, the environment and the market place.
Over the years, 225 students have participated in DFA programs and consequently have benefited from the lessons.
Jen Rusciano is the executive director of DFA and has seen the progress. “We’ve definitely engaged a bunch of young people who after interacting with our program have developed more confidence and understand that our city is something to be proud of,” Rusciano told Seedstock. “If we can help them build a career out of it, we want to make that happen.”
Anyone can learn how to cook, but at the Detroit Food Academy, program directors are teaching their students the recipe to success. And it all starts with just a pinch of salt, opportunity and hard work.
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Is the Motor City the Next Culinary Mecca?
As you’ve probably seen on popular cooking shows such as Kitchen Nightmares or Top Chef, running a restaurant kitchen is a tough job.
But for some food entrepreneurs, the real difficulty isn’t with rude wait staff or a missing ingredient. Rather, it’s simply finding the space to operate. That’s why a local food network group, FoodLab Detroit, is stepping in to act as that much-needed intermediary and acting as a matchmaker for businesses and kitchen space with its Detroit Kitchen Connect (DKC), which opened its doors last August.
Currently, DKC has working relationships with 10 different businesses and is operating two kitchens in the Motor City. The first — called the Matrix Human Services — is located at the east side community center, while the second operates out of the St. Peter & Paul Orthodox Church in southwest Detroit. Both kitchens have between 1,200 and 1,600 square feet of cold and dry storage space as well as high-quality equipment including triple-stack conventional ovens, multiple burner stoves, preparation tables and a wide assortment of pots, pans and utensils.
So who uses these decked-out kitchens? Good Cakes and Bakes uses the space for prep work and baking, then moves their goods to their storefront to sell them. Working side-by-side with the bakers is the Michigan Pepper Company, producing its hot pepper sauce in the space.
Due to the wealth discrepancy of the area, the DKC charges different rates for their clients. For those businesses with financial difficulties, the fee is only $15 per hour. FoodLab members and vendors that sell their products at the local community markets, the charge is $18 per hour, where as businesses outside of Detroit pay the most at $30 an hour. The money saved has allowed the businesses to hire additional workers or invest in equipment, like delivery vans.
These businesses aren’t just paying for kitchen use, though. The DKC also provides a long list of additional services, including access to training workshops, peer mentoring, field trips teaching recycling and composting practices and a networking service through Keep Detroit Growing.
In less than a year, Devita Davison, the director of DKC, has seen how the group is benefiting the community: “We’re trying to create what we call an inclusive, equitable, and just local sustainable food economy,” she told Seedstock. “Detroit Kitchen Connect is really on the forefront of . . . using food as conduit to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in Detroit neighborhoods.”
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A Nonprofit That Helps Vets Get Involved in Sustainable Agriculture
They’re heroes on the battlefield. But once they return home, our veterans face joblessness, depression, homelessness, and suicide.
In Washington state, Growing Veterans is trying to fight these grave problems through the simple act of bringing former service members together to farm. Chris Brown, the founder of the nonprofit, told Briana Gerdeman of The Woodinville Weekly that a veteran once told him, “It’s nice to be able to plant something in the ground that will explode into life rather than into destruction.”
Brown is a Marine Corps veteran born and raised in Woodinville, Washington. After finishing his service, he went to college and started volunteering with the Veterans Conservation Corps, a veteran training program that helps restore and protect Washington’s natural resources. During his time with the organization, he saw first hand how rocky veterans’ transition into civilian life can be. Many of those that Brown met were interested in sustainable agriculture, so after he graduated in 2012, Brown launched his nonprofit to help members of the armed forces and grow healthy produce at the same time.
Growing Veterans employs seven soldiers at its main farm and seven more at partner farms, relying on the help of more than a hundred volunteers total. The farm work gives veterans a chance to connect with fellow soldiers and other volunteers who may not have served in the military.
Of the veterans who participate, Brown told Gerdeman, “Some of them are really interested in becoming farmers. Others just want to get outside or get involved in their community.” He said they welcome the chance to be “a part of something bigger than themselves…it’s something we all kind of long for, but veterans especially, because you’ve been with this group for so long. So it can be really huge for them, and therapeutic.”
What happens with the food that Growing Veterans raises? It’s sold to the community through Growing Washington CSA, where people can sign up to purchase food boxes of local, chemical-free produce that comes with the added bonus of helping veterans.
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Short on Cash? That’s No Problem at This Farmer’s Market
The way it typically works at a farmer’s market (and with just about every retailer, in fact): You pay money and in exchange, you go home with a bunch of fresh produce.
But at the go-go fresco farmer’s market in Charlotte, North Carolina, if you don’t have enough money to pay for your greens, you don’t have to worry.
Huh?
If you’re telling yourself that there must be a catch, there’s not. The farmer’s market frequently operates on the pay-what-you-can principle that’s already the basis for many cafés across the country.
Even better: You might not have to drive across town to visit go-go fresco, since it visits 10 different locations each week, with the goal of bringing fresh produce to people who might not be able to access it otherwise.
Two of the locations are designed to reach low-income families and that’s where patrons can pay what they care to — either the suggested price, a bit more to help another shopper out, or less if that’s all they’ve got. Go-go fresco also accepts food stamps and often donates produce (which it buys from local farmers) to the non-profits that host their mobile market: The YWCA and the Children and Family Services Center.
“We have good weeks and some bad weeks, but it balances out,” Nick Knock (who founded go-go fresco with Leconte Lee) told Mark Price of the Charlotte Observer. “It’s inspiring to see the hearts and generosity of people who don’t think twice about paying more so someone in need can get fresh food.”
Knock told Price that there have been a few times when he wondered if patrons were taking advantage of the pay-what-you-want option, “But then I saw that they only had $3.19 left on their (food stamp) account, and I got choked up. They were spending what little money they had left at our market. It was mind-blowing when you think they were able to get food because of us.”
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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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Who Does This Food Truck Want to Help Out? U.S. Vets
As it turns out, a little BBQ can cure more than just an empty stomach.
That’s exactly what wounded veteran Shane Farlin found out when trying to get back on his feet after leaving the Army. And now, he’s hoping to do the same for other soldiers with a food truck named Hogzilla.
Farlin had always wanted to be a soldier. Enlisting in the Army at the age of 17, he was later deployed to Iraq. In 2004, when returning from a supply mission in Fallujah, a bomb exploded in his face. A helicopter airlifted Farlin to treatment, saving his life, but the accident cost him one of his eyes. The injury also resulted in PTSD, and Farlin was discharged from the Army, leaving him with the need to find a new career.
He floundered for a while, spending four years interviewing for various jobs. To say that he was dispirited was an understatement — he was so low that once, he called the military suicide line.
Finally, Sonny Singh, the owner of a Michigan barbecue restaurant, Hogzilla, offered Farlin a job. The position made all the difference — lifting Farlin’s spirits and making him feel like a useful person again.
Now Farlin wants to provide jobs to other vets struggling to find work by opening up a food truck called Hogzilla Squeals on Wheels, with the hope of eventually expanding to an entire fleet of veteran-staffed food trucks (serving various types of cuisine). “I know vets make good employees,” Farlin told Kathy Jennings of Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave.
While food trucks are swarming cities from coast to coast, the trend hasn’t caught on yet in southwest Michigan’s Calhoun County, where Farlin’s vehicle would be the first full-service food truck in operation. Farlin is currently trying to raise the $50,000 he needs to get Hogzilla on the road through a Kickstarter page. So far he’s raised about $4,500.
Until Farlin’s food truck dreams are realized, he’ll continue to work in a vending trailer owned by the restaurant, forging agreements with private property owners to set up his trailer, as Battle Creek, Michigan does not yet allow food trucks on public property.
With any luck, Farlin will soon be serving up deep-fried macaroni and barbecue sandwiches and employing his fellow veterans.
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