Author: rynhal12

Growing Gardens – Week 7

2/20

The after school programs were canceled today due to snow 🙁 And I live 40 minutes from Growing Gardens and an hour from Glenfair so I didn’t want to risk driving across town as it is supposed to snow all day. Honestly a bummer because I love seeing the kids! We were going to do lessons on fruit today, pick some weeds in the garden and show the kids how to compost. Another set back is that next week I will be leading the class as my garden instructor will be on vacation! So hopefully I can link up with her later this week to prepare and go over lessons. I’m already assuming it will be an interesting experience by myself but fun nonetheless.

In place of missing out on hours today I’m going to catch up on my academic hours, which I will post about later in the week.

Farm to Fit – Week 7

2/19

3 WEEKS AND I’M GRADUATED!!!

Anyways, today at Farm to Fit was the same old same old. I peeled carrots for what it seemed like eternity (aka 4 hours) and went into chopping them diagonally (diagonal rondelle cut to us the fancy term) for an hour. I believe the carrots were going into a beef stew.

We breaked for lunch where Juan made us grilled cheese with leftover tomato soup on the side. Feeding employees at lunch is a good way to reduce food waste and make your employees happy!

Today was a pretty lax day as it is the last day of my food prep section. It was a nice perspective to see the transition of food go from from whole to diced/cubed/chopped to cooked down. Farm to Fit doesn’t buy prepackaged or ready to heat up food, they quite literally make everything from scratch to commit to their promise of delicious food. They use a specific math to make sure their yields for packaged meals is not too much or far too little. In my time working food prep, I came across a lot of organic products, while maybe not local as in Oregon local, a lot of the food comes from this coast. It’s funny because when I was hired on, my supervisor thought maybe this wouldn’t be the best fit in terms of my academic interests in local and sustainable food. Working here thus far has made me realize how underrated their sustainable practices are and their commitment to 6% or less food waste. Everything they do is in consideration to being sustainable whether they realize it or not.

I also noticed how hard the employees work considering they are preparing food from 7 am to 3-5 pm, doing hand motions and lifting things that is repetitive. After 5 hours of it my limbs get tired enough. On top of that almost every employee I met enjoyed their job and eachothers company.

Next week I switch to delivery, which should be interesting. Stay tuned!

 

Academia – Week 6

2/18

This weeks readings involved exploring websites that Sarah linked me to in relation to school gardens!

Food Span

Food span is ““free, downloadable curriculum provides high school students with a deep understanding of critical food system issues, empowers them to make healthy and responsible food choices, and encourages them to become advocates for food system change.”

  • there are 17 lessons within 3 units. Ex) Unit 2: farmers, factories and food chains – lesson 1 is crops: growing problems and lesson 2 is animals: field to factory —  lesson plan, powerpoint, student handouts
  • for grades 9-12
  • They used a term “field to plate” which I haven’t heard before, kind of like an alternative of “farm to table”
  • The lessons end with a cumulative group project called “Food Citizen Action” where students design an intervention to address food system issues 
  • An alignment chart was included where teachers can see the topics that students will learn and what grade/credit it relates to
  • They try to source to social media with #FoodSpan

All in all I think it is a great lesson plan to implement into highschool. I never learned anything related to food systems when I was in grade school but I think this could fit well in a health related class! Social media use is always a way to engage students as it is so abundant in their lives.

USDA Farm to School Census

This census focuses on schools across the United States that utilize farms or gardens as lesson plans. The website is colorful, interactive and easy to access. What I thought was cool is you could solely search for your school districts farm to school statistics so I looked up information on Glenfair Elementary in the Reynold School District (the school I intern at), that information is found below.

  • 42% of school participate = 42,000 schools
  • More than 96 percent of schools report that they are successfully meeting the updated nutrition standards by serving meals with more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; lean protein and low-fat dairy; and less sugar, sodium, and fat.
    • My comment on this I remember in high school (higher income) where we retired a lot of “yummy” but unhealthy foods and replaced it with “healthier” cookies, whole wheat tortillas, whole wheat pretzels (still with nacho cheese). Yet the elementary school I intern at has a school garden and they still eat little pizzas every tuesday with sugary strawberry mashes and chocolate milk. Most wont eat their fruit they are provided. It’s easy for the USDA to generalize but in the low income school I’m at even with a garden, this statistic doesn’t exactly apply. Is Glenfair that 4%?
  • 55% of Oregon school districts participate – Over $13,000,000 invested in local foods

When I looked up information on Reynolds School District, I found a survey that the USDA assigned to them with useful information. One question asked about what Reynold’s describes as “Local”. Their answer was that they get their food supplied from DUCK Delivery (they deliver produce from Oregon, Washington and california). My other internship with celebrate gets their food delivered from DUCK as well so I found that an interesting connection! Another question asked about setbacks from buying solely local and the answer was the pricing (seems to be a common theme). Also, they are proud of sourcing their apples from Oregon! The students at Glenfair eat apples every week.

Celebrate Catering – Week 6

2/16

This week was full of events, office work and aesthetically pleasing food. Wednesday turned from a 7 hour day into a 5 hour day which is always awesome. While we were waiting for an event to end at 6 so we could set up for a big event Thursday, I did some office work involving quote making for clients and had done a food drop to George Fox University. A food drop is when we transport food made in house and cater events elsewhere, GFU is a constant client so the drops are easy and I get to create my own food set up. When I got back, the event that was supposed to end at 6 left early so we did what we needed for set up and got out!

Thursday was an 8 to 5 kind of day, we had a big event for OHSU nurses and patients involved with Parkinson’s disease. They had over 90 guests, massage tables, two buffet lines and a particular set up that you can see on my instagram and linked photo on here. Mid-event, I was sent to do a food drop at GFU, once I got back we served food including salad, dinner rolls, apricot chicken, couscous and brownies. We made special plates for vegans/vegetarians/gluten free. My boss headed out early for an open house at our bistro so it was up to me to direct the entire clean up of the event, pretty cool being in charge and being trusted like that!

Friday was an easier day but filled with a lot of useful information. My compost meeting is finally confirmed for the 23rd which I am looking forward to. As I was learning the ropes working with client requests our chef, Jim, came in and surprised us with a meal he was practicing on. It was asparagus and prawns over rainbow couscous (I couldn’t have the prawns because pregnant, boo). A ver blanc was drizzled over the top and let me tell you, I have never tasted a more delicious sauce! I wanted to lick the bowl clean of that ver blanc. On top were microgreens of radishes. The perk of working for an upscale catering company is the amazing food.

Something I found interesting this week is when my boss and I were going over menu’s, she asked me why she wouldn’t offer a client caprese right now. I honestly had no idea because caprese is bomb all of the time! She said because tomatoes are not in season. May-October are usually decent times to get tomatoes because they are softer, taste better and fresher from California than when they are shipped now from Mexico. She always aims for menus that are seasonal.

Another aspect that stuck out to me in forming menus for clients is something called bites per hour. Our boss has an engineering degree so she calculates literally everything precisely. We were forming an event for 200 people and the way she can offer them the right amount of food without them running out or having too much is calculating bites. The first hour of served food, clients will eat around 5 “bites” (an example would would be a prawn or a cracker and cheese). The second hour I think it went down to 3 and the third hour it was 2. She calculates this into dozens, I honestly got a little lost but there is an event I have yet to see where there isn’t enough food served. Food aesthetics are just as important to running this company as food math is, who would have thought!

Growing Gardens – Week 6

2/13

This week was insect week! I started my day at 12 pm with my field supervisor to do a mid-quarter check in, kind of like what we do at Evergreen. We discussed what was going well, what wasn’t, if there were any surprises so far and we chit chatted around these topics for a while. I came into the internship with little expectation, just to expand my knowledge on gardening and hang with the kids and that is exactly what I have gotten and more, so I’m very pleased. She gave me nice feedback, thanking me for my consistency. I guess interns in the past had a habit of not showing up which is beyond me but everyone has their own situations going on in their life.

After our meeting, I was put on the task of forming fruit/vegetable insect snacks! They’re not really insects but rather food formed into looking like bugs, such as ants on a log, you can find more examples I made in my image gallery and above this post. I made several examples as a way to show the kids later in class for the activity we would be doing, I honestly had a blast.

The schedule at Glenfair will be different now because they changed their dismissal format. Kids have to stay in class longer until their bus number or pick up announcement is made, so we have a little less time with the kids but thats okay, not by too much.

  • 3:20 to 3:35 – Second lunch
  • 3:35 to 3:50 – Circle time
  • 3:50 to 4:10 – Recess
  • 4:10 to 4:25 – Garden time
  • 4:25 to 4:45 – Ladybugs and aphids game
  • 4:45 to 5:15 – Food art

We only had 9 students present so it was a fairly easy day energy wise. Circle time involved asking students what they knew about bugs and the garden, we then did another mystery box challenge with a fake bug. We showed them the life cycle of several bugs with little figurines such as bees, ladybugs and butterflies. They LOVED the little toys to the point where they were fighting over who can hold the most. After circle time was recess, then we moved straight into garden time where we asked students why ladybugs are so important for fighting off aphids, they were mind blown! My favorite part of the day was when we showed them the ladybug and aphid costumes they would wear to play tag. Of course they fought over who could wear what but we let everyone have a turn and they were willing to share.

To play the game, the ladybugs had to tag the aphids before the aphids tagged the “plant” (a student wearing screen costume sleeves). They went nuts over it. When we were all finished up we went into the classroom to recreate the bug snacks I showed them, that I made. They got to use strawberries, celery, dried blueberries, apples, grapes and sunflower seeds. With toothpicks, some kids recreated a caterpillar with the grapes while the majority just made random fruit monsters. They got to eat the fruit along the way and all in all had a fun time doing it.

Farm to Fit – Week 6

2/12

ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

But I still had to wake up at 6 am 🙂 Another week of food preparation of course. So I’ve decided I’ll finish with 4 weeks of food prep (this being my third), 1 week of delivery and 2 of nutrition. I originally was going to only do 3 weeks of food prep but my field supervisor doesn’t feel I’ll get much out of delivery so I’d rather spend more time learning about the facility, although the delivery part is important as well.

This week was pretty simple. I started off with organic potatoes, my favorite vegetable of all time. I believe that they were being used in several different hashes, so I spent 4 hours peeling lb after lb after lb. Then I moved onto chopping them, thank god I do this at home on a regular basis so it went quickly. The next 2 hours was spent dicing herbs such as basil, parsley and chives. Of course we were spoiled with a lunch breakfast scramble from Juan, a mix of eggs, sausage and potatoes. He never fails to impress!

I got to see where the compost goes, just outside in a large bin that gets taken out weekly I believe. Still not sure where they take it, I always forget to ask! I wonder if there are any organizations that accept compost? I don’t compost but wish I did, I just have nowhere to put it because my house isn’t suitable for planting. And even if there were compost accepting organizations, I can imagine the health codes behind it.

Anyways, another fun, simple week working with my favorite thing of all time, food! I left my phone at home so I got no photos but I’ll improvise with something I’ve taken before.

 

Academia – Week 5

This week I finished up Food Politics and am now beginning The Industrial Diet. Whether it be what I read weekly or just when I finish the text, I’m going to post a summary and some key points to not only show my work but what I have learned in relation to my studies.

Food Politics – Intro, Ch. 11, 12 & 15

The chapters I chose to read basically dug into how the food industry has turned into a political game and its impact on consumers. Food politics is described as, “Rural food producers and urban food consumers have divergent short-term interests, so they naturally will compete to use the far-reaching powers of the state (collecting taxes, providing subsidies, managing exchange rates, regulating markets) to pursue self-serving advantage. We describe such struggles over how the risks and gains from state action are allocated within the food and farming sector as “food politics” (p. 2).

Chapter 11 discussed agribusiness and how it has reached beyond first world countries. Many diets in “rich” countries, as the author described,  have become abundantly unhealthy as we have stepped away from local farmers and turned to industry to supply our food. The “industry” includes about 4 companies importing and exporting out food to us, increasing food miles and processed food-like products. All of this is very familiar to me but some key points I took away were:

  • In 2002, restaurants delivered $600 billion worth of meals and services, more than total US farm sales. Suggesting US produces more money serving food than growing it (p. 155)
  • According to a study done in 2012, 3 decades from now low to middle income countries will be consuming as much unhealthy food as rich countries. Where will rich countries end up? (p. 163)
  • Marketing: fast food in opposing countries cater to traditions there. Mcdonalds china with tea houses, 95% of food is sources food from china, Mcdonalds makes money catering to them rather than keeping it american. Also dietary preferences in fast food sells better, KFC sells more in china because chicken, subway offers kosher food in israel (p. 164)

Chapter 12 discussed organic foods vs industrial foods. The author touched on how agribusiness and industrialization has created a distrust towards what we are eating so we turn to the comforts of local or organic food. The only issue is that organic food has become very similar to agribusiness in terms of commercial expansion and that policies for non-chemical forms of growing food has weakened as more industrial, powerful leaders have a say in it. As organic food is grown more similar to industrial food, the fact that it is twice as expensive belittles its value. And while local food can be a better alternative, food safety is called into question due to less strict regulations.

  • Organic products cost 10 to 40 cents more than conventional products (p. 168)
  • Studies done on organic vs conventional show little to no nutrient value increase (p. 172)
  • The local food movement has brought significant expansion, increasing farmers markets from 1755 to 7864 between 2001 and 2010 (p. 177)
  • USDA defines local as in-state or within 400 miles. Whole foods defines their local food as within 7 hours (p. 177)
  • Alaska has a procurement law that the state must require food to be bought instate so long as the cost is no more than 7% above the out of state price, Interesting (p. 189)

Chapter 15 simply rounded out all of his topics and reiterated his main point. My issue with the book was rather than providing solutions or alternatives to these issues, the author was very heavy in tearing down every aspect. It was negatives stacked on negatives. As a reader, it not only per se “kills your vibe” but leaves you with little to work with.

 

Celebrate Catering – Week 5

2/9

This week as a mix of working events and office work with clients. Wednesday I got to deliver food to George Fox University and do my own set up! It was a taco bar, not too much to say on that other than my presentation skills are getting SO much better. Thursday was a long day of event working, emailing and folding over 100 napkins envelope style. Friday was an even longer day where I set up a room for 200 people (for an awards ceremony), I put together events myself and worked the event. I work Sunday night too but I’d rather finish my work now then potentially be late so I can mention that work next week in my post.

In relation to my studies this quarter, I got to put together an inquiry for a wedding and the bride requested a “northwest” themed meal. I had to do a little research to refresh my mind on what constitutes as northwest, so I based my meal around berries, seafood, hearty meats and rustic type foods. I chose a huge array of salmon, berry compotes, nuts, meat and cheeses, hearty beef meals such as tri-tip and for dessert chose berry/chocolate mousse’. I’ll have to go through the selection with my boss before I send the quote because she is an EXPERT at food let me tell you. She’s very good at her job and I trust her judgement.

I did want to touch on some sustainability aspects to be worked on at my job because I speak so much about them working towards a goal but not what they are working on:

  • Food waste – composting
  • Recycling left over items from events (cans, cardboard, plastic)
  • Re-using products for several events (linens, room set up styles)
  • Creating similar meals for same day events to utilize the most of out food products
  • Sourcing more local food

Those are just several examples, if all of these are harnessed, it creates less work to put on our plates on busy days and reduces any amount of unnecessary waste.

Growing Gardens – Week 5

2/6

My work this week began at the Growing Gardens office. To prepare for the days activities I had to hole punch 15 little baggies, cut up paper towels to fit in the baggies and then cut string long enough to hang around a students necks. Usually a project for kindergarteners, we decided to let the kids made bean buddies because it is a way for students to watch their own plant sprout and have the opportunity to take a project home, which is always fun. Bean buddies are when you put a unsoaked lima bean into a baggie with a wet paper towel, we encourage the students to place it somewhere where this is sunlight or heat. A string is attached to a hole in the baggie as a fun way for the students to wear it as a necklace. The lima bean will sprout and the students can watch it grow. After prepping the buddies for the students I threw together more booklets as I did last week and we headed out the door for Glenfair.

**I feel it’s important to add that an angel in the office did an ice cream run to a local and organic shop, we all get to enjoy some sweets. I wish I caught the name of the shop, it was so good! The dairy free coconut lemon was my favorite.

Anyways, the Glenfair schedule was:

  • 3:00 to 3:30 – Second lunch
  • 3:30 to 3:50 – Circle time with lima beans
  • 3:50 to 4:20 – Recess and garden time
  • 4:20 to 4:50 – Bean buddies
  • 4:50 to 5:15 – Pickle tasting

Today we had a lot more students absent than normal, which was fine because the class was a lot calmer. At circle time, we started with a mystery box activity where one student felt the lima bean without seeing it, and the other students guessed what was in the box, they also couldn’t see. We then showed the kids the anatomy of a lima beans from its coat to its nutrients inside to its sprout and leaf. They enjoyed it a lot because the bean was easy to dissect. After circle time we went to recess and to my surprise the kids got bored very quickly and wanted to jump to garden time! We went into the garden and explained to them what weeds were, they then went and picked some weeds which they not only had fun playing in dirt but it saves us some time when we begin harvesting the garden in the upcoming weeks.

When we went inside and showed them the bean buddies some of them had actually already made them in a previous Growing Gardens course, so they didn’t want to do it again. It was funny because when the other students who hadn’t made bean buddies before started making them, the students who acted too cool to make them again asked me and the garden instructor for some supplies to make their own, I loved it, they saw how fun it was again. Moving onto the pickle tasting was great because many of the kiddos were astonished that you can pickle more than just cucumbers. We let them try red cabbage, red and yellow peppers. They LOVED the red cabbage but didn’t really like the peppers, some of them were so drama about it. The students were sitting at two tables so when I went to give the second table cabbage they said “eww no!” but the second I told them the other table liked the cabbage, they got interested and wanted some. They are so influential on each other and their reactions I’m coming to find out. The best we can do every week is to push the students to try something they haven’t had before they judge it. They usually become pretty open to trying new things when they see their friends do it. One of my favorite students, Abdi, never liked pickles and really didn’t want to try any, I told him to take a little bite of each and he did. He didn’t necessarily like all the pickles but to see him step out of his comfort zone was pretty cool and he was very sweet about it.