The Importance of What the Food Bank is Doing

Sep 252011
 
 September 25, 2011  Posted by Mark Clawson No Responses »

It would be nice if we could put a positive spin on the U.S. economy; however, it seems to be deteriorating once again. Some are saying that we may see a double dip recession and we can only hope that things will improve. What is important is to recognize is that this community is working hard everyday to fight hunger and we are positively impacting peoples lives!

The U.S. poverty rate remains among the highest in the developed world. Among 34 countries tracked by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only Chile, Israel and Mexico have higher rates of poverty.

The Good Cheer Points System Grocery.

This rate would be even higher if it weren’t for a number of government programs. The Census estimated that the extension of unemployment benefits enacted in 2009 helped 3.2 million Americans remain above the poverty line which is defined as an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four. Last year, Social Security helped some 20.3 million seniors and disabled working-age adults avoid falling into of poverty.

 Good Cheer’s Milk Fund program is providing milk to our clients.

Millions of  households are collecting food stamps to stretch household budgets far enough to keep food on the table. Since the recession began in 2007, the number of households receiving food stamps has nearly doubled to 21.4 million.

Graham Kerr at the Harvest Party at the Good Cheer Garden.

There was an article today in the Seattle Times about a survey put together by Got Green.  They surveyed 212 women about their ability to access the “green economy”.  The survey revealed that women are definitely aware of the importance of going green and how it can affect the lives of their families.

The survey found that the conventional solution of teaching women to cook healthier food, for example, is falling short.

Good Cheer Cooking Classes.

The surveyors asked women to prioritize public transportation; a healthy energy-efficient home; green jobs; and access to healthy foods.

By a 2-to-1 margin, the women said their top priority was healthy food.

Healthy food from the Good Cheer Garden and Gleeful Gleaners.  Good Cheer has a collaborative relationship with the Langley Middle School Garden, the Whidbey Institute Garden and the Greenbank Farm and that makes it a community effort!

Most of the women surveyed said the the high cost of fresh and organic fruit and vegetables made feeding their family a healthier diet too hard.

Do you see a trend here?

We should all be proud of what the food bank and the community is doing!

Donate to Good Cheer, every dollar counts! 

Healthy Choices – Slow or Fast – Part Two

Jun 302011
 
 June 30, 2011  Posted by Mark Clawson 1 Response »

Healthy choices are individual choices. Decisions can be based on learned experience or common sense, we all could cultivate the common sense thing a bit more. I think it is important to have an inquiring mind, you can’t just trust.

It is no secret that processed foods contain a high amount of sodium and calories that we just don’t really need. Spices like salt have been used for centuries to enhance the taste of our foods, fast and processed food has become the American lifestyle.

The Slow Food movement, which is spreading throughout the USA, began in Italy in the late 1980′s to provide an alternative influence to the encroachment of fast food in European eating habits and life style. Sound familiar? The mission was to show people that updated pre-industrial food production methods and manufacturing are a viable, healthful and a preferable alternative to current food manufacturing and agribusiness practices. Think processed foods.

Some Cultural Milestones to Consider

Most of us understand the concept of healthy food choices and sadly it is something that we have to work on. People are eating too much processed food and serving sizes are going through the roof!

A one ounce slice of American cheese has 406 mg of sodium-that’s over 20% of your daily recommended daily sodium intake. Chicken noodle soup is a childhood staple, but with 1107mg of sodium for one cup, it should only be eaten as a special treat and never with a grilled cheese sandwich. Chocolate pudding isn’t salty, or is it? One half cup serving of pudding has 470 mg of sodium. A fast food fish sandwich has 882 mg, but even that isn’t as much as the 1498 mg of sodium in just one cup of tomato sauce.

Make you think a little?

Today’s prepackaged foods are all over salted and can cause blood pressure problems in children. Snacks like potato chips, fast foods, soft drinks are laced with tons of sodium or salt.  In the natural state even vegetables contain natural salt therefore there is no need to add more salt.  Even a fresh tomato from your garden has sodium already in the tomato yet people add more salt.  The sodium surprise is that foods from the ground already have salt content.

By increasing your own awareness on products that contain high salt you will be protecting your family from diseases that will surely cost more money in the long run for your family.

Cutting salt can help you stay hydrated and give you more energy if you have high blood pressure, but all people need sodium in order to maintain a healthy fluid balance. Before cutting your sodium intake, make sure you check with your doctor.

Compare…..

Good Choice

The size of the serving on the food package influences the number of calories and all the nutrient amounts listed on the top part of the label. Pay attention to the serving size, especially how many servings there are in the food package. Then ask yourself, “How many servings am I consuming”?

May surprise, it has me!

Let’s remember the benefits of organic farming and slow food. The concept supports the small farmer, local artisans and looks to restore cultural food traditions bringing more health into your family’s life.

We have it right here at the Good Cheer Garden and with your donations we can buy foods that a healthier for our clients.

Good Cheer!

Healthy Choices – Wake Up Call – Part One

Jun 252011
 
 June 25, 2011  Posted by Mark Clawson No Responses »

We can make healthy choices and the importance of doing should not be understated. For example, about 65 million American adults or nearly 1 in 3 have high blood pressure. My guess is that number will go much higher with obesity continuing to work its way into the American culture.

The Mayo Clinic website had some good information on the topic of sodium intact and  I wanted to share it with you.

There are a number of factors that can push blood pressure up according to the Mayo Clinic.

Eating too much salt

Drinking too much alcohol

Not getting enough potassium in your diet

Not doing enough physical activity

Taking certain medicines

Having long-lasting stress

Smoking

I don’t think that many of us are taking the time to find out how much salt is going into our systems. We may think that we’re eating less sodium, just a pinch of table salt on your baked potato and a dash on your scrambled eggs. But a pinch here and a dash there can quickly add up to unhealthy levels of sodium. Consider that just one teaspoon of table salt has 2,325 milligrams (mg) of sodium.

Your body needs some sodium to function properly because it:

Helps maintain the right balance of fluids in your body

Helps transmit nerve impulses

Influences the contraction and relaxation of muscles

Your kidneys naturally balance the amount of sodium stored in your body for optimal health. When your sodium levels are low, your kidneys essentially hold on to the sodium. When sodium levels are high, your kidneys excrete the excess in urine.

But if for some reason your kidneys can’t eliminate enough sodium, the sodium starts to accumulate in your blood. Because sodium attracts and holds water, your blood volume increases. Increased blood volume makes your heart work harder to move more blood through your blood vessels, which increases pressure in your arteries. Some people’s bodies are more sensitive to the effects of sodium than are others. If you’re sodium sensitive, you retain sodium more easily, leading to fluid retention and increased blood pressure.

Sodium: How much do you need?

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day — or 1,500 mg if you’re age 51 or older, or if you are black, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.

Keep in mind that these are upper limits, and less is usually best, especially if you’re sensitive to the effects of sodium. If you aren’t sure how much sodium your diet should include, talk to your doctor.

The average American gets about 3,400 mg of sodium a day — more than recommended.

The Good Cheer Food Bank works hard to provide better choices to our clients and it’s  your donations that give us more flexibility in buying healthier foods.

Good Cheer Garden – very healthy

Part Two will deal with serving sizes, processed food and nutrition labels.

You can donate by clicking here and help us provide better choices!

Good Cheer!

Whidbey Island Wellness

Mar 102011
 
 March 10, 2011  Posted by Mark Clawson 2 Responses »

We have a professional health and wellness coach on South Whidbey who has taken an interest in the food bank. Lynn Parr and her Eagles Inspiration Wellness Retreat is a beautiful facility on Sandy Point near the town of Langley. She is a registered nurse who is a massage therapist, a nutrition specialist and educator.

She recently referred to one of our blog posts and I thought that I would share her thoughts with you. Lynn has also indicated that she would enjoy providing a class for the clients at the food bank.

With that in mind; here is her post and a chance to get to know her.

There is a blog on Whidbey Island that I find myself reading quite often, it is the local Good Cheer Food Bank blog.  Good Cheer has done a wonderful job of having a conversation with the community here on South Whidbey. Their blog speaks about the community and the people and organizations that make it so special.  People helping people.

Check it out — dig into the archives! You may even find yourself wanting to volunteer or just making a donation of clothing.  The food bank and its thrift stores are unique. They turn recycled clothes and furniture into food for those in need. They have classes on cooking; healthy eating and they even have their own garden.

My passion is helping people experience greater health and wellbeing. In January I noticed a Good Cheer post on Healthy Eating and Serving Sizes. Serving sizes are a big issue and something that we should be paying attention to. The post had a photo of the latest recommended USDA Food Guide Pyramid and I thought…oh dear,  here we go again.

In my opinion, these guidelines have consistently been a recipe for disaster. These are the dietary guidelines that are being promoted in our communities, schools, hospitals and clinics.  My research has shown that by using the USDA Food Pyramid you may actually gain weight. If you don’t gain weight you will find yourself feeling hungry much of the time, tired, lethargic, developing inflammatory issues, and eventually experiencing a plethara of symptoms related to the long list of degenerative diseases we are all too familiar with.

Now, here’s something different to ‘chew’ on.  I encourage you to look at a Different Set of Dietary Guidelines (For Complete list, click here…) The guidelines are based on years of research by Dr. Weston Price, DDS. Dr. Price who studied cultures living all over the world. He found that these cultures were eating their own traditional foods and experiencing robust health, free of diseases generation after generation. You won’t find processed foods in their diets, what you may find could surprise you.

I have been using these principles in my own daily life as well as teaching others their importance. This set of food principles works! If you are looking for healing, health and longevity this is where you need to start.

Food should be:

  • Organic
  • Humanely raised (animals raised on pasture, not in factory farms)
  • Grown locally when possible
  • Whole and unrefined (real maple syrup instead of high-fructose corn syrup)
  • Processed as little as possible (raw milk instead of pasteurized and homogenized)
  • Nutrient-dense (enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and probiotics)
  • Free of additives and preservatives
  • Free of synthetic and chemical ingredients
  • Not genetically modified
  • Traditionally produced and prepared

For the full article you can click here.

Good Cheer!

Connecting Hunger and Obesity

Feb 272011
 
 February 27, 2011  Posted by Kathy McLaughlin 3 Responses »

I think we all know that obesity in America is a huge issue, it’s clearly visible in the above graph on global obesity. The question is how can you connect hunger and obesity?

I was reading a report from the Food Research and Action Center the other day and I found that the report reinforces much of what we are saying and doing at the food bank. I have used some of their quotes in this post to help you understand the problems that we are facing.

Good Cheer strives to create a hunger-free community and address the issues of food insecurity. Food insecurity is the lack of access to enough good food for a healthy life. The Good Cheer garden and Cary Peterson are really helping to make a dent in food insecurity. Clients of the food bank can often pick up fresh vegetables from its garden, sometimes for no points (free)!

“Food insecurity rates are too high in the U.S., and so are obesity rates.  Two-thirds of adults, one-quarter of preschool children, and one-third of school-age children are overweight or obese.  These rates are mainly a result of individual behaviors and environmental factors that lead to excess caloric intake and inadequate physical activity.  While all segments of the population are affected by obesity, low-income and food insecure people are especially vulnerable due to the additional risk factors associated with poverty.”

The Evolution of Obesity

HUNGER, POVERTY, AND OBESITY ARE CONNECTED.

Healthy food is often difficult to access for people in poverty, whereas refined grains, added sugars, and fats are generally inexpensive and readily available to those living on a low income.  ”Households with limited resources to buy enough food may try to stretch their food budgets by purchasing cheap, calorie-dense foods that are filling.  While less expensive, such foods typically have lower nutritional quality and, because of over-consumption of calories, have been linked to obesity.”

You may want to review the post that was done on Healthy Eating and Serving Sizes; the post is very relevant to hunger and obesity.

There are a number of factors that contribute to obesity; one of those is the cycle of food deprivation and overeating. “Those who are eating less or skipping meals to stretch food budgets may overeat when food does become available, resulting in chronic ups and downs in food intake that can contribute to weight gain.  Cycles of food restriction or deprivation also can lead to an unhealthy preoccupation with food and metabolic changes that promote fat storage – all the worse when in combination with overeating.”

Sometimes awareness to the problem can get people moving in the right direction. Here is a video on obesity in Canada.

The wonderful support of the community on Whidbey Island gives Good Cheer the ability to change our community. Keep on giving it is working!

Good Cheer.

Healthy Eating and Serving Sizes

Jan 122011
 
 January 12, 2011  Posted by Kathy McLaughlin 1 Response »

Good nutrition starts with eating the right foods, and serving sizes need to be considered as well.

Today’s portions are far bigger than in the past, which often means we’re taking in far more calories than we realize! Fast food restaurants feature super sized meals for just a few cents more. Portion sizes of virtually all foods and beverages have increased and now appear typical.

So what’s the big deal, you might ask. What’s the harm of eating a few extra calories here and there? The answer is simple: An extra 10 calories per day could add up to a pound of weight gain per year. So, if you’re consuming an extra 100 calories from soft drinks and snacks every day, you could pack on an extra 10 pounds of weight in a year.

Consider this:

A small, two and a half ounce serving of french fries has 210 calories, compared to a whopping 610 calories in the seven-ounce size. While a 12-ounce fountain soft drink contributes a relatively modest 150 calories to a meal, a mega size 42-ounce cup contributes 410 calories.

If you drink that huge soft drink and eat a giant hamburger with an extra large fries that contains as many as 1,000 calories – that would total about 2,000 calories in one sitting – more than many people need to eat in a single day!

Here is a visual timeline showing the trend to larger portions.

In 1990 Federal laws were passed requiring packaged food labels to list nutrition information. The serving sizes were based on surveys done in the 1970′s and 80′s and perhaps the people surveyed didn’t really respond well to how much they really ate. They certainly don’t reflect how most Americans really eat; it’s hard to imagine someone stopping at a half a cup of ice cream. All of this means that the calories, fat, and other nutritional counts can be misleading since we are really eating more.

More than 120 million Americans are either overweight or obese. The additional pounds Americans are piling on have had a devastating impact on our national health.  The cost of healthcare is soaring.

The F.D.A. is now looking at bringing serving sizes for foods like chips, cookies, breakfast cereals and ice cream into line with how Americans really eat. This combined with more prominent labeling should allow the public to make better choices.

“If you put on a meaningful portion size, it would scare a lot of people,” said Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina. “They would see, ‘I’m going to get 300 calories from that, or 500 calories.’ ”

Food for thought and Good Cheer!

The Good Cheer Food Bank Garden

Jun 292010
 
 June 29, 2010  Posted by Kathy McLaughlin No Responses »

I wanted to show you some photos of the Good Cheer Garden. This is the time of year when we are able to bring fresh and healthy vegetables into the food bank.

Cary Peterson, Good Cheer Garden Coordinator, picking fresh broccoli in the garden.

Americorp volunteer Molly Zeigler; this is fresh!

Straight from our garden to You:)

Summer Squash

Chard and Bright Lights Chard

Kale

Lettuce

Leeks, Lettuce and Summer Squash

Broccoli and Chard

Peas

Beets

Two varieties of Kale

Peas on the Vine

Chard

Strawberries

What else is growing in the garden?

Basil, Beans, Blueberries, Bok Choi, Carrots, Cauliflower, Chives, Collards, Cilantro, Cucumbers, Herbs, Onions, Parsley, Parsnips, Pears, Plums, Pumpkins, Radishes, Respberries, Spinach, Tomatoes, Tulips and Zucchini!

Good Cheer or perhaps I should say Good Eats!

Healthy Eating and Education

May 312010
 
 May 31, 2010  Posted by Kathy McLaughlin No Responses »

It isn’t enough to have the nutritious food available if clients don’t know how to prepare it. How many people know how to cook kale, bok choi, swiss chard or even raw beans?

Here is a photo of  Rachel Adams at a Good Cheer cooking class. Rachel writes a cooking blog, interns at Greenbank Farm and is going to study the Anthropology of Food  in London next fall.

Good Cheer began its guest chef, fresh-from-the-garden cooking classes last summer, and plans to do the same again. This year, AmeriCorps volunteer Molly Zeiger (in the above photo) is organizing healthy cooking classes for clients on the third Tuesday of each month in the Bayview facility’s kitchen from 5 to 7 p.m. for the first 10-12 clients who sign up. The classes focus on seasonal cooking, utilizing whatever is harvested from the garden when possible.

Caitlin Goldbaum Americorp volunteer

Last winter the classes involved crock-pot cooking of stews, bean dishes such as black bean chipotle chili, plus meats and vegetables.

The idea for using crock-pots came from State Representative Norma Smith. While on a tour given by JaNoah Spratt, she commented that with her busy schedule, she found crockpot cooking was an ideal way to create simple, nutritious meals. We quickly sought grants so that clients who came to the cooking classes could take home a crock-pot to put into practice what they learned.

We have crock pots!

When volunteer Claudia Cox learned of the idea, she and her husband, optometrist Dr. James Cox, thought it was such a good idea that they donated 10 crock-pots to get the class off to a good start. “I’ve used crock-pots myself and know how great they are for people to come home after a long day and have a healthy slow cooked meal waiting for them,” she said.


The South Whidbey Rotary Club also responded with a generous $900 grant for the program. With spring produce from the garden, we are now beginning to focus on fresh food cooking, though we will continue to involve crock-pot cooking until summer and then switch to using simple food processors.

We will also be giving clients plant starts of some of the vegetables we will be cooking so that they can grow fresh produce at home.  We would love to see Good Cheer develop a year round cooking curriculum that utilizes everything we provide in bulk in the food bank so that clients will become proficient at maximizing their food points and dollars on healthy, wholesome food.

We make it a point to demonstrate dishes that only use ingredients that are available to Food Bank clients, and also adjust our mix accordingly.

For instance, we’ve tried to stock more fresh herbs and have purchased bulk spices and repackaged them for the recipes. We have put out a donation request for healthy cooking oils for stir fry recipes and salads.


Good cook oils?

As long as you’re using fats and oils sparingly in your cooking and preparation, it would be fine to use any one of the following “good” oils. All of the oils are low in saturated fats and trans fats (bad fats). Some have high concentration of monounsaturated fats (good fats) such as olive oil. Choose corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, soy oil or canola oil if you wish to fry foods as these oils have higher smoke point. It is best not to fry with olive oil as its smoke point is only about 190C/375F.

Good Cheer Garden – Growing Groceries

Good Cheer Garden Coordinator Cary Peterson (far right)

Teamwork, as we all know, makes it happen. The third member of the cooking class trio is Good Cheer’s Garden coordinator, Cary Peterson. Cary has been so good at listening to clients and planting the produce that they like, plus introducing them to new vegetables many have never tried before. You might want to take a look at the Growing Groceries blog to learn more.

We needed more garlic for our cooking classes, so this year she is planting more of it. Likewise, if we need more basil for pesto dishes she adjusts what’s planted.

Peterson believes that healthy eating should ideally start at a young age with children understanding how things are grown. She welcomes schoolchildren’s involvement with the garden, taking time to explain what each plant is and often providing fresh picked veggies to munch on.  As a community we will be much stronger if our kids have nutritious food and if we can stop seeing meals as a cost and start seeing them as an investment in the future.

Good Cheer Recipes

Good Cheer Cooking Classes

Growing Groceries

Growing Groceries is a 9-month long series of classes teaching timely, seasonal information on how to successfully grow food here on Whidbey Island. Classes will be held the second Saturday of February through October, 2010. You’ll learn how to grow your own food with practical, seasonal information on how to be successful in your garden.

Good Cheer!

Healthy Eating

May 282010
 
 May 28, 2010  Posted by Kathy McLaughlin No Responses »

Healthier eating is a hot topic in this country today. Media coverage of the First Lady’s initiative to reduce childhood obesity and instill
healthier eating habits is widespread. We even have ABC’s primetime reality show, “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” where the young English chef is trying to change the dietary habits in Huntington, West Virginia, dubbed America’s unhealthiest city by the Centers for Disease Control.

Here in Washington State obesity rates more than doubled between 1990 (9%) and 2004 (22%). I can’t imagine that things have been getting much better.

On South Whidbey, Good Cheer Food Bank, is leading a food revolution of its own. This involves back-to-basics healthy, low-cost cooking. Good Cheer has been steadily ramping up its efforts to provide fresh, nutritious food. This has been done by focusing on the right purchases for the Food Bank, then by creating an on-site garden, and now by teaching clients how to cook fresh, healthy, unprocessed food in convenient, affordable ways that dispel the notion that fast food has to be junk food.

A lot of people simply don’t know how to cook healthy, which is something we’re trying to change for our clients and the wider community. The Slow Food Movement is very much like what we are trying to do.

Slow food is the antithesis to fast food.  Fast food is popular since it is low priced but the cost to our health is a large one. The dollar menu or some healthy food?

The mission of Slow Food is to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. Slow Food is dedicated to bio-diversity (preservation of food variety) and sustainability (meeting present needs without compromising those of future generations). Slow Food works to support the small farmer, local artisans and preserves cultural food traditions.

Since relocating the Food Bank to the more spacious facility in Bayview in October 2007, Good Cheer has not only been able to increase the volume of food available to neighbors in need, but has made a concerted effort in improving the quality of food with an emphasis on fresh, local and less processed foods.

“We are very aware that the funds used to purchase food for our food bank comes from community donors and thrift store patrons, so we work really hard to spend the money wisely on the most nutritious food we can,” says Damien Cortez the Good Cheer Food Bank Coordinator.

One way the Food Bank encourages clients to select nutritious food is by assigning fresh vegetables, fruits, beans, rice and other raw staples with lower points. A one-person household has a base of 70 points to spend per month at the Food Bank, with an additional 10 points per person in their household.

They will rapidly run out of points selecting highly processed foods at 5 or 10 points instead of fresh vegetables and fruit for 1 point, or a ten pound sack of potatoes for 1 point versus a small box of instant mashed potatoes for 3 points. A can of baked beans is 2 points, whereas a five lb. bag of beans is only 1 point.

What we’re trying to do is to show the benefits to healthy food selections and how much further the basics can go in feeding a family, so that few refined foods and sweets (mainly donated items) are selected only on an occasional basis.

Part Two of this series will deal with education and some of the classes that you can find at the food bank.

Good Cheer!