You are invited to learn more about our new Fresh Food on the Table program at Good Cheer. Join us at the Whidbey Institute on April 21st for dinner, auction and square dance. The dinner is no cost but please come ready to donate what you can afford. Space is limited so please RSVP to kathy@goodcheer.org or call 221-0130.

For more information about the event and this innovative program, please visit our Garden Blog at http://goodcheergarden.wordpress.com/.

Check out this video too. http://vimeo.com/40125086

It all began in January of 2010; Kathy McLaughlin gave me the opportunity of writing a blog for the Good Cheer Food Bank. Kathy had a vision of a social network that would communicate the happenings of the food bank and its thrift stores to the community that supports it.

The creation of Facebook accounts at the two thrift stores and the Rack insured that the word was getting out! The Good Cheer Food Bank is one of a very few food banks that not only have a Facebook account but also a blog.

The blog is written to have a conversation with the community. It is a place to talk about volunteers, events and supporters of the food bank.

The blog really got going when I wrote an article on the Help Network of South Whidbey Island. It was then that I recognized how special this community truly is; if you are in need on South Whidbey you are going to get help!

In April of 2010 I learned about a volunteer by the name of JaNoah Spratt and his collaboration with State Representative Norma Smith to bring us The Mother of All Talents Shows. JaNoah has made a statement in so many ways over the last two years, it is quite a tribute to the young people on the island and what they are doing to help those in need.

I took great pleasure in writing about Cary Peterson and the Good Cheer Garden. It’s like the P-Patches in Seattle where the veggies are contributed to the local food banks but this one is in the front yard of the Good Cheer Food Bank. The garden provides the clients at the food bank with a nutritional boost and has become a great place to volunteer for both the old and the young.

When the food bank was hit by a double whammy; a 48-percent drop in donations and a huge increase in the number of customers the blog was a very useful tool for getting the word out to our wonderful supporters. The food bank meeting the challenge and  of course, you came through!

The Harvest Party and Music Fest has been a time to celebrate the harvest; a time for the people in the community to gather and celebrate life!

Good Cheer believes in stressing the importance of understanding and strengthening our connection with food. We encourage healthy food choices and earth friendly cultivating techniques and the word is getting out! Organic farming is growing in response to the demand and that is a good thing for the community and the world.

Last years Harvest Party was a special event with Graham Kerr holding court in our Garden.

Hunger in America touches more people than you can possibly imagine; hunger can be so close to home. It’s not easy to admit that you are in need. I can imagine that many of our clients at the food bank would like to convey their appreciation for helping them in their time of need.

“When things go wrong as they sometimes will” is the start of a poem that I will share with you once again.

Your Good Cheer Food Bank and Thrift Stores were presented with Food Lifelines Excellence in Community Resource Development award last year.

The award recognizes strategies that raise awareness of hunger and develop resources from the community to fight it, such as effective fundraising, volunteer development, in-kind contributions, hunger education materials, and outreach activities.

The Good Cheer Food Bank is only as good as the community that it is part of.  It is from this community that we find volunteers, charitable givers and businesses that have put their hearts into making Good Cheer the success that it is.

It has been an honor for me to have had a conversation with all of you…..

Thanks and Good Cheer!

Food security is having access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. People in need often don’t have the money to achieve food security and they tend to eat cheaper foods which are often less nutritious. People also tend to buy more processed foods which are higher in sodium and often filled with other chemicals.

In 2010, 85.5 percent of U.S.households were food secure throughout the entire year, and 14.5 percent of households were food insecure at least some time during that year.

The main issue is this intermittent hunger. Good nutrition, particularly in the first three years of life, is important in establishing a good foundation that has implications for a child’s future physical and mental health, academic achievement, and economic productivity.  Food insecurity does huge health damage, especially to little kids.

When people don’t get enough food, the available nutrition goes to vital organs like the lungs, but it doesn’t go to the brain. So for little kids who are supposed to be learning machines, they don’t hear when Mom says, “Look at this.” Kindergartners might be naughty and act up or be grumpy. For adults, too, hunger is bad for your health. Statistical studies show links between food insecurity and mental illness. It’s very stressful!

The Good Cheer Food Bank promotes community-wide food security by providing all of its clients access to a nutritionally adequate diet.

People are turning more and more to food banks to supplement their food stamps. The hardest hit are the single parent families where one in three single mothers reported that they struggle to keep their families fed.

The people of South Whidbey can look at The Good Cheer Food Bank and Thrift Stores with a real sense of pride. The Thrift Stores are a big part of the program since they provide the funds to keep the food bank running and the Good Cheer Garden is all about good nutrition straight from the earth.

Without your support we would find it difficult to be your steward in the fight against hunger in the community.

Thank you for being there!

You can visit our donation page by clicking here.

Good Cheer!

The Good Cheer Food Bank is proud to be a member of the The HELP Network on South Whidbey Island. It is wonderful network established to help those in need; people helping people is what it is all about.

We live in a world of discord, competition, and exploitation, a world in which life is a cheap commodity yet organizations like the HELP Network are flourishing.

Joyfully there are people out there willing to make a difference by taking one step at a time to help the world.

There are over a million organizations worldwide working toward ecological sustainability and social justice. They are coherent and self-organized congregations involving tens of millions of people. This movement is about people who are willing to confront despair and to make this world a better place to live.

The HELP Network on South Whidbey Island is a small but powerful part of this movement.

I’ve written about the Help Network in the past but many of you may not have read the articles that we put together. By clicking on their organizational logo you can read a post or visit their websites.

All of us working together to help strengthen our community!

It’s a good place to start.

Good Cheer!

The Good Cheer Garden is an idea that took flight in January of 2009. Cary Petersen began blogging on January 7, 2009 about the progress being made as volunteers and staff worked hard to create a garden that we could all be proud of.

It’s hard to believe how far we have come!

It was a cold and blustery day near the end of February 2009 that the first plantings were made. The work party planted raspberries, strawberries and potatoes. The first vegetables were planted just a month later with the first harvest in the middle of April.

The main purpose of the garden is to provide healthful eating to our clients who are using the food bank.

Volunteers bagging vegetables for the food bank.

The harvesting of the crops was followed by cooking classes that took place right in the kitchen of the food bank.

Volunteers have been the key to the gardens success and the nurturing assistance of Cary Petersen has made for a well oiled machine churning out crop after crop.

We even had the help of families enjoying a day in the sun.

We have all been proud of the harvest……

And it all makes for good eats!

So colorful and delicious!

I just wanted to take the time to remind ourselves how truly blessed we are to have the garden.

This season, the monthly Growing Groceries classes will be held every first Tuesday of the month. On Tuesday, March 6th, from 5 – 7:30 pm, learn about this cold, early part of the season when the garden is starting to awaken, with practical and timely tips on garden planning, soil preparation, seed selection and growing starts.

You’ll also find lots of seasonal growing veggies tips from the classes are on the Growing Groceries blog.

If you want to find out more about the classes you can check out the Good Cheer Garden blog!

Good Cheer!

Two weeks ago Nathan Wilkie became the new store manager of the Good Cheer Two thrift store and the Rack in Clinton.

Nathan told me that the warm atmosphere and family attitude at the two stores in Clinton will continue to be a primary focus. “Just like Cheers, everyone knows your name.”

There is a challenge to running a thrift store that has furniture and knick knacks. Nathan says that he is in the process of giving the store a facelift, creating more of a boutique type store. He is putting in 10-12 hours a day trying to create a better shopping experience for all of you who shop the Clinton stores.

He is cognizant of the need for a strong volunteer base and is in fact looking for a carpenter willing to donate some of his time. Building more shelves will help the store  take on a neater appearance and give the proper focus to the furniture that is on sale.

The Good Cheer Two store needs quality merchandise to create that certain feeling, with a backdrop of knick knacks that provide an everyday shopping experience.

Keeping a balance between the higher end items and the everyday items in the store is a big concern and your donations will help make it right.

So, if you are in the mood to lend a helping hand Nathan could certainly use some assistance in creating a new look.

Welcome aboard Nathan!

Good Cheer!

We’ve Come a Long Ways in the Last 50 Years!

2011 was a year of challenges. While the number of individual clients continued to fall from the 2009 peak the need for support from the food bank actually increased as more families were feeling the pinch of a slow economy.

The Food Bank served 3,330 people last year, with an average of 842 families helped per month. Twenty eight percent of our clients were children, 11% were senior citizens, with 146 homeless people also being served.

Good Cheer begins its 50^thyear of service to the community with a foundation that could not be any stronger. This summer we celebrated reaching our goal for the Good Cheer Capital Campaign. The generous support of individuals, community businesses, service organizations, and regional foundations made it possible. The renovation of the Langley Thrift Store will positively impact the community by providing a greater amount of affordable clothes and household goods, and by increasing profits to support the Good Cheer Food Bank.

The use of thrift stores to provide the funding for the organization is quite unique. The revenues that flow through the thrift stores enable our organization to function and to provide the numerous programs that benefit our clients and community.

The Good Cheer Thrift Stores recorded record sales with an increase of close to 4% even though the store in Langley was undergoing a major renovation.

This year will mark 50 years of progress and making a difference in people’s lives. There are many that we have helped who have come back to support the food bank or volunteer their time and that is a wonderful circle of life.

We need to keep in mind the importance of how far we have come over this last half a century and what support we are now capable of offering our community.

Item donations to the food bank increased by 25% even though there were additional agencies soliciting for business on the south end of the Island.

Food donations jumped by 9% to a total of 342,153 lbs., and accounted for nearly half of the 778,913 lbs. of food distributed in 2011. These food donations are valuable since they allow us to add variety to food items that Good Cheer purchases in bulk.

Monetary donations continue to be the primary source for keeping our shelves full.

Monetary donations go to buy food and the recessionary environment that we find ourselves in has resulted in a 37-percent increase in the amount of money Good Cheer is spending on food. Good Cheer has continued to make use of a fundraising strategy that will increase the cash Good Cheer brings in and the events are fun for the community.

Volunteers are what make Good Cheer work and this last year we had almost record numbers for hours worked. Volunteering is the ultimate form of giving. It is sharing what we value with others without counting on the reciprocal expectation of recognition or gratitude. As Elbert Einstein so wisely puts it; “The value of man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.”

 The Good Cheer Food Bank was established in 1962 and was South Whidbey’s first charity. It serves a population of nearly 16,000. Good Cheer is run by 13 staff members and nearly 350 volunteers, and is governed by a 15-member board.

 Thanks for you continued support and gracious giving.

Good Cheer!

The Thriving Communities Conference was a great success and an opportunity to learn what other communities are doing.

Here is a story about the Green Bronx Machine and Steven Ritz a science teacher at Discovery High School in the Bronx.

Steven started bringing plants into the classroom in order to give his students a hands on lesson. But what began as a science teacher’s teaching tool grew into a mission to make the entire borough eat and grow healthy food.

The biology and earth science teacher began using farming and gardening in his classes in 2005. Back then, Ritz said he used to take his classes outside to clean up abandoned lots and plant gardens. “We cleaned up 35-50 cubic yards of trash and ended up growing 3,000-5,000 pounds of food,” Ritz said. In addition, Ritz said that the students involved in what was then called the Green Team, went from skipping half of their classes to graduating on time.

Ritz utilizes a unique gardening technology created by Green Living Technologies in Boston, in which the students plant seeds in vertical shelves; it’s like creating a green wall of food.

Here is a video of Bronx students from the Discovery HS installing a green roof as part of the hands on Green Living Technologies training program.

The project became more than just growing stuff; it was about keeping the kids off the streets and helping them find something to do. They were learning about responsibility and how to take care of something.

“We’re not just growing vegetables, we’re growing citizens and engaged communities,” Ritz said.

Ritz said Green Bronx Machine is the youngest certified workforce in America. Students who wish to join the workforce can participate in a training program, sponsored by Green Living Technologies, in order to become certified workers. The training program has three components: academic, vocational and field work.

Green Bronx Machine’s sidewalk sale! Student grown plants generate serious income and learning opportunities. They look great too!

“It’s about green minds, green hearts, green jobs, and green technology,” Ritz says. “We are trying to transform the borough. Bronx County has the highest number of food stamps in New York State,” Ritz explained. “People can use these food stamps to buy edible plants and create a self sustaining indoor garden.” Ritz and his Green Bronx Machine hope to get everyone in the Bronx eating and growing healthy foods.

Who knew Green Bronx gardening could be so easy?

Six months ago these young men couldn’t and wouldn’t sit around a table together. Today, these young men, from distinct and diverse backgrounds work as one team with a singular purpose and vision; to transform the mindsets and landscapes of America while building their future and a whole new economy.

Pretty amazing what is going on in our world!

Good Cheer!

A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that 90% of people over the age of 2 eat too much salt.

The average American eats about 3300 milligrams of sodium per day while the recommended amount is 2300 milligrams daily; about 6 out of 10 adults should further limit sodium to 1,500 mg a day. The CDC warns too much salt raises blood pressure, which can cause heart disease. Reducing the sodium Americans eat by 1,200 mg per day on average could save up to $20 billion a year in medical costs and save a few lives in the process.

The CDC is blaming bread products; one slice of bread can have over 200 milligrams of salt.

More than 40% of sodium comes from the following 10 types of foods:

Breads and rolls

Cold cuts and cured meats such as deli or packaged ham or turkey

Pizza

Fresh and processed poultry

Soups

Sandwiches such as cheeseburgers

Cheese

Pasta dishes

Meat mixed dishes such as meat loaf with tomato sauce

Snacks such as chips, pretzels, and popcorn.

You can reduce your intake of salt by buying no salt added brands. For example the sodium in chicken noodle soup can vary by as much as 840 milligrams per serving. About 65% of sodium eaten comes from food bought at retail stores, so look for lower sodium choices.

Those who eat out a lot have little control over the amount of salt in the foods that are prepared for them.

What can we do:

• Choose to purchase healthy options and talk with your grocer or favorite restaurant about stocking lower sodium food choices.
• Read the Nutrition Facts Label while shopping to find the lowest sodium options of your favorite foods.
• Eat a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables and frozen fruits and vegetables without sauce.
• Limit processed foods high in sodium.
• When eating out, request lower sodium options.Support initiatives that reduce sodium in foods in cafeterias and vending machines.

Good Cheer and Healthy Eating!