Blogs

"Cultivating Food and Art" was a fantastic event at the Wild Goose this weekend. Local Matters Food Educators, Jesse Hickman and Amanda Seaton facilitated a workshop titled, "Food is Art." We had so much fun. Children and their parents had large platters of beautiful fruits and vegetables to create their own edible sculptures. Can you guess what we did with the sculptures after we created them? You've got it! Art never tasted so good! Everyone was so creative too....stay tuned for some of those photos.

Chef Jeremy Gedhert created some delicious foods, vegetable spring rolls, roasted squash soup, bread salad, asian slaw, local sausage & vegetable shish-kabobs, bruschetta and roasted squash/broccoli platter. It was a nice display of colors, showcasing the beauty of food.

Though I am not a Mom yet, I often daydream about the things I'll do when I actually have my own little one. One of the things I particularly look forward to is making baby food at home. Many prepared, jarred baby foods are packed full of refined sugars, starches, additives, and preservatives. Plus, making baby food at home can be a money saver in the long run, and allow us to take advantage of local, seasonal produce.

The following link provides information including equipment and tips for preparing baby foods at home:

planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/make-your-own-organic-baby-food.html

March is Women's History Month and has been since 1987 when Congress declared it. (Man, I was only 3!) Some people don't really celebrate it, forgetting that none of us would be here if it weren't for some woman!

Historically, women have been seen as the gentler of sexes and have been historically prone to many diseases that don't affect men as signifigantly. These diseases are heart disease, cancers and stroke to name a few. More can be found here. And they can all be prevented (outside of genetic predeterminants) ith small lifestyle changes. Most of these changes have to do with what we put INTO our bodies (And yes, that includes our diet)

Women, we can change the course of history and take out many of these preventable diseases before they make US history!

Yes, I said EVERY DAY. Looks as if this Food is Elementary curriculum that we teach is really on to something. (duh!) But if you didn't believe us, here is the proof:

According to the article by Holly Robinson-Peete on Yahoo! (because people love celeb endorsements) research has been done to list simple foods that pack a vitamin and mineral whallop to promote optimum health.
According to the article eating dark leafy greens, nuts, onions, whole grains, and yogurt have many benefits and are fairly accessable for any budget.
Check out the article HERE to see why these foods need to be a part of a wholesome, healthy diet.

After two years sharing space with our good friends at Simply Living in Clintonville, Local Matters has relocated to beautiful new digs in Olde Towne East. Our new home is the third floor of the historic W.H. Jones Mansion, located at East Broad & Parsons near several of the CDCFC Head Start sites at which we teach Food Is Elementary. The space features bright natural light, warm colors and gorgeous woodwork, and we feel very fortunate to have found such a gem!

Local Matters' co-founder Michael Jones was invited to participate in the creation of a local food assessment through the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission's Local Food Working Committee.  

The committee was given the task of assessing the local food infrastructure for the twelve county region that MORPC serves.  After six months of research and dialogue the draft of MORPC's local food assessment is now available for review and is attached to this post.  

Several barriers to getting local food into communities throughout Central Ohio were identified.  The final draft will be submitted by mid April and will help to guide.  Take a look and share your feedback!

The Local Food to School Program continues to grow, strengthening our local food system. The Food is Elementary program has expanded and we now connect with over 900 children each week! There are also 60 teachers and hundreds of parents, interns and volunteers....all experiencing delicious local foods, preparing simple, healthy dishes, learning more about health and wellness and gaining insight one person at a time. That is what has been so exciting to see, the changes happening in our system. Any change on a system level requires partnerships, multi-level programming and continually assessing our work to make sure we are what the community needs.

The San Francisco-based urban farmer Jason Mark of Alemany Farm, who does double duty as a food journalist for Change.org and editor in chief of the Earth Island Journal, recently posted a great editorial piece on the Baker Creek Seed Catalogue.  

On February 9th the White House, in partnership with First Lady Michelle Obama,  announced the Let's Move campaign.  

The announcement states: 

First Lady Michelle Obama today announced an ambitious national goal of solving the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight and unveiled a nationwide campaign – Let’s Move – to help achieve it. 

In a recent issue of Extraordinary Health, there was an alarming cover photo of a

bone breaking stating “America’s Bone Health Crisis.”  I don’t know about you, but when I hear or see the word "crisis" I tend to panic, wondering what can be done to change it IMMEDIATELY.