February 2010

Elizabeth Fox – Garden/CheVista Internship Coordinator,  El Puente

Things rarely slow down at El Puente. Since my last entry, I completed a full semester with my high school interns. Together, we cleaned the garden, defined Food Justice, Environmental Justice, and Climate Justice, and co-produced a thrilling public service announcement about EJ in South Williamsburg. In my spare time, I enticed as many interns as possible to join me in weekend community clean-up days at the Espíritu Tierra Garden (successfully constructing a 3-bin compost system and filling a 10 ton dumpster with bulk trash). I gathered gardeners and EP volunteers for the Food and Climate Summit, and I had two or three hands in the production of El Puente’s annual Three Kings show. But snowfall and school break offer me a rare moment of reflection. Over the last three weeks, I have been revamping the CheVista Internship program, reaching out to new members, and making plans for the spring garden season- not to mention compiling everything I’ve done thus far into a comprehensive resource binder.

The time between semesters has been a snowstorm. Reviewing our programs and designing new models has all the hopeful anticipation of waiting to go sledding. Spending so much time at my computer can also be as painful as shoveling off the front porch. But it is a good break. I am connecting with some of EP’s most committed students through one-on-one interviews and bringing our strongest leaders into the internship program. I am enjoying visioning with my superiors and writing grants to ensure that these programs last beyond my VISTA year. Most of all, I am learning the art of inspiration. Just as the power of a snowstorm is made up of millions of snowflakes, people are called to action most strongly when they are asked to define their own problems and solve them together. So I am learning to make fewer decisions. I am most struck by snow for its dynamism. It is comforting from behind a window, playful in the form of a snowball, and always breath-taking, cold, and messy. It asks us to view it with all of our senses if we are to be inspired. Thus, I am learning to creatively engage with the people around me. Finally, snowflakes, like people, are artful. And they inspire each other through their ability to create beauty. So I am weaving El Puente’s fine arts tradition into our youth environmental justice and health programs. It’s shaping up to be a beautiful storm.
 

Wen-Jay Ying,  – CSA in NYC, Just Food

I think it was hour six of our 3 part VISTA Training series, Training of Trainers, but who’s counting when you’re in a fluorescent-lit conference room packed with VISTAs, no fresh air, yet unlimited food.  Our next task was to draw a house with a partner holding the same pen, but without using any words.  There were many thoughts that went through my head when starting this assignment, the main ones being: will we fight over which directions to begin drawing? how will we know what we both want to draw? will we become passively confrontational? if I decide to draw in a direction will I be too controlling?  Such a simple project, yet with powerful implications. 
 
We both lightly grabbed the pen and I aimlessly started pushing the pen like one pushes on an Ouija board: aimlessly but with hopeful direction.  What was once aimless was now the first wall to our house.  From there, the rest was simple.  I pushed a little in one direction and let my partner complete the rest of the line.  Each line we drew felt like a great learning experience; we trusted each other to take on certain responsibilities and because of that trust, we drew a house we were both happy with. 

Miriam Goler -- Fresh Food for All, Just Food

NOFA-NY is New York’s chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.  This year the annual NOFA-NY conference was held in Saratoga Springs and I was given the opportunity to attend.  The scary reason for that opportunity: I was leading a workshop on food pantries starting gardens in order to grow some of their own produce.  The exciting part: I got to attend an all day workshop on cheese making!

We started by “ripening” the milk, or heating it and then adding the culture (the right bacteria) for the type of cheese you are making.  My group decided to make a Brie, and our culture was called “MA 401”.  We let those bacteria do their thing before adding rennet, an enzyme found in a calf’s stomach that is used to digest milk.  In cheese making, rennet is important in the coagulation process that causes the curds (the solid part that becomes the cheese) to separate from the whey (the liquid part).  We let the rennet go to work digesting and then cut the curds and spooned them into our mold, which we then left to drain.  Finally we salted the outside and sprayed it with Penicillin—the mold that is responsible for the white rind on Brie cheeses.  Everyone in our group took home a section of the cheese to let it ripen—ideally in a dark, damp, 50 degree environment.  I don’t have such conditions in my house, but my Brie-to-be seems to be growing mold quite well in my fridge!  I haven’t tried it yet, so the jury is still out regarding how successful I am as a cheese maker.  But the workshop I led (the scary part) went very well, despite all my nerves, so I came home happy.

Brooke Saias -- Food Justice Coordinator, Hazon

At Hazon, there is a lot of time spent sitting at my desk catching up on emails, talking on the phone, grabbing a snack every 10 minutes—the usual desk associated tasks. Spending so much time in an office in midtown Manhattan can make it truly hard to grasp the impact of the work that I am a part of. Yet, it is the times that I am able to connect with people and get out into the community that ultimately confirms the value of my work. 

I had spent countless hours brainstorming and developing the Leadership Training for our Hazon CSA (community supported agriculture) community coordinators, which was being held at the Hazon Food Conference in Monterey, CA. It was difficult to understand the significance of all that time spent staring at a computer screen, wondering if this would actually make a difference. Everything changed once I was able to put all my work on paper into practice. There were participants from all over the country at the conference eager to learn and connect with one another. It was amazing to finally put names to faces and connect with the participants myself. The most moving part of the whole experience was having these people, many of them much older than me, put their faith in me to educate and empower them. Not only was I able to empower them on issues I am passionate about, but it gave me the chance to have conviction in myself. It was being in this position to educate everyone so that they could then go back to educate others, which made all that desk time worthwhile.