I leave you with a very happy story before the weekend comes.
A local woman here in Florida, Kathleen Damiano, won the St. Johns County School District's School Related Employee of the Year award. She was selected out of nominees from 34 schools and I had the privilege of talking to her this morning on the way to work. She is the food manager at a school right near my house called Timberlin Creek Elementary and she started a school garden with little help and almost no funds in order to incorporate fresh produce into the school lunches and to increase awareness about farming. She provides recipes to parents, uses games to make food and nutrition FUN and she strives to create appealing breakfast and lunch presentation to entice children to want to try new foods and eat healthier.
What a concept!
Why isn’t this done everywhere? It sounds so simple. The problem is schools have no money and it is getting worse. Programs are being cut like athletics and music etc. and schools are just trying to squeak by. The winners for food suppliers go the cheapest bidder which is SCARY. We are putting the cheapest food possible into our little children’s bodies? GAH! On top of that gardening takes time and patience and care. Kudos to Kathleen for going above and beyond and not settling for feeding our children the cheap and easy way.
How can we help? Talk about this. Spread the word. Volunteer to help. If you can’t volunteer time then send money or donate plants. Every little bit helps.
Don’t have this at your child’s school? Talk to your school leaders and get one started with a group of other parents who care!
If you live in the area and would like to volunteer, donate or even provide comments or suggestions please email me at chefdawn@hotmail.com
Let’s make ourselves, our children and our environment healthy by working together!
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
This was my very random and totally impromptu breakfast that was just so good I have to share. Better late than never right? I will do a photo redo later.
A local woman here in Florida, Kathleen Damiano, won the St. Johns County School District's School Related Employee of the Year award. She was selected out of nominees from 34 schools and I had the privilege of talking to her this morning on the way to work. She is the food manager at a school right near my house called Timberlin Creek Elementary and she started a school garden with little help and almost no funds in order to incorporate fresh produce into the school lunches and to increase awareness about farming. She provides recipes to parents, uses games to make food and nutrition FUN and she strives to create appealing breakfast and lunch presentation to entice children to want to try new foods and eat healthier.
What a concept!
Why isn’t this done everywhere? It sounds so simple. The problem is schools have no money and it is getting worse. Programs are being cut like athletics and music etc. and schools are just trying to squeak by. The winners for food suppliers go the cheapest bidder which is SCARY. We are putting the cheapest food possible into our little children’s bodies? GAH! On top of that gardening takes time and patience and care. Kudos to Kathleen for going above and beyond and not settling for feeding our children the cheap and easy way.
How can we help? Talk about this. Spread the word. Volunteer to help. If you can’t volunteer time then send money or donate plants. Every little bit helps.
Don’t have this at your child’s school? Talk to your school leaders and get one started with a group of other parents who care!
If you live in the area and would like to volunteer, donate or even provide comments or suggestions please email me at chefdawn@hotmail.com
Let’s make ourselves, our children and our environment healthy by working together!
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
This was my very random and totally impromptu breakfast that was just so good I have to share. Better late than never right? I will do a photo redo later.
(I apologize for the particularly horrible iPhone photo.)
Dawn's Breakfast Chef Salad
Ingredients
3 cups baby lettuce, (Earthbound)
Balsamic vinegar spray
Coarse salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic powder, to taste
1 hard boiled egg, sliced (farm fresh from KYV)
1 slice Applegate farms herbed deli turkey
1 oz farmer cheese (Friendship....God I love this stuff)
2 slices tomato, sliced
XOXOXO,
Have an amazing Friday and and even better weekend.
Thank you for visiting me!
4 comments:
Very cool. Thanks for sharing that!
Yes there is so much bad news out there it’s nice to hear something good!
Wow what a great story! I am doing a garden project this summer to teach people how to cook the things they grow in their gardens! I can't wait. I have never been able to grasp the concept of eating "non-breakfast" foods for breakfast! I wish I could but I just can't haha Either way that salad looks pretty tasty!
Dawn, There are MANY school gardens in Northeast Florida. Check out directory and you will find quite a few of them. What is missing is SUPPORT. Kathleen works is the food manager of the school so the program at Timberlin is STUNNING.
What's needed is to get the other school gardens (most of which are sponsored by teachers) to partner with the food manager to implement the same sort of program Kathleen has at Timberlin.
-Carol K.
Directory of Community Gardens in NE Florida
Post a Comment