Local lettuce and berries for school lunch being prepared at CentroNIA

If you walked into a D.C. school cafeteria on June 3^rd 2010, you may have been surprised at what you saw on students’ trays!  Over 150 schools in DC featured fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens as a part of their school lunches.  This was part of an event called Strawberries & Salad Greens, organized by the D.C. Farm to School Network and in partnership with participating schools and food service providers.  For a medley of pictures from the event in DCist, click here.

Breakfast on the line at Thurgood Marshall Academy – blueberry muffin and local strawberries!

About 40,000 students in all 8 wards of the District gobbled up juicy, red berries and bright green lettuce in their lunches.  Approximately 7,300 pounds of local strawberries and 2,400 pounds of greens were purchased and served for the event, contributing about $20,000 to our local food economy.  The produce was grown on farms in Virgina, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania (visit dcfarmtoschool.org/strawberries for more information about the local growers).

Westmoreland Berry Farm, which supplied berries for DCPS meals on June 3^rd

In addition to helping schools find sources of fresh, local produce, the D.C. Farm to School Network coordinated “Where Food Comes From” tables in 16 school cafeterias.  At these tables, volunteers and parents displayed plants, posters, pictures, and gardening tools.  As students enjoyed their meals, they were able to see, touch, and smell where their food came from!

Carl Rollins with Common Good City Farm shows a strawberry plant to a group of pre-K students at Simon Elementary School

In twelve schools, local chefs performed interactive cooking demonstrations using local strawberries and salad greens.  Kids were able to help professionals prepare recipes, taste samples, discuss the importance of eating fresh, local, healthy foods, and bring home recipes to try with their families.

Chef Oliver Friendly of Eat and Smile Foods makes home-made granola and local strawberry parfaits at Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter School

The D.C. Farm to School Network is a program of the Capital Area Food Bank that works to get more healthy, local foods into Washington, DC school meals.  Learn more at www.dcfarmtoschool.org.

Kacie Warner from the Washington Youth Garden prepares a strawberry arugula salad with students at Center City Public Charter School

If you were not at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in your denim on March 28th for the 7^th Annual Blue Jeans Ball – you missed a tasty event!  The ball was in a new location this year and I think it worked in our favor!  The guests seemed to enjoy the savory dishes, stand out cake designs and creatively packaged auction items.  The theme that carried through the evening was our 30^th Anniversary.  This was definitely a special night for the food bank! 

Savory smells filled the room from top restaurants like Central Michel Richard, PS 7s, Eatonville and Ris.  The favorites of the night were definitely the lamb chops from Goodstone Inn, burgers from the Marriott Wardman Park and cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake.  A long time supporter and donor of the food bank, The Best Cookie also had great time as guests flocked to her table to sample her delicious cookies!  We had a little something for everyone.  The talk of the night was also the “Parade of Cakes” challenge, which was a museum like display of unique dessert designs from chefs like Michel Richard, Josh Short from Buzz Bakery and Heather Mackey from the Marriott.  All the cakes were great, but there could only be one winner.   Barton Farnsworth from Cake FX, who created a “Most Wanted” cake design which was inspired by the food bank’s Most Wanted Items list, took home the honors.

Other highlights of the evening were the “30 baskets for 30 years” displayed during the Silent Auction, which were created in honor of our 30^th Anniversary.  BJ Jennings, professional auctioneer, also brought a lively touch to the event exciting guests to bid, bid and bid some more!  We raised over $50,000 on the Silent and Live auction!

This year’s Blue Jeans Ball was definitely our most successful event – breaking records with an income of $217,000.  Guests came in their favorite jeans, sampled delicious foods while supporting the Capital Area Food Bank.  It was a memorable night for sure!

 The Event

Children sat coloring the food pyramid as donors, OSSE representatives, long-time volunteers, and advocacy partners from Feeding America and DC Hunger Solutions were welcomed in to the site. 

We had four speakers at our event.  Lynn spoke to the group about the importance of food and our work in the community.  I spoke to the group about the ongoing goals of Kids Cafe.  Steve Park spoke to the group about the children’s programs at Little Lights Urban Ministries and the impact that Kids Cafe will make at their site.  Daniel Nestel discussed the volunteer projects his family leads at Beth El Temple and why he finds this work so important.

After the speakers, Jeff Poch led the children in a nutrition activity talking about the food groups.  Then he and the children made guacamole and the salsa for tacos.  The children enjoyed a dinner of bean and turkey tacos with lots of veggies on whole-wheat tortillas, a side of fruit salad, triscuits, and milk and juice. 

This year, the Capital Area Food Bank will commemorate 30 years of service to Washington metro area.  As we enter another year and another decade, I say “thank you” to our generous supporters. Whether you volunteered, donated funds, donated food, attended an event or even just wished us well, we appreciate you.

It’s hard to believe that when we started the food bank on January 15, 1980 our services would be in even greater demand 30 years later.  Even before this current economic crisis hit, our partner agencies were seeing increased need.  Now they are reporting increases up to 200 percent!  We were receiving more calls to our Hunger Lifeline, an emergency food referral system, before the economic downturn – and now those calls are up 91 percent.  We are indeed in the midst of difficult times.

But the food bank is committed to serving those in need no matter how long it takes.  Over the years we’ve distributed over $500 million worth of food into the community, but we realize that addressing hunger takes more than simply providing food. The CAFB has grown to offer a wide range of nutrition education courses, Food Stamp (now called SNAP) outreach, cooking classes, gardening skills and so much more.  Yet, it’s not enough.  We need you, our supporters, to continue helping. We invite you get involved and engage your friends and families in the issue of hunger.  How? You can hold a food drive, hold a fundraiser, volunteer in our warehouse, attend our upcoming Hunger Policy Forum on Jan. 15, teach a cooking class, tour our warehouse, write about the food bank in your blog or even tweet about us.  Let everyone know that hunger is unacceptable.

Nourishing the thousands of families, seniors, children and individuals suffering from hunger in our area takes more than the food bank – it takes the entire community.  So as we move into 2010 let us come together to ensure that the most basic human right – food – is guaranteed to all.

P.S. My colleague, Joel Berg, executive director of the New York Coalition Against Hunger, recently wrote an important letter to President Obama.  His ideas are relevant, insightful and offer concrete solutions to addressing hunger. I invite you to read it here and share it with others.

I would like to show some love to our generous sponsors: DLA Piper for hosting the event in their beautiful facility; Jody Walsh and House of Artistry for helping us kick off the event last year and donating so many bowls both last year and this year; Giant Food, Inc. and Safeway Inc., two of the food bank’s largest supporters; Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, Torpedo Factory Art Center, Loren Scherbak and Jodi Walsh and House of Artistry for donating the amazing bowls and vases; and the restaurants and partner agencies who are donating the best soups, breads and cookies ever – Breadline, Café Atlantico (I wish they could bring their famous mojitos too), Capital Area Food Bank, Clyde’s of Gallery Place, Food & Friends, Israel CME Church, PS 7’s, thebestcookie.com, and Thrive DC.  I especially want to thank the chefs from our partner agencies and our resident chef, Jodi Balis.  The very agencies we are working to help are donating to this event.  That’s awesome!

I hope to see you there.