Welcome to October!
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”
Hi all!
I hope you are all doing well! I wanted to tell you about a bit of activity NHFC has been up to this week. We had the pleasure of being a community partner with Bike Walk Macon at their Pleasant Hill Open Streets event this past Sunday and I personally got to go talk to some lovely people at Pearl Stephens Village last Thursday before market.
I got to partner with the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program teacher and help talk about where to get fresh fruits and vegetables and how to store the produce once it came home. I love education about pretty much anything, but food education is my favorite! I love being able to share what I have learned with others.
This past Sunday was also really fun with Lacey at Open Streets. We got to meet so many people! The activity we did was to have people draw their favorite food. (I kept to a favorite food because not everyone loves vegetables or fruit and I wanted people to have something they could genuinely say was their favorite food.) Then we asked them where the nearest place they could find this food was. Many said they had to drive to get it, and it was more than a 5 minute drive. This activity was to demonstrate and help people to realize just what food apartheid looks like. A food desert is a term used for a community that doesn’t have access to healthy food within a mile of its population for urban areas and 10 miles for rural areas. Pleasant Hill, much like Napier Heights, experiences these same conditions.
Here is some information from the USDA about food deserts. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2013/march/different-measures-of-food-access-inform-different-solutions/
Loy is providing the fresh produce this week! He sources all his produce from around Georgia and sometimes Florida, but it is always with those he knows and what the community has asked for. We had some questions last week about that, and I wanted to clarify that we aim for equitable access to food. This means that we want everyone to have equal access to all foods. So sometimes there will be bananas so that those who cannot reach a grocery store, but can walk to the market have access to those same items many of us take for granted.
This week he is bringing: collards, turnips, rutabaga, apples, onions, tomatoes, tangerines, muscadines, scuppernongs, and watermelon!
I love french toast and I love to feed a crowd. So when baked french toast casseroles were a big hit a few years ago I discovered that this was just a remake of bread pudding or strata and someone decided to rename it. Strata is usually the savory form of bread pudding or baked french toast casserole or whatever you want to call it. This one features greens and tomatoes and sourdough bread. Turnips would be a great green for this! And Bakery 2 Go’s sourdough is amazing!
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/sourdough-strata-with-tomatoes-and-greens-recipe-1973322