Meet Brandi, our new Education Coordinator

We're pretty excited to welcome Brandi Redo, our brand-new Education Coordinator, to the Arcadia team. This fall, she'll be working with the Mobile Market on educational visits, on the farm with farm tours and helping out with farm field trips. She'll also be working behind the scenes to coordinate logistics.

Read on to learn more about Brandi.

Tell us about your past experiences and what brought you to Arcadia.
I grew up in Hayward, California where our high school mascot was the Farmer. Chris, my husband, (who I met in high school) and I always joke about how we weren't even nerds we were agrarian. I have always loved being in wide open spaces and eating food fresh out of the earth. I believe that the energy you put into the food you will get back and so I love making things grow with my own hands, chopping and preparing food and teaching others to slow down and do the same.

What about the position are you most excited for?
Before I came to Arcadia, I worked and continue to work as a Health Coach. I do weight-loss challenges, teach folks to prepare healthy meals in their homes and do group cooking demos and wellness seminars for all ages. I have taught classes in a number of notable locations from McDonalds Corporation to the USDA and I really want to contribute what I know about group nutrition education to the wonderful programs going on at Arcadia.

Every time I visit the farm my nose is greeted with the fragrance of beautiful flowers and fresh herbs and my tummy rumbles knowing that there is wholesome, delicious, real food at my fingertips. I am excited to introduce this feeling of connectedness and wholeness to communities where real food is scarce. I have had an opportunity to witness the magic Ben and JuJu work at the Mobile Markets and am thrilled to be a part of that.


If you were a vegetable, what would you be?
If I were a plant food I would probably be a winter squash. Either a butternut or a spaghetti squash because they make people happy and are tough on the outside but naturally sweet on the inside. The spaghetti squash is particularly appealing because it is unique and surprising.

What’s your favorite season for growing produce and why?
I really like the fall growing season because the weather is milder and I feel more motivated to get out in the yard and garden. I also like the vast variety of fruits and vegetables you can grow in early fall and the idea of the large harvest around Thanks Giving. I am a big fan of the leafy greens that grow well in the fall, especially kale and collards which are the most important part of my diet.

Gearing Up for Field Trips at Arcadia Farm

Enthusiasm, passion, patience: these are a few of the qualities that make a great teacher, according to the staff, interns, and volunteers at our field trip training this past Saturday. As we discussed the basics of farm-based education, we also talked about how we as educators can embody those qualities and make each trip empowering for students.

In just a few short weeks, Arcadia Farm will start hosting spring field trips for kids from DC and the metro area. The goal of the training was to make sure our fantastic volunteers, interns and staff are prepared to make those trips great. Although the rain kept us indoors for most of the day, we spent time role playing activities about soil, plants, bees, chickens and harvesting so that everyone had practice teaching our spring lessons.

Amy Best, Associate Professor of Sociology at George Mason University, joined us for the training to discuss observation-based research. She has been helping us develop a comprehensive system for evaluating our programs and she'll be observing field trips to help us measure our success and improve our programs.

Sophia from Brickyard Farm, where they're starting a field trip program, also stopped by to hear about what we're doing. So did Jamie from Sweetgreen, who made a special guest chef appearance at one of our fall field trips.

Thanks to everyone who came! And special thanks to our friends at Chipotle for providing lunch for our hungry staff and volunteers.

We're enthusiastic, passionate, patient and just about ready to welcome a crop of future growers to our farm! See you in a few weeks!

Save the Date for Arcadia Farm Camp!

We're glad to announce the dates of Arcadia Farm Camp's pilot sessions! Over the past few weeks, we've been moving forward with planning a truly awesome summer camp program. We had help from some fantastic parents at our focus groups in January, and we'll use their feedback as we develop camp policies and procedures.

We're hosting two one-week sessions: July 16-20, 2012 and July 23-27, 2012. We're planning to open registration in late February or early March. For more details, head over to our website. If you still have questions, don't hesitate to email liz@arcadiafood.org for more information. You can also sign up for future summer camp updates here.

We're excited to welcome your child to Arcadia Farm Camp this summer.

2012, Here We Come!

Arcadia’s gearing up for 2012! We have ambitious goals - here’s what our staff are most excited about for in the upcoming year:

After a stellar first season, our Farm Director Mo Moodie, is excited to expand Arcadia Farm at Woodlawn to an additional 2 acres (“the Lower Field”) this growing season. Our Mobile Market needs fresh fruits and veggies to sell in and around DC, so she’s gonna grow ‘em. We’re also welcoming some living, breathing new members of our farm family: chickens & ducks!

Benjamin Bartley, our Mobile Market Director, is excited to get Arcadia’s farmers’ market bus on the road this season! He’s establishing a “Double Dollars” program that will match fresh produce purchases dollar-for-dollar from low-income folks using WIC, SNAP, and the Senior Farmers’ Market Promotion Program – up to $15,000! He also aims to engage thousands of students, parents and families when the Mobile Market makes educational stops at schools. Keep your eyes peeled for a produce-filled school bus soon!

Andrea Northup, D.C. Farm to School Network Director, is rolling out a number of food, nutrition and farm education programs this year. She’s most excited for a Farm to School Workshop for school food service providers later this winter, and the launch of our Farm-Fresh Feature program. The Farm-Fresh Feature will include a suite of educational materials and programs for schools to help them celebrate a different sustainable, local fruit or veggie each month. Stickers, handouts, banners, taste-tests and more will get kids jazzed about the local options in their school meals!

Liz Whitehurst, our Farm Education Coordinator, aims to build off of a successful season of school field trips to Groundhog Garden, our youth space at Arcadia Farm. Her main goals are to make field trips accessible to all schools, regardless of their ability to pay for a bus to transport students. Liz also plans to grow at least 50% of food for education programs at Groundhog Garden. Whole Foods generously donated hundreds of pounds of produce for field trip programming last year, but Liz’s planned expansion of Groundhog Garden will allow us to stock our salad bar with produce grown just a few feet away.

Wow, we’ve got a lot in store for the upcoming months! Help us reach our goals by donating to Arcadia (email info@arcadiafood.org to learn how) and stay in touch – follow us on twitter, find us on facebook, and be sure to get on our email list.