7/19/11
Arcadia featured in USA Today
Arcadia was recently featured in a USA Today article about programs being created to address 'food deserts' across America! Read the article to learn about some of our projects that aim to create a sustainable food system in the D.C. area.
The Mobile Market Goes Green
There’s a lot of activity underway as we retrofit our school bus. Among other developments, we’re building custom shelving for the produce, developing an electrical system for the refrigerators and freezers, and weighing our options for the exterior’s facelift (have any ideas? Send them to benjamin[at]arcadiafood[dot]org).
Most exciting is our partnership with DC Biofuels to run the engine on a blend of diesel and locally sourced vegetable oil. We had James Peeples, Senior Vice President of DC Biofuels, check out the bus this week and it looks like our engine is still in great shape. I can already smell the savory scent of fryer oil! Except not really – we’ll be running on a blend that burns clean. Plus, fryer oil may not pair well with the smell of freshly picked produce …
7/15/11
Featured Local Produce Program in D.C. Schools!
September - tomatoes! October - sweet potatoes! November - kale! We are excited to announce a new D.C. Farm to School Network program for the upcoming school year. Participating D.C. schools will familiarize students with seasonal, local produce - a different produce item each month. Our goal will be to educate and excite students about local fruits and veggies, so they’ll be more likely to eat them when they show up on their cafeteria trays. The program will also foster lasting partnerships between local farms and D.C. schools.
Here’s how it will work - each month will have a designated local fruit or vegetable. Let’s say it’s November, and the featured food is kale. School meals in November will include a local kale dish, which could be as simple as baked kale chips. Schools in D.C. will feature kale in their school gardens. Students participating in field trips to Arcadia’s educational farm will learn about growing and harvesting kale. Chef demonstrations, both on the farm and in schools, will feature healthy kale recipes. Taste tests in school cafeterias will expose students to a few different ways kale can be prepared. Download-able kale-themed lesson plans and worksheets will engage kids in the classroom, in line with D.C. curriculum standards. Keep your eye out for more information and for the launch of this exciting new program!
In the meantime, we need your help coming up with a creative name for the program! What should we call this monthly seasonal produce spotlight? Comment below, email anna[at]dcfarmtoschool[dot]org with ideas, or tweet ideas to us @dcfarmtoschool!
7/12/11
Fantastic Fundraiser Brunch!
Just picture this - 200 beautiful people enjoying brunch fare at Ris, champagne flutes filled with bottomless mimosas, models on the red carpet featuring the hippest summer fashions, gift bags overflowing with goodies from sponsors, a mix of the latest and greatest tunes in the background - can you feel the fun and excitement?
The Summer Brunch Soiree this past Saturday was a fantastic success, and we are so honored that the proceeds were to benefit the D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture. Only Becca and Cori Sue, also known as the Bitches who Brunch, could organize such an incredible fundraiser event. We want to extend an enormous thank you to them for choosing the D.C. Farm to School Network to benefit from the proceeds, and we look forward to working together in the future.
Thank all of the attendees for your support as well, to Ris for providing the wonderful food and staff for the event, to the volunteers who helped ready the space for the big day, and to all of the event’s sponsors. Find a picture medley from the event here!
Photo from readysetdc.com of the D.C. Farm to School Network table at the Summer Brunch Soiree.
The Summer Brunch Soiree this past Saturday was a fantastic success, and we are so honored that the proceeds were to benefit the D.C. Farm to School Network at Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture. Only Becca and Cori Sue, also known as the Bitches who Brunch, could organize such an incredible fundraiser event. We want to extend an enormous thank you to them for choosing the D.C. Farm to School Network to benefit from the proceeds, and we look forward to working together in the future.
Thank all of the attendees for your support as well, to Ris for providing the wonderful food and staff for the event, to the volunteers who helped ready the space for the big day, and to all of the event’s sponsors. Find a picture medley from the event here!
6/29/11
First Farm Dinner!
I've had a little time to recover and reflect on our very first farm dinner hosted at Arcadia Farms! I want to send a sincere thanks to all who attended and helped support our organization. I am humbled by your generosity and kind words.
Last Sunday, we hosted 90 amazing Arcadia supporters for an evening celebrating local food and Virginia wine. With the culinary genius of Tony Chittum from Vermillion and the decadent desserts of Tiffany Macisaac (who won a RAMMY this past weekend-- congrats, Tiff!), guests were treated to pork-stuffed squash blossoms, sesame-crusted green tomatoes, cucumber fennel salad, chamomile whipped cream over blueberries, and a host of other local fares.
The event went off without a hitch thanks to an amazing group of volunteers! (A HUGE thanks to the NRG staff-- and, of course, to Bev and Anna!)
There is something really rewarding watching people enjoy food that I have grown from tiny seed. It reminds me that food and food sharing is essential to us as social beings and it is such a luxury to have a glass of wine on my farm. While I spent most of the time looking at all the weeding that needs to be done, I think guests enjoyed being on a tiny rural oasis amidst the urban sprawl of Rt 1 and contributing to a great cause.
There will be more dinners to come and I hope to see you all there!
6/26/11
The National Trust for Historic Preservation visits Woodlawn
Among her many other skills, Farmer Mo is a great tour guide. According to one blogger, "I have never wanted to be a farmer before today, but I’m reconsidering – Maureen’s passion for community farming was that contagious."
6/24/11
Can Virginia-grown, pasture-raised, hormone and antibiotic free beef be found in a Washington, DC public school?
The answer is yes, and the school is the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in Northeast Washington, DC.
By: Andrea Northup, D.C. Farm to School Network Manager, and Anna Chute, D.C. Farm to School Network Intern
Lisa Dobbs, Chef and Nutrition director at E.W. Stokes, will stop at nothing to make sure that the 350 students she serves each day have healthy, delicious meals. Cooking from-scratch and using no processed foods, she and her staff prepare breakfast, lunch and supper in their antiquated kitchen for the school’s population of mostly low-income students. Lisa incorporates fresh, locally-grown foods whenever possible, especially on the school’s salad bar. And she works with the rest of the school staff to ensure that the school’s garden, nutrition and wellness programs are coordinated with her healthy menus.
As the Director of the D.C. Farm to School Network, I heard about Joy Evans from a friend who works in a local farm-to-table restaurant. Joy and her husband operate a business called Shenandoah Foods, which delivers meat, cheese and eggs from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to Washington, DC-area restaurants. Joy takes a delivery fee from her clients to run her business, and then farmers deal directly with customers to handle food costs. I reached out to see if she might be interested to work with Washington, DC schools.
Getting local meats into school meals is difficult. Most schools buy pre-cooked commodity meat from large distributors. It’s cheap (less than $1 per lb) and can be ordered in the evening and delivered the next morning – a system that’s hard to beat. But we’re not quite sure where it comes from, and it’s not always the highest quality product. But with about $1 per meal to spend on food, school food service directors have to make difficult choices about what they can afford.
I invited Joy and her husband to Washington, DC to meet with a few schools interested in buying local meat. We had a lively discussion about what products schools want, how much they need, what prices they can afford, and how to handle invoicing and delivery. We tried some delicious cheeses, Virginia-grown ground beef hamburgers, and fresh yogurt with local berries. If your mouth isn’t watering, it should be - the school food service providers could taste difference!
Joy and Lisa connected, and decided on a trial-run of 200 pounds of lean ground beef for $2.60 per pound. Joy picked up the meat from D&M Meats in Harrisonburg, VA in her refrigerated van, and delivered it to E.W. Stokes in conjunction with her regular restaurant deliveries. Lisa and her team expertly sautéed and seasoned the ground beef, and served it with pico-de-gallo, tortilla chips, and fresh guacamole. The result? A delicious and healthy meal for hungry students, which put money into our local economy, supported a sustainable small producer and made clean-beef fans out of Stokes’ young scholars!
Lisa Dobbs, Food Service Director at E.W. Stokes says the quality of the Virginia-grown beef is unparalleled. There isn’t murky liquid left over after cooking – something she’s used to with the lower-quality products. “We would never go back to the beef we were cooking before! We would drop beef from our menu entirely if we had to go back,” says Lisa.
Lisa can’t serve local meat every day, but it’s on the menu about once or twice a week, and they are looking to incorporate other items like chicken and eggs. We’re working to get more schools on board, and we’re excited for the potential to grow this partnership!
By: Andrea Northup, D.C. Farm to School Network Manager, and Anna Chute, D.C. Farm to School Network Intern
Lisa Dobbs, Chef and Nutrition director at E.W. Stokes, will stop at nothing to make sure that the 350 students she serves each day have healthy, delicious meals. Cooking from-scratch and using no processed foods, she and her staff prepare breakfast, lunch and supper in their antiquated kitchen for the school’s population of mostly low-income students. Lisa incorporates fresh, locally-grown foods whenever possible, especially on the school’s salad bar. And she works with the rest of the school staff to ensure that the school’s garden, nutrition and wellness programs are coordinated with her healthy menus.
As the Director of the D.C. Farm to School Network, I heard about Joy Evans from a friend who works in a local farm-to-table restaurant. Joy and her husband operate a business called Shenandoah Foods, which delivers meat, cheese and eggs from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to Washington, DC-area restaurants. Joy takes a delivery fee from her clients to run her business, and then farmers deal directly with customers to handle food costs. I reached out to see if she might be interested to work with Washington, DC schools.Getting local meats into school meals is difficult. Most schools buy pre-cooked commodity meat from large distributors. It’s cheap (less than $1 per lb) and can be ordered in the evening and delivered the next morning – a system that’s hard to beat. But we’re not quite sure where it comes from, and it’s not always the highest quality product. But with about $1 per meal to spend on food, school food service directors have to make difficult choices about what they can afford.
I invited Joy and her husband to Washington, DC to meet with a few schools interested in buying local meat. We had a lively discussion about what products schools want, how much they need, what prices they can afford, and how to handle invoicing and delivery. We tried some delicious cheeses, Virginia-grown ground beef hamburgers, and fresh yogurt with local berries. If your mouth isn’t watering, it should be - the school food service providers could taste difference!
Joy and Lisa connected, and decided on a trial-run of 200 pounds of lean ground beef for $2.60 per pound. Joy picked up the meat from D&M Meats in Harrisonburg, VA in her refrigerated van, and delivered it to E.W. Stokes in conjunction with her regular restaurant deliveries. Lisa and her team expertly sautéed and seasoned the ground beef, and served it with pico-de-gallo, tortilla chips, and fresh guacamole. The result? A delicious and healthy meal for hungry students, which put money into our local economy, supported a sustainable small producer and made clean-beef fans out of Stokes’ young scholars!
Lisa Dobbs, Food Service Director at E.W. Stokes says the quality of the Virginia-grown beef is unparalleled. There isn’t murky liquid left over after cooking – something she’s used to with the lower-quality products. “We would never go back to the beef we were cooking before! We would drop beef from our menu entirely if we had to go back,” says Lisa.Lisa can’t serve local meat every day, but it’s on the menu about once or twice a week, and they are looking to incorporate other items like chicken and eggs. We’re working to get more schools on board, and we’re excited for the potential to grow this partnership!
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