Honest Weight's Coop Scoop

ISSUE #429

JULY/AUGUST 2019

THE BALANCE ISSUE

Meet Nature's Engineers Step Inside a Beaver's World

Share Your Skills

Support Your Neighbors

Read All Summer

Get Tips from the NYS Library

Speaking of diet, how about a recipe?

Ayurveda, which is related to yoga, is the ancient Indian “science of life force or vital energy.” According to Ayurveda, good health comes from maintaining our balance physically— with diet and exercise—as well as mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

We end with the Kids Corner and a look at what children can do to develop and maintain their balance. It’s a good habit to get into.

Warm Regards,

How about our children? What nearby place offers many free adventures under one roof? Your local public library! Reading can engage kids over the summer and help them find a balance between education, discovery,

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Linda Coolen & Susan Metcalf are Co-op

Member-Owners and Co-Managing Editors of the Coop Scoop.

You don't have to Be a member to shop!

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100 Watervliet Avenue, Albany, NY 12206 (518) 482-2667 [COOP]

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Two of our contributors write about creating balanced lives. One writes of fulfilling a dream to live on a farm, bonding with the land and animals.

She writes that “despite struggles with errant goats, runaway chickens, and wonky gates, I am finding this phase

and fun. What about a balanced diet for these kids? The Summer Reading at NY Libraries program partners with Hunger Solutions NY and offers meals and snacks at various public places across the state. As they so aptly put it: “To be well read, you must be well fed.”

While we humans seem to need to learn how to live balanced lives, not so with beavers. A review of Eager: The Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter explores how the presence of beavers can cause entire ecosystems to thrive: “The story of beavers in North America is a story of balance.

Or perhaps, more accurately, of the lack thereof.”

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We l c o m e t o s u m m e r — f i n a l l y !

Remember the puddles and mud?

Anyone slip, slide, and fall down?

Balance has two sides. If we lose it, we can get hurt. If we find it, we can feel contented. How do we find balance in our lives? What does balance mean for kids, adults, and seniors? What difference do beavers make?

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Co-Managing Editors

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Letter from Our Editors

Linda Coolen and Susan Metcalf

of my life enriching, enjoyable, and more balanced.” Another contributor volunteers with a local nonprofit called Umbrella that helps seniors “age in place.” While we are living longer today, our family support networks are getting smaller, often due to distance and time constraints. Umbrella is an affordable service that offers nonmedical, individualized assistance so seniors can remain living at home.

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8am TO 10pm EVERY DAY

Honest Weight Food Co-op is a memberowned and -operated consumer cooperative that is committed to providing the community with affordable, high quality natural foods and products for healthy living.

Our mission is to promote more equitable, participatory, and

Ecologically sustainable ways of living.

Honest weight is open to the public, seven days a week. The Coop Scoop is produced bimonthly by our Education Department and offered free of charge as part of our mission.

To view online, Please visit www.honestweight.coop/coopscoop.

Contributors EDITORS: Ben Goldberg, our Associate Editor, is retired from a 40+ year career in behavioral health care in the nonprofit sector. He is currently an active volunteer and freelance writer and editor.

Carol Reid our Assistant Editor, is a retired cataloger at the New York State Library, where she worked for over 35 years. She wrote a 10-year blog called “Typo of the Day for Librarians” and has been a Co-op member since the 1980s.

Writers: Ben Goldberg, Jess Hoffman, Georgia Julius, Katy Kukulich, Mia LaVada, Sharon Phillips, Melanie Pores, and Natalie Wallace

Designers: Mathew Bradley Holley Davis is a new Co-op member.

When she’s not at the Troy Farmers Market or trying new recipes, you can find her running a half marathon in every state.

DISTRIBUTION Assistant: Donna Eastman

Interested in Contributing TO THE COOP SCOOP? Contact:

• contests and giveaways • great deals flyers • fresh deals flyers • exclusive promotions and sales • special event notices

CoopScoopEditors@ googlegroups.com

ADVERTISE WITH US! Contact: Kim Morton (518) 330-3262 kim.a.morton@gmail.com Printed with soy ink on recycled paper in Albany, NY

ISSN 2473-6155 (print) ISSN 2473-6163 (online) The Coop Scoop is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing medical or health advice. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider. We are not responsible for errors or omissions. Honest Weight is not responsible for, and does not necessarily agree with, our guest writers' articles.

Cover photo by Andrea Tummons on Unsplash

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JULY/AUGUST 2019

WHAT'S FRESH AT HONEST WEIGHT Georgia Julius

FINDING BALANCE AFTER 60 Linda Coolen

BOOK REVIEW: BEAVER BALANCE Natalie Wallace

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PRODUCER PROFILES: GRINDSTONE FARM AND GRAFT CIDER Mia LaVada

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ASSISTANCE THAT SUPPORTS INDEPENDENCE: UMBRELLA OF THE CAPITAL DISTRICT Ben Goldberg

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THE NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY: FREE LITERACY RESOURCES

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RECIPE CORNER: MELANIE’S BALANCING MANGO LASSI

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KIDS CORNER

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Sharon Phillips, Jess Hoffman, and Katy Kukulich

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Melanie Pores

Linda Coolen and Susan Metcalf

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What's Fresh at Honest Weight!

We’re always working to improve your shopping experience, along with our store’s social and environmental impacts. We regularly assess and update our product offerings, educational programs, policies, and store infrastructure. We seek suggestions from our Member-Owners, staff, and shoppers and consider every single one. It’s a lot of work, but it’s totally worth it. Here’s what’s fresh for you this month at Honest Weight.

new catering menu We’ve updated our catering menu with lots of new, tasty entrees, appetizers, lunches, and desserts! Just like our hot bar, our catering is all made fresh from scratch using only natural ingredients. We’re talking homemade, hand-cut sprinkles colored with natural food dyes from-scratch.

Our chefs use organic and local ingredients whenever feasible, and we partner with local farms to provide us with local, in season fruits and vegetables. Grab a catering menu in our Deli or find it on our website!

New Water Bottle Policy

Fill your 30 oz. bottle with reverse osmosis filtered water for less than 10 cents!

One million plastic bottles are sold every minute and only 9% of all plastic has ever been recycled. None of the plastic ever created has biodegraded. Suffice to say, we have a plastic problem. In response to the plastic crisis, Honest Weight is no longer selling water in plastic bottles smaller than 1.5 liters. It’s a small step on a long journey, but it’s in the right direction. We invite you to fill your reusable bottle at the water fountain near our restrooms or by purchasing reverse osmosis filtered water at the filling station near our exit.

new beverage coolers Have you seen our new beverage cooler?

We’ve extended the refrigerated case in our deli to offer even more grab-and-go deli choices, like your favorite sandwiches, snacks and dips, and ready-tobake pizza dough, quiches, and cookies. You’ll also find a larger selection of non-alcoholic drinks like iced tea, juice, and kombucha. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of frosty craft beer and cider, too!

New kids classes “We’re creating a program that incorporates interesting, experiential ways for kids of all ages to explore the world around them and, ultimately, to inspire curiosity!”

- Deanna Beyer, Education Coordinator You may remember reading here about What’s the Story? Little Cooperators Storytime, a monthly series for children aged 2-4 on the first Friday of each month, right after ¡Bebé Spanish! for ages 1836 months. Now, we’re offering more classes with stories, crafting, and cooking, dedicated for kids ages 4-7 (July’s theme is Ladybugs & Butterflies!) and 7-11 (check out Compost Creations in July and The Crayon Man in August). Ages 12+ are welcome at most of our other class offerings with parental supervision. As always, you can see all of our Educational offerings on our website.

www.honestweight.coop/education

Finding Balance After 60

by Linda Coolen

For over 30 years, I lived in a Boston suburb in the home where I raised my children and gardened a bit on my 1/10th of an acre lot.

I owned my own home in a town with a good school system and amenities, close to my parents, who were beginning to need my help. Later, with kids in school, I worked full-time and struggled like most of us do through the teen years. There was always a part of me that wondered if I would or could ever live in a more

This alteration in lifestyle has changed my priorities and my way of living.

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rural setting with a large garden, perhaps animals, and time to wander. But this was my home, and anything else seemed like a pipe dream.

Children leav ing home, remarriage, the death of my mother, and other significant life changes led to my husband and me moving to the Capital District.

We now live on a small farm in a rural area. This alteration in lifestyle has changed both my priorities and my way of living.

The 10-acre farm with its burgeoning chicken population of 40-plus birds, two goats, barn cats, a rescue dog, and a beginning garden require significant morning and evening routines.

I have found enjoyable part-time work, yet there is still time in the day for the things I like to do: cooking, thrift store hunting, r e ad i ng , a nd r e s e a r c h i ng.

Browsing through library stacks has always been a particular favorite. (Whenever I was late to pick up my daughter from school, she would sigh and ask, “Were you at the bookstore or the library, Mom?�) I also love just spending time w ith animals because observing their behaviors and interacting with them deepens my understanding of them.

The simple allure of sun shining on fields and wide-open sunsets, goat greetings, and the contented muttering of chickens while I collect their eggs are some of the things I enjoy now.

I am delighted to have the time to be able to learn about subjects I have always been interested in but never seemed to have the time for, and to try my hand at farm skills, even if ineptly.

Time and space are so important to me now. The pursuit of long-neglected interests, such a s sust a inabi lit y, d if ferent approaches to gardening, and working with animals has resulted in a slower pace of life. Despite struggles w ith errant goats, runaway chickens, and wonky gates, I am finding this phase of my life enriching, enjoyable, and more balanced.

Linda Coolen is a member-owner and a

Boston-area transplant who is happily learning to care for her animals and small farm in a rural community outside of Albany.

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Book Review: Beaver Balance Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter

by Natalie Wallace

Just down the road from my house, the otherwise ubiquitous thicket of birch and pine opens momentarily onto a stunning vista.

A distant mountain peak rises boldly on the horizon, and in the foreground, the stagnant surface of a swamp reflects the sky’s shifting moods. It is a sight to behold. But it wasn’t until recently that I noticed a subtler feature of this dazzling panorama—a haphazard mound of sticks and earth situated center swamp that quickly betrayed the identity of its inhabitants: beavers.

and propensity for ecological design means that many other species, and indeed entire ecosystems, rely on them for survival. The ponds and wetlands created by beaver dams are sanctuaries for “moose, otters, trumpeter swans, coho salmon, and, in North Carolina, the endangered Saint Francis’ satyr butterf ly...In the intermountain West, wetlands, though they make up just 2 percent of total land area, support 80 percent of biodiversity,” Goldfarb reveals.

But beavers don’t only sculpt uniquely hospitable landscapes; they play an integral Beavers' trajectory in North America reveals role in managing water resources - an something about balance. increasingly critical task as our global climate Or perhaps, more accurately, about the lack thereof. rapidly destabilizes.

And while I haven’t read all available beaver literature, I am willing to bet that few individuals have chronicled this species’ tumultuous history on our continent with the same depth, humor, and artistry as Ben Goldfarb in his book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.

As Goldfarb clues us in early on, these amphibious rodents matter for a plethora of reasons that had previously eluded my attention as successfully as the aforementioned lodge. Beavers are what’s known as a keystone species. Their architectural prowess JULY/AUGUST 2019

“The weight of [beaver ponds] presses water deep into the ground, recharging aquifers for use by downstream farms and ranches,” Goldfarb explains. “Sediment and pollutants filter out in the slackwaters, cleansing flows. Floods dissipate in the ponds; wildfires hiss out in wet meadows. Wetlands

Beavers play an integral role in managing water resources 7

capture and store spring rain and snowmelt, releasing water in delayed pulses that sustain crops through the dry summer.”

In short, take the beavers out of an ecosystem, and you get a drastically altered environment.

And that is precisely what happened on the North American continent.

With unstymied zeal, nineteenth-century mountain men traipsed across America’s wilderness trapping beavers for the lucrative fur trade, ultimately wiping the species to the brink of annihilation. So in a way, if we lack a complete understanding of beavers’ importance today, it is partially because we don’t have a collective cultural memory of what our landscape looked like prior to their removal.

In Eager, Goldfarb jogs that memory. His diligent research takes us across the country, introducing us to scientists, activists, ranchers, government officials, landowners, and business owners—all of whom possess different pieces of the puzzle. And as we journey through beavers’ history, we also learn about those dedicated individuals—“Beaver Believers”—who are “rewilding” North America’s landscape by restoring beavers to the places that need them most.

Consider Carol Evans, a fish biologist who has spent over 40 years of her career in Elko County, Nevada.

On a trip to the Southwest, Goldfarb accompanied Evans to Susie Creek—a small waterway that, in a 1989 photograph, “trickle[d] across a stony, barren floodplain locked deep within eroding canyon walls, undecorated by so much as a blade of grass.” As a fish biologist, Evans’ interest in this degraded landscape centered on Susie Creek’s declining Lahontan cutthroat trout population—a consequence of cattle overgrazing the creek’s banks, decimating flora that would otherwise shade and cool its waters. And so she enlisted the help of two unlikely accomplices: Jon Griggs and Wayne Fahsholtz, resident cattle ranchers. Though initially skeptical, the ranchers set aside their doubts and permitted Evans to work her magic. Evans restricted the areas where Griggs’ and Fahsholtz’ cattle could graze during the heat of the summer, thereby stimulating the revival of streamside vegetation. And where there’s riparian vegetation, beavers are sure to follow. “If managed grazing changed Susie Creek,” Goldfarb writes, “the 8

arrival of beavers transformed it. Narrow channels became sprawling cattail marshes. Water-loathing sagebrush ceded to native sedges. The slender green string twisting through the desert broadened into a thick band…A wasteland had become a paradise.”

This was exactly what Evans had hoped for.

Susie Creek’s transformation proved critical not only for Evans’ trout but for an unsuspecting Griggs and Fahsholtz. In 2012, in the midst of a devastating drought that incapacitated many Nevada ranchers, “Griggs…managed to avoid hauling water—thanks to beavers, who kept Susie Creek brimming through the driest months.”

What looks to us like disorder, though, is more properly described as complexity, a profusion of life-supporting habitats that benefit nearly everything that crawls, walks, flies, and swims in North America.

Despite overwhelming evidence that beavers often remediate landscapes more effectively than humans and that we can take simple measures to divert their more destructive tendencies, beavers continue to provoke the malice of those who consider them mere nuisances. Goldfarb eloquently postulates: "Although our hostility toward beavers is most obviously predicated on their penchant for property damage, I suspect there’s also a deeper aversion at work. We humans are fanatical, orderly micromanagers of the natural world: We like our crops planted in parallel furrows, our dams poured with smooth concrete, our rivers straitjacketed and obedient. Beavers, meanwhile, create apparent chaos: jumbles of downed trees, riotous streamside vegetation, creeks that jump their banks with abandon. What looks to us like disorder, though, is more properly described as complexity, a profusion of life-supporting habitats that benefit nearly everything that crawls, walks, flies, and swims in North America."

While Goldfarb’s prodigious research and beaverrelated knowledge are impressive, his homage to complexity is what truly sets his work apart.

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In an age of sound bites, snapshots, and social media that privilege brevity and sensationalism, complexity is easily forgotten. As Goldfarb aptly notes, “The most powerful stories tend to be the simplest ones, the tales that can be cogently distilled into four-minute YouTube clips. Ecological truth, however, is harder to condense in a viral video.” So, I posit, are most other truths.

Eager is a story about beavers. But it is also a story about ourselves, and what we stand to lose when we fail to question our most dearly held beliefs. Like Griggs and Fahsholtz, who took a chance on Carol Evans and the “long-term, place-based knowledge” she accumulated over the course of a career, we might instead listen, observe, and seek the truths in our landscapes—both topographic and cultural— that don’t jump out at first glance.

After nearly a decade in Albany, Natalie recently moved to Vermont to work as an editorial assistant at Chelsea Green Publishing. However, her heart is indelibly tethered to the Capital Region, as perhaps evidenced by this Coop Scoop article.

Disclaimer: Chelsea Green is the publisher of Eager and many other nonfiction books on sustainable living and progressive politics.

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Toddler Program

LIMITED OPENINGS

FOR FALL 2019

A Montessori Toddler program for children ages 18 months through 3 years old.

Designed for the family that enjoys mornings at home or has other morning activities.

Program Hours and oPTIons 12:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

3, 4 or 5 days a week More info at woodlandhill.org or ask for Kris at 518.283.5400 JULY/AUGUST 2019

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Producer Profiles

by Mia LaVada

We truly value the small businesses and dedicated individuals who work hard to create the exceptional goods and products we carry here at Honest Weight Food Co-op. We think these inspirational stories demonstrate the importance of supporting local, and why we’re so committed to it!

GRINDSTONE FARM FOUND IN OUR PRODUCE DEPARTMENT Grindstone Farm, located in Pulaski, New York, and growing fruits and vegetables since 1988, is a Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA-NY) Certified Organic farm.

The Co-op is excited to partner with Grindstone Farm, not only because of their attention to detail with their crops but also because of their collaboration with other local farms.

Grindstone Farm is one of the only certified organic New York State farms that grows blueberries for wholesale Grindstone Farm is one of the only certified organic New York State farms that grows blueberries for wholesale. To do this, they have to battle a highly invasive species of fruit fly, and the success of their crop is a testament to their dedication to organic farming.

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Grindstone’s collaborative approach is apparent in...the assisting of other farms to transition to organic methods Grindstone’s collaborative approach is apparent in their sourcing of products from other local farmers and in the assisting of other farms to transition to organic methods and get certified themselves. And, by supplementing from other organic wholesale farms, Grindstone ensures stable, year-round employment for its own employees.

This year we are excited to offer squash from Grindstone in our Produce Department. It will be the first time the Co-op will have reliable, organiccertified, locally grown, single-serving hybrid squashes for sale.

Mia LaVada is a brand-new member of Honest Weight. She prides herself on being a foodie and frequently refers to the Co-op as her “happy place.” She can be caught perusing the Baked Goods Dept. looking for inspiration for her next baking project.

She’s on Instagram: @mialavada.

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GRAFT CIDER

Found in our beer department Graft Cider is a 100-percent gluten-free cidery located in Newburgh, New York, about an hour and a half south of Albany.

Started by siblings Kyle and Sara Sherrer, Graft Cider sources all its apples from New York State farms, such as Minard Farms in the Hudson Valley and Beak and Skiff from the Finger Lakes, which makes it a certified New York Farm Cidery.

Graft ciders have one or fewer grams of sugar As opposed to typical ciders that have sugar content in the double digits, all Graft ciders have no more than one gram of sugar.

Their low sugar content is the result of a longer fermentation JULY/AUGUST 2019

process, which removes almost all the sugar and produces a drier cider.

graft uses milk sugar when they add sugar to ciders When they do add sugar back into the cider, Graft uses milk sugar, which they describe as a “creamy and silky sugar source.� The milk sugar is only added to the Book of Nomad, Cloud City, and Shared Universe lines and is always included on the ingredients list.

You can find canned Graft Cider in our Beer Department, or you can use their handy locater at graftcidery.com/findgraftcider to find where Graft Cider is sold near you.

Source: Graft Cider. Accessed on May 1, 2019. Learn more at graftcidery.com.

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Assistance That Supports Independence: Umbrella of The Capital District

by Ben Goldberg

Where the elderly sit today we younger people will sit tomorrow.

In changing their lives for the better, we change the future we are moving toward.

- Anonymous Americans are living longer, and most of them would prefer to “age in place” - to remain in their homes for as long as they can.

But with age come limitations, some of which present challenges to maintaining independence.

Unfortunately, at the same time that seniors and people with disabilities need more support to age in place, society has become more mobile. Families tend to be more scattered geographically (as well as busier, with less leisure time) and therefore are less able to provide the kind of assistance that seniors and people with disabilities may need as they age.

This was the dilemma that Umbrella founders Ron Byrne and Elaine Santore encountered in 1995 when members of their respective families needed a little help to remain independent. From this personal experience, Umbrella of the Capital District was born.

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Umbrella is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency located in Schenectady that serves households throughout the Capital District.

An income-based, sliding-scale annual membership fee entitles participants to very affordable, nonmedical, individualized services and assistance that allow them to live safely, comfortably, and independently in their own homes. Popular services include, but are not limited to, house cleaning, yard work, painting, carpentry, transportation, shopping, and cooking. The program provides a free home safety inspection, and 24 hours a day emergency home repair services are also available.

Routine services are provided at the rate of $15 an hour. Reduced rates are also available for work done by professionals, such as licensed plumbers and electricians. The work is done by screened, experienced handypersons and 60 percent of them have been with the program for 4 years or more.

According to Umbrella Executive Director, Ron Byrne, “The Umbrella’s mission is clear—to help seniors and people with disabilities to live safely in their homes for as long as they can.” He added, “We just wish we had many more handypersons because the demand is growing every year.”

Umbrella's mission is To help seniors and people with disabilities to live safely in their homes for as long as they can COOP SCOOP

Currently, Umbrella has 157 screened handypersons - most of whom are retired and able to relate positively to the members and their needs - serving more than 500 member households.

Almost 80 percent of members are over the age of 70, and more than 10 percent of members have been with Umbrella for more than 10 years. “Because our handypersons are also getting on in years, though, we have to recruit steadily. For example, we have one handyperson who joined the program when he was in his 60s, and he’s now in his 80s. He’s still helping out, but the jobs he does are not as physical as they once were. We’ve had quite a few handypersons who have done more than 1,000 jobs during their tenure. Often members and handypersons develop wonderful, supportive, and trusting relationships over many years. One of the most satisfying things about Umbrella is the nature of the relationships between members and handypersons. That’s really important and very special.”

COVER YOUR NEIGHBORS: JOIN UMBRELLA! The Umbrella of the Capital District offers opportunities for retirees who are looking for parttime work and want to offer a helping hand at the same time. Do you take care of your own home?

Can you fix a leaky faucet or paint a room? Do you enjoy yardwork, gardening, cleaning, or maintaining houses? Then you have skills that can help seniors and people with disabilities who want to stay in their homes and who need a little help.

Earn $15 per hour or volunteer your time. Choose your hours and service area. Best of all, meet and assist a diverse range of interesting and involved people.

Apply online to Umbrella of the Capital District at theumbrella.org or call (518) 346-5249.

Often members and handypersons develop wonderful relationships over many years.

Since its founding in 1995 Umbrella has been recognized by many organizations: ●● Umbrella was the recipient of a grant in 2014 from the Home Instead Senior Care Foundation. ●● Umbrella was designated as a “Great Nonprofit” by the national organization Great Nonprofits. ●● In 2018 Ron By rne, co-founder and Executive Director of Umbrella, w a s honor e d a s a “D i f fer enc e Ma ker ”

by TIA A, a Fortune 100 financial services nonprofit corporation.

Ben Goldberg has been an Umbrella handyperson since 2018, “specializing” in gardening and lawn care.

JULY/AUGUST 2019

13

The New York State Library: Free Literacy Resources

by Sharon Phillips, Jess Hoffman, and Katy Kukulich

The New York State Library wants to make sure you know about the free literacy resources offered to families, educators, child care providers, and the general community through the statewide library programs coordinated as initiatives of the State Library and New York State Education Department.

These programs include the Ready to Read at New York Libraries early literacy initiative and the Summer Reading at New York Libraries program, which aim to improve education and literacy services to all students in New York State and help families make the most of their local library. Ready to Read specifically focuses on early literacy initiatives for young children who are just beginning to develop literacy skills and offers training opportunities for library staff working with families and young children, as well as a variety of resources to supplement those efforts.

LAst year, 2.4 million children and teens participated in Summer Reading at New York Libraries

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The New York State Library and the Ready to Read program are proud to offer educational youth literacy resources to libraries, schools, teachers, and parents to help children throughout New York State learn and grow. One excellent resource to be aware of is the DaybyDayNY Family Literacy calendar, available in English (daybydayny.org) and Spanish (daybydaynysp.org). DaybyDayNY is available for free through the New York State Library, the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Federal Library Services and Technology Act. This educational resource for young children and families includes daily educational activities and animated audiobooks from One More Story. Children can listen to the books online, watch the stories unfold, and read along with the on-screen text. A new book is available every day!

Titles from One More Story cover a variety of themes and topics and range from classics like The Snowy Day and Stellaluna to newer titles such as Elusive COOP SCOOP

Moose and Lucia’s Travel Bus. In addition to the daily One More Story books, there are monthly booklists that highlight early literacy books by theme for each month. (The theme for July is Music; the theme for August is Imagination.) There are also daily songs, videos, and activities that parents or caregivers can do with young children to help them boost literacy skills throughout the course of a typical day’s activities.

One of the goals of the summer reading program is to build collaboration and partnerships between school and public libraries to promote summer reading The New York State Library is also very excited about the 2019 Summer Reading at New York Libraries program. This year’s slogan is “A Universe of Stories,” and the theme is space and science. Every year the State Library coordinates with 23 regional public library systems, 756 public libraries with

SUMMER ART Kids 6-8 CAMPS June-August Before & After Care Half Day Sessions Full Day Sessions 1 Week or 2 Weeks

311 neighborhood branches statewide, and 40 school library systems as well as the national Collaborative Summer Library Program, to keep kids educated, entertained, and engaged throughout the summer months.

One of our goals for the Summer Reading program is to see more collaboration and partnerships between school libraries and public libraries to promote summer reading and summer learning. The Summer Reading program helps combat the “summer slide” (the loss of skills when students are not in school) by keeping students reading and learning during their summer vacations. Public libraries and school libraries can both help encourage children to stay engaged during the summer months and help them find a balance between education and recreation by making learning fun! Last year, 2.4 million children and teens participated in Summer Reading at New York Libraries, and participation is growing every year.

The Summer Reading at New York Libraries website, summerreadingnys.org, offers a wide range of summer reading material. Librarians, educators, and parents can discover various information

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about different programs, downloadable materials, webinars, reading lists, early literacy activities, and many other resources. Additional resources geared toward kids and teens are also available and provide a plethora of activities, booklists, games, and other creative outlets for users to enjoy.

One activity highlighted for summer reading each year is the Teen Video Challenge (TVC).

The T VC is an annual contest held by the Collaborative Summer Library Program, in which participating teens can help spread the word about the importance of summer reading, learning, and the many resources libraries have to offer. The teens produce short videos reflecting the current summer reading theme in original and imaginative ways, making this event the perfect opportunity for teens to explore their creative side and to take advantage of the services and resources available at their library. This is also a great opportunity for schools to work with their local public libraries to sponsor student-led collaborative video projects. View the informational T VC f lyer and learn more about the program at summerreadingnys.org/teens/teens-video-challenge.

Other resources available from the NYS Library (nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/summer/explore.htm), are the Explore NY reading lists and bookmarks.

These four lists, for different age groups and reading levels, highlight new or noteworthy books that connect readers with diverse cultures, histories, and geographies in the state of New York.

Schools, libraries, and community groups can download the lists and Explore NY bookmarks with titles, as well as the template bookmarks, which can be customized.

The New York State Library partners with schools, community organizations, and not-forprofit groups to advance our mission of keeping kids reading and learning in the summer.

In 2019, for the second year, we will partner with the myON by Renaissance digital library, to bring digital books to school-age children to provide them with an abundance of diverse reading material— in school, through the public library, on their devices, or through the myON mobile app—during 16

the summer. The myON library has a collection of over 6,000 fiction and nonfiction ebooks geared toward children from birth to 12th grade, many with recorded audio, text highlighting, and other useful features. Our pilot program with myON last year was an overall success, and this year we have streamlined and simplified the program so that children and families across the state have easy, consistent access to this digital library. Find out how to access the myON digital library all summer long at summerreadingnys.org/myon.

The Summer Reading at New York Libraries program is proud to partner with Hunger Solutions New York (summerreadingnys.org/librarianseducators/le-resources/#hunger), an organization working to end hunger in New York State. There are many children whose primary access to healthy, balanced meals comes from school lunches; in the summertime, Hunger Solutions New York steps in to facilitate partnerships that provide summer snacks and meals to kids and teens at various public places throughout the state. Over 120 New York State public libraries signed up as summer meals sites last year, combining summer reading and summer eating under the slogan “To be well read, you must be well fed.” We hope to see the number of libraries serving as summer meals sites, and the number of summer meals sites overall, continue to grow in 2019 and beyond.

Sharon Phillips is a Library Development Specialist at the New York State Library in the division of Library Development. She coordinates a number of statewide early literacy and youth literacy programs and initiatives and works with public and school libraries and regional library systems across the state.

Jess Hoffman and Katy Kukulich are graduate students at SUNY Albany who work at the State Library as graduate student assistants.

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Recipe Corner

by Melanie Pores

Melanie’s Balancing Mango Lassi Makes 4 servings (about 1 cup each)

Time

tri-doshic-balancing

●● Less than 10 minutes

From an Ayurvedic Medicine perspective, this mango lassi is tri-doshicbalancing. It pacifies pitta, vata, and kapha doshas (constitutions) with its opposing tastes. The sweet taste of mangoes and maple syrup pacifies pitta dosha. The sour taste of yogurt pacifies vata dosha. Kapha and pitta doshas are pacified by the mildly astringent taste of rosewater (which relieves and cools inflammation, tones tissues, and soothes the lining of the digestive tract when it's overheated) and by the cardamom as well. Cardamom has a cooling, sweet taste that pacifies pitta, while at the same time possessing a pungent, slightly warming effect, pacifying kapha dosha. Cardamom also reduces the mucus-forming qualities of dairy products, such as yogurt.

Ingredients ●● 2 cups f resh or f rozen diced mango ●● 1 ¼ cups full-fat yogurt ●● 2 Tbsp to ¼ cup maple syrup to taste ●● ¼ cup rosewater, or to taste ●● 1 tsp ground cardamom

definitions

●● 2 ½ cups water (as needed)

Ayurveda: Related to yoga, Ayurveda is the ancient Indian “science of life force or vital energy.” According to Ayurveda, good health comes from maintaining our balance physically—with diet and exercise—as well as mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Directions ●● C ombi ne d ic e d ma ngo, yog ur t, maple sy r up, rosewater, and cardamom in a food processor or blender with up to 2 ½ cups of water (as needed) ●● Process until smooth Melanie Pores is presently retired after having served a 30+ year career as a bilingual teacher, teacher-trainer, resource specialist, school board member, adjunct professor, educational researcher and policy analyst. She facilitates the Co-op's Spanish Conversation Group on Mondays at 10 am.

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Doshas: Each one of us is born with a particular constitution, and, along with everything else in the universe, we contain a unique blend of five elements: air, ether (space), fire, water, and earth. We are all made up of these five elements, but in different proportions. Ayurveda also states that there are three primary constitutions or doshas—vata, pitta, and kapha. Each individual is composed primarily of one of the three doshas, or they may possess qualities of two doshas (dual-doshic) or all three (tri-doshic).

Lassi: A yogurt drink diluted with water that can be consumed at the end of a meal to aid with digestion.

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Kids Corner What’s your Balancing Act?

by Linda Coolen & Susan Metcalf

Let's start!

Can you stand on two feet? Good.

Now, with an adult standing by, try balancing on one foot. Do you feel a little tippy? How can you best balance yourself?

Now try this Put your arms down by your sides, then above you, out in front of you, one arm stretched in front of you and one arm stretched behind you. How about both arms stretched out on your left and right sides? Do your arms help you to balance? How did you use your arms to best steady yourself?

Balance means that you can keep your body upright and steady without falling over.

Babies learn how to balance better as they get older. Once we can balance, we can work on going up or down stairs. We can hop, skip, and jump and land on our feet.

Balance is especially useful for certain activities, like when you are in a canoe or other small boat. Have you ever been in one?

If you stand up, what might happen? What about if you step all the way to the left or the right? What about if too many people are in the front or the back?

When you're in a boat like a canoe, you may be told to "stay low" as you move around. If you stand up, or if you step to one side with all your weight, you could easily tip the boat and everyone would fall into the water!

JULY/AUGUST 2019

Can you think of three times or places where it's important to maintain your balance?

1.

2.

3.

Did you know that you have a center of gravity? When you are balanced, you have found your center of gravity. You feel more stable, less tippy. You are balanced.

Can you find your center of gravity? Can you see it or touch it? Most people’s center of gravity is about two inches below their belly button. What happens to your center of gravity when you stand on your tippy toes?

What are some examples of people who need to have great balance?

1.

2.

3.

Why is balance important? So you don't fall down and hurt yourself!

See also “The Best Balancing Activities for Kids” at theinspiredtreehouse.com!

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Find our delicious products in the bulk and pre-packaged departments.

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