STUDIO TOUR Take time to consume art this weekend. Page 10
NEWS | State will provide Asarco update. [5] COMMENTARY | Schools foundation seeks support. [6] COMMUNITY | VHS recognized [3] as a top school.
PLAYING TO WIN Several sports teams see success. Page 15
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015
Vol. 60, No. 17
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Effort will get local produce on more plates Survey says
teen drinking and drug use have declined
By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
Vashon-grown fruits and vegetables will be available to more islanders this year, thanks to a program intended to put local produce on the tables of those who might otherwise not be able to afford it. Beginning next month, the Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA) will expand its Food Access Partnership and provide vouchers to island nonprofits so staff members may shop for free at the Farmers Market and farm stands or pass the coupons on to their clients to do so. “I believe that good food is a right,” said Merrilee Runyan, one of the organizers of the initiative. “We have all this wonderful food on Vashon. We want to spread it around.” While the Food Access Partnership has existed for several years and stretches the purchasing power at the market for people who receive assistance through federal food programs, this year it is embarking on a more ambitious effort, and hopes to provide $6,000 worth of coupons that nonprofits and their constituents can redeem for island-grown food. Participating nonprofits are the Vashon
Some say results reflect community effort By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
Jen Keller of Pacific Crest Farm sells a customer a bunch of kale at Saturday’s Farmers Market. Soon, more people will be able to use vouchers to purchase produce at the market and at local farm stands. Senior Center, Vashon Youth & Family Services (VYFS), the Interfaith Council to Prevent Homelessness, the Community Meals Program, Vashon Community Care, DoVE and
La Comunidad Latina. “Our goal is to get more produce and fresh food to the people who are most at risk of hunger and poor nutrition,” Runyan said.
She and others on the food access committee, which includes Karen Biondo, Janie Starr and Lisa Hasselman, SEE PRODUCE, 20
Teen drinking and drug use on Vashon — once far above state averages — have declined, according to the latest Healthy Youth Survey. Results from the survey — administered last year at middle and high schools across the state — show that eighth- and 10th-grade drinking, binge drinking, marijuana use and use of other drugs have all dropped steadily on Vashon since the survey was first given in 2006. Statewide results have shown similar though not as steep decreases in teen substance use. For instance, in 2006, 34 percent of Vashon’s eighth and 10th graders — a group government agencies look at when considering grants — reported drinking in the last 30 days, compared with 24 percent statewide. By 2010, that number had dropped to 22 percent on Vashon, and last year, just 11 percent of Vashon’s SEE SURVEY, 14
Vashon’s Lice Squad
School, parents work to draw attention to a pesky but persistent issue By ELIZABETH SHEPHERD For The Beachcomber
Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
Larissa de Ruyter, left, and School Nurse Sarah Day give free head checks while children watch a cartoon about lice at last week’s Lice Expo at Chautauqua.
It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that when Sarah Day, nurse for the Vashon schools, began to plan the district’s recent Head Lice Expo, she asked Lance Morgan to appear in costume as a giant louse. As the longtime office secretary of Chautauqua Elementary, Morgan has become known for doing things that stretch his job description, including creating a paper clip museum housed in a school hallway, writing Chautauqua’s endlessly looping school song and
amassing a quirky body of work as the school’s videographer. At Chautauqua functions, he has dressed up, variously, as an orca, a cowboy and Waldo of “Where’s Waldo” fame. For his appearance at the Lice Expo, held last week in the Chautauqua lunchroom, Morgan donned a costume stitched by Day from a set of beige curtains she found at a Value Village store. As worn by Morgan over a pair of khaki pants, the costume looked somewhat like a cute and cozy, though ill-conceived, sleeping bag. SEE LICE, 19