Good Cheer Food Bank summer 2013 online newsletter

Kids Café

Good Cheer Food Bank & Thrift Stores

Juicing Class Meet Our New Garden Apprentices

Food Bank & Thrift Stores Summer 2013 Vol. 10, No. 2

Partnering with Food Lifeline and Growers to Growers for summer lunches in Langley Park

Kids Café in Langley Park: eating, learning, fun!

Nearly a third of the students in South Whidbey Public Schools receive free or reduced meals during the school year. But what happens when school is out for the summer?

Kids Café is part of the USDA’s Summer Meals Program and will be available locally to children and teens every weekday from now until August 23 (except July 4) between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at Langley Park, kitty-corner to Good Cheer Thrift Store.

The program is sponsored by Food LifeLine, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending hunger in Western Washington, and a chief food supplier to the Food Bank.

Good Cheer stepped forward to serve as the partnering agency, making the program possible here on South Whidbey.

Executive Director Kathy McLaughlin

McCabe says that “the program fits in perfectly with Good Cheer’s mission to create a hunger-free community.

“We understand that when school is not in session, the burden of additional meals can fall hard onto a family’s budget. Many lowincome children rely on school meals for the majority of their daily calories, and Kids Café seeks to fill this gap in service to children from high-need communities by providing consistent access to nutritious food,” she said.

New Clinton fireworks stand sales will support Good Cheer and Safe Ride Home

In tandem with hosting a Kid’s Café, Good Cheer is adding five Food Bank points to all families with children for the months of June, July, and August.

The Kid’s Café program will be managed

by Growers to Growers, under the direction of Miriam Coates, who managed a similar Summer Meals program on South Whidbey the past two years.

In addition to serving lunch, Growers to Growers will provide fun and Continued on page 2

Looking for legal fireworks for your July 4th celebration and a way to help support two local charities?

Then visit a new fireworks stand just up the hill from the ferry, at Ted Rosengren’s All Island Express Taxi Company, June 29 through July 5, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. It’s operated by members of a new south end motorcycle club, part of the Vets Riding For Vets network.

A quarter of the profits will go to Good Cheer Food Bank and another quarter to Safe Ride Home Whidbey Island -- a program Continued on page 2

◄ Left to right: Motorcycle club officers Chuck

“Dog” Toyne, Ted Rosengren, Johnny Blackwood, Rooster Rousseau, Ed Popielarski, Bob Horchover and Robby Younger.

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Good Cheer Food Bank & Thrift Stores

Kids Cafe, continued interesting food- and nutrition-based activities.

Self-directed scavenger hunts will lead children to discover food ingredients from least to most processed (corn, to corn tortillas, to corn syrup in sodas, for example).

Youth will explore the science behind why vegetables come in different colors, and learn about vegetable dyes. Local farmers, chefs, teachers, and scientists have been invited as guest educators.

Besides having access to a healthy lunch five times a week, the Kid’s Café will be a chance for our community’s youth to spend time with friends, and make a few new ones.

Coates underscored the need for social dining opportunities, explaining, “I’d received a barrage of emails with compelling data on childhood hunger from the USDA and Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of Washington (OSPI), but it wasn’t the data that prompted me to pitch the Growers to Growers initiative to Good Cheer; it was comments from youth about the value of a scheduled, social meal—sometimes the only meal a child may eat with others during the day.”

The simple act of sharing lunch with others while sitting in the grass, on the benches, or around a picnic table with friends, gives youth a chance to share, learn, and build relationships, which has been shown to increase self-esteem and establish healthy long-term eating habits.

So, what’s for lunch? “Meals will be served in an a la carte fashion following the ‘Offer versus Serve’ School Meal Pattern, allowing youth to choose from among a selection of foods that meet recommended servings of dairy, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and meat and meat alternatives,” said Coates.

A lunch menu might include: yogurt, an orange, raw broccoli and cauliflower, a whole wheat bagel, sunflower seeds, and milk. USDA nutritional regulations require youth to select a meal of at least three items from the daily food choices.

Coates, along with her husband, Aaron, hopes to expand the program elsewhere.

“Our Growers to Growers initiative is a replicable social justice model that offers consulting, community building and technical assistance with the goal of increasing participation in Summer Meals programs.

“The initiative provides information and outreach, hard numbers and options, initial pilot management, and framework tools to organizations so that they can make their Summer Meals Programs sustainable.

“Many communities do not realize how many resources are available, and we want serve as facilitators,” she said.

Fireworks stand in Clinton, continued which provides a safe ride home for Island residents (especially young people) regardless of ability to pay, when they find themselves in an unsafe situation.

Good Cheer was chosen as a recipient charity because veterans make up a large percentage of the homeless population in this country and homeless vets are apt to need food bank services. Even non-homeless vets may need help with food.

“With the economy being what it is, most of us here have had to rely on the Food Bank from time to time,” said self-employed hardwood flooring installer Rooster Rousseau, pausing a moment from building the fireworks stand.

“Good Cheer has got to be the best Food Bank on the west coast,” he reflected. “And I don’t just mean the quality of the food; I mean the way they treat you there. They see you as a person and treat you with respect,” he added.

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Club President Ted Rosengren agreed.

“This whole community pulls together and helps each other,” he said. “For instance, the lumber for the stand here was mostly donated by Vic Hanson (of Hanson’s Lumber).”

“Of course, we could always use more volunteers to staff the booth,” he said. (Interested persons can contact him at (360) 341-8294.)

“We may be bikers, but we don’t bite!” he said with a laugh.

As an added bonus, people who bring canned goods to the fireworks stand as a donation to Good Cheer will receive a special discount off of their purchases.

“We have always appreciated all the biker and motorcycle clubs who have supported Good Cheer in the past and continue to do so with such great enthusiasm,” said Good Cheer Executive Director Kathy McLaughlin McCabe.

“Good Cheer has got to be the best Food Bank on the west coast...

And I don’t just mean the quality of the food; I mean the way they treat you there.

They see you as a person and treat you with respect.”

- Rooster Rousseau

Good Cheer Food Bank & Thrift Stores

July juicing class: give it a whirl for better health Good Cheer volunteer Nancy Gray is a dedicated juicer.

At age 66, the hard-working house cleaner and landscaper says it is the secret to her near boundless energy and improved health. “I also exercise and eat an organic, no refined foods diet,” she added.

She drinks fresh juice twice a day, before meals or as an afternoon pick-me-up.

“Fresh juice is very healthy for you. It has powerful antioxidants, phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals. Juicing allows them to be assimilated almost right away,” she said.

She juiced carrot, apple and ginger prior to chemotherapy treatments last year for liver cancer and had none of the fatigue or nausea often experienced.

“My doctor said that the masses in my liver are gone and my liver function is now normal,” she said.

A self-taught expert on juicing, she is eager to share her knowledge with Food Bank clients. “I want to share how juicing fresh, in-season fruits and vegetables can enhance their overall well-being,” she said.

Gray’s juicer is an emulsifier that includes some pulp, but most juicer extractors exclude and collect the pulp in a side container. Food Bank apprentice Lissa Firor

▲ Volunteer Nancy Gray

demonstrates a juice recipe. will show attendees how to make fruit-leather from the leftover pulp.

Check the website and Facebook page for dates and times of the class.

Green Goodness 1 cup packed spin ach leaves 1 cup packed kale leaves 4 medium carrots r st Zinge 1 rib celery Breakfa peeled s1 apple unpeeled 2 lemon ts 1 lemon, lightly pe o 4 carr eled kins on s with s 1 kiwi fruit 2 apple et plus beet be 2 inches peeled gi 1 small nger root s 4 sprigs of mint n gree

New planned giving program makes it easy to create a legacy Confronting one’s own mortality is never easy, but it is necessary if you wish to plan for how your assets will be distributed and whatever charitable legacy gifts you wish to make.

Good Cheer board member Jay Ryan, a retired lawyer specializing in probate law, has developed a planned giving brochure that makes it a little easier to add Good Cheer to your will. He offers this advice: “In considering a gift of your estate assets to any charity, you should satisfy yourself that your family members have been provided for to the extent you deem necessary or desirable, then consider a charity that you would like to support and be associated with and that your gift would make a positive difference in the community,” he said.

“We can provide the proper designation for Good Cheer for use as beneficiary of IRA, Insurance etc. or as beneficiary under a will or trust. We can review with you the various ways to give----a specific amount, a percentage or a specific asset and we will be glad to work with your attorney to establish the gift you desire,” he added.

You do not need a lawyer to include Good Cheer as beneficiary of an IRA, other retirement plans, life insurance, or as POD (pay on death), on savings account, certificate of Deposit, or any instrument that allows you to name a beneficiary or payee upon death. To revise provisions of a will or trust though, it is best to work with an attorney.

Planned giving is not just for the wealthy.

Any amount you wish to designate will make a difference in the organization you

“A signature gift from your estate would be a lasting tribute to your generosity of supporting your Food Bank.”

–– Jay Ryan support. Some people have been giving $10 - $50 a month for years. Your legacy might be to make one last donation in that amount. Others might decide to give property or stocks as their choice.

A planned giving presentation will be held 2 p.m. on July 18 upstairs at Good Cheer’s Langley Thrift Store and will cover how to go about giving direction to the executor of your estate on how you would like your estate to be divided. (Check Good Cheer’s website and Facebook page for details.)

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Good Cheer Food Bank & Thrift Stores Meet the 2013 Garden Leadership Apprentices:

Committed to community gardening and cultural change Casey Katherine Lee Jackson It doesn’t take long to discover that Casey Jackson has the brain of a scientist, the heart of a farmer, and the spirit of an educator: making a perfect fit as this year’s Good Cheer School Garden Apprentice.

After graduating magna cum laude from Towson University in Baltimore, MD with a double major in Chemistry and Biology, she worked in various research lab positions at Johns Hopkins University and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

After a few years, she discovered that she really didn’t want to spend her life in a lab, at least not an indoor lab.

“It paid well, but I just wasn’t happy nor very healthy,” she said.

So she headed west to Whidbey Island for a year’s apprenticeship at the Greenbank Farm Agricultural Training Center, where she learned to manage an 8-acre organic mixed vegetable farm and CSA program.

Once again she discovered that she preferred growing vegetables on a smaller

“I believe that you can teach almost every grade school subject within a garden. Science, math, writing, and even art projects can all be done in a garden... and what better place is there to teach children?”

––Casey Jackson

▲ School Garden Apprentice Casey Jackson loves teaching students about science and gardening.

scale and enjoyed teaching others, especially students, about the benefits and joys of community and home gardening.

Her primary role at Good Cheer is to manage the school gardens at the new South Whidbey Academy and Langley Middle School, plus develop and present gardenbased curriculum in concert with the science teachers.

Jackson’s work with South Whidbey students has her thinking about going back to school for a teaching certificate and a possible future combining her passions for science education within a garden environment.

“I believe that you can teach almost every grade school subject from a garden,” she said. ‘Science, math, writing, and even art projects which can be done in a garden ... and what better place is there to teach children?”

Alexa MacAulay Good Cheer Garden Coordinator Cary Peterson puts much thought into assigning apprentices to manage specific gardens.

In Alexa MacAulay’s case, she not only matched her experience, knowledge and skills with the garden, but her personality as well.

The Westgarden at the Whidbey Institute is a very serene place -- a good match for MacAulay’s calm, peaceful personality.

“I am so happy to be working here that it hardly feels like work -- especially doing something that I love and find so gratifying,” she said.

After growing up in the suburbs of Ottawa,

◄ Apprentice Alexa MacAulay manages the

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Westgarden at the Whidbey Institute and welcomes volunteers every Thursday starting at noon with lunch in the garden.

Good Cheer Food Bank & Thrift Stores Canada, MacAulay attended York University in Toronto and earned a B.S. in Environmental Studies with specialized honors in Environment and Culture and a certificate in Community Art. She has a working knowledge of herbalism and wildcrafting (foraging for edible wild plants plus natural resources for creative crafts), so managing a garden surrounded by forest is like a dream come true.

Before coming to Whidbey she taught wilderness and survival skills to urban teens and led eco-art workshops for homeless and street-involved youth.

“In my field of Environmental Studies, there’s a lot of cynicism about the pollution of the environment, climate change, degradation of ecosystems, and unfair distribution and access to wholesome foods-so much so that many people question whether meaningful change can really be accomplished,” she said.

“This can be rather depressing, so I’ve been working to change my ideas around the ways that social change can happen. I love gardening because I can see and create positive change every day.

“The way that Good Cheer goes about ending hunger on South Whidbey with its gardens and emphasis on healthy foods while being supported by its Thrift Stores is nothing short of amazing. In fact, many of my friends in the field are skeptical that such a program can actually work,” she said.

“The way that Good Cheer goes about ending hunger on South Whidbey with its gardens and emphasis on healthy foods while being supported by its Thrift Stores is nothing short of amazing. In fact, many of my friends in the field are skeptical that such a program can actually work.”

––Alexa MacAulay

Lissa Firor As the Food Bank Apprentice, Lissa Firor is apt to spend a good deal of her time inside the Bayview facility sorting, weighing and packaging produce from the garden, local gleaners, and grocery store donations, while learning all she can about Good Cheer’s

“I believe that everyone should have access to safe, healthy food.”

––Lissa Firor

▲ Apprentice Lissa Firor bags some fresh chard at the Food Bank.

Food Bank operations and systems.

She closely monitors the amount of fresh produce in the Food Bank’s fridge and bins and dashes out to the garden for a quick harvest when certain vegetables are running low.

In addition to helping at garden work parties, Firor teaches how to preserve garden produce, designs and provides food education materials, and conducts cooking demonstrations. When she heard that Good Cheer volunteer Nancy Gray was going to do a juicing class, Firor volunteered to show how to make dehydrated fruit leather from the leftover pulp.

Firor earned a B.S. degree in Environmental Science from the University of Idaho, Moscow, graduating magna cum laude. A list of her farm and environmental volunteer activities easily takes up two typewritten pages; her most recent service was as an AmeriCorps YouthGrow Team Leader for a summer gardening program.

She is a self-described planner and organizer at heart, which makes her perfect for the Food Bank apprenticeship where she has the opportunity to develop procedures, implement systems, and track and manage records and stats.

Her interest in gardening began as a 3-yearold helping her mother in her Oregon home garden which was located in a rural farming and ranching community.

As she grew up, Firor began to see how the environmental and social issues that were most important to her were all somehow

tied back to the food system, awakening a food-related social justice awareness and a desire to make a difference.

“I believe that everyone should have access to safe, healthy food,” she said.

She is seeking to gain new skills in processing, marketing and distributing food within a community in order to assist rural towns in starting farmers markets, co-ops, and food banks.

“I seek to make change happen in the world by living my values and beliefs, both for the small, tangible difference, and for the statement itself -- as an example to those around me,” she said. “This means attempting to give back more than I take from the communities that support me... investing my energy and dollars locally... and committing to make positive changes in the world around me.”

Camille Louise Green Good Cheer Garden Apprentice Camille Green also graduated magna cum laude from the University of Oregon with a B.A. degree in International Studies with a Focus on Peace Studies and Human Rights.

Continued on next page

▲ Apprentice Camille Green believes in

chipping away at the world’s problems within a local setting like the Food Bank Garden.

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Good Cheer Food Bank & Thrift Stores

Garden Apprentices, continued After studying agricultural practices at small, intensive urban farms in Cameroon, Africa, Green came back to the U.S. and completed her degree. She then served as a Volunteer is Service to America (VISTA) volunteer in Butte, Montana and then worked for half a year as a program specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technologies sustainable agriculture program (ATTRA). She helped start a small-scale farm intensive training project and worked on an initiative to get more local, fresh food into healthcare institutions in Montana.

She loves farming, carpentry, being outside, working with people, and program development and management.

She utilizes all these skills and more as the Good Cheer Garden apprentice (she also manages the beds at the old Bayview School garden).

She organizes garden work and harvest parties, manages volunteers, creates a lunch for volunteers, manages the garden planting map, and most recently helped build some new inground worm bins.

Like colleague apprentice Alexa MacAulay, Green found that her studies often focused on the many bad things happening in the world, which led to an epiphany of sorts.

“Just as people are capable of terrible darkness, they are also capable of incredible goodness,” she wrote on

“I began to focus on what I can do as a singular person in a broader web of community and family, and less on why bad things happen in the world...

We live in an imperfect reality, but we do what we can.” ––Camille Green her application for the apprentice program.

“I began to focus on what I can do as a singular person in a broader web of community and family, and less on why bad things happen in the world... We live in an imperfect reality, but we do what we can.

“I seek to make change happen by chipping away impediments to one of the few things that I see as true: that everyone should be able to have access to food that is good for them, their communities and the environment,” she added.

We thank our honey-bee level donors...

The Community Leadership Training garden Apprentices are part of a larger Fresh Food on the Table program at Good Cheer which is supplying fresh and healthy produce year round to Food Bank clients.

The garden apprentices not only help make this possible, but in addition to educating local youth and garden volunteers, serve as Good Cheer ambassadors as they take their knowledge and experience out into a larger world. Call this Good Cheer’s way of making positive ripples in a larger pond.

All this requires financial funding through our annual Fresh food on the Table benefit in April, plus donations from grants and local businesses.

Our enormous gratitude to both Whidbey Telecom and Whidbey Island Bank for their support of the Fresh Food on the Table program at the Honeybee level. We are so appreciative of their generosity to the community!

Other levels of giving are available.

Donate up to $249 for the Seedling level;

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▲ Good Cheer Executive Director Kathy ▲ Whidbey Telecom co-CEOS George Henny

and Julia Henny-DeMartini are flanked by three of this year’s garden apprentices and Garden Coordinator Cary Peterson. $250 to $999 for the Red Wriggler level; $1000 to $2499 for the Hori Hori level; and $2,500 and above for the Honey-bee level.

Please contact Good Cheer Executive Director Kathy McLaughlin McCabe if you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this worthwhile program.

McLaughlin McCabe receives a check from Langley Branch Manager Pam Bickel who also serves as a Good Cheer Board Member.

Volunteers are welcome and needed at all of our community gardens.

Enjoy a picnic lunch and learn good gardening techniques while helping neighbors in our community.

Email garden@goodcheer.org to receive a list of locations and garden work party days and times.

Good Cheer Food Bank & Thrift Stores

A Note from Board President Ann Gallagher Just as it “takes a village to raise a child”, so the support of an entire community is needed to operate a successful food bank like Good Cheer. Providing supplementary food to an average of 877 families a month is a costly proposition. The 2013 budget for Good Cheer forecasts expenses totaling $1.3 million dollars. It is only through the continued tremendous generosity of the local community that we will be able to meet these expenses.

The ways in which South Whidbey residents give so that Good Cheer thrives are numerous. Donated goods are sold in our two thrift stores, generating profits that total over 60 % of the operating expenses of Good Cheer. Items that residents donate to the Thrift Stores not only reduce additions to the landfill but also help create a hunger-free community. A fresh supply of item donations is always needed.

Monetary donations last year reached a record high of over $324,000. Because of special buying privileges allowed food banks, this total can be multiplied by nine in terms of the food that can be purchased. Local residents have not only been generous with their monetary donations but also by giving Good Cheer over

373,000 pounds of donated food. On top of this, Good Cheer’s gardens produced 6500 pounds of produce and an additional 6579 pounds were gleaned from local gardens.

Food Bank clients consistently express their gratitude for the availability to them of fresh, locally grown produce.

As important as all the gifts of food and money are to Good Cheer, equally essential is the role played by volunteers. There is no way the 16 hard-working paid staff could accomplish all the tasks that are required. In 2012 the volunteer hours were equated to a donation of $641,000.

The variety of volunteer opportunities is almost limitless. Chances are good that if a person enjoys certain activities or possesses other skills, they can find a spot at Good Cheer where their talents will be greatly appreciated. Finding new volunteers is a continual need and they are always most welcome. Contact Duane Gimbel at volunteer@good cheer.org if you are interested in learning more about becoming a volunteer.

I hope that you, like I, are very proud of Good Cheer and will want to contribute to its continued success.

– Ann Gallagher

New Whidbey Island thrift store map available soon Good Cheer, WAIF, Habitat for Humanity, Senior Services and several other organizations, know that friendly competition is good for all of us.

That’s why we’re jointly creating a map of the major thrift stores on Whidbey Island and putting together a tour of the stores as well complete with specials and fun activities along the way.

Watch our Facebook page and www. goodcheer.org for more information.

Shopping locally does more to create a hunger-free community than just about anything. When you buy your gas, groceries, go to the doctor, or get your car repaired, you are providing opportunities for your neighbors.

Creating and sustaining jobs provides food to the tables of many families.

Shopping at your local thrift stores takes sustainability to a new level of recycling items, supporting good causes, and creating jobs.

The maps will be on the ferries and kiosks around the island and tour details will be revealed when we have the specifics nailed down with our partner organizations.

What colleagues say about new Board President Ann Gallagher Ann is a long-time Good Cheer volunteer who knows the organization well. Her experience with other nonprofit boards and as a teacher fits well with Good Cheer’s goal of educating the community about healthy foods. She is doing a fine job as president of Good Cheer and is a pleasure to work with.

– Jay Ryan Always a smile & positive attitude, while being extremely organized. – Kay Stanley “Stay Tuned” is just about her favorite expression.

– Bill Watts Ann is always willing to step up to provide whatever assistance is needed. We are lucky that she accepted this difficult and time consuming position.

– Marilee Seligson

When given a task, Ann sets about exploring the options which enable her to make good decisions as she quietly and calmly organizes and prepares for a successful and timely outcome. You WANT to be on her team!

– Louise Prewitt When you first meet Ann your impression is ‘what a nice person.’ And then once you get to know her, you realize that she is as strong as she is nice – a wonderful balance for making a gifted leader. This quote by Jim Rohn sums up her leadership style: The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.

– Kathy McLaughlin McCabe

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Good Cheer Food Bank & Thrift Stores Good Cheer Board of D irectors Ann Gallagher, President Marilee Seligson, Vice President Robin Hertlein, Treasurer Pam Bickel, Secretary

Good Cheer Food Bank & Thrift Stores PO Box 144 Langley, WA 98260 www.goodcheer.org

NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID SAM INC

Jim Hartley Maury Hood Tom Nack Bob Olson Janet Ploof Louise Prewitt Jay Ryan Kay Stanley Bill Watts Gene White John Worthington Executive Director Kathleen McLaughlin McCabe

Thank you Windermere volunteers!

We love those Clinton Foodmart receipts!

When you shop at Clinton Foodmart and bring your register receipt to any Good Cheer facility, we collect them because each year owner Clay Anderson gives 5% of the total to the Food Bank as a donation.

Clinton Foodmart has been doing this for years and we are very appreciative. We love all of our grocers who support the Food Bank!

▲ On Friday, June 21, 28 staff from Windermere Real Estate volunteered 168 hours for

their annual Windermere Service Day. Volunteers cleaned up the grounds, filled in potholes, weeded in the garden, sorted clothing in the distribution center, painted in the Food Bank and repackaged bulk foods. What a difference they made!

The pinks are running this year!

Why not donate a salmon or two?

It should be a great salmon fishing season this year with the return of the pink salmon, also known as ‘humpies.’ The high protein salmon fillets are a treat for clients and fly off the refrigerator shelves at Good Cheer Food Bank.

Bring fresh (not frozen) salmon fillets in labeled and dated plastic bags or in vacuum sealed bags. (We also have staff who will fillet whole salmon.)

Beach fishing classes for women are again offered this year. Check www.goodcheer.org for details.

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