By Joshua Chasan from Seattle, Washington, on his experiences during the PB&J conference.  Photo at Kayam Organic Farm.

When I was preparing to come to Washington, DC, for PB & J I really tried to get myself into a business mindset.  I wanted to be mentally prepared for a lot of learning and the serious nature of the topic of hunger.  Beyond that, I really didn’t know what else to expect.

On Thursday, I arrived in Washington, DC, with more than 70 other teens from around the country.  Some I had met at other BBYO events and the rest would soon become my friends.  We started the seminar with an eye-opening event, the Oxfam Hunger Banquet.   The activity broke the 72 of us into the world’s populations; the majority being low income and without food, and a very small majority having access to food regularly.  After our learning banquet we were joined by Hazon founder, Nigel Savage for our real dinner and later he spoke to all of us.

Mr. Savage spoke to our group about the answers we all came to Washington, DC, to answer:

• How does what I eat impact the environment?
• What is Kosher, and why does it matter?
• How can I promote healthy eating?
• How can I fight hunger?

He spoke to us about how we can play an active role now in creating a healthier and more sustainable community, and about our Jewish responsibility to not just act, but also to learn and think.  He asked us to learn about food, where the food comes from before it is served to us and to think about our choices, and the difference we can make with our choices.  Mr. Savage’s presentation really opened my eyes to the ways that I wasn’t thinking and to how I may have been taking life and the environment around me for granted.

Sunday was probably my most fulfilling and inspiring day.  We all went to an organic, kosher farm to participate in some real manual service.  At Kayam Organic Farm we learned about the Jewish connection to the acts of planting and harvesting.   When we were harvesting tomatoes, garlic, onions and other herbs, we made sure to practice Pe’ah, setting aside a portion of the field for those that need it most: the orphan, the widow and the stranger.  This activity really opened my eyes to the life cycle of food and also the Jewish connection to food that goes beyond what we eat for holidays.

My participation at Kayam Organic Farm really inspired me and motivated me to look into these similar opportunities in my home town of Seattle.  I would really like to participate in the urban garden initiatives that are taking place in my own community.

This weekend’s events really prepared me for the finale on Monday, my visit to Capitol Hill.  I was really lucky to meet with Moire Duggan, the Legislative Assistant for Education, Science, Energy and Environment Issues, of my Senator, Pat Murray.  Happily my Senator and I tend to see eye to eye on a lot of the issues.  In my meeting I shared my gratitude for Senator Murray’s support and talked to the assistant about increasing funding for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act as well as improving public transportation and light rail in Washington.

After my meeting I felt so good about what I had accomplished.  I didn’t know what to expect from this entire program, but at the end I feel informed, and passionate about this issue, and even better I know how to work to solve it.  After PB & J there are 72 more teens who are ready to Stand UP together to fight hunger and make our world a better place.

Originally posted on Food Forever – The AJWS Food Justice Blog.

Today’s heart-breaking New York Times story about Haiti’s orphans is a painful reminder of the earthquake’s enduring devastation. The article offers a harrowing portrait of Daphne, a 14-year-old girl who watched her mother’s mangled body get carted away in a wheelbarrow from a shattered marketplace. Daphne then lived in a makeshift orphanage founded by Frades—a grassroots collective that specializes in microloans and began supporting abandoned and orphaned children after the earthquake. Daphne was just beginning to feel at home until she was claimed by a distant relative.

The article goes on to profile other children who have faced similar hardships—a 13-year-old named Michaelle who lost both of her parents in the earthquake and resides at Frades, cooking for the younger children with whatever food she can procure.

Frades’s board members and volunteers all shared similar thoughts: that even with so many international aid groups in Haiti, sustained help is hard to find. Mattresses, latrines, showers, medical care, psycho-social counselors and, most importantly, a consistent food and water supply are profoundly limited.

Nearly six months after the earthquake, cries for help are falling on deaf ears and efforts to hasten Haiti’s reconstruction have been stalled. It is absolutely unthinkable that countless other Haitian orphans could be profiled in the New York Times six months from now.

Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Tell your senators to pass the Haiti Empowerment, Assistance and Rebuilding (HEAR) Act to ensure that Haitians get the long-term aid and attention they need to build a sustainable future.

A long-time reader of The Jew and the Carrot, it’s easy for me to see the importance and power of conversations within the Jewish community regarding eating, nutrition, food politics, and sustainability. However, the Jewish imperative for justice does not allow us to stop at environmental or personal levels. Rather, we have to continue our pursuit of justice to ensure that everyone has access to fresh, seasonal produce, healthy food options, and the skills to prepare healthy meals. The Nourishing Kitchen of New York City is an organization working to do just that for the East Harlem community.

Founded in 2008 as a “healthy soup kitchen,” The Kitchen is the only emergency food organization providing nutritionally balanced food for immune-compromised individuals struggling with diabetes, obesity, and malnutrition. East Harlem has one of the highest rates of hunger as well as the highest rate of obesity in New York City, with 62% of the population reported overweight or obese. The East Harlem community also has the densest concentration of diabetes in any borough. These apparent contrasts can be explained by the heavy presence of affordably-priced yet nutritionally void fast food and the scarcity of affordable fruits and vegetables.

The Nourishing Kitchen has expanded its mission in an effort to incorporate healthy eating into clients’ everyday lives. In addition to a hot meal service, The Kitchen offers a food pantry, produce distribution, nutrition classes, and yoga classes – all free and open to the community.

A foundation stone of The Kitchen is not just providing food for low-income clients, but connecting an otherwise marginalized and underserved community with the green movement. As the only certified green soup kitchen in the country, The Kitchen does this primarily through the use of a number of community garden plots. The produce harvested in these plots is served in our hot meals and distributed in our Urban Free Produce program. The Kitchen also runs educational programs and events that expose the community to recycling, composting, seasonal eating, and growing their own produce at home.

One of The Kitchen’s most important projects is the Junior Chef program, a summer program that takes kids ages six to thirteen and gives them hands-on culinary and nutrition workshops. This program was created to connect underserved and undernourished youth to the culinary arts while educating participants and their families on issues of nutrition and wellness. In addition to direct training, participants receive ingredients and recipes to prepare meals at home with their families, plus a local gym membership to engage in physical activity. Through this curriculum, participants learn how to protect themselves and their families from the threat of diabetes and obesity raging in their neighborhood while having fun and gaining comfort in the kitchen.

I’m writing about this organization today because The Nourishing Kitchen (specifically the Junior Chef program) needs your help. The Kitchen is currently a finalist in the national Post Grant for Good Health for $25,000 to support and expand the Junior Chef program. The catch is that it all depends on votes. Each person can vote once per day until July 12 and the winner will be announced on July 22. It takes less than a minute of ‘e-volunteering’ a day, just one click and you are on your way to pursuing food justice for all. Click here once a day to help.

Cross-posted on Food Forever — The AJWS Food Justice Blog.

“If $1 billion of the $11 billion pledged by international donors was put toward agriculture, the world could watch Haiti not only feed itself, but export billions,” said Haiti’s presidential candidate Charles Henri Baker in the Montreal Gazette’s feature “Can Farming Save Haiti?.”

A future in which Haiti is not only self-sufficient, but is exporting goods sounds great, right? Tell Congress to help make it happen.

The Haiti Supplemental Bill, now in committee in the House, will provide $2.8 billion in aid to Haiti. This money can more effectively help Haitians help themselves if more of it is used to support the community-based agriculture that Baker endorses. AJWS is calling on Congress to include language in the bill mandating support for local Haitian agriculture and to pass it right away.

As the Gazette article discusses, over the years, wealthy donor nations have pushed for open-market policies that undermined Haiti’s rich agricultural base. Now, so much of Haiti’s post-earthquake rebirth depends upon sustainable local food production and international support for the planting and procurement of Haiti’s agriculture. This is particularly crucial in rural regions of Haiti where food deliveries along bumpy roads that resemble dried-out riverbeds are nearly impossible. Agricultural renewal in Haiti will help promote dignified, self-sufficient livelihoods for millions of Haitian farmers. It will also serve as a foundation for social and economic growth. And as the Gazette article points out, there are many Haitian leaders poised to make agricultural reform a sustainable priority. We need to do our part to make this a reality.

By AJWS Director of Advocacy Timi Gerson. Cross-posted on Civil Eats and Food Forever — the AJWS Food Justice Blog.

Monsanto has donated $4 million in seeds to Haiti, sending 60 tons of conventional hybrid corn and vegetable seed, followed by 70 more tons of corn seed last week with an additional 345 tons of corn seed to come during the next year. Yet the number one recommendation of a recent report by Catholic Relief Services on post-earthquake Haiti is to focus on local seed fairs and not to introduce new or “improved” varieties at this time.

Some tough questions need to be asked and answered before we’ll know whether or not Monsanto’s donation will help or hurt long-term efforts to rebuild food sufficiency and sovereignty in Haiti. Here are five of them:

• What do Haitians think? Do rural organizations representing Haiti’s farmers actually want these seeds from Monsanto or not? We know at least one spokesperson for Haitian farmers isn’t interested. Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay and the National Peasant Movement of the Papay Congress said in a recent article published by Grassroots International that “if people start sending hybrid, NGO seeds, that’s the end of Haitian agriculture.”

• Will Haitian farmers be able to use existing farming methods with these seeds or do they require a completely different set of techniques – for example, is it possible for these seeds to be banked year to year for use in more than one planting cycle? Hybrid seeds don’t have a great track record for re-planting, which means that farmers typically must buy new seeds every year.

• Does cultivation of these seeds require expensive new inputs and/or chemicals that may negatively impact the environment and soil over the long-term? Hybrids typically require a lot of fertilizers, pesticides, etc. and according to the press release, these will be provided through the USAID’s 5-year WINNER program. When the WINNER program is done, will farmers find themselves reliant on external inputs they can’t afford or access? What will the inputs leave behind in terms of the soil’s condition?

• Will the rest of the Monsanto seeds sent to Haiti over the next year be conventional or genetically modified (GM)? GM seeds are as controversial in Haiti as they are here at home. It is critical that Haitians themselves are in charge of the decision to plant or not plant GM; they first need to know what is being offered to them in the first place.

• Will the Monsanto seeds (whether conventional or GM) affect indigenous seed diversity by mixing with them and contaminating existing seed strains? Large influxes of non-native seeds have touched off controversy and alarmed environmental activists and peasant farmers from Mexico to Malaysia to Mali.

Agricultural development is critical for Haiti and was even before the earthquake. Lambi Fund of Haiti, a partner organization of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), has been working with rural communities to create indigenous seed banks, building expertise in farming techniques and using environmentally-friendly methods to renew depleted Haitian soil.

Advocates for common sense food aid, including AJWS, are asking Congress to spend the $150 million dollars requested by the Obama Administration for Food Aid to Haiti on resources that will help Haiti feed itself for the long-term. You can make your voice heard by signing this petition.

Monsanto’s donation – just like the US government’s in-kind food aid donations – should empower rather than dis-empower the rural communities working to grow food for their country over the long term. More to the point, the communities most affected by these donations should decide whether they want this aid at all and if so, what they want and when they want it. It’s unclear in this case if Monsanto or anyone else has asked them.

How does the food movement intersect with issues of poverty?  For the hundred or so participants at the Growing Food Justice event last night we got a little taste of some of the issues and what we can do about it.  The event was sponsored by the AJWS-Avodah partnership and was co-sponsored by Hazon. They brought together three activists who are fighting in very different ways to prevent hunger in New York City.

Joel Berg, the Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and author of All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America? started out with some numbers: 1.4 million New Yorkers living in households who cannot afford enough food and an estimated 400,000 (1 out of 5 children) in the City are hungry.   “But,” he said, “hunger is not about lack of food – it is about the ability to earn enough money to afford enough food.”  What’s the solution?  A serious focus on living wage jobs and a serious support of food safety net programs and support local community support systems.  Food justice not just food charity.

Karen Washington, who started her discussion by describing herself as an urban farmer is also the President of the NYC Community Gardens Coalition.  “Let all the rich people pay for everything and food should be free,” she said.  Other points she made from her impassioned speech included: When you talk about changing the food system, it needs to be inclusive. Until rooms like this are filled with the people who are hungry, there will not be real change.  This has to happen from the grassroots up.  We have a generation of children who have no idea where their food is coming from.  We need to educate people around the process of agriculture.  And its not just about access to affordable food, but it is also about jobs.  Welfare and foodstamps was supposed to be a temporary thing – not generation after generation.  When talking about sustainable agriculture, the kids should be involved. Teach agriculture in schools.  Solutions need to be developed from the bottom up, not from the top down.   Food levels the playing field.  It is a right and not a privilege.  The land of milk and honey has become the land of greed and money.  Food is the new civil rights.

Daniel Bowman Simon, who had founded the successful White House Organic Farm Project is now spearheading the People’s Garden NYC – respectfully asking Mayor Bloomberg to allow a Community garden in front of City Hall.  Daniel’s presentation included multi-media like the video above.  He showed photos of his trip across the country in what is now called the topsy-turvy bus.  And we know how the story ends, Michelle Obama planted an organic garden last year and in the process of expanding again this year.  Over half of the food from the garden was donated to Miriam’s Kitchen – a local DC food pantry.  After the White House, Daniel was hopeful that this idea would take root in other public places as well.  Baltimore, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Portland have all planted vegetables outside their City Halls – so why not New York City?  Daniel showed historical photographs of urban gardens in NYC from the early 1900′s.  His petition to Mayor Bloomberg is online here and it can also be printed out to gather additional signatures – like the South Bronx Food Coop does.

At the end of the presentations there was a brief but heated discussion about the state’s Fresh Program.  And interesting discussion of free and reduced school lunches and the idea of universal breakfasts.  There was plenty of time for shmoozing and networking after as well as yummy food catered from a restaurant that has the Tav HaYosher.

Overall it was a terrific event, hopefully the first of many food justice events for the AJWS-Avodah partnership.

By Josh Berkman, cross-posted on From the Ground–the blog of American Jewish World Service (AJWS)

Over the last week, an important discussion has emerged in the blogosphere about the best ways for hungry nations to produce food. The debate began with a piece by Wellesley professor Robert Paarlberg, published in Foreign Affairs. Paarlberg argues that sluggish food production—rather than price explosion—is responsible for food insecurity in the Global South and that the only way to produce enough food is through advanced technology, increased chemical use and genetically modified seeds. He marginalizes organic farming as quaint and unrealistic as a solution. It’s time to stop rejecting biotech and industrial food production, Paarlberg claims, and realize that it is the only way forward.

A few days later, FP posted a rebuttal piece by Anna Lappe arguing that Paarlberg misrepresents organic farming and its demonstrated potential to produce large amounts of food on small parcels in the developing world. Sustainable agriculture is far more scientifically intensive than what Paarlberg gives it credit for, Lappe says, and much better for the environment to boot. Lappe also cites numerous studies concluding that low impact farming requires less water, doesn’t cause pollution or degrade land and it doesn’t leave peasant farmers dependent on large multinational corporations for materials.

So where does AJWS fall in this debate? Somewhere in between, but a bit closer to Lappe’s point of view. We believe that, first and foremost, it is critical that food be produced locally. When poor communities are reliant on shipments of industrial-produced, what happens when wars, weather, corruption and oil price spikes disrupt the flow? So the question is how best to produce enough food on local farms. Again, the answer lies in the middle. We know that organic farming is gentle on the land and sustainable. When communities are given access to the right resources, we’ve seen phenomenal results with our grantees. But our grantees’ experience also indicates that to achieve these results, there is a role for the proper use of technology and certain inputs. AJWS’s director of advocacy, Timi Gerson, expands on our position in a piece that was posted today at Civil Eats, and she asks for all of us to push for food aid programs that emphasize and enable local production. Check it out!

As Shavuot approaches and we reflect on the significance of harvest festivals in contemporary (urban) times, the AJWS-AVODAH Partnership is hosting an interactive program on hunger in NYC and what you can do about it! If you are in the NYC area you should definitely check out this event.

Date: Wednesday, May 12^th

Time: Light dinner and registration at 6:30pm, program at 7pm sharp

Place: The Commons on Atlantic, in Downtown Brooklyn

Address: 388 Atlantic Ave (map)

To register: Click here

Speakers include:

Daniel Bowman Simon – Trailblazer behind the People’s Garden NYC campaign and founder of the successful White House Organic Farm Project

Rabbi Brent Spodek – Rabbi in Residence at American Jewish World Service

Karen Washington – Longtime urban gardener and food justice activist and president of the NYC Community Gardens Coalition

Representative from the New York City Coalition Against Hunger

Come and learn about the reality of hunger in NYC and about some innovative (local) approaches to tackling it. Karen Washington will discuss the power and importance of the community garden movement and Daniel Bowman Simon will share his own story of helping to establish the now famous White House Kitchen Garden. He’ll also outline how his newest project aims to bring a garden to City Hall to be tended by public school students with the produce being distributed to emergency food providers. In the spirit of Shavuot, Rabbi Spodek will frame our discussion around Jewish imperatives towards justice.

Guests will be invited to offer concrete volunteer power to the People’s Garden NYC campaign with a post-program action party.

On April 18, my co-steering committee member Sylvia Frankel and I were invited to speak to the congregation of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, Oregon, a nearby city most famous for being the home of Nike. It was an opportunity to address the congregation for one of a series of learning and study sessions; this one was called Food and Spirituality from a Jewish Perspective.

About 25 people attended, including Lead Pastor Mark Brocker and Associate Pastor Robyn Hartwig, and members of the St. Andrew Green Team, a group of congregants who work on sustainability issues within the St. Andrew community.

My co-presenter Sylvia is a Professor of Jewish Studies at Lewis & Clark College and also teaches at the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School in Portland. She spoke first, talking about the ancient Biblical connections between Jews, the land, and food, as well as the practice of gleaning. I talked about social justice in Jewish faith and practice, and how that relates to food, fair treatment of farm workers, and environmental stewardship as a Jewish ethic.

The group was very receptive, commenting on aspects of our talks, and asking provocative questions, including how to preserve the dignity of poor people in need. I mentioned Maimonides‘ eight levels of charity, the highest form of which is self-empowerment of the poor.

This was a great opportunity to do interfaith community engagement; both Sylvia and I really enjoyed the interaction and hope we can participate in other interfaith discussions about ethical and sustainable food. We’d like to thank Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, an interfaith nonprofit based in Portland, which hosted an Earth Care Summit in February, where we met members of the St. Andrew community.

Anyone else have similar experiences, within a Hazon CSA or otherwise? Please share!