Rachel's Service Learning! (A little late)

I was given an amazing opportunity to work with a well known fitness coach and nutritionist on a healthy eating seminar!  Unfortunately, the one I was scheduled to help with was cancelled due to low enrollment, and was post-poned until mid May.  I will still be working with her at this seminar.  We planned to do lots of juicing, cooking, and baking and distribute them to the people who comes to this specific gym.

Although that specific project will have to wait, I took action in my after-school program.  I work with k-2 students at a local program.  These kids bring in the most disgusting of foods for snack and for lunch during school vacation.  Their parents load their bags with processed and fatty foods.  Very rarely do we see a child take out fruits and vegetables.  So we came up with this plan for me to present an eating club at work.  I printed and cut out pictures of all of the foods I see them eating and copied them.  I did the same thing with healthier choices (fruits, vegetables, etc), and copied them, too.  So what I had them do was make their own collage of their favorite foods.  Some of the options were Oreos, chips, fries, McDonald's, fast food items, ice creams, etc.  Then with the healthier foods it was just your normal fruits and vegetables, yogurt, cereals, etc.  I mixed them all up so they couldn't see that there was really a difference.

Once their collages were complete, we went around and shared.  It was interesting, but not surprising, to see their choices.  I saw a correlation between food choices and socioeconomic status.  I was able to look at their EEC voucher status on the attendance while looking at their collages, it was remarkable.  When they were finished sharing, I shared my own collage, which was full of nutrition and healthier choices.  I told them why I like them, and why I didn't eat the things I didn't chose.  I told them about the long term effects, and what it does to our bodies.  I made sure to keep it appropriate for their age.

It took some time to really see a huge difference, but by school vacation (which was last week) a lot of the student who were in my club were bragging about their new food choices! I saw some apples, carrots, and organic fruit snacks.  I even saw much healthier choices at lunchtime.  A lot less lunch ables, that is for sure.  It was interesting, and we are planning to do the club once a month (at least).

Service Learning

Service Learning:

 By: Autumn Gadd

 

I did my service learning project through the company I work for, Flatbread Company in Amesbury. I have mentioned before that my company buys all local, and organic food to feed to our customers. Everything they stand for is awesome, and they are always looking to help a new organization and donate to others. 

One of the farms that they purchase food from is Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, which is an organic farm. I did not know until I started this blog that waste, and products that to do look appetizing anymore such as wilted lettuce is separated form the trash into a compost bucket. When buckets are filled they then have that food picked up by Cider Hill, and it is fed to the animals there. I thought that this was awesome that the food is not going to waste but instead being fed to the animals on the farm that help run our company. 

Finding this out I decided that I wanted to help separate the trash from the compost food. As I was doing this (not the most appealing job) I tried to throw in lemon peels. One of the guys downstairs with me stopped me and told me that the animals wont touch the food if the lemon peels are in there, and they hate them. I thought that that was really interesting, and it informed me even more how concerned they are. We do not just throw all food in this bucket, its only the wilted lettuce, carrot scraps, celery scraps,  and other vegetable that we have at the time. 

Doing this project gave me more respect for farmers and the work that they do. The time I put into separating the food is nothing compared to the labor they do to produce healthy organic food for the local people, and companies. 

 

Service Learning

Service Learning

            I believe that it is one thing to talk about what you stand for and another thing to act on it. By taking action on a subject I feel strong about, I felt like I was actually making a difference.

            At first I was nervous about bringing organic fruit to classroom for the chance that it would taste no different or even worse than the regular fruit. Since the idea of bringing organic fruit in was to promote it, I was hoping it would be delicious. I then remembered that the main purpose of eating organic is not because they taste better but the positive effects it can have on the environment, your health, and local community.

            I was able to run my lesson during snack time which worked out well. I asked the children what organic meant. One child quickly chimed in with some information about how her mom only shops at Trader Joes. “It means that there are no chemicals in it,” she said. I then expanded on her thoughts and described some of the process most food goes through including pesticides, GMOS, and hormones, I then showed them one of the apples in my basket. I asked them if they could observe any differences. “It looks dusty,” said one child. I talked to them about how this is how an apple looks naturally and that it is the wax that makes it look shiny. I offered the organic apples to anyone who wanted one. Fortunatly, the apples were incredible. They were perfectly ripe, with a satisfying juicy crunch. As they enjoyed there apples I talked more to them about how organic vegetable are better for your health, and the environment.

            The service learning project seemed to be effective. Although they are just children, they understand that poisons used for plants can hurt the environment, and that it makes sense that plants are best to be kept natural rather than modified by humans.

            I stated previously, it felt good to take action on a topic I feel is important to our community. So often we do no more than just talk about it rather than make a difference. I believe that I will do similar activities with my future students as well. I believe that the one big difference for my future students is that I will do my best to give them the pros and cons of both sides so that they can form their own opinion.

 I plan on being an activist throughout my whole life. My plan is to do my “service learning” my Peace corp. in Northern Uganda. As I Christian I feel a constant urge to do God’s work by spreading love and showing it through my actions and hard work. I think there is no better gratification but to do something for the benefit of someone else rather than yourself.

I think that this is a great assignment to push students to make a difference. I do believe that with how hectic the semester is, it would be helpful if there were already connections made with different places for students. I think this would allow students to do cooler activities. For example, I would have rather got to work on a farm, but after a few hours of trying to find a placement, I gave up.

Tom Gillespie