Class Act
Weekly column that highlights innovative and interesting food and food education and advocacy programs around the world.
Cool Kids Cooking, New Zealand: Class Act
Based on a children’s television show, Cool Kids Cooking is partly sponsored by the Auckland Regional Public Health Service in New Zealand. With recipes, games, and cooking tips, this group makes eating 5 fruits and veggies a day fun and inventive for children. Their chef, Marco Kouch, also brings Cool Kids Cooking to classrooms, in [...]
Second Harvest Japan: Class Act
Japan estimates that 5-9 million TONS of food is thrown away each year. That is, food that is actually edible. With 16% of people living in poverty, Second Harvest Japan delivers almost 2 million meals a year to over 200,000 people. The national food bank of Japan, it offers various programs to address food insecurity [...]
Nutrir Baranquilla Foundation: Class Act
Children in Colombia, South America face many of the same food issues as in other parts of the world: the dual problems of food insecurity and obesity. With over 30 years of experience, the Nutrir Barranquilla Foundation has worked to battle malnutrition through food and nutritional education programs for underprivileged mothers and children. Interestingly – [...]
Semperviva: Preserving Biodiversity in Bulgaria: Class Act
Karakachan breeds are known to be some of the oldest domesticated animals in Bulgaria. Not only are these breeds integral to Bulgaria’s traditions and culture, but they are important to its ecosystem. The Karakachan sheep’s wool is supposedly the most primitive and course type, and the sheep are adapted to the rough mountainous terrains. The [...]
The Children’s Lunchbox: Class Act
The Children’s Lunchbox works to “feed hugry kids in safe community environments” in Anchorage, Alaska. It works to address children who are food insecure through community centers that provide at least one healthy and consistent meal a day, whether with its early morning snack program, lunch program, or weekend food program. Not a flashy organization, [...]
Connolly Ranch: Class Act
Napa Valley is known throughout the world as wine country. It is also hope to the Connolly Ranch Education Center, a 12-acred, hands-on environmental education program. From organic gardening to ecological sustainability to animal husbandry, school and individual programs allow children to experience pioneer life, farming, and the outdoors, while their parents can take workshops [...]
Senior Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program: Class Act
The New Mexico Farmers’ Market manages 64 markets through New Mexico. Including its WIC, EBT, and CSA programs, the Market works to ensure the state’s elderly residents also have access to fresh produce. The Senior Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program is open to seniors age 60 and over who live at or below the Federal poverty [...]
The Niapele Project School Nutrition Initiative, Liberia: Class Act
The Niapele Project works with vulnerable children through community-based initiatives in Liberia. Its School Nutrition Initiative focuses on ensuring adequate food, health and care by providing daily meals to school children, teaching nutritional practices, and supporting a community-based approach to battle child malnutrition. Through a partnership with Vision Awake Africa for Development, the initiative brings [...]
Plant a Thousand Gardens Collaboration Nutrition Initiative: Class Act
Plant a Thousand Gardens Collaboration Nutrition Initiative, a program in 25 Miami-Dade Country Public Schools, targets underrepresented students and their families from low-income families. It had begun in 2007 to address the obesity epidemic and now reaches 10% of elementary school students in the district. It helps to reduce the intake of unhealthy foods with [...]
Hawai’i Island School Garden Network: Class Act
The Hawai’i Island School Garden Network works with island schools to build gardens and agricultural programs to increase local food consumption and engage the entire family. As part of a greater initiative for greater food self-reliance and land stewardship on the Hawai’i islands, the network with over 50 public, charter, and private schools to create [...]
