Veggie Blog

Sadly, the Veggie Project ends today and we are retiring our yellow shirts.  As a final entry I want to let everyone keeping track of us know the final outcome of the project this summer.

The following is a list of the programming and activities we did as a part of the Veggie Project this summer:

• 33 produce markets held at 4 different Nashville locations
  • 1,216 purchase transactions at the markets
    • 579 unique shoppers
  • $1,219.75 of Veggie Bucks spent at the markets
  • $4,777.10 spent in cash at Veggie Project markets
  • $4,077.75 spent purchasing produce for the markets

·         6 different Super Shopper surveys available at the markets as a way to earn $2.00 Veggie Bucks

·         20 total meetings with the Youth Leader Boards at each site

o   4 off-site field trips at each site

·         2 Family Events

o   A total of 43 attendees (not including youth)

·         5 collaborator newsletters

·         11 insightful blog entries

·         Presentation of the Veggie Project at CABLE meeting

·         Presentation of the Veggie Project at Nashville’s Small Business CEOs’ Roundtable

The following is a list of our greatest accomplishments this summer:

• $930.35 of profit from markets
  • Closer to project sustainability
• 6864.08 pounds of produce sold at the markets
• 515 Veggie Project blog views from June 1-August 11, 2009

• Added Harvest Hands as a new Veggie Project location
• Super Chefs component added to Super Shoppers program
  • 29 recipes collected from Super Shoppers
  • Taste testers distributed at 4 markets
• Overall reactions from community members toward the Veggie Project was very positive

Thanks to everyone for making this summer such a great Veggie Project experience and we look forward to a hopefully even bigger and better Veggie Project  next year!!

For more information on the Veggie Project, please contact Liz Aleman at Elizabeth.J.Aleman@Vanderbilt.Edu

The other day a researcher for Dr. Darcy Freedman, the creator of the Veggie Project, came to the office and interviewed all of the interns about their experience with and reflections about the Veggie Project.  At first this interview just seemed like another task to check off of my daily to-do list, but in reality the interview made me think about my experience and gather my thoughts about the project.  The question that stuck with me the most following the interview was, “who does the Veggie Project help?” 

The Veggie Project is intended to help residents of food desert areas in Nashville.  Food deserts are created by a lack of accessibility to healthy foods because of location, cost, and education.   The Veggie Project helps these individuals by making food accessible in location, by holding fresh and local produce markets in their neighborhoods; cost, by keeping the produce prices low and providing opportunities to earn Veggie Bucks for free produce; and education, by handing out healthy recipes and hosting the “From Farm to Fork” dinner event, teaching the residents how to prepare healthy and produce-filled meals.   However, I would say that the Veggie Project benefits extend beyond this population. 

Another population that benefits from the Veggie Project is the children at the Boys and Girls Clubs and at Harvest Hands, where the markets are run.  The kids on the Veggie Project Youth Leader Board are able to participate in the running of the market.  They help set-up the tent and tables, arrange the baskets of produce to display on the tables, assist customers, write receipts, and promote the market within their community.  Then they get “paid” for their hard work with Veggie Bucks at the end of the market.  As they participate in the project, these kids are subconsciously learning business skills, communication skills, math, and the value of hard work.  All of these lessons will benefit the children in the future as they enter middle school, high school, college, and beyond.  It is also beneficial for the children at the Boys and Girls Clubs and Harvest Hands not participating in the Youth Leader Board to see their peers working hard and being rewarded for their work.  The Veggie Project brings in an influx of positive role models for the children to see and turns the Youth Leader Board kids into positive role models within the clubs as well. 

The entire Nashville community benefits from the Veggie Project too!  The Veggie Project brings to light the issue of food deserts, which often lives in the shadows.  The advertising for the Veggie Project has introduced the issue of food deserts to Nashville residents that were unaware such a situation existed, let alone within miles of their own homes.  As more people come to learn about the food desert issue, the likelihood of greater efforts to combat this problem increases.  The Veggie Project is a great short-term solution for food desert areas, but something more needs to happen and social awareness is a key step to beginning this effort.

Finally, and perhaps most of all, the Veggie Project helped the staff of the project.  The Veggie Project has been the opportunity of a lifetime for me and my co-workers.  I asked my co-workers what they had gained from the Veggie Project.  Tracy and Rachel said that they really benefited from learning to accommodate to any type of environment.  They learned to “go with the flow,” even when the flow wasn’t the direction they hoped it would be going.  The ability to work in diverse environments, changing plans as necessary, will surely benefit my coworkers in the future as Tracy finishes her thesis for her Masters degree in nutrition and food science and Rachel travels abroad next year to Copenhagen, Denmark to study public health.  My co-worker Carleigh says that she has learned most from this experience to relate to all different types of people, a great skill to have as she finishes her senior year of college and begins networking and looking for different career opportunities.  I know that working with the Veggie Project has opened my mind and my heart as well.  Beginning to understand the adversities faced by others living so close to myself has been mind-blowing.  Before I became involved in this project, I was no more naïve than my classmates, however I was naïve.  I was aware of the food desert issue, but I did not understand the complexity of the issue or the obstacles faced and feelings felt by the residents of these communities.  I didn’t understand that carrying around a McDonald’s bag in your neighborhood could give you a sense of pride because it showed off that you not only ate that day, but you got to eat out.  I didn’t understand that when the kids left the club at 4 or 5, the meals the kids ate at the clubs were for some the last meal that they ate that day.  I am forever changed by what I have learned from this project, and I know that while I may not always work for the Veggie Project, I always want to be involved in helping my community.  I learned from this project that I do not want to go back to being naïve again.  I have thought about the idea of working with grocery stores to arrange a chartered bus each week from food desert neighborhoods to their stores or opening a mobile clinic for low-income neighborhoods once I graduate from nursing school to improve overall wellness in these neighborhoods, but I have time to figure out exactly what I want my role to be.  I guess the overall lesson working with the Veggie Project helped me realize and learn that I want to be involved in my community and I always want to be aware instead of living in naïve and blissful shadows. 

The Veggie Project touches everyone involved in different ways.  It has brought people together this summer and created lasting memories.  What we have all learned from being involved in the Veggie Project will not disappear, even though the summer is coming to an end. So, have you been involved in the Veggie Project in any way this summer?  If so, what did you learn?  It could be as small as learning that you like beets or as large as realizing that you can make a difference in your community!  We would love to hear from you and understand more about what role the Veggie Project plays in peoples’ lives.

I am sure many of you have heard and are frightened by the statistics collected in a 2006 National Geographic survey which reported that only 37% of Americans 18-24 know where Iraq is located on a map.  This means that less than half of young Americans do not know where our troops are fighting in a war to defend our country.  This statistic really startles me, but it also made me think, if Americans aren’t concerned with national events, how in tune are Nashville residents with their own community?  Part of taking pride in who you are is understanding where you live and taking pride in your community. 

Over the course of this summer working with the Veggie Project and seeing areas of Nashville I never frequented before, I have come to learn about the diversity of the Nashville community.  As I learned more about the different neighborhoods in Nashville, I thought it would be interesting to learn more about the history of Nashville and the interesting Nashville facts that bind all Nashville residents together.  These are facts that we should all know in order to understand and take pride in where we live.

• Nashville is located in north-central Tennessee.
• Nashville was founded on Christmas Eve in 1779.
• There are more than 700 churches in Nashville and it is located in what is known as the “buckle” of the “bible belt.”
• Nashville is known for its art and education.  It is considered “Athens of the South.” Obviously known for its music, Nashville is also home to a full-size replica of the Parthenon and to 21 four-year colleges and universities.
• The 7^th and 11^th presidents, Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk, used to reside in the Nashville area.
• The 2007 percentage of Nashville residents living in poverty was 15.3%
• Nashville is the 7^th most obese city in the United States.  28.8% of Nashville residents are obese.
• Homelessness is a reality for a significant portion of the Nashville community, and the homeless rate is continuing to increase.  Astonishingly, 2,200 of Nashville’s children are homeless.  The homeless in Nashville face issues such as where to sleep and eat and how to earn money to survive the day-to-day that are difficult for average individuals to understand.  .

Nashville is a large city with a lot to be proud of.  It is also a city filled with distinct neighborhoods that all have their own subcultures.  Some of the neighborhoods include the downtown area, the Green Hills area, the Bellmeade area, the Germantown area, the Hillsboro Village area, the Bellevue area, as well as the Andrew Jackson, Vine Hill, Antioch Pike, and Thompson lane areas where we hold our Veggie Project markets.  With all that Nashville has, we should celebrate the uniqueness of each distinct area within our city and take pride in our neighbors and ourselves because we are all held together by the common history of our city.

As a Veggie Project intern I have learned more about the Nashville community and the neighborhoods within it.  Spending time in the four “food desert” neighborhoods where Veggie Project Markets are run, I have come to care very much about the future of these areas.  It is my wish for these areas to develop and thrive so that they will attract healthy grocery stores to their area.  Thinking about my dream for these neighborhoods has caused me to think about what is keeping these areas from their potential to be more attractive places to live and escape their “food desert” reality. 

So why don’t grocery stores move into these areas? It would seem that they would have every incentive to, with little competition and guaranteed business.  But the situation is more complicated than that.  There are barriers keeping grocery stores from these communities.  Among the barriers are taxes, politics, crime and safety. 

Members of the Andrew Jackson neighborhood had interesting things to say about the issue of safety in their area.  For instance, one market attendee stated that she does not feel safe in her neighborhood, mentioning that drugs and drinking are major problems.  In fact, she is trying to get out of the neighborhood for those reasons.  She also stated that she would get in trouble with other neighborhood residents if she were ever seen talking to the police.  Another Andrew Jackson community member said that it is important to always, “keep your eyeballs open around here.”  Other community members also mentioned that drugs and gangs keep the Andrew Jackson area from feeling like a safe place to live.

Safety is a major concern for stores looking to come into an area.  An area with questionable safety is not attractive to store owners who don’t want to be worried about the possibility of a crime occurring at or near their store.  The threat of shoplifting or worse, in addition to the higher insurance rates for stores located in high-crime areas, keeps commercial ventures away.

One way that I think could increase the chance of a grocery store moving into these communities is improving their neighborhood pride.  Each of these neighborhoods is unique and has so many great things that they should celebrate.  Also, most market attendees at the Preston Taylor and Andrew Jackson sites said that they can depend on their neighbors and that their neighbors are there to lend a hand when they need help.  By increasing the community pride, the residents of these communities will have a vested interest in the future of their neighborhood as well.  We should all support these communities and recognize that they are a part of our Nashville community as well.

Produce Sold: Green beans, beets, blackberries, cabbage, cantaloupe, collards, corn cucumbers, onions (white, yellow, and purple), peaches, bell peppers, yellow squash, tomatoes, turnip greens, zucchini, apples, pole beans, jalapeño peppers, red potatoes, butternut squash, watermelons, and grapes!

265.3 of produce sold in week 5!

1,005.9 of produce sold in week 6!

We had two very successful “Farm to Fork” dinner events at the Andrew Jackson market and the Antioch United Methodist Church.  Each event had a delicious spread of food featuring fresh produce including: Roasted roots medley, roasted eggplant with tomatoes, beef and cabbage casserole, Asian chopped chicken salad, fresh vegetable pasta salad, peach cobbler, and a make your own yogurt parfait station. On top of a delicious free dinner guests earned $5.00 in veggie bucks by filling out surveys based on their experience at the event. Every half-hour guests were randomly selected to win baskets full of fresh produce as a door prize.  Both events proved to be highly successful and served as an opportunity for the community to meet and socialize together over a healthy meal. It also introduced participants to a variety of cooking and preparation techniques for fresh produce. Every individual who attended took home a recipe booklet which contained instructions for each of the dishes, making replication at home possible.

Final Numbers for the Preston Taylor Market:

$179.75 Veggie Bucks spent

$113.32 profit for Veggie Project (money to be used for next years start up costs)

262 customers

775.21 Pounds of produce sold

Congratulations to Preston Taylor for another very thriving year and market!

Produce sold: Beets, blackberries, cabbage sprouts, corn, cucumbers, green beans, banana peppers, onions, peaches, squash, strawberries, tomatoes, turnip greens, zuchinni, carrots, garlic, pole beans, bell peppers, cabbage heads, corn, eggplant, and collard greens!

565.35 Pounds of produce sold in week 3!
689.09 Pounds of produce sold in week 4!

179 Customers in week 3 and 134 customers in week 4!

Thank you to all who continue to support the  Veggie Project - this year has seen more customers and volume of produce sold so far compared to past years.  Also, we are beginning to see small strides towards finanical sustainabilty being made as well!

What is your answer to the questions, “What keeps you from eating as healthy as you should?”  For me, it’s my sweet tooth—I love ice cream.  For some of my coworkers it’s a time issue.  When they get off of work at 6:30 they are tired and fast food or a microwave meal presents a quick and satisfying dinner option.  However, we make conscious choices everyday about what we eat and we have the knowledge and resources to try to avoid unhealthy things when we can.  But some people feel that they might not have a choice about how healthy they eat.  The Veggie Project conducted a survey of the Super Shoppers in the Andrew Jackson neighborhood to find out more about their constraints to a healthy diet. 

One male responded that healthy food was too far away to get.  Instead he said that it was easier to purchase dinner at Church’s chicken, where one chicken wing has 300 calories, 5 grams of saturated fat, and 3 grams of trans fat.  In fact, 80% of the respondents said that fast food restaurants are more prevalent in their area making them the easiest option for dinner.

One woman living in the Andrew Jackson area faces extreme challenges in maintaining a healthy diet while on dialysis.  She explained that a “market man” sometimes comes around her public housing unit to sell fruits and vegetables, eggs and meat from a nearby farm.  However, she never knows when he is coming and the source is unreliable.  She also said that even though she has access to a car it is difficult to get to a grocery store in her condition and that stores need to move into the neighborhood where she lives.  Her responses indicated that she was thankful for the Veggie Project market during the summer, but she was somewhat unsure of what she would do to maintain her diet once the Veggie Project concludes.

This makes us think about what we can do beyond the Veggie Project to help the food access issue in food desert neighborhoods.  If there are limited nearby groceries, can we bring mobile grocery stores to food desert areas year-round?  Or if we can’t bring the stores to them, can we bring them to the grocery stores with a shuttle system?  What are some of your ideas?

Week 2 went great!!  We are seeing a lot of progress compared to past years - check out this week’s updates

Produce Sold:
Beets, Blackberries, Cabbage, Collards, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Green Beans, Jalapeno Peppers, Lettuce, Green Onions, White Onions, Peaches, Potatoes, Squash, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Turnip Greens, Banana Peppers, Carrots, Cabbage Sprouts

613 Pounds of Produce SOLD!

160 Customers
54 Super  Shopper members
59 Regular adult customers
26 Youth Leader Board members
21 Regular youth customers

Anyone who knows me for more than two seconds knows that I am a food enthusiast.  I live eat and breathe anything food.  Cooking, baking, eating, dinner parties you name it, I love it.  I suppose I am very fortunate to have been raised in an environment in which food was not a limited resource but rather something to be savored.  Food insecurity and the idea of going hungry had never really donned on me as something that truly occurred here in the United States.  In fact, I had never even heard of “food deserts” before attending Vanderbilt. I wonder if I am the exception rather than the rule? Does our upbringing really morph the way we perceive the basic staples that sustain our life?

Recently, I heard a country song “I’m still a guy” by Brad Paisley, which parodies the difference between how women and men perceive the same object.  For the sake of our blog I thought it would be interesting to replicate this experiment using our Youth Leader Board members from Andrew Jackson Boys and Girls Club and the Vanderbilt Veggie Interns.  Here are the results I compiled based on a word recognition exercise.  Feel free to also post your answers to these trigger words using the first thing that comes to mind when you read it.

McDonalds

Interns: Grease, fat, ice cream, calories

YLB: Chicken, burgers, fries

Spinach

Interns: Yummy, vitamins, greens

YLB: Fried, plant, green

Soda

Interns: Sugar, carbonated

YLB: Drink, orange, grape, frizzy,

Whole grains

Interns: Fiber, oats, bread

YLB: High calories, un-crustables, bread

Potatoes

Interns: Sweet, baked, smashed

YLB: Chips, fries, Potato salad, potato pie, mashed

Fried

Interns: Gross, bad, caloric

YLB: Chicken, greens, bread, cheese fries, doughnuts, chili fries, BK apple fries

Eggplant

Interns: Purple, grilled, sautéed

YLB: Ick, low-cal, low-fat, nasty, gross

Bread and Company

Interns: Expensive, salads

YLB: Bread and who?, What

What do you think of when you hear these trigger words?  What do you think this says about individual’s experiences with food and health?

The Youth Leader Board members participated in “Food in Our Neighborhood” this week and learned about the “food desert” issue first hand, observing and discussing the types of food stores in their communities.  The following are comments that the kids made after learning about “food deserts”:

Squash Seed: “The Veggie Project is important because it eliminates mental, physical, and financial food deserts.  The Veggie Project also empowers youth in our community to learn business skills and practice them by selling fresh, affordable fruits and vegetables in the community for the community.”

Captain Corn: “The Veggie Project is important because it helps people get low priced veggies.”

Squash Squisher: “Because of the Veggie Project people don’t have to go far for Veggies because it’s in our neighborhood.”

Bananas: “Because of the Veggie Project, Tennessee can be the healthiest state that ever lived.”

Kiwi: “The Veggie Project can help you learn about fruits & veggies and tell you how to eat correct.”

Cherries: “I think that the Veggie Project is important because it help the youth communicate with the neighborhood and let us sell vegetables.  It’s important because it’s making Nashville healthy and positive.  I also thinks it’s important because it sell veggies.”

Lemon: “It is important because it will help me get more healthy.”

Ginger: “I think the Veggie Project is important because Nashville needs to be healthy.”

In addition to talking about the “food deserts” issue, the Andrew Jackson YLB took a bus tour to explore firsthand the differences in the food stores available in the Andrew Jackson neighborhood and other Nashville areas.  The bus tour route went down Charlotte Pike, turned left onto White Bridge Road, and returned on West End Avenue.  The kids included in their observation notes that there were more fast food and convenient stores in the Andrew Jackson community and that the area outside of the Andrew Jackson community had many more grocery stores and sit down restaurants.  One YLB member, Cucumber, said that in the Andrew Jackson neighborhood she would eat at McDonalds, but in the West End area she would eat at O’Charley’s, comparing the types of restaurants available in the both areas.  At the end of the field trip the kids sat down together and discussed what they learned, all agreeing that it was important to have the Veggie Project markets at the Andrew Jackson Boys and Girls Club because there were not nearby places to purchase fresh produce but the markets were changing that!