IFFS’s CRAFT: Bringing Farmers Together to Learn and Grow

Beginning and seasoned farmers, backyard gardeners, and simply the “farm-curious” came from all parts of the Piedmont to learn about the latest techniques and innovations in sustainable farming, as Inter-Faith Food Shuttle kicked-off the first growing season of the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) United Piedmont. The collaborative is an international model of regionally-organized farmer training rooted in the belief that farmers learn best from each other. Through CRAFT United Piedmont, inspiring leaders in our local farming community will host educational tours on their farms once a month from June to November. Each tour will focus on a special topic and will be followed by a community potluck.

The Kick-off Farm Tour and Potluck  was hosted on Sunday,  June 2nd, by Joanna and Bill Lelekacs at Dancing Pines Farm in Efland and focused on Growing Summer Produce in Hoop Houses. Attending this inaugural event were over 30 beginning farmers as well as established farmers, farm interns, folks interesting in starting their own farms, backyard gardeners, farm-curious folks, and some just interested in learning more about local farms. They came to Efland from around the region – including Sanford, Louisburg, Durham, Raleigh, Pittsboro, Silk Hope, and Hillsborough.

Bill Lelekacs led a tour of the farm’s two hoop houses. These inexpensive, unheated (passive-solar) greenhouses are often used to extend the growing season, meaning that farmers can start producing earlier as well as keep on growing longer than they could without the hoop house’s protection. The Lelekacs grow produce year round inside these structures– including lettuce in December, so they can sell at farmers markets and to restaurants year-round. Hoop houses are also useful during the summer because they allow farmers to protect crops from rain and use only drip irrigation instead. Keeping the leaves dry on growing plants can help to control many pests and diseases associated with our warm, wet summers.

Bill showed the group how the sides can be rolled up or down to allow ventilation or to keep the heat inside.

One of the two hoop house at Dancing Pines farm currently contains 120 tomato plants.

Their second hoop house is now in transition from a spring crop of dinosaur kale to cucumbers for the summer, which they’ll trellis using a rope strung along the supporting hoops.

Joanna Lelekacs led a tour around the rest of their almost two-acre, chemical-free farm, explaining their focus on pollinators and giving participants a look at their fencing systems, pond for watering, small orchards, organic pest-prevention techniques, and the development of their post-harvest shed. Along the way, attendees asked questions and shared ideas about future projects, past experiences, trouble-shooting, and their favorite tools.

The event wrapped up with continued conversation over a wonderful potluck meal – full of what else but lots of farm-fresh veggies!

CRAFT United Piedmont is supported by Inter-Faith Food Shuttle through a USDA NIFA Beginning Farmer’s and Rancher’s Development Program grant. It’s all part of strengthening the local food system to make sure everyone has access to good food and the income to be able to purchase it. Stay tuned for more CRAFT events each month this summer and fall at local farms!

IFFS On-Farm Stand Now Open!

This past Saturday marked the grand opening of the IFFS On-Farm Produce Stand, which will now be open every Thursday and Friday from noon-6pm and every Saturday from 9am-1pm. We will be selling our organically-grown produce harvested daily from the farm and eggs from our happy, pasture-raised hens.

This weekend, the stand overflowed with gorgeous carrots (including the two lovers below), romaine lettuce, curly kale, baby kale (great for kale chips!), swiss chard, braising mix, deliciously peppery arugula,  asparagus, garden peas, green onions, cilantro, and herbs for transplanting.

Also for sale were some homemade items and books made and written by one of our newest volunteers and incubator farmers, Elizabeth Mann.

The stand is located at the corner of Tryon Road and Dover Farm Road (next to the IFFS Teaching Farm at 4505 Tyron Rd) in Raleigh, on the right. Just look for the signs!

If you want to receive a weekly “Availability List” just email Farm Manager Kay Coleman at kay@foodshuttle.org. She will be sending out a list of what we are currently harvesting each Monday.

IFFS Teaching Farm booth at the Midtown Raleigh Farmers Market

You can also find our produce and eggs each Saturday morning 8am-noon at the Midtown Raleigh Farmers Market at North Hills Commons.

All proceeds from the sale of this produce goes to support the programs of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.

Meet Rachael, our new Catering Manager!

The following is a letter from Rachael Carpenter, our new Catering Manager, to all friends of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle! We’re very excited to have her — Get ready to see a lot more of her around town, and consider Catering With A Cause for your next event — proceeds go to support IFFS’s proactive  hunger-relief programs!

On behalf of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Catering With A Cause, I would like to introduce myself as the new Catering Manager. I am very excited to join the team and look forward to helping the Catering Program grow. I was first introduced to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle five years ago through Public Allies, NC. I completed my year of service in 2008 and continued to work at my placement until February of this year. I have a great interest in local food, gardening, and local restaurants and am excited to expand my experience with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.

Catering With A Cause, CWAC, is a revenue generating catering service staffed by graduates from our Culinary Job Training Program, specializing in breakfast, lunch & desserts. We are happy to provide boxed lunches for the office and extend our services to wedding events. CWAC is a delicious way to profoundly impact the community and offer our graduates an experience to use their newly mastered culinary skills!

Do not hesitate to contact me directly at, Catering@foodshuttle.org or
919-696-0073.

Best Regards,

Rachael Carpenter
Catering Manager
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle

Mobile Tastiness Machine spotted in Parrish Manor

Last week, the Mobile Tastiness Machine made its way on the road for a pilot run in the community of Parrish Manor, where we also work with neighborhood youth to manage a community garden and host nutrition education classes.

The food truck, which houses our Mobile Meals program, made its debut with tasty turkey stir-fry with vegetables and brown rice, and a side of fresh strawberries. “Yay!” came the first customer’s response upon hearing the menu.

turkey stir-fry

Chef Terri Hutter and Kitchen Manager Sunshine Beard worked the window.

Kids in the community gave curious looks and shouts over to the colorful truck as the school bus dropped them off in front of the Parrish Manor office where we were parked. Some were hesitant to wander over at first, but once they heard that the food was free, they didn’t just wander up to the truck….they ran.

Word spread pretty quickly, and soon dozens of kids were served hot, nutritious meals.

Look for the truck in low-income communities this summer serving up hot lunches and supper six days a week, along with nutrition education and physical activities.

Going Social to Fight Hunger in Durham

YOU can help Inter-Faith Food Shuttle win $45,000 to expand BackPack Buddies in Durham!

All you have to do is vote for us on Facebook here.

Thanks to Walmart’s partnership with Feeding America in the Fighting Hunger Together grant program, we have the chance to bring in big dollars for Durham’s hungry children, but we can’t do it without a lot of help from our friends on Facebook. About one in three projects listed on the specially designed Facebook page will get funded, but we need your votes to make the cut!

In Durham County, almost 12,000 children are at risk of going hungry, and just over 50% of children in Durham County are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. For many of these children, BackPack Buddies can make the difference between going hungry over the weekend and coming to school nourished and ready to learn. BackPack Buddies provides kids in need with 6 balanced meals and two healthy snacks every weekend during the school year. Without this provision of food, some kids may not eat a good meal from Friday’s lunch to Monday’s breakfast at school. Help us make that difference.

To put a dent in these sad statistics, we need a community-wide effort, so Inter-Faith Food Shuttle partners with Durham agencies including East Durham Children’s Initiative, which also has a project in the running, and PORCH-Durham. Now you can be part of that teamwork, too.

VOTE DAILY throughout the month of April, and you could help us provide 27,648 more meals for children in need.

Don’t forget to share the link with your friends and encourage them to vote for us, too!

Take Your Place at the Table

A new film that debuted March 1st, A Place at the Table, explores childhood hunger in America, and it opens today in Greensboro at the Geeksboro Coffeehouse Cinema!  The film vividly illustrates how lack of income and lack of access to fresh healthy food are the root causes of hunger and its companion, obesity.  Here in North Carolina, one in four children in North Carolina is at risk of hunger.  More than 112,000 children receive free or reduced lunch through our public schools in the 7 counties Inter-Faith Food Shuttle serves.

The film addresses the need for continued strong funding of federal nutrition programs, like SNAP (food stamps), which help keep millions of American families from going hungry, as well as the need for education about healthy food.

Watch the trailer here:

The film in also currently playing at Sunrise Theatre in Southern Pines, NC. You also can watch the full film on iTunes or onDemand.

What can you do to help?

You can help both at the grassroots level and by advocating for national change.

• Volunteer with us!
  • Through our Nutrition Education programs, we’re connecting kids, teens, families, and adults with the knowledge and skills to access, purchase, prepare, and eat nutritious food on a limited budget.
  • Organize your co-workers, club members, or faith-based group to pack BackPacks for food insecure children or pack and distribute Grocery Bags for Seniors.
  • Harvest excess produce from local farmers’ fields with our Field Gleaning program. We’ll distribute it to people and communities in need through our Mobile Markets.
  • Connect with how food is grown on local market farms by growing with us on our Teaching Farm.
• Donate to help us end hunger in our community.  We feed, teach, and grow to overcome the root causes of hunger: the barriers  of lack of access and lack of sufficient income to purchase enough healthy food.
  • Your donation helps support local initiatives to make sure all members in our community have the employment and job skills to earn a living wage through our culinary, young farmer, and urban agriculture job training programs.
• Contact your representative
  • Help end hunger in America by contacting your House and Senate Representatives.  Urge them to protect and strengthen SNAP and other nutrition safety net programs and oppose any proposals to weaken them. Congress must ensure that Americans who have fallen on hard times have the resources they need to put food on the table for their families. 
  • Call the A Place at the Table hotline at 1(855)-48TABLE to be connected to your members of Congress:
    • Talking Points:
      • As a constituent, I urge you to protect and strengthen funding for SNAP and other nutrition safety net programs as you work to reauthorize the Farm Bill and address deficit reduction

• Congress must ensure that Americans who have fallen on hard times have the resources they need to put food on the table for their families.

More information here: http://actioncenter.takepart.com/apatt/actions/nationalaction/support-america-39-s-anti-hunger-programs

Expansion of Mobile Markets begins with Hoke Street

In just two hours, several hundred people stocked up on free fresh produce and other nutritious food as part of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s new expansion of Mobile Markets. The market took place at the IFFS’s Hoke Street Training Center in Southeast Raleigh, and is the first of several new Mobile Markets rolling out in low income neighborhoods over the next few months.

Hosted in partnership with Passage Home and St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, the Hoke Street Mobile Market served 193 households and 664 individuals. The effort included “Sick or Shut-In” boxes of food for 87 people.  Volunteers from St. Ambrose Episcopal Church packed the boxes on-site and delivered to folks who have limited mobility and could not make it to the market.

This is the first of several  new mobile markets Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is opening this year in Raleigh, Durham,  Zebulon, and Fuquay Varina to get good food directly to our neighbors in need.

What is a Mobile Market?

Mobile Markets are direct distributions of groceries and fresh produce in low income neighborhoods, designed to meet people at their point of need. We bring a refrigerated truck full of food, often including fresh produced gleaned from a local farm the day before (look at those leafy greens to the right!), to a community center, church, or health clinic, where we set up a temporary market. Then folks who need food can come “shop” for free! Each person can choose which foods they would like so they can take home food that they and their families enjoy.

Mobile Markets are efficient and cost effective.  Because  they do not require a permanent building or permanent staff, location set-up  is flexible  and  hours  can shift to weekends and evenings when people who are working are more able to access them.

Many of our Mobile Markets also include “Food Matters” nutrition lessons and cooking demonstrations to help families learn how to prepare the fresh produce they receive in healthful, safe, and tasty ways.  It’s all part of  building hunger-free communities where all members have  access to enough nutritious food for a healthy and active life, as well as the knowledge and skills to utilize it!

Most importantly, Mobile Markets aren’t just about providing access, but celebrating nutritious food and community!