Mozzarella. Sarsaparilla. Matelote. Ingredients for CookShop’s weirdest new recipe? Think consonants, not comestibles — these food words and many more were on the menu for some of America’s brightest youth at the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee this year.
Eater.com picked their favorite word from the Spelling Bee list, and we’d have to agree: Borborygmus, "the gurgling, rumbling or growling noise from the abdomen caused by the muscular contractions of peristalsis, the process that moves the contents of the stomach and intestines downward," a.k.a. tummy grumbling. To battle the borby… blorbo… borgyb… the tummy grumbles, why not whip up one of the delicious and easy-to-prepare snack recipes, like Apple Dippers, that students learn in CookShop, our nutrition education program?
Students in CookShop don’t just learn new recipes for healthy, affordable foods — they also learn things like the science behind what makes certain foods healthy, the math that goes into measuring out a recipe and a whole host of new vocabulary words to describe their food experiences.
You can learn new food words too! Check out the official Scripps list of food words from this year’s National Spelling Bee. Oh, and let us know if that Mozzarella Sarsaparilla Matelote soufflé is easier to make than it is to spell.
Apple Dippers
Ingredients:
5 Granny Smith apples
5 Macintosh apples
1 (32 ounce) container of low fat vanilla yogurt
2 Tablespoons of honey
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
Instructions:
Wash apples.
Use apple corer to remove seeds and cut apples into 8 pieces.
Add container of vanilla yogurt to a medium mixing bowl.
Measure and add honey and cinnamon to yogurt in medium mixing bowl.
During the hot summer, cooking over a hot stove may not seem appealing. Many people may be tempted to stay out of the kitchen altogether and turn to easy alternatives, like pizza, fast food or ice cream.
But there’s a better way to beat the heat and still eat a healthy, satisfying, affordable meal or snack: just be prepared with an inventory of healthy, cold food options. Through CookShop, the Food Bank’s nutrition education program for public elementary school students, parents and caregivers, and teens, participants learn to prepare a whole host of heat-free recipes that are nutritious and delicious, like this Rainbow Salsa. Enjoy!
Rainbow Salsa (Serves 8 to 10 people)
Ingredients:
2 15-ounce cans black beans
2 15-ounce cans corn*
1 15-ounce can sliced peaches in 100% juice*
2 tomatoes*
1 Granny Smith apple*
1/4 cup red onion*
1 lime
1/4 cup cilantro
2 cloves fresh garlic*
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 bag whole grain tortilla chips
*Here’s a tip: Chill the salsa in the fridge before eating to make it even more refreshing. And since tomatoes, peaches and corn are currently in season, try getting these at your local farmers market and preparing the recipe using fresh ingredients instead of canned!
Instructions:
Wash apple and all vegetables.
Cut onion in half and remove skin. Cut into small pieces.
Remove skin from garlic cloves. Cut into small pieces.
Cut tomatoes into small pieces.
Use knife or apple corer to remove seeds and cut apple into small pieces.
Place beans and corn into a large mixing bowl.
Cut lime in half. Squeeze juice from lime onto bean and corn mixture in large mixing bowl.
Open can of sliced peaches. Drain excess juice. Cut sliced peaches into small pieces.
Cut cilantro into very small pieces.
Measure and add onion, cilantro, salt and black pepper to bean and corn mixture in large mixing bowl.
Add apple, peaches and garlic to bean and corn mixture in large mixing bowl.
Stir to combine ingredients.
Serve with whole grain tortilla chips. Enjoy!
p.s. Rainbow Salsa and Broccoli & Cauliflower Quesadillas are just the first of many recipes that the Food Bank will post on Bank on It! Check out the new Recipe category in the Archives menu to your right — and subscribe to our blog today to make sure you don’t miss any great recipes!
How’s that New Year’s Resolution going? It’s July now, meaning we are halfway through 2010. Have you made good on anything you vowed to do more of (or less of) in 2010? At the beginning of 2010, we talked to a few of our staff members about their New Year’s resolutions. Now we want to help you reach your goals. In the hopes that come December you will have made good on one of those resolutions, we’ve gathered a few helpful ways to make a change in your life and the lives of your fellow New Yorkers based on popular resolutions:
Get Fit: After you’ve done your best to Change One Thing, you may be looking to add a bit more exercise to your routine. Perfect! We’ve got stairs, we’ve got lifting, constant motion and a bit of walking when you sign up to volunteer at our Community Kitchen & Food Pantry of West Harlem. Or grab a group from work and head up to our Bronx warehouse to repack donated bulk items. Either way, you’ll be moving and burning calories and helping the 1 in 5 New Yorkers who rely on the Food Bank.
Spend More Time with Family: It’s hard to juggle work, school, family and friends all at once, there’s no question about it. Maybe this year you’ve resolved to spend a little more face time with the ones you love. Spending a couple hours a month helping our programs on the front lines of poverty puts life into perspective for many of our volunteers. It also gives you a chance to team up with your fellow volunteers! The Food Bank has more than 1,000 network members throughout the five boroughs that can always use volunteers. Check out our Food Program Locator for a program near you and resolve, with your loved ones, to give back to your community.
Quit ----- [insert vice]: Say your vice costs about $10 a week to maintain. Or say you spend $50 a week sipping away at another vice. Here’s what the cost of that vice means to the Food Bank: $10/wk = 200 meals a month. $50/wk = 1,000 meals. Having trouble quitting? Donate a month’s worth of your vices as a commitment to help yourself, and help others. Keep your donation receipt near you to remind yourself that not only are you working hard to follow your resolution, you’ve also helped us provide much needed meals to New Yorkers in need.
Eat More Vegetables: Lead by example on this one. Sign up to volunteer for one of our CookShop programs. It will be nigh impossible to NOT eat healthy with all the excitement from the students, the inspiring teachers and the lush fruits, vegetables and legumes in each lesson. CookShop is in more than 700 public school and after school classrooms, and during the school year teachers need our help! The Food Bank trains volunteers to go into the classrooms and support nutrition education.
Stick to Your Budget: Plan ahead! Instead of a yearly donation, why don’t you set up automatic monthly donations? Just make a donation online and check the box that says "Yes, automatically repeat this gift every month." Then, donating to the Food Bank doesn’t have to go on your to do list each holiday season! A successful budget is one that prepares for everything! Like your tickets to the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival, benefitting the Food Bank and Share Our Strength...
Remember: “The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short.” Samuel Johnson
Recently, I’ve met a number of college students who are relying on food stamps in order to make ends meet and I've put a lot of thought into the connection between being able to eat and being able to learn. Many students qualify for participation in the Food Stamp Program (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP). When I think of food assistance, my first thought is not college students, but the truth is, if you are hungry, you can’t learn.
I recently learned more about college students relying on food stamps when I met Carlotta — a NYC student living in Brooklyn who has graciously allowed us into her experience as a food stamp recipient. Here is a short interview:
How did you come to apply for food stamps?
I was working as a massage therapist and going back to school. My schedule varied tremendously and sometimes I would have zero massages, which meant I earned no money. My friends and roommates told me about the program. After I heard more about a friend going through the process, I decided to contact the Food Bank for some help, and they took me through the pre-screening process.
I was surprised that I qualified for food stamps as a student, but hearing it was an easy process convinced me to apply. Having the extra help each month relieved my anxiety about affording food.
How long does your allotment last during the month, and what do you do when it runs out?
From the beginning, I tried stretching my allotment through the first three weeks. Then I’d have enough money to pay for food when it ran out. I was living pretty poorly before so I was already used to being careful with my money.
Do you know of other students who would qualify for food stamps who are not taking advantage of the program? Yes, many of us in my program are making less than $1,100 a month. I’m sure many of them qualify and aren’t in the program.
If you struggle to afford food, food stamps may be just the thing to make ends meet. Our food stamp information call center (212.894.8060) is available throughout the work week, providing regular access to food stamp specialists who can conduct pre-screenings and answer questions. Call us today! For more information about in-person assistance and food stamp FAQs, visit our Get Food Stamps Now page.
Last week my nephew completed kindergarten, and began his summer vacation along with all the other children in the New York City public school system. It was an exciting week for sure, but also the week that hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren lost access to free and low-cost school breakfast and lunch. Instead of wondering which camp or summer activities their children should partake in, many of these families will have to worry about having enough food to eat during the summer.
As an aunt, I am very involved in my nephew’s life. Playing an integral role in a child’s development underscores the importance of alleviating harsh realities like child hunger. This reality makes my role as the Food Bank’s Community Outreach Manager so important: I advocate for better access to federal Child Nutrition Programs like the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP, or Summer Meals).
Recognizing that more children rely on emergency food during the summer, we work with the NYC Department of Education to recruit members of our citywide network of soup kitchens and food pantries to help provide summer meals at their sites. The Food Bank will support these sites by assisting with community outreach, developing activities to promote participation and providing additional program support. Our goal is to ensure that as many children as possible receive free summer meals, which are also available at schools, parks, libraries, pools and other sites across the city.
My hope is that, with support from the Food Bank and SFSP, New York City children will only have to think about where they want to play this summer, and not where their next meal may come from.
As today is the last day of public school in New York City, it is a perfect time to reflect on an exciting year of CookShop, the Food Bank’s nutrition education program. Our workshops for children, teens and adults reached more than 15,000 people in all five boroughs, including students in more than 700 public elementary school classrooms.
Last year, in a survey of participating teachers, more than 97 percent reported their students more likely to try a new healthy food because of CookShop, while 96 percent reported their students want to eat healthier and 92 percent said their students are making healthier food choices because of CookShop.
This year, participating principals sent letters describing their CookShop success stories, and we were thrilled to hear their rave reviews. We’re especially excited that so many people involved with CookShop will continue cooking and eating fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains at home. Here are a few of their stories:
“CookShop became a catch phrase in our building, and the amount of enthusiasm it built among our teachers and students was amazing. The children in grades pre-K to second and in our special needs class learn to make healthy, nutritious recipes that they eagerly share with their parents at home. CookShop’s lessons have students readily eating vegetables in our cafeteria that my nutritionist and our parents have told me they were not eating before. It provides a bonding experience, a motivational tool and a new way of talking about food and nutrition for our teachers, our parents and our students.
“CookShop is an essential weapon in our healthy-living, healthy-eating fight to change the obesity rates in our school and in our neighborhood.” —Harold Anderson, Principal, C.S. 21 – Crisups Attucks Elementary School
“Our cook tastes the recipes and is going to start serving [CookShop] dishes at lunch time. This program has not only taught our community about healthy eating, but it has brought our community together.…Parents are volunteering in the classroom and cooking with the staff.” —Carin Ellis, Principal, P.S. 212 Queens – School of CyberScience and Literacy
“The teachers and students love the program. I just walked into a bilingual classroom and it was the first time they have seen cauliflower and collard greens. They were amazed with the texture.” —Melissa Acevedo-Lamarca, Assistant Principal, P.S. 19 Queens
“This is the first year my school is participating in the program and we LOVE IT!!! My little kindergarten, first and second grade students enjoy Fridays when their teachers do the CookShop lessons. I often have a little visitor coming to give me a small sample of what they made in class. My kids are always eager to explain what they made and how they did it.” —Vanessa Christenses, Assistant Principal, P.S. 48 Queens – The William Wordsworth School
“This Thanksgiving my family had a potluck and we all had to bring something. My sister, who teaches second grade at a school in the Bronx, surprised us with the three-bean salsa, which she too learned to make in CookShop at her school. This was full circle for me…CookShop is touching the lives of so many near and far. It makes me smile every time I think of my sister serving a CookShop dish at Thanksgiving because she knows we all need to eat healthier.” —Dora Danner, Assistant Principal, P.S. 17 – The Henry David Thoreau School
As improving child nutrition becomes a national priority, the Food Bank is proud of CookShop’s success in moving children and families toward a healthier lifestyle — and is working to bring the program to more communities in need.
Katherine Mancera is the Food Bank's Public Education Associate. For more information on our CookShop program go to www.foodbanknyc.or/go/CookShop, or watch our CookShop video below:
From top: Alberta, a soup kitchen client and member of St. Ann's congregation; St. Ann's board member Virginia Potter catching up with congregation member Florence Taylor during soup kitchen service; Cynthia Black, a cook at St. Ann's soup kitchen; photos courtesy of Scott Waddell
St. Ann’s operates a food pantry and soup kitchen, as well as after-school and summer programs for children, which incorporate nutrition education along with field trips, healthy snacks and exploration of the church’s vegetable garden. Cynthia, who cooks at the soup kitchen, moved to New York from the West Indies and has been a member of the St. Ann’s congregation for 20 years. “We are a family,” she says, and many members of the church both volunteer and rely on the church’s services. Alberta, a senior living on social security, first came to St. Ann’s for the food pantry and has joined the community. “I get food stamps now, so I don’t need the pantry as much, but I feel right at home here,” she says.
St. Ann’s is led by the Rev. Martha Overall, an ardent and compassionate leader in the fight against hunger. Author and educator Jonathan Kozol has chronicled her work, and Bernice King, who helps run the kitchen and after-school meal program at St. Ann’s, says, “She makes sure that we can feed everyone nutritious food…and she cares.”
Bernice is proud that St. Ann’s is helping meet the needs of its neighbors. “Whatever we have to do, we’ll do,” she says. “We have a lot of seniors who come to us, and they’re ashamed. They’ve worked their whole lives, and they don’t want to take help. But [they find] a community here.”
Originally featured in Food for Thought Spring 2010, the Food Bank's print newsletter.
Walking through the market can be described only as an amazing tour of seafood from the eastern seaboard, and the world. There are common varieties such as herring, flounder and striped bass that are plentiful. But less-known varieties such as Spanish mackerel, sturgeon and cuttlefish are also in regular supply.
The health benefits of eating fresh seafood are well documented. Fresh seafood is nutrient-rich and provides a high-quality source of protein in the diet. Since fish is naturally low in fat but rich in omega-3 fatty acids or heart healthy fats, the American Heart Association recommends eating at least two servings of seafood per week. All of the seafood wholesalers at the New Fulton Fish Market, especially Blue Ribbon Fish Company, Carl’s Seafood, GC Dino’s Seafood, Fair Fish Company and Joe Monani Fish Company help the Food Bank distribute their donations directly to members of our food assistance network — helping to ensure that New Yorkers in need are able to enjoy both the taste and health benefits of fresh seafood.
Next time you eat seafood, remember the market and all that they do to help hungry New Yorkers — because, with millions of pounds of fresh seafood moving through the market every day, there is a very good chance the seafood you‘re eating came from the New Fulton Fish Market. Thank you to the wholesalers and the New Fulton Fish Market for providing a wonderful source of seafood to our network!
Of course, no matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow, and I hope that in time we will begin to see signs of relief after such a long and brutal economic storm. For now, however, there is still a real and immediate need that must be met. The troubled economy has tried everyone’s resilience — from the city’s poorest, who have struggled with adversity and found themselves fighting even harder to survive, to the newly unemployed, who have turned to food stamps and food pantries for the first time.
I have worked with the Food Bank for more than 20 years to make sure that each of those individuals finds help when he or she needs it. Together, the Food Bank, our network and our supporters like you have worked hard to keep New Yorkers from falling through the cracks — New Yorkers like Alberta, a mother and retiree who came to St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in the Bronx for emergency food and stayed to become a member of a community that supports and looks out for her. Or the many working families and individuals who turned to the Food Bank’s Tax Assistance Program this year — a simple initiative that brings millions of dollars in federal tax refunds into our city.
Your support and dedication help keep programs like these fully funded. The Food Bank is there for New Yorkers in need, and I am grateful to you for standing beside us.
It is very important to the Food Bank For New York City that all of the food we receive makes it to a New Yorker who needs it. While this is a bit of a no-brainer, making sure it happens can be more difficult than you might expect.
At times, food assistance programs can be wary of ordering certain products that they are not sure how to cook with, or if the ethnic community they serve won’t be familiar or know what to do with it.
Knowing this, our Community Nutritionist works to build awareness in our network for the benefits and potential use of different products. For just one example, here is a piece our nutritionist wrote about peanut butter for one of our Agency E-Newsletters:
While most people think of peanut butter as an American food mostly eaten by children, the origin and use of peanuts in cooking can be traced back to countries around the world and dates back as early as prehistoric times. Currently, the United States produces about 7 percent of world's peanuts, with China, India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sudan, Senegal, Argentina and Vietnam also making significant contributions.
Peanuts are a highly nutritious source of plant protein, with each tablespoon serving acting as a replacement for one ounce of protein recommended in the diet. While peanuts are high in fat, they contain unsaturated fats, which provide benefits for heart health. Peanuts have also been found to be a good source of antioxidants and reservatrol, which is known for its cancer-fighting, anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties.
While peanuts are commonly eaten in whole form as snacks, peanut butter has become a popular ingredient in various types of Asian cooking as well as being used in soups, sauces, casseroles and baking.
And, to further help things along, we provided a list of healthy Peanut Butter Recipes — enjoy!
delicious and easy-to-prepare snack recipes, like Apple Dippers, that students learn in CookShop, our nutrition education program?
But there’s a better way to beat the heat and still eat a healthy, satisfying, affordable meal or snack: just be prepared with an inventory of healthy, cold food options. Through 
