Things of My Very Own Org. These Christmas tree tags list something more important than the year’s hottest toy.
Posted by Diply on Monday, November 27, 2017
Join The Movement
Cafe Patachou Foundation Food Explorer’s Club
It’s Ok To Ask Questions: The Food Explorer’s Club by Robert Singer, Program Coordinator
An Article From The Cafe Patachou Foundation Website
I love to see the kids we serve make deep connections to the food they eat. Not only does it help them to create lifelong healthy habits, it encourages them to ask questions about the world around them. Last week, we served salads with crumbled falafel (ground chickpea patties) and locally sourced chicken during our after-school meals, and it had the students asking a lot of questions. One of our volunteers explained that falafel is Middle Eastern, and they discussed the various spices in the recipe. Then we chatted about the chicken, which was raised by a local farmer.
We strive to provide opportunities like these for kids to get curious and ask questions about where their food comes from and how it’s made.
That’s why we established our Food Explorers Club, a 10-week hands-on curriculum with a focus on experiential, interdisciplinary learning through growing, cooking, and trying new foods.
The Food Explorers curriculum is built on a series of standards we wrote with a team of trained educators. We teach students about nutrition, culinary skills and cooking, community, and the journey of food from farm to fork. These standards formed the basis of the Four Food Foundations:
Food is Fun
Food is from the Earth
Food is Fuel
Food is for Sharing
We recently applied two of these foundations, Food is Fun and Food is for Sharing while making guacamole as a group. We learned about the five different tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami) as we sampled each raw ingredient including tomatoes, avocados, and red onion. We then combined them all to make guacamole from scratch: a fun and messy project! It was a reminder that food is fun, even when we’re cleaning avocado off our shirts.
We hope that by giving students the opportunity to experience food in a variety of ways, we can create a positive impact on their choices as they grow older.
Helping Ninja Mission: No Kid Hungry
No Kid Hungry
Accept the Helping Ninja Mission: Learn about and send us a written blog post or picture describing what you have learned. Post on social media or send to us, and we will post it! Send to [email protected]! Tell us about what you have learned from the No Kid Hungry Org Website! Go here to learn more www.nokidhungry.org
1 in 6 U.S. Kids Don’t Get the Food They Need
The following information came from the No Kid Hungry Organization Website:
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3 out of 4 teachers say their students regularly come to school hungry.
Childhood Food Insecurity
The facts and information came directly from No Kid Hungry Organization’s Website. To read more visit: www.nokidhungry.org
48.8 million Americans—including 13 million children— live in households that lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis. As a result, they struggle with hunger at some time during the year.
Childhood Food Insecurity.
What does this mean? Childhood food insecurity is the percentage of children under eighteen years old living in households that experience limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods at some point during the year.
Food-Insecure Families Food insecurity—the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food— exists in 17.2 million households in America, 3.9 million of them with children.
Rates of food insecurity are substantially higher than the national average among households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line, among households with children headed by single parents (35.1% of female-headed households with children are food-insecure) and among Black and Hispanic households.
Food insecurity is most common in large cities but still exists in rural areas, suburbs and other outlying areas around large cities
25 % of households with children living in large cities are food-insecure.
The typical (median) food-secure household spent 27 percent more for food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and composition.
59% of food-insecure households reported that in the previous month they had participated in one or more of the three largest federal food and nutrition assistance programs: SNAP (formerly food stamps), School Lunch and WIC.
Helping Ninja Mission
Accept the Ninja Mission: Learn about The Cafe Patachou Foundation
The Goal of the Patachou Foundation is to prepare and serve healthy meals to children impacted by homelessness and hunger and increase their awareness, connection and excitement about the whole food they are eating. Read more about the foundation here…http://thepatachoufoundation.org
Helping Ninja Mission: Donate a Book to Little Free Library
November 8, 2017
Hi I am a Helping Ninja! My brother and me went with my mom to donate books. It was just a little box that is a library that people can just take home. This Little Library Box was at Cool Creek Park. We put about 16 of our old books in there. It is a free library for people who can’t buy books. Please help us fill all the library boxes.
Helping Ninja, Age 5, Pre-School, Carmel, IN
To learn more you or find a Little Free Library near you, click here to see their map: littlefreelibrary.org
Sprouts Pay It Forward
November 26th, 2017
The Helping Ninjas absolutely loves what Sprouts Cooking School for children did to give back during Thanksgiving! An inspiration to us all! Learning to cook is such as great skill we all need to help teach our children, but learning to give back and how you can help —is even that much more important! Kuddos Sprouts! To learn more about Sprouts Cooking School visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sproutscookingschool
Our first Sprouts Pays it Forward event was a HUGE success! This charity idea was something I had in my heart for some time. I wanted kids to be able to feel the power of giving back through their cooking. As you all know, I am also a big believer in getting families together in the kitchen. So tonight we had 9 families that made 9 full Thanksgiving dinners for families in need. Good Samaritan Network of Hamilton County
*I’m going to go ahead and add tonight to the many things I am thankful for this year. 
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🦃 #sproutspaysitforward#throwkindnessaroundlikeconfetti #happythanksgiving #kidshelpingkids#familieshelpingfamilies
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https://www.facebook.com/sproutscookingschool/videos/1551213291638709/
Composting Is Cool
November 15th, 2017
A composting experiment. One jar has food scraps, soil, worm compost, hay, and compostable cardboard and fabric. The other jar has all the same plus trash. The jar with the compost needs to have air. The landfill jar with the trash will keep a lid on it because land fills do not have air. We will watch the jars and see what they do! Stay tuned!
A Helping Ninja Mom, Carmel, IN
Compost Party
November 17, 2017
Hi I am a Helping Ninja and we had a Helping Ninja Party to celebrate National America Recycles Day. I learned about recycling and composting. Composting is kind of cool. There was an experiment. One jar is a compost, the other will be like a landfill. I can’t wait to watch and see what it does. I am glad I came to the party because I didn’t know about this ever before.
Helping Ninja, Age 10, 4th Grade, College Wood Elementary
Compost In A Jar
November 15, 2017
Hi I am a Helping Ninja. Today we had a composting party. We learned about what composting is. And I knowI have a choice to not throw things in the garbage. And now I have my own compost in a jar.
Helping Ninja, Age 8, First Grade, Indiana Montessori Academy
