Green Food Solutions

Hello friends!

This summer I am involved in an exciting new project: Summer of Solutions (SoS). SoS is a national program that reaches 12 cities across the country, and this is Fayetteville's first year. We envision a sustainable and accessible community food system that increases awareness and consequently creates a higher demand for locally produced, healthy food.

Through Summer of Solutions (SoS), it is my mission to create my own sustainable, green job. By sustainable, I mean to foster a program that will survive my personal absence. By green, I mean to benefit the environment and individuals who face social injustice. After five days of training through SoS, I realize the attainability of such a job by employing my passions and developing clear goals. I have decided to focus on my love of food and my instinctive style of cooking. With these ideas, I began to envision the foundation of a separate, year-round organization that concentrates on food and youth education. Hence Green Food Solutions was born.

Green Food Solutions (GFS) operates through a non-profit organization and envisions a community that values food and its quality. I developed GFS on six basic principles:

1. Families should feel comfortable with buying, cooking, and eating local/organic foods.
2. Kids should be trained how to cook with such foods.
3. Food should be prepared in a way that make it satisfying and enjoyable.
4. People should feel compelled and comfortable to grow their own food.
5. Adults and youth alike should know why it is both fun and important to cook healthily.
6. One's economic status should not interfere with the above statements.

At first, I wanted to offer cooking classes to kids ages 6-11. With time, however, I realized the benefit of including parents; after all, they ultimately decide what their children eat. Furthermore, including parents would create a mutually-beneficial relationship in which each generation encourages the other to accomplish their common goal -- eat more healthily.

Now, healthy is a vague word. I realize that. I am not personally advocating excessive exercise or the next new pill. I am encouraging consumption of local foods while in season. Such foods have higher nutritional contents than their corn-filled counterparts in grocery stores. Fewer food miles (the distance food travels between harvest and consumption) signify smaller costs and more nutrition. Furthermore, buying locally supports your neighbors and friends, and your money has a higher chance of being returned to you.

Because I don't yet have access to a certified kitchen, I am brainstorming new ideas to spread the word. I've emailed our Community Access Television program about airing a cooking show; hopefully I will hear from them soon.

Thank you for your support. More to come soon!