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Education Committee & F.E.A.S.T.

Making a Difference for local Schools, Food Pantries, and Kitchens
Slow Food Asheville is a 501c3 tax exempt organization.
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See the pictures from the Eat-In

FEAST - fresh, easy, affordable, sustainable, tasty

Report from F.E.A.S.T.

May 2010 - FEAST has wrapped up the classes with the I Have a Dream after school program this year.  We completed our 4 remaining classes this spring making left over Easter egg salad, veggie stuffed baked potato skins, taco salad with a cilantro vinaigrette and pasta topped with fresh veggies and herbs.  Thank you to Alice Helms and Jamie W for volunteering your time and assisting the kids while they created delicious meals.  The kids really enjoyed cooking this spring and are looking forward to our summer program.  We currently have morning classes scheduled for July 19, 20 and 21 and are hoping to add 2 weeks of FEAST classes before school starts.

FEAST classes at Asheville Middle School have also come to an end.  April was a day of salad making, once they realized we would have no ranch dressing they had a good time creating their own vinaigrette.  Our last class was in May making fresh salsa and home made tortillas for a Cinco de Mayo celebration.  We had a lot of positive feedback about our first year of FEAST classes at AMS and are now working on finding funding for continued classes along with an afterschool cooking program in the 2010 - 2011 school year.

FEAST classes will continue at the Burton Street Community Center and Shiloh Community Center through the end of the school year.
Please contact Kate Justen at feast.avl@gmail..com or 828-242-5919 for more information on FEAST classes, to volunteer or to donate.

March 2010 - This winter was a slow time for fresh food here in Western North Carolina, but we managed to put together some great recipes with the students at Asheville Middle School.  Following the pie fundraiser we had a lot of left over pumpkin so we used that to make pumpkin chili and curried apple and pumpkin soup.  The following month we made egg salad and whole wheat rolls.  Each group decided what vegetables, herbs and spices to use for their egg salad.  I believe there were about 40 unique varieties and they loved trying them all on fresh baked rolls.  We then moved on to muffins which incorporated dried fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sausage and cheese. This month we explored the world outside of pepperoni pizzas.  Again each group or individual made their own pizzas by choosing their bread, making sauce and deciding on vegetable toppings.  We look forward to our spring classes and hope to continue the program next year.

In February weekly FEAST classes began at the Burton Street Community Center in West Asheville through the 21st Century Community Learning Center.  These classes will continue until the end of the school year.  Each week we prepare a healthy snack or a meal that is suitable for a sixth grader to make at home.  Students are able to bring food home to share with their families and have input on the recipe for each week as long as we put fruits or vegetables in them. 

November 2009 - November was a very busy month for FEAST.  We held 3 classes with the I Have a Dream afterschool program at Pisgah View.  For the first class we wanted to focus on knife safety so we baked sweet potato fries and eggplant fries.  The kids did a great job. They followed safety rules, and many of them took sweet potatoes and eggplant home to cook with their families.  The next week we continued knife safety and talked about combining ingredients while we made fresh salsa.  Our last class of the month was Thanksgiving week.  Each child put together an apple crisp desert to take home for their Thanksgiving dinner.  We had a couple parent volunteers join us as well as the fantastic I Have a Dream staff. 

Asheville Middle School did an apple and pumpkin pie fundraiser just in time for Thanksgiving.  The students learned to make pie the old fashioned way with basic kitchen tools.  They made pie crust from scratch, roasted, peeled and mashed pumpkins, peeled cored and cut apples.  25 of each pie were made and sold to raise money for an herb garden and orchard at the school.  About 70 students participated throughout the day.

If you would like to get involved volunteering with FEAST by procuring and gathering donated food or by helping with classes please contact Program Coordinator Kate Justen feast.avl@gmail.com. Or if you would like to donate to the FEAST program please click on the donate button at slowfoodasheville.org

Special thanks to everyone who donated to the Apple and Pumpkin Pie fundraiser. 

On September 24, 2009 the first FEAST(fresh, easy, affordable, sustainable, tasty) were held at Asheville Middle School.  It was an all day event.  We worked with two 7th grade classes, two 8th grade classes and the FEAST cooking club.  This was a total of 72 students.  We spent the day  preparing fresh salsa and home made tortillas.  Produce was donated from Flying Cloud Farm and Pisgah View Peace Garden.  We were able to use the amazing cookware donated to the program from Anolon.  Many of the students had not cut a fresh tomato before and had only eaten store bought salsa.  We discussed the different ways to cut the vegetables, how to seed a tomato, how to use a garlic press, how to safely cut a hot pepper and proper knife safety.  The taste testing part of the class was the most fun to watch.  One girl HATES tomatoes and did not want to try the salsa but with a positive case of peer presure she decided to go for it.  She closed her eyes, opened her mouth and dropped a salsa loaded home made tortilla into her mouth.  She ended up coming back for seconds. 
50 students stated they would make this at home and 8 said maybe they would prepare this at home.  Even the students who said they would not prepare this at home stated they liked cooking and enjoyed the food.  We hope by the end of the year their confidence will do up and they will want to prepare food at home.  Our next round of classes are scheduled for October 15th.

Kate Justen - FEAST - Fresh Easy Affordable Sustainable Tasty 828-242-5919

July 2009
FEAST held its first classes using the Weed and Seed grant we were awarded for the “I Have a Dream” program. The classes were held on July 20, 21 & 22, there were between 25 – 30 kids there each day.  With the help of our volunteers, Cathy Hohenstein, Jennie Ashlock, Jenni Park, and Nina Lantis we were able to give specific instruction on using knives, graters and peelers as well as cooking on the stove and in the oven.  The kids loved cooking and many of them tried new foods; beets, squash and radishes to name a few.  All the produce we used was from the Pisgah View Peace Garden.  Greg and Bob of Pisgah View Peace Garden invited us to have one of the classes in the garden. The kids harvested and washed the vegetables as well as prepared coleslaw and rice salad to go with their lunch.  We am looking forward to the after school program this fall.  If you are interested in more information or volunteering please email me, Kate Justen at feast.avl@gmail.com

Anolon Offers Cookware and Kitchen Tools to Chapter Projects
Slow Food USA is delighted to share some great news with our chapters
regarding our corporate partner, Anolon, which has been our official
kitchen and cookware sponsor for more than a year, including their
support of the inaugural Slow Food Nation event last Labor Day
weekend. In addition to their financial support of Slow Food USA,
Anolon is also pleased to be able to offer cookware, tools and other
kitchen gadgetry to chapters that are hosting cooking events and
garden-to-table projects as a component of their chapter activities.

We are happy to announce that Anolon has already agreed to make a
substantial in-kind product donation to Slow Food Asheville, which is
leading a cooking program called FEAST (Fresh, Easy, Affordable,
Sustainable and Tasty!), geared towards low-income students and their
families. Before, the Asheville chapter was relying on second-hand,
battered and borrowed cookware and tools to make these classes a
reality.  They now have a bounty of high-quality kitchen supplies from
Anolon. The FEAST program is sure to turn up the heat in the kitchen
this summer and autumn.

On July 19th we held an event to raise awareness and funds to support the Pisgah View Peace Garden. With your support we raised over $1,000 for helping to purchase tools and supplies for this wonderful project. Additionally we are holding cooking classes for kids and by clicking here you can see the pictures of the many wonderful kids and adults participating inthese classes.

Education Committee Report

Contribute your recipes to the Education Committee We are looking for recipes to use in our cooking classes. We would love to have your tried and true recipe that uses lots of seasonal produce and is something that most kids would like to eat. For example, spring minestrone soup with spinach, carrots, potatoes, swiss chard and leeks. The kids in our classes love chopping and grating veggies - so the more veggies the better! Please email recipes to cathycleary@gmail.com along with any tips or stories you might have. Who knows? We might want to make a cookbook someday and give you credit for your wonderful recipe!  

Consider donating to the Slow Food Asheville Education Committee The education committee is doing great things!  We are working on a program we call FEAST (fresh, easy, affordable, sustainable, tasty). We are currently teaching cooking classes to the I Have a Dream after school program for 3-5th graders in the low income housing project, Pisgah View. We have a grant to continue these classes through the summer - using produce from their community garden. We are writing a grant for the fall to teach similar classes at Asheville Middle School, focusing on working with low income students. We are teaching cooking classes this summer for Big Brothers Big Sisters, and we are collaborating with Bountiful Cities Project to use produce from the Pearson Garden for these classes. We have also agreed to work with Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) to do cooking demos promoting the new EBT machines at the City Market. The grants that we have applied for all require that we raise matching funds. Please consider donating to the Slow Food Education committee so that we can continue this important work! Any amount you can contribute will help. Our average grocery bill for the classes we teach is $40 - so even $10 will make a big difference!

April 22nd - Slow Food Education Committee meeting notes

Cooking Classes with Big Brothers Big Sisters

We tentatively set classes for June 6th and June 20th to work with Big Brothers Big Sisters. We will teach FEAST cooking classes starting at 11am at Burton Street Community Center – Cathy will check on the size of the kitchen and decide how many participants we can have in the
classes. J will check on availability of the space.

The classes will include the bigs and the littles so we will only need a couple of volunteers to teach the classes. If the response is good we will set more classes for later in the summer and into the fall of next year. Big Bro’s Big Sis will be able to provide us with enough money to buy the groceries for these classes. We will also contact Bountiful Cities Project to see if they can donate produce from the Pearson Garden for these classes.

Cooking Demo at the City Market

Ashley, Glenn and Jen have volunteered to do a cooking demonstration at the City Market and help promote FEAST classes. The Demo will be on Saturday Aug. 22nd. Please come down and support them if you can. If you are interested in doing a demo on another Saturday we may still have time to sign up for another date. Let Cathy know if you are interested.

Cooking Kits/Spice kits

We have been borrowing our cooking kits from ASAP. It would be helpful and convenient to have our own. Cathy will contact ASAP to find out what items they stocked their kits with so we can start to solicit donations for ours. Most people probably have an extra mixing bowl or vegetable peeler that they wouldn’t mind parting with - for this very good cause. Also we are trying to put together a small spice kit to take to classes. If you happen to have kitchen utensils or spices (preferably not too old) that you think would be useful please contact Cathy – cathycleary@gmail.com

Brochure

We would like to start putting together a brochure about FEAST classes and the Education committee. Does anyone have the expertise – graphic design type experience to do this? Please contact Cathy if you are interested in working on this project. cathycleary@gmail.com

Recipe Contributions

We are looking for recipes to use in our cooking classes. We would love to have your tried and true recipe that uses lots of seasonal produce and is something that most kids would like to eat. For example, spring minestrone soup with spinach, carrots, potatoes, swiss chard and leeks. The kids in our classes love chopping and grating veggies - so the more veggies the better! Please email recipes to cathycleary@gmail.com along with any tips or stories you might have. Who knows? We might want to make a cookbook someday and give you credit for your wonderful recipe!

UNCA Student Interships /Service Learning

Next semester we will be working with the Food Cluster at UNCA. The students in this cluster are required to do service learning volunteer work. Usually at least 2-3 hours. There are a lot of students involved in this program and the program coordinators are excited to be working with us. The students will be a great resource for us to help teach classes and it will also be a great way for Slow Food to connect with the University community.

Asheville City Schools Foundation Grant

Kate Justen and Cathy Cleary are working on a grant with Sara Monson from Asheville Middle School. Sara is the Life Skills teacher there as well as a trained Chef. They are hoping to secure funding for FEAST classes for the 2009-10 school year.

Phone #’s and Communication

If you are interested in volunteering to teach or help with any of our FEAST classes please email katejusten@hotmail.com with your phone number. We are trying to compile a phone list of interested folks because sometimes email just doesn’t work in time!!

March 16, 2009 - We got our first grant! Kate Justen applied for a Weed and Seed grant to teach cooking classes and we got news today that we will get $1000 towards teaching those classes! This is very exciting. Hats off to Kate for all the hard work and effort she put in to getting this grant. Cathy is going to follow up on the possiblity of getting more grant funding through the Asheville City Schools Foundation. The Education Committee will start teaching classes next week at Pisgah View in the I Have a Dream afterschool program. We'll have 30-40 kids for each class and for the first couple of classes we will make soups and breads. Kayren McKnight assistant principal of AC Renyolds high school will collaborate with Slow Food Education this summer. We are hoping to work with her to teach cooking classes with  summer school students who have passed all their classes, but have to be in summer school because they missed too many days during the school year. These students have to be in summer school - but there is nothing for them to do. A great opportunity for them to learn about FEAST (fresh, easy, affordable, sustainable, and tasty)!

March 5, 2009 - Slow Food Education Committee Report

The Education Committee is up and running! We started meeting in January and have already accomplished quite a bit. FEAST (fresh, easy, affordable, sustainable, tasty) is one of the programs we are designing – teaching students how to prepare good wholesome snacks and meals. We are collaborating with Pisgah View Peace gardens and will be teaching these cooking classes to kids in their after school program. We are collaborating with Bountiful Cities Project to help with their already established program in the Shiloh Community to prepare fresh healthy snacks with their afterschool program. We are hoping to offer some classes to adults through FEAST as well.

Kate Justen has applied for a grant through the Weed and Seed program to enable us to teach FEAST classes in the fall at local elementary schools.

We have several other organizations that have approached the Slow Food Education Committee about collaborating. Winter Green (a non-profit  organization growing fresh local food in the winter in hoophouses), and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Asheville are both interested in working with us to teach cooking classes.

This committee is excited about working to address issues of food security and, and issues related to the poor quality food available to low income communities.

If you are interested in getting involved in the education committee please email cathycleary@gmail.com. If you are specifically interested in volunteering to help teach a cooking class please email katejusten@hotmail.com

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