- Author: Rachel A. Surls
The Baldwin Park Community Garden sits in the shadow of the San Bernardino Freeway in Eastern Los Angeles County. As the cars rush by, an effective and innovative community garden grows. A unique public-private partnership has made this garden possible to benefit the community and local children.
The garden, which is approximately a quarter acre in size, has both school and community plots. The land and financial support are provided by Kaiser Permanente. The City of Baldwin Park helps to maintain the garden. The Baldwin Park Unified School District uses the garden to engage fourth graders from four classrooms at two elementary schools in hands-on nutrition education through a project called “The Moveable Feast.”
The...
- Author: Penny Leff
You may have noticed changes lately in some little food stores tucked into your neighborhood strip mall or main street, stores with names like "Prime Time Nutrition" or "Fiesta Nutrition." These stores are now offering enticing displays of fresh fruits and vegetables along with the infant formula, breakfast cereal, eggs, cheese and other foods that have been offered to mothers, infants and children through the WIC program since 1972.
The UC Small Farm Program and Cooperative Extension advisors in three California counties are piloting a new "Farm to WIC Program" with the stores to make sure that some of the fresh produce on the shelves comes directly from small-scale local growers,...
- Author: Janet Byron
Senior citizens may have trouble eating and accessing healthy foods due to physiological changes in their gastrointestinal systems, physical problems that limit the ability to shop for and prepare food, or limited incomes that prevent the purchase of adequate and nutritious meals, according to Mary Blackburn, the nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Alameda County.
Blackburn and her colleagues shared these observations in an article in the current issue of California Agriculture journal titled "Research is...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
Mention that something is free and useful, and most of us will stop to take a look. And for good reason — the University of California has a number of websites that offer free information related to food.
Take your time to peruse the sites listed below. There is some fascinating and very handy information to be had. Many of these sites also offer terrific publications at nominal prices, but this blog lists only those that are free . . . and we all love a bargain! Many more publications and programs are available than those listed below.
After looking at these lists, you never know when you’ll be inspired to pickle some olives or field dress a deer. As for me, my latest food craze is cheese-making. Two weeks ago...
- Author: Brenda Roche
Sixth-grade students from Hamasaki Elementary School in Los Angeles were surprised to learn that they could actually see iron in their breakfast cereal through a simple experiment involving ground up cereal, water and magnets. These same students also found out that learning about science could be fun.
The students were taking part in a celebration of 4-H National Youth Science Day at UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County Sept. 24. LA County advisors and program coordinators teamed up to give the students the opportunity to learn about nutrition, physical activity and the environment through fun, interactive science-based activities. The students learned about the body’s need for iron in the diet, what types of foods...