In October 2015, UC CalFresh collaborated with healthy hub website, eatFresh.org, to host a Youth Video Cooking Challenge, inviting participants to make a short cooking video based on a recipe found on the eatFresh.org website. UC CalFresh received two entries, which are currently on the UCCE San Mateo San Francisco YouTube playlist and will be hosted on the eatFresh.org website as well. The two entrants (winners!), Ellie Grubb and Katerine Chung, will be given a cash prize as well as some assorted UC CalFresh Cookbooks, and a bag and apron from EatFresh.
     “Although we didn't get a huge amount of participation, I am very impressed with the submissions we did get and I look forward to leading similar competitions and challenges for youth in 2016!” commented 4-H Healthy Living Ambassador Program Coordinator, Phil Minnick.
     Adrienne Markworth, of San Francisco based nonprofit, Leah's pantry, whose mission is to develop nutrition programs and online tools such as eatFresh.org, was impressed by the two entries.
     “The videos were a terrific way to highlight youth, engage our kids, and to promote eatFresh.org,” commented Markworth.
     eatFresh.org is a website that takes the guesswork out of building tasty recipes on a budget. Recipes range from Herbed Potato Salad to Chinese Rice Soup, and can be easily customized to a variety of dietary preferences.
     “These entries are great examples of how eatFresh.org receipes are really easy to make... healthy food doesn't have to be expensive, or complicated. This challenge reinforced that healthy food isn't unapproachable and youth can take charge of their own health and health of their families,” noted Markworth.
     Winner Katerine Chung made a Spring Spread because “it had a lot of vegetables,and looked delicious and I thought it'll be good for kids/teens to learn it, since it's healthy, easy and convenient.” Chung, who learned how to cook at age 6, was inspired to enter the contest after listening to a presentation on nutritious eating in her health class at Galileo High School. Chung loves food and is the type of person who “loves to eat and create new recipes” and finds happiness in knowing that “whoever is eating the food is enjoying it as much as I enjoyed cooking it”.
According to Chung: “nutritious cooking/eating is important because it provides you with a healthier life and more food choices. It can also prevent you from having chronic diseases. Eating healthy and being active contributes to a healthy lifestyle.”
     Though she is not a part of a formal nutrition program, Chung ensures that she is honing her edible education by partnering with her cousin to make nutritious, delicious, and simple-to-make recipes at home.
Markworth concluded: “The videos are adorable. I get such a kick out of young people being so confident. This is exactly how kids should be and are such great examples to come out of the community. We at Leah's Pantry were just tickled by the whole thing.”

     Sue Garcia's resume could be made into a small book. Garcia, the 2015 4-H Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer, has dedicated 25 years of service to the 4-H Program and has served diverse roles including: Project Leader, Community Leader, County Council Representative, Secretary, Vice President, Chairperson- the list goes on. When she is not developing livestock proficiency tests on an Agricultural Steering Committee, or conducting awareness campaigns for 4-H clubs, Garcia is busy with other volunteer service such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night campaign and the Second Harvest Food Bank. Garcia is a true community leader.
     Garcia's commitment to 4-H service began when her daughter expressed interest in animal projects.
     “My daughter wanted to get a rabbit… we thought, hmmm we don't know anything about rabbits, but my sister was in 4-H and she raised a lamb, so we figured there has got to be something about rabbits. Our daughter was in 4-H and my husband and I supported her...we eventually became leaders, too, because you see the positive effects it has on your own kids.”
     Garcia initially volunteered to be a project leader for Beginning 4-H, a project introducing 5 - 8 year olds to the program and continued this program in conjunction with other leadership, foods, cavies, and goats. Within three years, Garcia assumed the role of the Club's Community Leader,during which she led a new outreach recruitment effort to attract families and children in the community.
     It is more than Garcia's altruism and dedication to 4-H that merited her as a stand-out candidate for the Lifetime Service Award; Garcia's nominator, Marilyn Johns, Emeritus Director and Adviser for 4-H Youth Development, Nutrition, Family, and Consumer Sciences, described her as “always professional” with a “calm demeanor and eloquence that invites support and diffuses tense situations”. Johns added: “She is fair and patient, and always models a positive attitude. Sue is well-liked and respected, evidenced by her continued election to leadership positions. She is one of those rare volunteer leaders who gets along well with everyone.”
     These twenty-five years of service have provided Garcia with constant gems of impact. As a trustee on the scholarship fund for continuing college 4-H students, Garcia is able to see how 4-H has supported young people in their higher education endeavors.
     Garcia highlighted the importance of these scholarships for both the students and in her personal community building: “The scholarships are a way to say we value you. The group of trustees have been on the board since ‘93- all of those years of dedication, supporting the kids...there are a lot of dedicated adults, and the friendships with people in the county: that is what has kept me involved.”
     It is Garcia's resilience and strength in navigating challenges that have proven her a key to the success of the 4-H problem. Many of the inter-organizational obstacles of 4-H arise from the lack of consistent staffing. For Garcia, it is a matter of ensuring that whoever is involved is upkeeping the values of the program amidst changes and/or cuts to staffing.
     “Ultimately what you want to get out of it is benefit the kids,” elaborated Garcia.
     Ingenuity, too, is what makes Garcia an outstanding leader. In the later 90's, early 2000's, San Mateo 4-H was threatened with the loss of funding. In response, Garcia led a grassroots campaign to support individuals in speaking at supervisor's meetings, writing letters, and sending postcards to all alumni and parents about the importance of funding the organization. Young 4-H members, clad in their uniforms, impressed audiences at meetings with their public-speaking skills cultivated from 4-H presentation training.
     Garcia attributes her success in anchoring the program to “being a consistent leader, someone who can step back and take a broader look at things, and look at the long term”.
     For other volunteers interested in wholeheartedly serving their communities as Garcia has done, Garcia offers this advice: “Take a deep breath and be adaptable to change because in any organization there is change. Look for the long term goals and see the value of the organization and always keep that in the center of your mind.

     The Spring 2016 4-H Healthy Living Ambassador Garden Training program is now accepting applications! The program is ten-weeks of garden-enhanced nutrition and physical education for elementary school children administered by teens (ages 13-19) in local afterschool programs during Spring of 2016. HLA aims to meaningfully engage teens in service learning activities that promote the health and well-being of their communities while providing them with skill building and leadership opportunities.
     In the spring of 2015, we worked with 33 teens at 5 different elementary school garden sites, reaching 400 students each week across San Mateo County. Our Teen Teachers will begin this program with an overnight intensive training at Elkus Ranch Environmental Education Center in Half Moon Bay.
Healthy Living Ambassadors are provided with an array of opportunities within the program. Teens are awarded up to 40 hours of community service credit towards high school graduation, and develop professional skills for future careers and current high school education – including leadership development, teaching tools, and outdoor education practices. Further, all teens are supported to attend an all-expense-paid overnight training at UC Elkus Ranch Environmental Center in Half Moon Bay, March 5-6. Benefits also include mentorship by professional University of California Program Staff, and for qualifying participants, professional recommendations for future employment. Those seeking to continue their service, are welcome to volunteer service at Elkus Ranch summer day camps. Added bonuses include: a private tour of AT&T edible garden and kitchen on June 1, one year enrollment into the 4-H program, a “4-H Youth in Action” t-shirt, and swag bag full of great gear.
     Applications are not limited to 4-H members only; everyone is welcome. There is no cost to participate, and the overnight training is free for the teens. Recruitment is limited to 30-40 Healthy Living Ambassadors, and applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. All applications must be received by February 10 for priority placement.
4-H programs offer youth a safe, healthy, caring, and enriching environment, engage youth in long-term, structured learning in partnership with adults, assist young people in engaging, exciting programs while developing valuable skills with lifelong benefits, and provide training and technical assistance to help youth with skill development.
     For further details, HLA staff are available to meet with interested individuals or are able to schedule a short in class presentations for students. HLA staff are looking forward to a great third season of the Healthy Living Ambassador Program!

For more information, please visit: http://ucanr.edu/sites/smsf4h/About/4-H_Afterschool/

4-H and 4-H HLA are educational programs of UC-Cooperative Extension. If you are interested in making 4-H Healthy Living Ambassadors part of your school or organization in San Mateo or San Francisco Counties, please contact pminnick@ucanr.edu for assistance and more information.

     For Master Gardeners seeking professional horticulture related opportunities post graduation, Horticultural Therapy is a unique option. Much of the Master Gardener curriculum can provide a useful base of horticultural knowledge essential to Horticultural Therapy. To become a Registered Horticultural Therapist, it requires a degree plus specific horticulture, HT and psychology classes, special projects, and an internship. By definition, Horticultural Therapy is the practice of engaging people in plant or gardening activities to improve their bodies, minds, and spirits. HT techniques assist participants in regaining lost skills and learning new ones, and assists in developing memory, cognitive abilities, language skills, and socialization. HT techniques can also be used in physical rehabilitation and vocational training using therapeutic gardens as a medium.
     Suzanne Redell, Master Gardener and Registered Horticultural Therapist, began HT on a personal level after years as a high level Apple manager led her to find solace in the garden. Redell was inspired by her stress-busting experiences in the garden to begin taking HT classes at Merritt College, and Environmental Horticulture classes at Foothill College. For Redell, HT can be summed up as “working with special needs groups such as mental health, seniors, children, hospitals, to accomplish specific goals”. For example, for individuals with schizophrenia, Redell assigns tasks such as planting seeds and transplanting plants to help with focus. The approach for a stroke patient in need of re-strengthening muscles on the right side of the body would be much different, yet equally as specialized.
     Success with mental health patients, according to Redell, can be measured sometimes by “getting people outside”. Redell notes the power a simple jaunt in nature can have on an individual's mental well being: “once they experience that-listening to the birds, hawks flying above- they transform, especially those who were depressed… when they see others gardening and enjoying it, that's where the magic is”.
     Horticultural Therapy in mental health settings is not in-depth counseling, but rather, uses plant material as a medium for exploring human emotion and connecting garden activities to an individual's therapeutic goals. HT is a similar profession to Art and Music Therapy. The “intimacy” that surfaces from gardening can help individuals explain their feelings in a digestible way. Redell often uses images of a plant in various stages to help patients relate their emotions to natural cycles. For seniors, going outdoors and reflecting on memories in the garden can be healing.
     Redell concluded on her experience as a Horticultural Therapist: “It is just profound and it is just a privilege to work with people. We cannot make them well, but if we can improve their quality of life, that is what we are aiming for”.