Posts Tagged: Brenda Roche
Distinguished Service Award winners named
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce the 2011 recipients of the ANR Distinguished Service Awards, which are given biennially for outstanding contributions to the teaching, research and public service mission of the Division.
Awards were given in six areas:
- Outstanding Extension – Walt Bentley, area IPM advisor based at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center
- Outstanding Research – Steve Koike, plant pathology farm advisor for Monterey and Santa Cruz counties
- Outstanding New Academic – Jim Bethke, floriculture and nursery advisor for San Diego and Riverside counties
- Outstanding Team – Money Talks. The Money Talks team is composed of Charles Go, workgroup chair and 4-H youth development advisor for Alameda County; Margaret Johns, nutrition, family & consumer sciences advisor for Kern County; Keith Nathaniel, 4-H youth development advisor for Los Angeles County; Shirley Peterson, nutrition, family & consumer sciences advisor emeritus; Brenda Roche, nutrition, family & consumer sciences advisor for Los Angeles County; Karen Varcoe, consumer economics specialist based at UC Riverside; Patti Wooten-Swanson, nutrition, family & consumer sciences advisor for San Diego County
- Outstanding Leader – Richard Enfield, county director for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties
- Outstanding Staff – Connie Costello, program representative for consumer economics
Each of the recipients will receive $2,000 and a certificate, except for the team award recipients, who will receive individual certificates and share $5,000.
The 2011 Academic Assembly Council Distinguished Service Award committee was chaired by Rachel Surls and included Jim Bethke, Joe Grant, Scott Oneto and Becky Westerdahl. Although Bethke was on the committee making these awards, he did not participate in any part of the decision-making on the Outstanding New Academic award.
On behalf of ANR, I thank the DSA recipients for providing excellent service to the people of California and congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition.
Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President, Agriculture and Natural Resources
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Welcome to the LA County Master Food Preservers Blog!
With just two weeks until the first 2011 Master Food Preserver class for LA County graduates, it seemed time to get our blog up and running at ucanr.org (don't you just love that url? ucanr? mecanr? theycanr?)
These past several weeks have been challenging, fun, educational, and fulfilling. But graduation is only the beginning. With new name badges and a slew of reference materials in tow, our MFP class will be going out into LA County and educating the public about safe home food preservation techniques, answering questions, and providing information about local resources.
And we're gearing up to offer the next Master Food Preserver class! We'll be announcing more detailed info about that very soon.
In the meantime, if you're in Los Angeles County and have questions about home food preservation, keep tabs on us here or visit our Facebook page. If you're interested in having a Master Food Preserver come to your farmers market or community event, please contact UCCE Nutrition, Family & Consumer Sciences Advisor Brenda Roche at bkroche@ucdavis.edu.
More to come! Stay tuned!
LA's new food preservation program gets underway
One of the 18 trainees in Los Angeles County's newly revived Master Food Preserver program is Los Angeles Times blogger Rachael Narins, who has promised her readers tips and highlights as she completes the 12-week training session.
Increasing interest in home gardening and sustainable eating has renewed enthusiasm for what was a dying art 10 years ago, when the program was discontinued in Los Angeles County. This spring, 56 applicants were willing to pay the $120 fee and commit to volunteering a minimum of 30 hours in order to receive the food preservation training.
After just the first class, Narins is already beginning the public education process. The program started, she wrote, where any reputable cooking course begins, with a lecture on safety and sanitation.
In the coming weeks the class will cover specific types of canning and what’s in season. She reported that the L.A. County Master Food Preservers will have a website and Facebook page up soon.
Master Food Preserver Ernest Miller, a formally trained chef, is the primary instructor for the LA county program (Photo: Felecia Friesema)
LA resurrects Master Food Preserver program
In what is probably a natural outgrowth of the emerging vegetable gardening and local food movement, Los Angeles County UC Cooperative Extension is bringing back a Master Food Preserver program.
The program was discontinued 10 years ago when home canning fell out of favor in modern kitchens. Interest has rebounded. A story in the LA Weekly blog Squid Ink says Master Food Preserver Ernest Miller and UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor Brenda Roche will relaunch the program in March.
Like Master Gardeners, Master Food Preservers are volunteers who receive in-depth training from UC Cooperative Extension experts then share their knowledge with the general public. Miller will teach the 12-week series to approximately 15 students at the UC Cooperative Extension office in East Los Angeles.
"The class is truly amazing, it covers every aspect of safe food preservation from canning to pressure canning, of course, but also freezing, dehydration, curing, smoking, fermentation and brewing," Miller was quoted. "It is a hands-on class and nearly every week the participants will make and take home various preserved products."
Miller a chef at The Farmer's Kitchen, a project of the non-profit Sustainable Economic Enterprises, which manages eight farmer's markets in LA. He earned his Master Food Preserver designation form UC Cooperative Extension in San Bernardino County and also recently became a UC Master Gardener.
Miller writes a blog about home food preservation, PreserveNation
LA Master Food Preserver applicants will be selected for the program based on their prior food preservation, culinary and volunteer experience, the article said. The students must pay a $120 class fee and commit to a minimum of 30 hours of volunteer work per year.
Home canning is once again growing in popularity.
Cost isn't the only deterrent to eating healthy
We Americans like our sweets and fats, plus they're convenient and cheap, conditions that that don't bode well for a society suffering from an obesity crisis, according to UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor Brenda Roche.
Roche shared these sentiments with millions of Americans on the National Public Radio program Marketplace this week. The story dealt with the higher cost of healthy calories vs. empty calories. Roche said she teaches youth in her nutrition classes that junk food costs can add up too.
"When we talk with youth and we show them when they spend about $2.50-3.50 a day on soda and snack foods after school, how much that adds up to over time -- over a year, five years, 10 years. It's just mind boggling," Roche said.
Other evidence was offered during the Marketplace piece dispelling the notion that people turn to junk food to save money. A study from the University of Buffalo found that if you reduce the cost of healthy food, shoppers use the money they save to buy more chips and cookies.
"Junk food's convenient, it tastes good. We just have a natural predisposition to like this type of food," Roche explained.
Starches, fat and sugar are significantly cheaper than lean meats, fresh fruits and vegetables.