To celebrate National Volunteer Week, we set up our own little volunteer project which ended up being a blast!

A group of about 20 of us — which we recruited through this blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our mailing list — came out to Marra Farm on Tuesday.  When we got there, we learned more about Marra Farm (It’s one of only two historical farms in Seattle and the food grown goes out to the local community, including area food banks!) and then it was off to work!

Most of our volunteering was spent turning beds and planting fresh rows.  It was really fun work and it gave us a chance to meet and mingle with our new friends!

And even though it was a little cold and cloudy, moving dirt kept us warm and the overcast really helped make for better photos :D  A couple of photos are in the gallery below and you can see the rest of them on our Facebook.

I just want to send a big thank you to Sue McGann, the Marra Farm coordinator, and to our awesome volunteers for coming out with us (You can read Charyn’s blog post on the project here)!  It was a ton of fun and we look forward to doing more of these in the future!

[View with PicLens]

The Child Nutrition Act is the legislation that make sure low-income children don’t go hungry.  The act funds major programs that focus on childhood nutrition.  Here are a few examples of the important programs it funds:

• The School Lunch Program gives kids free or reduced cost lunches in school.
• The Summer Food Program makes sure that kids who rely on the free/reduced school lunches aren’t going hungry during the summer by setting up free lunch sites throughout local communities.
• Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides nutritious food, nutrition education, and access to health care for low-income pregnant women, new mothers, and children up to the age of 5.

While the programs are permanently authorized, every 5 years, Congress reviews these programs through a reauthorization process.  It so happens that 2010 is the year that the act must go through reauthorization.

So why is the Child Nutrition Act important?

• Because, unfortunately, lots of children are hungry:
  • In 2007, 13.3 million children, or 18 percent of all children under age 18, lived in poverty.

• Because hunger affects their learning:
  • Research indicates that even mild undernutrition experienced by young children during critical periods of growth impacts the behavior of children, their school performance, and their overall cognitive development

• Because low-income children are more likely to face obesity:
  • Whether its because they live in a food dessert or because unhealthy foods are more affordable or for many other reasons, low-income families face higher obesity rates.

What can you do?

Encourage your congresspeople to take positive action on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization! You can find your elected officials here.

By making sure the Child Nutrition Act is funded to the needed amount, we can make sure our children are being fed and are healthy!

Sources:

• Seattle Food Committee – Show Kids the Money!

• FRAC 101: Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act

• Feeding America – Child Hunger Facts

• FRAC – Obesity and Hunger

One of the most prevalent issues facing volunteer readers with the United Way of King County Volunteer Reader Program is the problem of engaging children that aren’t ready to sit calmly and listen to a story. It’s not that these children don’t find their readers fun and interesting, it just happens that a pile of blocks or a big messy pot of finger-paint can sometimes snag their attention before we can utter the words “once upon a time.” Though some children may not appear interested in sitting down with a book, attempting to engage these kids is still incredibly important.

The relationships that we develop with children when reading aloud to them help to foster language development and literacy awareness, and aid in building knowledge and developing new interests. But what can we do to help get children excited about books? This post will concentrate on that question, offering some great advice from Maren Ostergard, an Early Literacy and Outreach Librarian with the King County Library System. 

Why do children become distracted?

By the age of three to five years most children will start concentrating more on a single activity, but the average amount of time a preschooler will give something his or her sustained, undivided attention is still only about four minutes. One problem might simply be that the child is unfamiliar with the idea of having a reader in the classroom. As preschoolers develop their ability to remember past experiences, their attention spans grow regarding specific activities. So it follows that the more they read, the more their confidence will grow in that area. Another problem might be that a child isn’t ready to sit calmly and listen to a story. It’s important to remember that listening skills aren’t directly related to sitting skills, and as you’ll see in the advice that follows, we can use this boundless energy to our advantage!

Advice from Maren Ostergard, Early Literacy/Outreach Librarian with the King County Library System

• Give the child time to get settled before you begin reading.
• Speak in a voice that helps children listen—not too fast, not too slow. You can also change your voice for different characters, or let it go soft or loud depending on what’s happening in the story.
• Stop often to comment, ask questions, and look closely at the pictures. Point out details that the child might miss. Ask questions like “what do you think will happen next”, and during repeat readings of a familiar book, occasionally stop at one of the key words or phrases and allow the child to fill it in.
• Talk about the book and how it relates to the child’s real life experiences. Try substituting the child’s name for the name of a main character in the story.
• Some children find it easier to listen if they’re busy. Encourage them to pat their knees, clap, or sing along when you read rhythmic, sing-along books. You can also ask them to help you turn the pages.
• Model good listening skills. Give children your full attention when they speak. Be on their level, and make eye contact. Smile or nod to show that you’re listening. Be patient.

Additional Tips

• If you read during free choice time, engage a child that’s looking for something to do.
• When choosing books consider age, interests, and personality. 
• Choose books that you enjoy. Children can sense when you don’t like something.
• Let the child “read” a book that he or she has memorized.
• Encourage the child to sit still for gradually increasing periods of time, but don’t force the issue.
• Describe the activity to the child. Your words can help him or her focus.
• Encourage them to retell or act out stories. Finger puppets make great props.

Spread the word

 There are always more children that would benefit from being read to, so tell your friends about the program and share the opportunity to help create profound and positive change in our community.

Talk to Us

Have information that you’d like to share or a question you’d like to ask? Send your comments and questions to readers@uwkc.org.

Here’s a recap of all the happenings around Hunger Action Week on Tuesday.  I hope everyone is doing okay taking the challenge and bringing attention to hunger in the community! Also, don’t forget to sign up to get our Hunger Action Week emails! Just fill out the form on the right side of the screen!

Hunger Fact:

Nearly one in five Americans said they lacked the money to buy the food they needed at some point in the last year, according to a survey co-sponsored by the Gallup organization and released Tuesday by an anti-hunger group.  The numbers soared at the start of the recession, but dipped in 2009 despite the continuing rise in unemployment. The anti-hunger group, the Food Research and Action Center, attributed that trend to falling food prices, an increasing use of food stamps and a rise in the amount of the food stamps benefit. [Source: New York Times, 1/26/2010]

[Kathleen Flinn's Pasta]

Blogger Posts:

Magnolia Preparatory Academy: On day 2, the blogger made sure that her kids “paid” for the food they bought.  They asked for a banana and pop tart, so they had to run to their coin jar and get 45 cents.   It was a cute exercise to show the value of food.  She also talked about the issue of making sure her kids had enough to eat paramounting her own stomach, saying “I’m sure there are many parents in Seattle, in Washington state, in the United States and the world ’round who go to bed hungry every night. It’s their trade off for having children who go to bed with bellies that aren’t as empty.”

Savory Sweet Life: Alice talked about how her family going out ended up messing up the budget and causing her stress.  She recalls a story she wrote about during last year’s challenge about how it felt growing up poor: “I recall several times being at the grocery store with my mom and watching her disposition change on her face when the cashier would total our bill.  She would mentally scan all the groceries figuring out which ones would have to go back.”

Kathleen Flinn: She shared her recipe for pasta with olives, tomatos, and tuna (pictured above).  She describes it as “a cheap and easy meal to craft from pantry staples. The tuna bumps up the protein quotient, but it’s optional.” I think it looks delish!

The Hazel Bloom: She said, “We’re eating healthier – and less all around – so maybe I would have been hungry anyway, but, yeah. I was really sort of hungry yesterday. So much that I ate two little sweet pickles that weren’t on the menu, but the cost was negligible and didn’t bust our budget. Whew.”

Foodista: Made it through another day just under budget and gave some advice: “As challenging as it seems, $7.00 for three meals can be done.  It’s all about getting creative with the resources that are available. “

Family Friendly Food: She wrote about how food plays such an important part in everyone’s lives and we usually all take it for granted.  For me, Hunger Action Week is about refocusing and recognizing the importance of food and helping those who must go without.  Here’s a quote from her post:  “We go on date nights, game nights, mommy nights, book club nights… All these gatherings have food. //  I take the children grocery shopping with me. They always ask for a doughnut, or a fruit salad, and vanilla or chocolate milk. // Sometimes they get a special treat, we go to the ice cream shop. // There’s so much food around us.”

Eric Rivera’s Cooking Blog: He followed up on his chicken from the day before and made a “Braised Chicken on Carrot and Leek Bed with Herbed Potatoes”. Yes, that beat my sad dinner I had last night.

Diggin Food: Willi had a great post about the value of gardening and it’s role in helping relieve hunger.  She was also on KUOW Radio talking about Hunger Action Week and gardening. You can listen to the broadcast here (she starts around the 15 minute mark).

Dianasaur Dishes: She continues to make cheap and delicious looking meals!  Unfortunately, she also got sick yesterday, which brought up an interesting point about living on a tight budget: “It was a good reminder of something else someone on food stamps has to be mindful of.  If you spend all your food stamps on the beginning of the week, and suddenly need something else, you could be out of luck.”

Cook Local: She shared her Simple Roast Chicken with Vegetables recipe and also talked about what she missed while taking the challenge: “Snacks are another thing we miss. We don’t snack a lot, but we’ll usually have a few bites of cheese and a couple of crackers while cooking dinner. After dinner, we usually have a single chocolate truffle (to split). That’s out too this week.”

The Murray Family: A United Way of King County employee and his family are taking the challenge and blogging about it!  They showed their pantry filled with their week’s supplies, which is pretty telling.

Other Challenge Takers

Brian Calvert of KOMO news is taking the challenge for the second year.  You can see a clip he did embedded at the top of his post and you can also read how he’s doing on his blog.

Our comments continue to be filled with great stories of people taking the challenge and sharing their experience.  You can find them on this post and also on our Facebook page!

Speaking of Facebook,  this Facebook Page shows 190 Seattle U students who are also taking the Hunger Challenge!  How cool is that?

Well, that’s all for today.  Thanks for everyone’s support in making a difference around hunger in the community!

I’m actually playing catch-up, so this will be two day’s worth of posts!

Our menu this week:
Breakfasts: eggs, frozen waffles, or oatmeal
Lunches: pb&j on bread or tortilla, salads featuring leftovers
Snacks: apples, carrots, celery, string cheese, Goldfish
Dinners:
M – homemade chicken noodle soup
T – pasta with beans and bacon (three slices of Hempler’s bacon for $0.92 – YES!)
W – chicken (cooked Monday in the soup) with peanut sauce over broccoli and rice
Th – frozen pizza
F – meatloaf with roasted cauliflower

A couple of things I’ve been thinking about:

1. I’m surprised and pleased by how much we were able to buy organic – I was sure beforehand that organic meats were going to be way too expensive, but we were able to work them in.
2. I really struggled with whether or not to buy the ingredients for bread instead of loaves of bread.  In the end it just came down to the issue of time.  I’m reasonably sure we could have budgeted for it, and made better bread less expensively than we bought.
3. I was impressed with our six year-old’s weighing of his options this morning at breakfast, and glad we had the chance to talk about “budgeting” with him – i.e. if he has another waffle now, we might run out by the end of the week.
4. It’s a little bit of a struggle to deny food options to the three year-old.  He has asked twice today about snacks that we’re not offering this week because of The Experiment (as we call it).
5. I’m glad we’re not coffee drinkers – the good stuff is expensive.  But I’m missing having a selection of tea.
6. Regarding the before picture of the pantry: please don’t judge too harshly – I SWEAR there is a method to the madness in there.  And I love how the picture showcases the Whoppers.  Not.

———————

Their chicken soup recipe from Martha Stewart.

It says it serves 6, but I started with as much water as my pot would hold and threw in a small handful of broken spaghetti at the end, so I’m hoping to get 8-10 servings out of this. And that doesn’t count the fact that the chicken breast will be our dinner Wednesday night!

———————

Today’s Hunger Challenge Thoughts

I’m hungry, but I think that has more to do with knowing I can’t snack on whatever I feel like.  Certainly the kids are getting enough to eat, but my attitude about “having enough” is shifting.  I was surprised by how important it was to me that the kids finished every drop of soup last night, when usually I let them manage their own hunger.  And I’m surprised by how relieved I am that they are headed to their respective daycare/afterschool programs today, where they’ll have opportunities for more variety.

The six year-old goes to a before/afterschool program three days a week where breakfast and two snacks are built in.  From the program literature:

“Breakfast is one item from each of the following food groups: 1 cup fluid milk, ½ cup full strength juice or fruit or vegetable, 1 serving bread or bread alternate (dry or cooked cereal).

PM and Late Snack is one item from two of the following food groups: 1 cup fluid milk, ¾ cup full strength juice or fruit or vegetable, 1 serving bread or bread alternate, 1 oz. meat or meat alternate (beans, hummus, cheese).”

He’ll buy lunch at school one day this week, where he’ll have the choice between two entrees and three or four fruit and vegetable options.  It is sinking in that 73% of his elementary school is on the free or reduced lunch program; I have a new appreciation of the choices the students are offered and vow to pay more attention to the school lunch conversation.

The three year-old goes to a daycare center where they offer breakfast, lunch, and two snacks, and the guidelines are much the same.  They offer both a fruit and a vegetable at lunch, and their second snack is usually a grab-and-go Dixie cup of crackers or pretzels for departure time, which makes the time from pick-up to dinner much easier.  (As an aside, they eat both breakfast and evening snacks at home on daycare days as well, living up to their reputations as growing boys.  I can’t imagine what this would be like with them at the ages of 13 and 16.)

I’m used to thinking about food in terms of what sounds delicious.  Today I’m wondering if we have enough, and in what kind of variety.

One of the main purposes of our Hunger Action Week is to get people thinking about hunger in their community, whether that’s King County or anywhere else.

The facts show that even in the richest country in the world, hunger is still a problem.  A recent New York Times report showed that hunger in the US is at a 14-year high.

Hunger means a lot of different things to people.  Some of us were lucky that we never faced the issue first-hand, some had childhoods that were slim, and still others are struggling to feed their families today.  No matter what, everyone has a story to tell and a voice to contribute.

We invite you to share your thoughts on what hunger means to you, your family, and your community.  You can sound off in the comments section, write on our Facebook wall, or share a post from your own blog.

I’ll start it off:

While I deal with issues of hunger, poverty, and homelessness on a daily basis, I try my best to approach it from an analytical perspective.  I know that becoming too emotionally involved with such daunting problems will only drain me and make me less efficient.

One of the times that I was most struck by the devastation hunger has to our community was actually outside of work.  I was walking in the International District during a day off and happened to pass by the Asian Counseling & Referral Food Bank before their doors had opened.  Outside of the building, there was a large crowd of older men and women, families, and children all waiting to get food.  I realized that any one of the people waiting on line could be my grandmother, mother, or sibling. It was truly disheartening.

While walking through that crowd was difficult for me, it reinvigorated my passion for the work I’ve been doing at United Way.  I know that the work I am doing here is making a difference in their lives and I can only hope that the families waiting for food will be able to utilize the services provided as a stepping stone to climb out of poverty and into financial stability.

]]> http://www.uwkcblog.org/2010/01/19/share-your-thoughts-on-hunger/feed/ 23 http://www.uwkcblog.org/2009/12/18/help-portrait-using-photography-to-help-the-homeless/ http://www.uwkcblog.org/2009/12/18/help-portrait-using-photography-to-help-the-homeless/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:50:06 +0000 United Way of King County http://www.uwkcblog.org/?p=2418

I am a big fan of skill-based volunteering. While warm-body volunteering is great, I really like it when people take a skill that only they have and use it to help others. Even a seemingly unrelatable skill can be used to make a difference. Help-Portrait is a great example of this.

Help-Portrait was a simple 4-step project that banded photographers together for a good cause. Here’s how it went:

1. Find someone in need (shelters, hospitals, the streets, etc.)
2. Take

…

Chase Bank is trying a unique way to decide which nonprofits to award money to — They are asking people on Facebook to vote on it.

From now until December 11th, Facebook users can vote for their favorite nonprofits (you can vote for 20 nonprofits in the first round) to receive large cash awards. There will be 100 winning charities. Here’s how it breaks down:

The eligible charity receiving the most votes will be awarded $1 million, the top five runners-up will receive $100,000 each and the 100 finalists, including the top winners, will be awarded $25,000 each. Additionally, a special Advisory Board led by prominent national philanthropists will allocate $1 million to the nominated charities of its choice.

In the end, Chase will be awarding $5 million in grants!

If you’d like to vote, just go to The Chase Community Giving’s Facebook page and search for your favorite charity.  (And while you’re there, become a fan of UWKC!)

There are TONS of nonprofits vying for your vote so I thought it’d be a good to start a list of King County organizations that are participating in the contest!

• Washington Low-Income Housing Alliance
• Jolkona Foundation

What other nonprofits are participating? Let me know through our comments!

The 2008 Preschool Class of the Ned Behnke Speech Language Preschool

Caden, age 5, has severe apraxia, a motor speech disorder that makes speech, auditory processing and motor function irregular and difficult. Diagnosed with the disorder at 2 years old, Caden struggled to communicate with his family and make friends. While he received therapy, his family’s limited budget meant that he did not have access to specialists. For years he made little progress.

Then space became available at The Hearing Speech & Deafness Center (HSDC), a United Way of King County grantee. Caden enrolled in HSDC’s Ned Behnke Speech Language Preschool, a free program, and in just a few months’ time he showed dramatic improvement. The agency’s highly trained professional staff used the latest techniques to help Caden build a foundation of language.

In King County, approximately 1,500 children aged birth to 3 experience developmental disabilities or delays. That’s why United Way of King County invests in programs that provide therapeutic services for young children with developmental disabilities and delays, so that they reach their highest potential.

Click here to learn more about the services and supports available to individuals and families through the King County Developmental Disabilities Division.

We’ve made two big changes on our blog:

• Focus! We write about a wide range of issues and areas that United Way cares about.  If you only want to read posts about volunteering, just click on “Volunteer” tab.  If you are interested in the issue of homelessness, click that tab. You get the point, right?
• Sidebar! We’ve been making a lot of strides in getting our organization online.  As you can see from our sidebar, we’re connected to Facebook, Twitter, and a bunch of other sites.  Now friending/following/favoriting us is just a click away!

There are a bunch of other, smaller changes we plan on making as we tweak the site.  Tell us what you think about the new look and make suggestions on how we can make improvements by commenting on this post.

I hope you all like our redesigned blog!