Gangster gardeners. . .your weapon of choice

Historic day: No foolin'! 20,000 pounds of groceries serve well over 400 shoppers!

Last Wednesday at the CitySquare Resource Center on Haskell Avenue in inner city East Dallas, our team distributed 20,000 pounds of very healthy grocery products to over 400 neighbors who came to shop. 

When I saw the crowds lined up down Haskell almost all the way to Elm Street, I knew we were experiencing the largest food distribution day in our history.  I just didn't know how big the day would be. 

Our staff worked until 8:00 p.m. to make sure all were served. 

Hunger in a city like Dallas, Texas?

Meeting the First Lady!

Last Friday, I had the amazing honor of meeting and greeting the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

Mrs. Obama visited Dallas to celebrate the great progress of so many Texas schools in preparing and serving more healthy foods to public school students and to promote and extend her "Let's Move" initiative as a remedy for youth obesity. You may link to a video report about her visit by The Dallas Morning News below.

City Council Member, Pauline Medrano (actually my council member) took the photo of our brief chat about CitySquare's Food on the Move program that delivered thousands of meals to low-income children last summer in partnership with PepsiCo and our AmeriCorps team. 

No surprise, I found the First Lady to be down-to-earth, interested in our work and delightful! 

What a great moment. 

To watch the DMN video click here.

New USDA Food Chart

At USDA, a plate usurps the food pyramid

Washington Post
By Brian Vastag
Published: June 2

After devoting decades to designing a food pyramid, then refining that design with colored stripes and steps, the nation’s nutrition experts have finally settled on what they believe is the perfect geometry to represent what we should eat: a plate.

Circular, with four colorful divisions to represent the four main food groups, the new plate looks just like a pie chart — a description experts shun because, well, pie isn’t good for you.

Indeed, arriving in the midst of an obesity epidemic, this new at-a-glance guide to healthful eating is meant to remind consumers to limit heavy foods like pie and beef up instead on the greens.

“MyPlate” promotes fruits and vegetables, which cover half the circle. Grains occupy an additional quarter, as do proteins such as meat, fish and poultry. A separate circle (looking remarkably like an aerial view of a cup) represents “dairy” and rests to the side. Desserts appear to have been banished — like the pyramid — to the desert.

The message is clear: “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables,” said Robert Post, an official at USDA’s center for nutrition policy and promotion.

The Obama administration has high hopes for establishing the brightly colored image as a ubiquitous consumer icon. Post said the USDA is targeting food producers, health insurers, restaurants and schools as partners in promoting the image.

At a media-heavy rollout Thursday morning at USDA headquarters, the famously foodie first lady presided, focusing on the obesity problem in children.

“Kids can learn to use this tool now and use it for the rest of their lives,” Obama said. “It’s an image that can be reinforced at breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

USDA will bring the image to “essentially all” schools in the country via the agency’s breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and other nutrition programs, Post said.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new “food icon” was designed to help slim Americans’ expanding girths: Two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are overweight or obese.

“The costs associated with obesity are enormous,” Vilsack said, adding that the image popped into his head at just the right moment during dinner recently. A steak arrived covering “three-quarters” of his plate. “I didn’t eat it all,” he said.

Read entire report here.

Overcoming the challenge of "food deserts"

Most urban areas suffer from a scarcity of food purchasing options. 

We see the problem of "food deserts" here in Dallas.  The Southern Sector, particularly South and West Dallas, offers limited options to customers concerned about eating healthy. 

To take a look at a recent report on the crisis and how to overcome it click  here.

Reactions? 

Hunger and American Families

Here's a moving story that aired earlier this week on NPR. It's "part one" of a series of reports on American hunger. You'll hear from U. S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon, who traveled to Dallas earlier this summer to swear in our AmeriCorps and VISTA teams.