Healthy Corner Store Challenge #6

Do the “Golden Arches” beckon you each morning with the promise of the warm, salty goodness of a Sausage & Egg McMuffin?  Try out our healthier alternative version, which cuts down on the terrifying enemies of heart health: sodium and saturated fat.

Our Better Breakfast Biscuit draws upon hearty whole grains and low-sodium turkey bacon along with delicious veggies scrambled into the egg to start your day off right.  And the homemade version is costs half as much as that fast food villain   Join us on Wednesday, January 9th at 6pm at the Bowdoin Street Health Center as we taste test our newest recipe transformation!

< Update: Due to the flu outbreak, we are not able to taste test this month, but try making the breakfast sandwich for yourself!  It’s sure to leave you with a smile on your face and warmth in your belly.  To make up for it, we’ll double up our taste test at a future meeting, we promise!  Yum. >

And as always, the foods for our monthly Healthy Corner Store Challenges are made exclusively with ingredients available at the Bowdoin Street branch of America’s Food Basket.

Food Injustice & Violence

BSHC Violence Prevention Coordinator, Susan Young, assists two previously homeless clients to find healthy, affordable food.

After the recent shooting in Newtown, CT and The Boston Globe’s incredible series 68 Blocks: Life, Death, Hope profiling the Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood, we at Food in the ‘Hood have been thinking about the interelationships between healthy food access, economic development, and violence prevention.  Felicity Lawrence of the UK-based Guardian wrote recently about the correlations between nutrition and agressive behavior.  ”The pandemic of violence in western societies may be related to what we eat or fail to eat.  Junk food may not only be making us sick, but mad and bad too.”

Join us as we explore this issue and the broader context of food and violence in Bowdoin-Geneva.

Healthy Corner Store Challenge #5

Happy Holidays from the Food in the ‘Hood team!  Whatever your holiday traditions, one things for sure they include food – and probably lots of it!  One of the most tempting and treacherous of holiday treats are the plethora of cookies that make their way to your office, your school, and inevitably into your home.

2012 Season in Review

The 2012 season was a record-breaking success for the Bowdoin Geneva Farmers Market.  Sales at the market tripled from around $5,000 in 2011 to almost $16,000.  Likewise, on average 170 individuals visited the market each week, up from 120 last year.  The market’s growth this year, alongside the successes in our other programs (including our Farm to Family subsidized farm share and our small-scale Farm to Store initiative) have led to an overall increase in the value of fresh, locally-produced food distributed in the Bowdoin Geneva neighborhood from $20,225 in 2011 to $34,195 in 2012, representing an increase of almost 70%.  Read the complete end-of-season report here.

Thank you to everyone who came out and shopped this season, and especially to our amazing vendors: City Harvest – Trustees of Reservations, Heavens Harvest Organic Farm, and Cape Cod Fish Share.  We couldn’t have done it without your help!

Please join us as we plan for next season and work together to bring affordable, healthy food to Bowdoin Geneva.  The Food in the ‘Hood Committee meets the second Wednesday of each month from 6-7:30pm at the Bowdoin Street Health Center.  Our first meeting of the off-season will be held on November 14th.  Hope to see you there!

In the meantime, we hope you’ll enjoy these wonderful photos of an incredible season at the farmers market.  We look forward to seeing you again in June 2013!

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Food Day 2012

Today is Food Day, a nationwide celebration and a movement toward healthy, affordable and sustainable food.  Across the country today (and throughout this week), communities are coming together to dedicate themselves to these principles.   In Bowdoin Geneva, we’ll be celebrating tomorrow, October 25th with our End-of-Season Bonanza at the farmers market where you can join us in making a community-wide pledge to support good food in the heart of Dorchester.  You can also make a personal pledge to “Eat Real”…