Iowa Public Radio: Service Members help kids "pick a better snack"
Iowa Public Radio has a short piece featuring service members Daniel Schultz and Mauricio Rosas-Alvarez, as well as a print interview with co-founder and Director of Policy and Partnerships, Debra Eschmeyer.
Des Moines service member Daniel Schultz
by Kathleen Masterson
FoodCorps is a nationwide service project that sends its members into schools and communities to teach nutrition, build school gardens and bring more local, fresh produce into school lunches.FoodCorps co-founder Deb Eschmeyer was recently in Des Moines to meet with Iowa members and present at a Women, Food and Agriculture Network conference.Harvest Public Media's Kathleen Masterson talked with Eschmeyer about the project, which just launched in the fall of 2011. The following interview was edited for length and clarity.
HPM: What sparked the idea to start FoodCorps?
Eschmeyer: FoodCorps kind of started like a garden. We had many different directions and roots. We six founders came together, who all wanted to find a way where young people could get involved in the food movement, as well as finding a way to address this larger obesity epidemic and food security issues that we're having across the country. One in three children are going to be diabetic in their lifetime, one in two if they're a child who is a minority, and one in four children in the United States are hungry. FoodCorps is an answer to both food insecurity and childhood obesity,and at the same time, it gives an opportunity for emerging young leaders to have an opportunity to get experience working in the food movement.
To read the rest of the interview and hear a short radio piece featuring service members in Des Moines, click here.
