
What is the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP?
As a FoodCorps AmeriCorps service member, I got pretty creative in the name of connecting kids to healthy food in school. I donned vegetable costumes in the cafeteria, danced around in the garden in front of a live audience of 30 children, and hauled five-gallon buckets of compost through the hallways, to name a few.
Years before I became a busy FoodCorps AmeriCorps service member, I was already a dedicated journaler. My seminal journal entries usually began with a dramatic “Dear Diary…” and continued with thorough retellings of my second-grade days. A decade and a half later, my journals are more like anchors that ground me within the daily whirl.
Warren County FoodCorps wrapped up its services here with a celebration last Thursday after seven years of teaching students that locally-grown foods are not only delicious, but also fun to grow.
This June, FoodCorps brought together 20 aspiring school food service leaders to help them explore careers in school food, build their network, and get hands-on experience working in school food. They traveled from all over the country to learn from leaders in the field. Vanika Jethwa CT ’17, an alum who joined us from Keene, NH, shares reflections on her experience at the training.
Catch up on the latest news about the farm bill, AmeriCorps funding, and school meals.
Countless seeds have been planted and produce harvested since Mary Grace Stoneking arrived in Van Buren two years ago. Assigned as the first-ever FoodCorps service member with the Van Buren School District, Stoneking’s arrival signaled a shift in the way VBSD approached nutrition education and ushered in a new way of thinking about food and its origins for Van Buren students.