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.

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. 

In a town north of Los Angeles, Mar Vista Elementary School stands almost completely surrounded by farmland. On one side is a field of strawberries, the crop that made the town famous. On the other, it’s rows and rows of hoop houses containing what they’re pretty sure is artichokes. The town has long been an agricultural community, and many of the students at Mar Vista are from families that work in the fields.

FoodCorps is honored to present Amarilys with this year’s Alumni Service Leadership Award. When Amarilys Olivo (NJ ’17) founded a community garden, she decided to call it the “Garden of Worker Bees.” Bees work collaboratively to take care of their community; each bee has its role and contributes to the well-being of the whole. Amarilys wanted to emulate that work ethic to create opportunities for learning, building healthy lifestyles, and connecting with fellow community members.

Thanks to the efforts of a diverse coalition of advocates, the House’s historically bad farm bill proposal did not garner enough votes to pass. Also, FoodCorps is working with fellow national service organizations to call on Congress to again reject the President’s proposal to eliminate funding for national service.

FoodCorps service is open to creativity, and service members rely on their own personal strengths all while building upon the strengths that already exist in the communities that they serve.  From my Connecticut cohort to all two hundred plus service members spread across the nation, you can imagine how every single service experience is unique.

Pineapple, mango, kiwi, and strawberries for 80 students? I didn’t want to blow all my grant money on the second week of garden club, and I couldn’t find a grocery store in town willing to donate that much pricey produce. I had no idea how I would be able to pull off this lesson.