Cooking Up Change With Chicago's Healthy Schools Campaign - Orientation

Location: Healthy Schools Campaign Offices
Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013; 6:15-7:30 pm

One Brick was volunteering at Chicago Health School Campaign’s On November 7th and for which I was going to be the EC.  They had requested that someone from One Brick attend an orientation session at their offices, so as to be prepared for the actual event.  Since their offices were in a building right next to my office, I offered to go.  I mean really, if I was Batman, I could have jumped from my building to theirs…and I wouldn't even have required my cape!  Well, that still didn't mean everything went smoothly, since I walked over and as the intercom was broken, I had to wait till someone came down and let me in.  There were some other folks who were waiting as well and one of them actually worked for Chicago Cares and knew about me and my blog.  That would have been a solid endorsement in front of the organizers, if only they had been there to hear it.

Indeed
We walked through their office to a conference room at the back where several people had already assembled and were having dinner, which was salad and pizza.  I took a seat and then Kristie, who is organizing the competition, asked us all to introduce ourselves.  I said that I was representing One Brick and gave a brief synopsis of what we do for events such as this.  This was the first time since Serve-A-Thon that I was introducing an organization that I was representing, rather than just myself.  There were several other volunteers, some individuals as well as some with other groups, including a gentleman named Emilio, who was going to talk to us about Composting.  Kristie then introduced us to Rachel, who is running the Healthy Schools Campaign, who told us about their objective which was to implement healthy meal plans for kids in Chicago Public Schools – and for $1.  According to their website, “Healthy Schools Campaign is the leading voice for people who care about our children, education, and our environment. We teach and empower others to advocate for children to have fresh air, healthy food and physical activity to shape their lifelong learning and health.  As an independent, not-for-profit organization, we help facilitate collaboration between parents, teachers, administrators and policy makers. Our goal is to help prepare this diverse group of stakeholders to lead change at the school, district, state and national levels.”  This was fantastic.

I asked how they would measure success and Rachel said that while each school has their own indicator, at this stage the overall measurement would be a challenge to implement.  She said that many kids had not liked this change in their diet, but were adapting slowly.  The program is getting national awareness and within Illinois they are trying to establish a policy to get this widely implemented, though to me it seemed like an idea that shouldn't even be debated.  I mentioned this to Rachel and asked what would be the basis on which the politicians would challenge this and she said that I would be surprised at some of the roadblocks that they have to overcome.  She said that she appreciated all of these questions and the interest in the program.

Next, Kristie talked about the actual challenge that would be taking place during the event.  Kids from 14 schools would be participating and would have to make 3 dishes, each meeting the caloric and budget requirements.  The challenge starts at noon and would be judged by a panel of 21 at 5 pm, where they would award the top 3 prizes, including best presentation.  The winner would then represent Chicago at the National competition in Washington DC.  The tasting was starting later that evening and that’s the event at which One Brick would be volunteering.  They were requesting approximately 15-20 volunteers from our side and our task would be ‘Registration’, ‘Coat Check’ and ‘Green Team’, where we would be guiding people towards composting.  Emilio gave a talk on benefits of composting, which he described as “anything that was once living”.  He told us how composting helps control landfills since all products get converted into soil and everything goes right back in the ground.  We would be standing next to the garbage bins and encouraging people to compost and answering their questions. 

We concluded the meeting and I spoke with Rachel for a bit before heading out.  I sent a note to the One Brick leadership team summarizing what I had learnt this evening.  We were expecting 800 guests, meaning that we would be quite busy, though all of us would have an opportunity to take breaks and taste the food.  Plus, alcohol was going to be served and I assured everyone that I had reiterated One Brick’s policy of volunteer’s not consuming alcohol while on duty.  It appeared like any other program that we have done, though I for one was excited at the opportunity of sampling the dishes that the students would be preparing; especially since they had to meet cost and nutritional criteria, while being delicious.  Definitely something that was worth looking forward to. 

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