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.
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| 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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