October is Food Month

1. Take the CalFresh Challenge

2. Give to our Healthy Food Drive

3. Participate in School Lunch Day

CalFresh Challenge

Are you curious to know how much you spend on food each day?
Join our challenge!

October CalFresh Challenge: The True Cost of Food invites you to keep a food diary that tracks each and every food and drink you consume in a given day, and then record the cost of each item or portion.

You may be so interested in what you’re observing that you’ll want to spend a couple more days keeping a food diary! – that’s up to you.

For this challenge, we request that you turn in your completed food diary for entry into the CalFresh Challenge prize drawing. Entries are due between October 1^st and October 24^th, 2016.

Reflections and Food For Thought

Here’s what you may find when you keep a food diary…

You may notice these pitfalls:

Your food costs are really high (way higher than a CalFresh budget of $5/day/person!)
You eat a lot of packaged, pre-made, or restaurant foods and drinks
You engage in lots of unplanned eating (snacking)
You don’t eat enough (skipping meals)
You eat too much (larger portions than necessary)
Your diet is lacking in fruits and vegetables
You forget to drink plenty of water instead of sugary drinks

You may notice these successes:

You are doing a great job at preparing meals at home (that can be very economical!)
You are eating five or more portions of fruits and vegetables a day
You eat fresh, nutritious food from local farmers and ranchers
You drink plenty of water throughout the day
You limit expensive snack and drink purchases

Take time to reflect on what you’ve noticed after completing your food diary. Have a conversation with friends about The True Cost of Food. Think about…

The average CalFresh benefit for a low-income household is $5 per day per person. Is it possible to feed yourself well on $5 per day every day? What would you have to change in order to keep to that limited budget?
Why it is that some food is really cheap (food like ramen noodles and chips), and other foods can be more expensive (food like apples and peanut butter, and local foods from the farmers market)?
What are the “externalized” hidden costs of cheap foods? How does some food get so cheap? For some answers, check out this 2 minute video: http://www.pbs.org/video/2365168360/

Download the food diary template HERE.

Remember…

Return completed food diary(s) by email to colsonga@co.mendocino.ca.us, or by mail to: Community Outreach Unit, 631 S. Orchard Street, Ukiah, CA 95482.

**Each food log returned by October 24^th, 2016 will count as a Raffle Ticket for a fun prize! Thank you!**

Healthy Food Drive

Food banks and pantries all do their best to try and provide nutritious foods to people in need. However, they are often caught in a catch-22 situation. In order to get some nutritious foods they also have to take a lot of less desirable foods, such as high-calorie, low nutrition foods, often known as junk foods. Most food banks and pantries would rather distribute healthy foods but often have to include these less desirable foods because they are often required to be salvaged by commercial providers in addition to any healthier foods that may be offered. These foods are used to fill the calorie needs of the hungry people they serve, especially when better alternatives are not available. Ultimately, this contributes to an ongoing cycle of ill-health, obesity, diabetes and other conditions. People who access food banks and pantries obviously have little choice. They are presented with what these organizations can collect and/or purchase to provide enough calories and nutrition with the resources at hand. The question is: “Can the system (everybody) do a better job of providing healthier food for low-income people?” We think it is possible.

Healthy Food Drive – October 2016

Food For All Mendocino is hosting a food drive in Mendocino County in partnership with our local branch libraries. We are focusing on collecting healthier, more nutritious foods.

Contribute!

During the month of October, everyone is invited to choose items from the “Healthy Shopping List” and bring these non-perishable contributions to the local library’s food drive collection bin. Food banks in each community will receive the donations and distribute them to their clients. Please note: Local food banks would be delighted to accept backyard garden vegetables or fruit tree produce. Perishable produce can be delivered directly to the local food bank. Thank you for contributing to a healthier Mendocino County!

Collection Locations (for non-perishable foods):

Fort Bragg Library – 499 Laurel Street, Fort Bragg

Coast Community Library - 225 Main Street, Point Arena

Ukiah Library – 105 N. Main Street, Ukiah

Willits Library – 390 E. Commercial Street, Willits

Round Valley Library – 23925 Howard Street, Covelo

School Lunch Day

Join us for School Lunch!

Are you curious about school meals? Wondering how a Food Service Director is able to serve hundreds of children with nutritious meals, every school day without fail? Do you want to know more about what and how your local students are eating at their schools?

If so.....

You're Invited!

Please come if...

You're a parent and want to get an insider's peek at the "new school food"
You're interested in healthy kids and ensuring access to nutritious food
You're working on policies and projects that will make our community healthier

Ukiah High School:

Tuesday, October 11, 2016 meet at 12:15 PM in the school office, bring $5.00

Fort Bragg High School:

Thursday, October 13, 2016 meet at 12:15 PM in the school office, bring $5.00

Please note that you MUST register for this event. Seating at the School Lunch events are limited, and for security reasons, you cannot show up on campus without registering first. Please also note that you will be asked to pay for your meal at $5.00 since federal school meal funds cannot be used for visiting adults.

Click HERE to register

We hope you can join us in Ukiah or Fort Bragg for a school meal!