CFS Journals: 11/23, 11/30, 12/7

Last class for Community Food Systems is today... here were my final thoughts:

11/23

Williamsburg, besides being a welcoming and nurturing facility with a beautiful student-run garden, proved to be a school with warm and helpful teachers and well educated and enthusiastic students.

We all sat down together with Karen, their teacher, in their circle area. Some kids were shy, others were gushing with excitement. I sat between a little affectionate girl (she was hugging my side after less than 20 minutes!) and a short-attention spanned young boy who gave the impression of being a child who requires more effort from the teacher.

I think sitting besides Anthony and showing him patience and understanding while simultaneously teaching the lesson was most valuable to me. I could tell that even with sitting in between myself and Karen, he still needed a lot of help in order to take something away from this lesson. It was so exciting for me that when we did the taste test, and he showed reluctance about some of the veggies, he changed his mind about the no-thank-you-bite he took out of the rutabaga slice and instead chose to eat the whole thing!

Some of the kids were eager to let us know about what they've learned. When we sat down with them and announced that we would talking about food miles, one little girl immediately shouted out that she had learned about this already.

And even if they did already know about what we were discussing, they seemed to really enjoy playing our game, tasting the vegetables, and getting to know Hannah, Pesha, and myself as teachers. They really took to us, which was great. It's amazing to spend some time with children and their confidence to say what is on their minds, express affection easily, and behave in a happy and healthy way.

Most of all, I loved spending time in the garden at Williamsburg. It really showed me how children can learn more effectively about history (we discussed how one of the grades had wanted to build tee-pees when they began learning about native american history, but upon finding out that this was culturally mis-representational they instead made a meeting circle and trellis structure) as well as math and other frameworks.

The system can really be changed from within if we just use innovation and creativity and bring this into the education system!

11/30

My family celebrates Thanksgiving in a very small way, being financially restricted and also completely vegetarian (although on special occasions we'll eat shellfish and fish). A lot of the issues that we have been examining this semester came to light at my mother's dinner table. First came the issue of hunger: A lot of the food we ate had been provided by the church where my mother works as nursery teacher. I remembered the Andrew Morehouse visit when my mother was showing me what had been donated, about his worries of food shortages this winter. I couldn't help but wonder about families across the country who might not be able to enjoy the charity bestowed upon ours for the holiday.

Whenever I am with my family I want to talk to them about food systems, but time and time again the barriers of class stop me from getting overly preachy to them. So I had to look at the small victories that my family has enjoyed:
-We now have a home with yard space, thanks to the charity of Habitat for Humanity.
-We are now able to have a small garden to grow our own vegetables and fruit during the production season.
-Thanks to the generosity of friends of the family, we now have a compost system at our house to reuse our waste.

And what about foraging?
This is a favorite activity for my family. Whether it's foraging in the wild, or foraging in the urban landscape, we do it.

My little brother and I have been dumpster diving since we were in middle school, reclaiming perfectly good food that has been thrown out like trash. This is a food system which we have not really gotten into at length in our class, but it is an important one. I work occasionally with Food not Bombs, helping to distribute recovered food to those who need it and it is remarkable to witness the amount of good food that goes to waste; what is more remarkable however is the amount of need for this food and the blatant insanity of the fact that it had ever been tossed in the first place in the face of such a need.

And as far as foraging from the natural world, this is another technique that my family has enjoyed to stay food secure. In the late summer, we enjoyed a bounty of Puffball mushrooms. We found one this summer that was larger than a soccer ball and fed my mother's home and my home for more than a week. I would go so far as to say that one of my favorite dishes is Puffball Parmesan. And then there are dogwood berries which make a delicious jam, acorns and other nuts, as well as dandelions, violas, and plantain greens which make a perfectly good salad. I was brought up in a way to recognize the safe and the not-safe in the natural world, but this isn't the typical path for most young people in this country.

It is sometimes a little shocking to encounter someone who expresses a dislike or fear of nature. It's difficult to not feel concern for these people in the face of the challenges to our global community. If there is anything that we should truly know, then it ought to be how to take care of ourselves in the wild.

Pollan, on his journey to reclaim this heritage which has been disappearing, proved that our familiarity with the natural world has not been entirely lost from us. We are not entirely hopeless as a species. There is such bounty in the natural world (just as there is bounty in the dumpsters of the urban world) that is available to all of us to enjoy; we just need to open our eyes to our own deep connection to the Earth which has borne us. Even if we might sometimes forget this, we are all still creatures of this planet capable to know our world intimately.

12/7

The semester is at it's end, and I've been doing a lot of reflection. As is appropriate for this last year of classes, I have realized that everything that I have been learning throughout my life from college and before has been snowballing into this incredible wealth of knowledge and experiences, and for that I am extremely grateful. Community Food Systems is a huge piece of where I am at now. So this treasure chest is full with lectures and books and community service experiences, but how do I intend to cash this all in?

Putting the theory to practice is key. It's unfortunate for me to have acquired a serious stomach flu last week and miss out another opportunity to practice what we preach! This class, along with others I have taken, and books I have read, and all the conversations and dialogue I have participated in thus far, all of these things point to the necessity for major change of the mental models of our nation. How we eat, how we learn, how we live: why do we allow people we have never met or shared a moment with decide how we are supposed to do these things?
It's about time for us to take back our rights to eat the way that is best for us, to learn in the way most effective for us, and to live in a way that makes us healthy and happy!
But we can't get angry, and we can't just tell people that they are BAD for eating, learning, living in the standard industrialized way! We can't condemn those who do not have access to knowledge, or access to means!
This is the start of our journey. What we can do is provide tools and resources to the public. It is the public's choice to listen to what we have to say or to use the tools we offer to make the change in themselves. Let us not feel anger or spite to the world for the confusion and aggravation it struggles against, and for the ignorance that breeds freely in our broken system. Anger and spite will deter us from bringing positive change.

Always remember:

"I have just three things to teach:
Simplicity, Patience, and Compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world."

-from the Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu


MUCH LOVE TO ALL OF YOU, YOU ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE DESTINED TO DO AMAZING THINGS!

Namaste,
Brittni Reilly