Community Partnership in Fair Haven
Neighborhood Celebrates Food Day, Monday.
New Haven Public Schools, Chabaso Bakery, Fair Haven Community Health Center and New Haven Farms show how healthy communities are created.
New Haven, Conn., (October 20, 2011) National Food Day is on the way! On Monday, October 24, activities will take place across the country to draw attention to food, health and nutrition issues. Organized by the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Day will be celebrated as a nationwide “Call to Action” encouraging people to “Eat Real” in support of healthy, affordable food grown in sustainable and humane ways. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of New Haven is national co-chair of Food Day.
One of the national Food Day events will take place in the Fair Haven neighborhood at the Chabaso Community Garden located at Chabaso Bread Bakery, 360 James Street at 10:00am. In case of rain, the event will be held at the Columbus Family Academy, 255 Blatchley Avenue at Grand Avenue.
Local businesses, schools, healthcare providers and residents of Fair Haven have been working together at the garden to improve their understanding of the role that the local food system and nutrition play in their own health and the health of their families. The Chabaso Community Garden was a catalyst for collaborative work by the bakery and the nearby Fair Haven Community Health Center (FHCHC). Spare acreage at the bakery site was put to better use by creating the garden as a learning tool, and as a food source for participants in the clinic’s Diabetes Prevention Program.
The garden inspired the formation of New Haven Farms, an organization dedicated to promoting health and community development throughout the city. Chabaso Bakery’s ongoing commitment to sustainability exemplifies the significant role that an enlightened and determined business can play to help redefine and improve the country’s food system. Bakery owner and operator Charles Negaro says, “The Chabaso family, my wife Nancy and I, our children, and our employees, hope to make a difference by improving the health and well being of our community. My grandson Ollie would share the sentiment, but he is only 2 and a half.”
During Food Day, the second grade class from neighboring Columbus School will take a walking field trip to the Chabaso Garden site. The local “Food Dude,” New Haven Public Schools Food Director Tim Cipriano, and his colleague, dietitian Sarah Bourque will conduct an "Eating Real” teach-in from a special curriculum developed for Food Day by the Center for Food & Environment at Columbia University. “This curriculum is powerful in its simplicity,” stated Chef Cipriano, “it provides tools that teachers can use to promote Food Day goals throughout the school year.”
The teach-in will utilize the curriculum’s first lesson, by focusing on whole grains. New Haven’s public school students will be the first in the country to sample Chabaso Bakery’s new “Ollie Bread” made with all natural ingredients and whole grains such as wheat, honey, raisins, millet, flax, and rye. As school system dietitian Sarah Bourque explains, “The Ollie Bread is unique. It’s made from tasty and nutritional whole grains, and without preservatives. We will be serving Ollie Bread in New Haven public Schools and hope other school systems will follow our lead by serving whole grain foods of this quality.”
“Anybody can help empower our children to lead healthy, productive lives. The nation’s food system has caused an epidemic of obesity and diabetes . . . and yet, it is possible to turn that epidemic around,” said Rebecca Kline, Diabetes Prevention Program Communications Manager at the Fair Haven Community Health Center. Ms. Kline also serves as the Chabaso Community Garden Manager, and is a founding member of the New Haven Farms. “This garden has proven that determined, collective action can improve the quality of life and health of community members.” Kline explained, “If we are going to succeed in transforming our nation’s food system, it must happen one urban farm, Ollie Bread, and teach-in at a time.”
For more information on National Food Day activities at Chabaso Community Garden contact:
Dorothy Zeugin Radlicz, Director of Marketing, Chabaso Bakery, 203.562.9007 ext. 838. Contact Ms. Radlicz by email at DRadlicz@chabaso.com or visit Chabaso’s website at http://www.chabaso.com/
Chef Tim Cipriano, New Haven Public Schools, (203) 946-8813. Contact Mr. Cipriano by email at timothy.cipriano@new-haven.k12.ct.us
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