Here’s an Upstate New York recipe to try:

• Take New York State’s third largest city with approximately 210,600 people from diverse cultures and backgrounds
• Sprinkle in a generous portion of local food enthusiasm (Rochester is the home of the Public Market, America’s Favorite Farmer’s Market in 2010, and the “birthplace” of Wegmans grocery chain)
• Stir in economic dichotomies (major industries, such as Kodak, started in Rochester, but currently about 26% of the population lives below the poverty line).
• Add a dollop of the national obesity epidemic linked to lack of time to prepare fresh food.
• Finally top with the fortitude to brave even the coldest and snowiest of winters.
• When you lift the lid, you’ll see the Rochester, NY served by Foodlink.

Currently Foodlink, the regional food bank for 10 counties in Central and Western New York, provides emergency food to nearly 125,000 different people every year. Through a network of 450 agencies, including soup kitchens, food pantries, and shelters, Foodlink distributes over 11 million pounds of food. Our afterschool Kids Cafe program serves nutritious meals to nearly 3,000 children at approximately 50 locations every day.

The number of food insecure people in our region is high. The Hunger Study, conducted in 2010 in conjunction with Feeding America, indicates that 69% of Foodlink’s clients experience food insecurity. Within the Rochester city school district, the percentage of children eligible for free and reduced priced meals is 88%. Ongoing struggles for jobs and systemic budget cuts have changed the face of hunger. Those with college degrees and years of work experience are now finding it difficult to put food on the table.  More people than we think are forced to choose between buying food, heating their homes, or paying medical bills.

As the newest Share our Strength partner, we at Foodlink are pleased and excited to bring Cooking Matters to our region. The curriculum of Cooking Matters and the mission of Share our Strength complement the vision of Foodlink- to build a hunger-free community and sustainable regional food system. One of the central tenets of Foodlink is to empower individuals with the tangible skills, through nutritional and agricultural programs, to lead healthy and productive lives.

The Cooking Matters curriculum provides the opportunity to foster relationships and knowledge throughout our community. Within our network of agencies we work with Salvation Armies, churches, recreation centers and many other community organizations that serve adults and children.  We are eager to begin the process of pairing our long time partners with nutrition experts and increase awareness about healthful eating habits while building skills in the kitchen.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the children’s classes. Having taught nutrition at our Kids Cafes for the past 9 months, I’ve seen firsthand how cooking engages kids.  The goal is to conduct 16 classes in our first year and to evenly divide those classes between child and adult programs.

This is definitely a case where, if the pot boils over it’s a good thing. Foodlink is starting to plan for volunteer trainings and the first class!  We are adding the spice to the Rochester pot.

As all the various ingredients come together to form a sublime mixture, we can only hope one taste won’t be enough!

Tying your shoes is a bit tricky but being a can isn’t as bad as it sounds – you are protected from the harsh weather conditions of Upstate New York in February and as a Wegmans product, are well respected!

As Cool Can, you confront a stereotype that you are only a can of salty, unhealthy food.  It’s difficult to be misunderstood.  Cool Can works tirelessly to educate the public about canned food and nutrition products that are available for emergency food assistance!  Foodlink’s Nutrition Department assists Cool Can to demonstrate cooking techniques, explain healthy options at the grocery store and how to live healthy lives in general.

Cool Can is no hypocrite – he is active for at least one hour every day!  Eating right and staying active has helped this can to stay young and energetic for over 30 years!  He also strives to eliminate any unnecessary waste just like Foodlink!  He recycles, he uses Ethanol for his flex-fuel van, and he volunteers at Freshwise Farms to help grow local nutritious foods for the community.

What can we learn from Cool Can?

1.       Velcro shoes would have been a better choice.
2.       Being green goes beyond just a can-tone.
3.       Nutritious foods can help keep everyone healthy and happy.
4.       Wegmans is a great place to purchase canned goods.
5.       Embracing the mission of Foodlink is COOL!

Martha Brown
Communications Manager

Rochester area educators, food service professionals, and administrators are invited to participate in an evening of brainstorming and collaboration to address and work on creative solutions to a problem that is relatively unique to this generation: how to empower our children to make informed food choices. Teachers from the Rochester area are invited to meet from 4 to 6:30pm on Thursday, February 17th at Rochester Contemporary Art Center (137 East Avenue, between Scio & Gibbs Sts) to engage in a guided brainstorming session to tackle this issue. We want to hear your voice!

Please RSVP to Derek Crowe (contact below) no later than Feb. 8th if you plan on attending.

THIS EVENT IS BEING SUBMITTED THROUGH THE RCSD HEALTH DEPTARTMENT TO COUNT TOWARD YOUR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT HOURS, PENDING REVIEW.

<< What is this?

Freshwise Farms, a social enterprise of Foodlink, is interested in establishing a farm to school program with Rochester area schools. Farm to school is a nation-wide movement that encourages small-scale, local action by bridging gaps between local farms and schools. It unites the community, cafeteria, and classroom by bringing students and lessons to farms while encouraging healthy eating by helping schools source food from local farmers.

We recognize that your input is necessary – this program cannot succeed without it. In the end, it will be the students who design and shape their farm to school program, so the first step in this process is hearing from you; the guardians of their education. You need no prior understanding of farm to school to participate in this evening. Your perspective as an educational professional is what we’re looking for – we need your expertise regarding current educational standards and ideal best practices for integrating agriculture, nutrition, and food systems awareness into our children’s education.

<< What to Expect

• You will be required to commit to attend the event on February 17th from 4:00 to 6:30pm.
• You will be invited to eat some delicious hors d’oeuvres.
• We will ask that you fill out a short bio sheet.  (to be distributed upon RSVP)
• You will be divided into teams of 6.
• You will experience the process of ideation, details of which will be explained soon! (it’s exciting, we promise)
• Your team will create a SHORT presentation outlining the problem as you see it and some of your ideas to be presented to the group.

<< Why Participate?

• Your ideas will have a real impact with social, educational, political and radical results. This evening is the initial phase in a long term plan for building a farm to school program in Rochester.  We will use your input to shape the next event; a charrette in which your students will have the opportunity to design the farm to school program.
• Tackle a real-world problem in a unique way.
• Hear farmers and farm-to-school experts from around the region talk about the problem.
• Be part of shaping the future of this region.
• Work with professionals from other schools in the area.
• Earn professional development hours. (pending review)

If you are interested in learning more, watch this video to explore more about farm to school or contact:

Derek Crowe at dcrowe@foodlinkny.org or (585) 328-3380 x157.

Be sure to watch this site for more updates! Also, if you have ideas or feedback for this event, just email Derek!

This event is called a charrette (pronounced [shuh-ret]), and consists of an intense design-based collaborative project. Charrettes serve as a way of quickly generating a design solution through interdisciplinary collaborative work, integrating the aptitudes and interests of a diverse group of people. You can go to http://www.vimeo.com/9541807 to access a video documenting a previous charrette on which this meeting structure/form will be based, hosted by COLAB at Syracuse University. *note: this video serves to outline the structiure of a charrette, we will not be discussing ‘bright flight’ at this event.

Wednesday at the Capitol Area Food Bank in Washington D.C., Sesame Workshop & various partners unveiled “Sesame Street tackles food insecurity crisis through ‘Food for Thought: Eating Well on a Budget.”  (Check out background details and coverage of the event by Obama Foodorama and AOL news.) What can we expect from this program, and how will it impact Foodlink’s 10 counties in upstate NY? I visited the site myself to see what it was all about.

Elmo, SuperGrover & the new Superfood Muppets

The easy-to-get-to site (www.sesamestreet.org/food) features videos, games, workbooks, downloads, new SuperFoods Muppets, Elmo trying a kiwi, and real family stories about coping with food insecurity. Playlists such as Healthy Snacks features Cookie Monster’s now infamous reversal: “Cookies are a Sometimes Food;” Try New Foods beckons viewers to “Try It! / Prueba!” and Let’s Eat Together features interactive games to help Momma and Baby Bear make a “tewiffic owange smoothie.”

One of my favorite segments was a longer one: Healthy Food on a Budget,  a video clip on Food for Thought’s main page, which highlights a variety of families dealing with the recent economic downturn, and how they cope with the difficulty to obtain food and resulting emotions. Children and parents take viewers along as they depend on food pantries, food stamps, following a budget and shopping seasonally and locally. Check out the “Sizzle Reel,” a shorter version embedded below, for an overview of available content.

 Food for Thought, “a multimedia program designed to help support families who have children between the ages of 2 and 8 and are coping with uncertain or limited access to affordable and nutritious food,” is chock full of quality information and resources, thanks to a stellar advisory team of food insecurity experts from Feeding America, Headstart, WIC, Meals on Wheels, and world-class institutions such as Cornell University. (PDF list of advisors).

“Seventeen million American children—nearly one in four—are food insecure, meaning they do not receive food that meets basic nutritional needs due to financial instability.  Of these children, more than half (9.6 million) are under the age of six.” (Official press release) Foodlink’s service area is no different. I’m thankful for this new resource, the attention that food insecure families are receiving, and hopeful that these resources will encourage more families in our 10 counties (and across the country!) that it is possible to eat well on a budget.

-Rachel Staver, RD
Nutrition Resource Manager

p.s. Maybe there is something to the singing-dancing-food-segments that can affect how we think about food when we’re young.  I still remember the blond boy on Sesame Street who sliced and scooped and peeled his way to an amazing fruit salad (watch below), and my co-worker can still bust out Epcot’s Kitchen Kaberet “veggie veggie fruit fruit, veggie fruit!” (documented here: skip to 3:25)
Generation-so-unhealthy-you-won’t-outlive-your-parents, there is hope for you too, thanks, yet again, to Sesame Street. In my humble opinion, the next step for raising the collective awareness of this intiative would be to get Cookie Monster to highlight it when he hosts Saturday Night Live. Perhaps Secretary Vilsack can make a guest appearance as well…

“Spin!”

The sound of the Salad Spinner shouting her command to the foods was almost lost amidst giggles. While the fruits, vegetables, low fat milk, and baked chicken were sprinting across the field, the potato chips, big mac, and nacho cheese were completing their somber, slow walk. By the time everyone reached the other side, most of the “junk foods” had decided they wanted to be “healthy foods” so as to avoid getting caught by the Spinner.

Throughout the summer, approximately 300 Rochester kids participated in games such as “Salad Spinner” and veggie relay races as part of Foodlink’s fledgling kidsCAN (Cooking, Activity, and Nutrition) program. Kids are encouraged to do even simple exercises, such as running in place, to keep their muscles strong and be fit. Physical activity is a central component of the new initiative (in fact, it’s the “A” in CAN).

KidsCAN is a series of 3 classes that focus on exercise as well as what kinds of foods are needed for a healthy body, where our food comes from, and why eating plant foods is important for our communities.  In keeping with Foodlink’s mission to end hunger through fostering nutritional wellness, the kidsCAN program aims to give kids opportunities to try new foods, thereby expanding their understanding of healthful options.

So what entices kids to give unfamiliar vegetables a shot? Over the summer kids got their hands on fresh vegetables such as green beans, zucchini, purple cabbage, sugar snap peas, and Brussels sprouts. After an introduction to the vegetables and some nutrition facts, kids washed and prepared the vegetables to make stir-fry, soup, or salad.  Kids are adept at snapping the ends off green beans, tearing lettuce, breaking apart broccoli, and even slicing zucchini (with a little help). And the kids really want to do these jobs! By getting hands-on experience with the food, the kids are more likely to eat them as well. Even the most doubtful child will usually take a bite or two of their “creation.” The best part is when the kids ask for seconds.

Can (CAN!) we have our own food revolution right here in Rochester? The answer from the kids is a resounding yes. Not only do they want to jump up and down, do jumping jacks, or toe touches, but they also want to learn more about the foods they can find in their world. Stay tuned for more news from the soon-to-be nutrition experts- our city’s kids.

A fun, easy recipe to make with your kids. Let kids help by measuring and mixing sauce ingredients and choosing veggies to use. (Approved by kidsCAN kids!)

Sweet and Sour Vegetables

Ingredients

1 Tbs honey

1 Tbs lemon juice

1 tsp light soy sauce

¼ tsp ginger

1 cup pineapple or orange juice

2 Tbs oil

16 ounces mixed vegetables (examples: carrots, broccoli, green beans, snow peas), fresh or frozen

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients except vegetables into a bowl, mix and set aside
2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in skillet and add vegetables. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until vegetables are crisp-tender.
3. Add sweet and sour sauce and cook for another 2 minutes or until mixture comes to a boil.
4. Serve immediately. This dish is great over pasta or brown rice.

Source: USDA recipe finder

Laura Sugarwala, Foodlink Nutrition Educator, registration eligible

from left: Rachel Staver, Nutrition Resource Manager; Erica Messner, Urban Fellow; Laura Sugarwala, Summer Nutrition Educator; Nicole Lemcke, University of Buffalo Dietetic Intern

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Nutrition Department at Foodlink knows what that means as this summer, as we have enjoyed the hard work of 4 new interns and staff. From a foreign-exchange high-school student to a second-career nutritionist, I am full of gratitude for the chance to work with each of them and see their work blossom. Here they share some words of reflection:

Clemence Besançon, our high schooler, came all the way across the ocean from the great city of Paris, France. She writes:

The Nutrition Department is one of the most human parts of Foodlink. Here, there are no worries, there is only teaching and caring for others.

Being with this department has permitted me to talk to people, to ask them questions. As a foreigner, it was at first an occasion to speak English, but it became also an occasion to discover many people. It was for me a way to learn from the inside how we think and live in another part of the world. The hyper-motivated team of the Nutrition Department made sure I could mostly fill these goals.

My main work, surveying the sites of the Summer Meal program, made me understand the importance of teaching children nutrition basics, and made me want to learn more about it.

And, most of all, I really spent a great time here.

Erica Messner is our Urban Fellow. Her main projects have been planning the Summer Meals kickoff event (which Terra wrote about here), and developing, conducting, and analyzing a survey for the kids and staff at Freshwise’s Summer Meals sites in order to improve our program. Here she shares a memorable moment:

I remember surveying Camp Seneca in particular; perhaps because of all of the U-turns it took to get there.  More likely though, it was that one kid I talked to with the red mohawk.  He was about seven and he was explaining to me that healthy food makes you feel better when you’re sick.  He learned this from his mom, the vegetarian.  He then told me with a questioning look that he was an, oh what’s it called, omnivore? I nodded and told him that was exactly the right word.  He responded by jumping out of his seat and proceeding to ask every camp counselor whether or not they were an omnivore.

That morning, I learned how to get to the zoo and I learned that there is at least one seven year in Rochester who knows what an omnivore is, and he’s spreading the word.  In summary, kids get excited when you’re excited, and here in the nutrition department, we’re excited about healthy eating.

Nicole Lemcke is one step further down the road as is in the last rotation of her dietetic internship at the University of Buffalo. Her work has focused on recipe development for emergency agencies, as well as health fair education displays:

In my small world of nutrition, I have had little exposure to the side of nutrition that deals with hunger and food insecurity. Thanks to my experience at Foodlink this summer I feel as if I am well versed in this area and can conquer the world of hunger, one dented can at a time. I am proud to have worked for such a great company and I hope my contribution of various projects and efforts will serve the company and community well.

Finally, Laura Sugarwala, our summer nutrition educator, joined our team thanks to a mini-grant from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation. “Kids CAN,” a series of three modules, engages youth at Freshwise’s summer meal sites in Cooking, Activity, and Nutrition.

I’ve been learning a lot! I’m psyched about how diverse the nutrition field can be and how many skills can be used. There are so many interesting and exciting things to talk about with kids, from where plants come from to how our bodies use nutrients and everything in between. I am very thankful for the opportunity to introduce kids to fruits and vegetables they might not otherwise know.

I love working with an awesome group of brilliant people. Everyone at Foodlink is super innovative and funny to boot. Everyone’s sense of humor contributed to a general gaiety that accompanies hard work. The Foodlink Olympics (especially food-drive-collection-barrel racing) definitely solidified my idea of the staff as being able to joke and play as well as move a top notch company forward.

Moral of the story – we love our interns. Think about joining us next year!

Rachel Staver, RD

Nutrition Resource Manager

I was running down my checklist and making sure the Foodlink staff knew their duties for the day as the first bus filled with excited children arrived at Marina Auto Park. This was one of many buses to drop off loads of school aged children to the home of the Rochester Rhinos for our Summer Meals Kick off on July 1^st.

The Summer Meals Program was created to ensure that children in lower-income areas could continue to receive nutritious meals during summer vacation, when they do not have access to school lunch or breakfast. Although millions of children depend on nutritious free and reduced-price meals and snacks at school for nine months out of the year, just a fraction of them receive the free meals provided by the Summer Food Service Program during the summer months. Foodlink’s Summer Meals Program provides over 2,300 meals to 57 sites in Rochester. Children receive well-balanced meals that go beyond state requirements. Meals include whole grains, fresh fruit, vegetables, lean meat and low-fat white milk.

The kick off is an annual event that we invite all of our summer meals sites to attend; it’s a day of sun, fun, and food for the kids! Unlike past years this year’s event was in conjunction with a delivery from Tyson Foods that we won through the We Can End This Campaign. Over 270 children arrived at 9:30 am where they received a yogurt parfait before they got involved with the array of activities that were offered to them.

There were inflatable bounce houses and obstacle courses as well as a face painting station.  Our nutrition department did a great job with healthy activities like hula hooping and jump roping as well as many nutrition related craft projects; apple painting, make your own paper plate vegetable pizza, sidewalk chalk your favorite healthy foods and the list continues. Every time I asked one of the kids if they were having fun they got a big smile and screamed in excitement.  Cool Can made an appearance and got his photo taken with the majority of the children.

While the kids kept themselves busy there was a press conference held to announce Tyson Foods 15 ton donation to Foodlink through the We Can End This Campaign. Tyson Foods is an important community partner in the fight against childhood hunger.

After the press conference and hours of playtime everyone lined up for lunch! We had a cook out with local grass fed burgers on wheat rolls, baby carrots, nectarines, milk and fresh fruit smoothies.. yum! Once the Rhinos and kids filled their stomachs out to the field they went! Groups of 15-20 kids got paired with one of the soccer players and worked on ball handling skills, fundamentals of the game as well drills. It is an opportunity that many of the children would never have a chance to experience.

The day wrapped up around 1pm, between being in the sun and running around making sure everything went smoothly, I was exhausted but elated that everything went so smoothly. Most importantly the children had a great time! I am sure they slept well that night, I know I did.

For more photos from the event become a friend of Cool Can on facebook!

Enjoy the sun!

Terra Keller

Senior Associate of Community Engagement

This week I was talking with a coworker about his young son’s love of the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.  I think most people can look back in their childhood memories and recall watching Augustus Gloop fall into the chocolate river and Violet turn violet.  This was a magical world full of candy and sweets that you could only experience through a TV or movie screen.  But over the last 39 years these confections have moved from a fantasy to an everyday childhood reality.

Last week, in reading a blog by Marion Nestle (award winning author and New York University professor), I discovered that Mead Johnson announced it was discontinuing its Enfagrow Chocolate Toddler Formula.  Pause for reflection… there is/soon to be was a chocolate toddler formula.  This “nutritious” drink for your picky toddler contains 19 grams of sugar per 6 ounces.  While we should be glad that Mead Johnson is pulling this product off shelves, they are keeping their Vanilla Toddler Formula which contains 17 grams of sugar per 6 ounces.  In comparison, regular white milk contains 9 grams of sugar (natural, not added) per 6 ounces, and Coca Cola contains 19.5 grams of sugar per 6 ounces.

In their defense, Mead Johnson stated:

“The current labeling for Enfagrow Premium vanilla, indicates 17 grams of total sugar, but even that is overstated due to precautionary rounding — the real figure probably falls closer to 15 (14-16). The majority (approximately three-quarters) of the sugar in our product comes from lactose (that is naturally occurring in milk). So while we do add a small amount of sugar (about 4 grams or 1 teaspoon in a 7 fl. oz. serving) to our Enfamil Premium vanilla product to improve the for finicky eaters, the sugar in our flavoring equates to about 15 calories and is less than 2% of a toddler’s daily allowance of calories.”

My brother & I didn't need chocolate formula

Now let me be clear, I am no baby expert.  I do not have a degree in child psychology, nor do I have any children of my own.  But I was raised in a good Irish Catholic family which provided me with enough siblings and cousins to build my babysitting resume.  Those babysitting experiences never included chocolate or vanilla formula.  What happened to regular milk or water?!  Filling children with sugar at a young age only leads to health problems and obesity.  Mead Johnson does not have your baby’s health in mind, only the sound of a cash register.

America, get outraged.

Maria Oberst

Resource Development Manager and Skim Milk Drinker

As the rain began to fall this past Thursday evening, I watched thirteen smiling Foodlink faces mix with the 9,102-strong crowd of runners, walkers and joggers at the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Corporate Challenge. This year’s event brought together companies from around the Greater Rochester area to participate in a 3.5 mile fundraising run/walk on the RIT campus.  As an employee of less than three months, I was allowed to participate only as a fan, but I cheered from start to finish under my red umbrella.

I was lucky to be in attendance not only as a fan, but also as a representative of the Urban Fellows program through the University of Rochester.  The Rochester Urban Fellows Program takes qualified undergraduate students with a connection to Rochester and places them in summer internships with non-profit community-based organizations like Foodlink.  The goal of this program is to encourage college students to learn about urban issues and engage with our community.   We’ve also been volunteering as a group at many community events – you may have seen us at the Aberdeen Square Fair or the 5k River Run for Youth Harmony.

Thursday night, however, we were recognized as the main beneficiary of the Chase Corporate Challenge.  We received a generous donation that will help facilitate our program this year as well as expand opportunities for community engagement in the future.  We were all so excited to be able to attend and meet all of the great people participating.

As the first walkers crossed the finish line the rain began to clear and a double rainbow crossed the sky.  Companies across the sea of tents warmed up their grills and prepared for the delicious cookout that followed.

The evening concluded with an awards ceremony honoring the winners of the race and the Urban Fellows.  Foodlink was recognized for our INCREDIBLE t-shirt, designed by Rachel Staver and printed by local screen printing company, AVS.  The light blue t-shirts incorporated the Chase Corporate Challenge on the front with the slogan “To chase away hunger, Foodlink’s Backpack Program schools need corporate sponsors. Will you take the challenge?” The back of the shirt features a blue backpack with the phrase “run with the pack.”  The t-shirt won the title “Most Creative Design” and Foodlink was awarded $1000 to donate to the Backpack program.

All in all, it was an exciting night for a good cause.  As an Urban Fellow I’d like to thank everyone who supported or participated in the event for their generosity.

I’m looking forward to a terrific summer with Foodlink!

Erica Messner

Urban Fellow Intern

The sun shines through my office window and beats on my desk. I am not one to complain about summer, especially summers in Rochester, it is a reward for surviving the long tundra-esque winters and bi polar spring. Summer means more than sunshine, cookouts and pools in the Flower City. It is a great time to be a Rochesterian! There are sporting events, festivals, concerts, farm markets and races.  Since this isn’t my personal blog I should probably relate this to Foodlink , huh? Well, believe it or not all of the events listed above benefit Foodlink .

Rochester is a haven of 5ks for the running enthusiast. Running season has been underway since Johnny’s Running of the Green back in March. Most recently was the Chase Corporate Challenge which was hosted at RIT for its 20^th annual  race in Rochester on Thursday June 3^rd.  The Foodlink team consisted of 13 employees and though we didn’t win the race we did win the t-shirt design contest.  We received a $1,000 check, which will be put toward our BackPack Program.

Festivals, there are over a dozen festivals throughout the summer months beginning with the Lilac Festival that just came to an end all the way through Clothesline which takes place in mid September.  Freshwise Kitchen will have a booth at many of the festivals offering , local grass fed beef burgers, portabello caps, salads and in season fruit smoothies. A clean, healthy alternative to the cliché festival food.  Freshwise is a social enterprise of Foodlink, so all of the profits get put back into the food bank to help end hunger. Good Food. Good Cause. For a list of the festivals they will be attending click here.

Rochester and the surrounding areas have a lot of great venues for concerts both indoors and out. The Blue Cross Arena, Highland Bowl, Water Street Music Hall, CMAC  as well as an abundance of parks and or parking lots (referencing Party in the Park which kicks off next Thursday June 10^th). Rock the Cans is a concert sponsored by Genesee Brewery. The line up features The Gin Blossoms, Soul Asylum, and Uncle Plum. Join us Saturday, June 26, 2010 at the Genesee Brewery, 445 St. Paul Street. Gates open at 3:30, All proceeds benefit Foodlink. Don’t forget to bring a can of food to help Foodlink Rock the Cans! Tickets are $12, and available at all Wegmans stores or online. Click here for more information.

Lastly, summer is synonymous with farm markets, and there are an abundance of them in the area. Freshwise Farms will be at many of these markets throughout the summer.  Freshwise can be found at markets Tuesday – Sunday. For updates on market “where-abouts” become a fan of Freshwise on Facebook. Foodlink is sponsoring a farm market at Washington Square,downtown on Wednesdays from 11-2pm. This Foodlink sponsored Farm Market has an array of local farmers and vendors to provide you with fresh, local, affordable vegetables, fruit, flowers and artisan goods during your lunch break. So stop by grab some fresh produce or even a burger from Freshwise kitchen, who will be cooking to order on site.

Enjoy the sun!

Terra

Senior Associate of Community Engagement