Help Your School and Get Healthy: Volunteer!

If you are a parent with a child (or two) in public school you should know the importance of being involved with your child's school. Since our son has been in pre-k (now kindergarten) my wife and I have helped out in many ways. We like to use our interests, skills and knowledge in art, music and food to help out. As a parent there are so many ways to use your own expertise to help out. Or perhaps start something that you have been interested in doing but have never had the opportunity. Everyone wins that way. If every parent in a school gave just a little time throughout the school year the school would be that much more enriched. Especially in these tough economic times.

A good example of getting active with your child's school in a way that uses a skill and interest that one has is the subject of an interview I conducted with Stacey Bucovy, whom I met at my son's school PS 10. Stacey Bucovy was owner/chef of Fresh Dish Catering Company for 12 years up until her son Marc was 1 year old. He's 6 now and has a 3 year old sister, Jacqueline. Now she is self-described personal chef to the Bucovy family plus chauffeur, house cleaner, personal assistant and active PTA member. Stacey discusses Healthy Steps Committee that she has co-founded. Among the events that this committee organized is coming next week and open to the public, celebrity Chef Dan Barber who will talk about sustainable seafood.

1. Tell me a little bit about Healthy Steps Committee and what inspired you to help start it at PS 10? The Healthy Steps committee was started as a way to add to the dialogue on the issues of children's health and nutrition. I believe that there is an actual mandate to have a committee like this in every school and we chose to do it here to fill the void.
2. What are the short term and long term goals of the committee?
In terms of short and long term goals I think we did things a little backwards. We started off with a bang with the Health expo and the lecture series but we probably should have built up a little more familiarity with a newsletter and a couple of school time events. One idea we have is to do a lunchroom project where students interview each other about what they like to eat, what they are having for lunch, etc. and then to post this information up on a big bulletin board so that they can read their responses. Our long term goal is to involve students, teachers and parents in fun and informative activities about health and nutrition.
3. Jane Brody, personal health columnist for the NY Times and best selling author recently spoke at PS 10 how did you book her to speak and what did she discuss?
Jane Brody is an acquaintance from the YMCA. She lives in Brooklyn so I asked her if she would speak. Her topic that evening was how to feed your kids healthfully in this fast-food, take-out world. She did a great job. She told the audience how she raised her children. Her advice was simple, which is easy to forget how to be these days. Make food in batches and eat it over 2 or 3 days or freeze it; don't buy packaged cakes, cookies or chips or you will eat them; decrease a child's high fat diet gradually, for example blend whole milk with 1% milk and when your child becomes accustomed to the new taste decrease the fat content again until you arrive at complete skim; if possible serve dinner after school if that's the time you can get him/her to eat most nutritiously; keep a bowl of fruit salad in the fridge to snack on. She had loads of good advice and she advised us to buy her cookbook for healthy recipes for quick breads.
4. The next speaker you have coming to the school is Dan Barber on Tuesday, May 12 at 6:00 pm. Tell me a little bit about Dan and what he will be discussing?
Dan Barber is a celebrity chef who co-owns the Blue Hill restaurant in NYC and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in upstate NY. He is the east coasts answer to Alice Waters. At his farm upstate he grows all the produce and raises all the animals that are served in the restaurant. He will be speaking at P.S.10 about seafood. His lecture is entitled "Fishing...for the birds?" or the story of how one sustainable fishery changed Dan's view of seafood. Tell everyone you know to come.
5. Healthy Steps held it's first health expo in March (was it March?), were you pleased with the results and what was accomplished?
I was very pleased with the results of the Health Expo. We had it in March to celebrate National Nutrition Month. It completely confirmed the idea that you can mix education with pleasure. From the gardening table where children planted sprouts that they could take home, to the fitness demos where they learned exercises, and at the food stations where children sampled exotic fruits and learned fun facts about them. We also had nurses there to answer any health question you might have or to take your blood pressure. The Green committee participated with a wonderful exhibit and we also served dinner. I think we should have one every year.
6. Any advice for parents at other schools who may want to start a similar committee at their school?
I think that if you are concerned about the current obesity crisis and how huge food companies now have us addicted to sugar, salt and fat the school system is the best place to create a movement. You have the exact audience you need to reach out to and make positive change. You just have to approach the PTA with a plan.

Selfless + Food= Community

That's my Park Slope Food Co-op crew C1 Squad (l to r, Tom, Stephanie, Yusako, Matthew behind, me, Mujafi) on the left that cooks meals at Park Slope's C.H.I.P.'s soup kitchen every four weeks as part of our membership responsibility. I've managed to be in a position to use my passions in life music and now food to help people who are less fortunate. But this article is not about me. While I acknowledge that I am proud to be doing this, I also know it's part of an obligation that I am fulfilling. I love the challenge of cooking for over 100 people in just a few hours using produce that the Co-op can not sell but is edible mixed with other random ingredients. I get as much out of my experience as a chef as hopefully our guests get enjoyment and nutrition out of their meal.

What I will write about are the people who come to the kitchen to volunteer because they care about helping people who are less fortunate. I'm not a very religious man but from my understanding of Hindu you reach Nirvana (heaven) by being selfless. I've met lot's of people over the years that should have a place in a peaceful afterlife for the good deeds they have done on earth.

The picture on the right below is of Serita Lewis, a photographer who is volunteer leader at the soup kitchen. She is one of the many selfless people I have met who come to the kitchen to help make sure that the clients we serve get fed a nutritious, balanced and tasty meal. Serita uses her photojournalistic skills to tell the stories of people who are homeless through her blog www.livingrough.com.
"This project is my way of documenting the humanity of people living on the fringes of their cultures, just outside the norm. I hope to portray the unique stories that have shaped each person into the individual that they are, and by each journey to illustrate the connections between us all. No guilt-trips and no rosy picture painting either… Simply people as people; Humanity in all our grace and tenderness and pain".

Serita's interviews with 4 men (Serita's photo's of George on the left and Chris on the right down below are two of the men) who are homeless offers a personal, insightful, sincere, dignified and honest look into the complex issues of homelessness without being judge-mental or patronizing. It's difficult sometimes in our busy lives to pass by someone who is homeless and take a moment to consider that there's a person underneath the old tattered clothes. Not many people actually slow down enough to converse on a human level as Serita has done.

Another volunteer leader I'd like to mention with admiration is Dali Boczek. Dali has been coming to C.H.I.P.'s for over 5 years. She drives all the way from Suffolk County on Long Island. Not only does she volunteer her time but she usually comes with food she has purchased from Costco, like packages of chicken, fresh herbs, homemade sufrito, bags of rice and cookies. Her famous Spanish rice is a very popular dish among the clients, never any leftovers when we serve that. She promised me her secret recipe but so far it's still a secret. Last December Dali came to her shift despite the fact that she had just lost her job after I think 20 years or so for the same company, and on top of that being really under the weather too. Funny thing about people like Serita and Dali and the countless volunteers I have met they don't brag about what they do, they do it with quiet grace. That is what being selfless is all about and the best way to build a strong community.