Welcome to the second issue of The Root of the Matter. Through our new monthly electronic communication, Collective Roots will keep you informed about recent successes, new initiatives, upcoming events, and ways you can get involved and support our work for food system change in East Palo Alto. 

Cookbook artwork by Neubia, 1st grade

Our Garden Club Cookbook has arrived! Garden Club is an after-school program of 10 students, ages 6-10, from the East Palo Alto Charter School. Every Friday we prepare a seasonal meal to enjoy together, and this recipe book is a compilation of our favorite dishes, featuring the beautiful art work of the garden club kids. 

Eron Sandler is the newest addition to the Collective Roots team.  She joins as Garden Manager and Educator. Eron has worked and taught in East Coast farms, gardens and environmental non-profits for the past 11 years. Her college and graduate school experience at Hampshire College and Antioch New England Graduate School focused on hands-on, experiential learning, which she is excited to continue with Collective Roots! Click here to read an interview with Eron. We will introduce you to more of our colleagues in subsequent newsletters.

Our next monthly workday will be Saturday, July 26th at the East Palo Alto Charter School Garden, from 8 am - noon. There will also be a tree workshop held in conjunction with this workday. Come one, come all! Click here for more information and directions. To sign up to be a team leader, call 650.324.2769 or email volunteer@collectiveroots.org.

Wale Adenjii, a Public Health Educator of San Mateo County Health Department of the Health Policy & Planning Unit and coordinator of the Middle Schools Youth Take Action Summit, explains a bit about the summit:

The summit was created to holistically address various topics that have been established as concerns for middle school students. These topics include nutrition/healthy eating and active living, conflict resolution, sexual health and substance-use.

In particular, the goal of a workshop lead by staff and students from Collective Roots will be to create momentum and guidance for youth adult coordinators and students to engage in nutrition education in new, non-traditional ways. Projects such as gardens and a student-created school salad bar get youth interested in looking at health from a different angle and empowering them to embrace healthy food choices and healthy living. Learning in this way is more than "eat your fruits and vegetables": it's about life and living. During the summit, with guidance youth will create an action plan for implementing a new project in their school, to take their learning to the next level.

The Details:

Middle Schools Youth Take Action Summit
October 1, 2008—8:30-3:00 pm
Foster City Library Community Center
1000 East Hillsdale Blvd, 2nd Floor
Foster City, CA

If you are interested in attending this event please click on the link BELOW and fill out the registration form by AUGUST 1ST, 2008. Please feel free to share the link! If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact Wale Adeniji at wadeniji@co.sanmateo.ca.us or 650-573-2978.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=HAyoTafD2Quu3aKZOQgUWA_3d_3d

One of the most extraordinary vegetables growing in our garden right now is a zucchini measuring 1 ft 4 in. in length!! We will most likely use it to make zucchini bread, but we recently tried a deliciously simple summer squash soup recipe that we would like to pass along, courtesy of the Hidden Villa CSA.

Summer squash is a category of plants that develop fruit during the summer and are eaten before their rinds harden and seeds develop (as opposed to winter squashes.) These include zucchini, pattypan squash and yellow crookneck squash.

Basil Summer Squash Soup

2-3 medium summer squash coarsely chopped

1 bunch of tender basil leaves

3 T. butter

Salt

Steam the squash vigorously until very tender 10-12 minutes.  Combine squash with leftover steaming water, basil leaves, and butter in a blender or food processor and puree. Salt to taste.  Serve immediately with sourdough bread.

Collective Roots is taking it on the road! We need a van to transport our students, volunteers, and staff and enable us to bring our programs to more schools and sites in the community. In alignment with our environmental mission and work, we will convert this van to use Bio-Diesel fuel.

The Cloud Star Company has made a generous donation to start this fund. Please consider making a donation that will bring us closer to this goal.

If you want to know more about biofuels, click here to see a Powerpoint presentation about where biofuels come from, why we use them, and how we can make them even better, by Stanford student Brede Kolsrud. Or click here for a one-page fact sheet.

NOTE: This newsletter employs hyperlinks that act as shortcuts to related documents or web pages. Click on the green underlined words in the articles above to find out more information.