Nutritional Detectives

where:

Queens

who:

Astoria CSA

impact area(s):

Education

amount needed:

$52

raised so far:

$52

summary

Nutrition Detectives helps kids measure and compare healthy food items.

the problem

We make local fruits and veggies more accessible to our community by running the CSA, which partners with Golden Earthworm Farm on Long Island. We also do educational programming on things like eco-friendly cleaning, environmental issues, and nutrition for children and adults who are part of the CSA and members of the community as well. We also provide subsidies for a certain amount of shares to make this produce available to members who could otherwise not afford to join and help increase awareness of agricultural issues among this disadvantaged group.

the solution

By bringing fresh, local organic vegetables to our neighborhood we are greatly reducing the amount of energy it takes to bring food to our tables. Our outreach and educational programming further teaches members about how they can involve themselves in combating environmental issues, whether on an individual level (by making their own non-toxic cleaning products) or on a governmental level (bringing them to awareness about issues in the food industry). In addition, we are spreading awareness about agricultural issues to a demographic that for the most part is not exposed to this message in our subsidized share outreach.

the steps

Children are given 5 sets of product that are grouped based on a common ingredient (i.e. apple juice, apple chips, apple pie in the apple group) from grocery store and asked to place products in order of healthiest to least healthy and explain answers.