Fifty young people from around the United States are convening today in Wisconsin to launch FoodCorps, the new national service organization dedicated to addressing childhood obesity and diet-related disease by building school gardens and developing Farm to School programs.
Chosen from over 1,200 applicants, the first class of FoodCorps Service Members will spend the week training for yearlong placements across 10 states: Arkansas, Arizona, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina and Oregon. The orientation includes a full day at the renowned Growing Power Community Food Center, Will Allen’s innovative urban farm project, where they will receive hands-on instruction about building gardens, educating children about healthy food, and more.
“These young leaders are dedicating a year of their lives to help give kids a relationship with healthy food that we hope will last a lifetime,” said Curt Ellis, co-founder and executive director of FoodCorps, and co-creator of the award-winning food documentary, “King Corn.”
Across the nation and the political spectrum, people understand that Americans and especially our children are in a health crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates that the number of obese children has tripled in the last 30 years, and for the first time in history the majority of Americas poor are not starving, but rather suffering from numerous diseases connected to overconsumption of calories, sugars, fats, and sodium.
“As a nation, we are tightening our fiscal belt, yet health-related obesity costs are projected to reach $344 billion by 2018. FoodCorps is a sound investment in a healthy future and gives our kids a chance to beat back the painful and costly epidemic of diet-related disease,” said co-founder and FoodCorps Program Director Debra Eschmeyer, herself a produce farmer and former outreach director of the National Farm to School Network.
In addition to establishing school gardens, FoodCorps Service Members will work with local food service directors to source more school meal ingredients from local farmers. They will also provide nutrition education to students.
Founded in 2010, FoodCorps is a national nonprofit organization that seeks to address the trend of childhood obesity and diet-related disease by increasing vulnerable children's knowledge of, engagement with, and access to healthy food, while preparing the next generation of leaders for careers in food, health and agriculture. The centerpiece of our work is an AmeriCorps public service program that places highly motivated young leaders in limited-resource communities of need where they conduct hands-on nutrition education, build and tend school gardens, and bring high-quality local food into public school cafeterias.
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