Hump Month Blog #2: Foodie?

January is Hump Month for our 2014-15 VISTAs - they are half-way through their 12-month service commitment! Every Wednesday this month, NC Campus Compact will be publishing a reflective piece written by a VISTA. In these posts, our members look back on their first 6 months and ahead to the rest of the year.

Please note: Any opinions expressed on the VISTA VIEW blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views, opinions, or policies of North Carolina Campus Compact, the AmeriCorps VISTA program or the Corporation for National and Community Service.

By Natasha Vos
AmeriCorps VISTA for the Campus Kitchen program at Wake Forest University

Natasha at Turkey
Palooza

My friends call me a foodie. What does that even mean? A year ago I suppose my interpretation of foodie aligned well with the commonly accepted definition: “A foodie is a gourmet, or a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food and alcoholic beverages. A foodie seeks new food experiences as a hobby rather than simply eating out of convenience or hunger.” Living close to downtown Raleigh meant that I was always close to the newest and most exciting restaurants that served up unique dishes prepared with the freshest (and often local) ingredients. I considered myself a foodie because I spent much of my time and money exploring food culture, yet there was a part of me that felt a bit uncomfortable at times. While I was a student (and for some months after graduating) I worked as a bartender at a major chain hotel and I saw every day how much food went to waste. As a result, I began imagining how much food went to waste everywhere I went to eat.

Flash forward to today, halfway through my VISTA term with the Campus Kitchen program at Wake Forest University. I have moved to a new city, started working with a very different university community, and begun to unpack what food insecurity means and how it affects the larger community. The Campus Kitchen program at Wake Forest works to fight food insecurity in some of the most affected parts of Winston-Salem by partnering with several organizations to simultaneously reduce food waste. Food that has been prepared, but not served, is re-purposed into nutritional and delicious meals that are shared with our community partners. Additionally, a unique partnership with Fresh Market allows Campus Kitchen to bring fresh produce into areas of Winston-Salem designated as food deserts. Recently we have begun a partnership with the Cobblestone Farmer’s Market to glean leftover produce from farmers at the end of the weekly markets. All of this healthy and wonderful food, grown and harvested with care, goes to members of the community that struggle the most with obtaining fresh foods.

Produce from
Campus Garden

So what does all of this mean for me? Halfway through my VISTA year I am on a mission to rewrite the definition of foodie. I’m attempting to break the notion that we should only care about the final product in front of us. A true foodie should have a deep appreciation for food; where it comes from, how it was grown, who harvested it (and how they were treated), how it was prepared, and perhaps most importantly, who gets to eat it. Fresh and healthy food should not be a luxury afforded to those living in the right part of the city with the most money. If you care where the ingredients in your food come from and how they were prepared, then you should also care about where they end up.  

Food insecurity is a large concept and problem that weave together larger structural inequalities as well as local issues. There is work being done at the grassroots level as well as larger political efforts, but maybe if we, as a whole, stop thinking about food as a privilege and more as a basic right, we can shift our collective thinking. And what being a foodie means.  

Hump Month Blog #1: Little did I know this house would become my home

January is Hump Month for our 2014-15 VISTAs - they are half-way through the 12-month service commitment! Every Wednesday this month, NC Campus Compact will be publishing a reflective piece written by a VISTA. In these posts, our members look back on their first 6 month and ahead to the rest of the year.

Please note: Any opinions expressed on the VISTA VIEW blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views, opinions, or policies of North Carolina Campus Compact, the AmeriCorps VISTA program or the Corporation for National and Community Service.

By George Barrett

AmeriCorps VISTA at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, Chapel Hill

My name is George Barrett and I am a North Carolina Campus Compact VISTA at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History in Chapel Hill, NC. I am originally from Charlotte, and I attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I graduated in May 2014 with a degree in Anthropology and Minor in Music. I was drawn to the Campus Compact through my volunteer work at the Jackson Center my last semester of undergrad. I have grown to not only love this beloved community but truly feel a part of it. I hope to leap and grow even further in my remaining months at the Jackson Center. 

The following is a staff reflection piece George wrote for the Jackson Center website: 

George showing off one of his projects during a
NC Campus Compact site visit

From the moment I walked into the Jackson Center on a January afternoon, I knew this place was important and would somehow be a new and important member of my life. As a UNC senior, I was part of Anthropology 93 course, a social justice course that requires students to take part in a 30 hour service learning project. I needed a location and had come up empty up to that point. Then my professor dropped the name “The Jackson Center.” After visiting the website I decided to make a bold move. Without prior notice, I dropped into the charming brick house at 512 W. Rosemary St. Little did I know (or maybe I did) that this house would become my new home.

After volunteering under the direction of [NC Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA] Jacob Lerner for the entire semester, I applied and was lovingly offered the position of Coordinator of Advocacy and Organizing. Without a moment of hesitation I accepted the position, because sometimes there is an intangible and almost spiritual knowledge that tells the rational mind “this is right!” I joined the team in July and got rolling.

People often ask “What does the Jackson Center do?”, and are quickly reciprocated with a five minute soliloquy of the plethora of programs that intertwine to serve the Northside neighborhood. But if I have learned anything in my few months, it is that COMMUNITY is a dynamic and complex web that cannot not be packaged in a neat and calculated elevator speech. In this time I have been awarded the opportunity to coordinate the production of our Northside News, mobilize volunteers, facilitate advocacy groups around Housing Choice Vouchers and anti-bias policing, participate in neighborhood home repairs, outreach to 45 new student residents, and get to meet some of the most empowered individuals. Every day is different. Every day is active. Every day is community.

George at the Jackson Center

The Jackson Center is a unique space that has challenged me in the best way possible. It forces me to be better and forces me to listen! As our executive director Della Pollock always says, “Listen, listen again, and then listen again”. The members of this community have given me an education that is unparalleled in my four years at UNC. My involvement in the Northside community, from volunteer to staff member, have felt like a homecoming weekend that never gets to Monday.  I have been able to laugh, cry, and feel some type of way in this brief period of time… and I could not be happier.

 The Marian Cheek Jackson Center does not serve a community; it is a community. When things are still (which is very rare) and my mind takes a moment to stop fixating on task oriented concerns, I can exist in a clarity of pure fulfillment. Because we are making history!