May 30, 2012

• Plants and Passion

  Aren’t you dying to know what happened to all my half dead and half eaten plants? One of the replanted lantana plants seems to be a little bit alive. It still had green leaves on it when I put it back in the earth, and after about a week, those leaves are still there, green, and unwilted. This seems promising for a plant that lived briefly in a weed bucket in the garage. The other one, though, looks like a dead, woody stump of a thing….but I’m leaving it there for now, if only as a warning to the Mr. that he better not pull anything else out of my barren flower bed! And what about the bunny salad lily plant, you ask? Well, the stalks I showed you in the earlier post still look the same, but something new seems to be sprouting in the pot! It might be more lilies! It also might be a weed, but the point is that something is living in there, and I think we can all agree to count that as a win, under the circumstances, right?

  I have been delivering food to school children through our local food bank’s “backpack program” since last Thanksgiving. I started off as a substitute driver, delivering to different schools as needed. But as of January, I have had a regular school that I visit every Thursday. I received an e-mail asking if I would want to continue to deliver over the summer, or move to a different program where they actually pack meals for the kids. If I deliver bags, my kids can ride along with me – and I think that would be a very valuable experience for them to have. However, I get the sense that there aren’t too many bags being delivered because of other feeding programs that take over during the summer months. I should know soon if I can get a summer gig driving the bags around. Packing meals is out for me, because I can’t bring the kids into the warehouse at the Food Bank (for liability reasons), and they are my full time summer gig.

  I have a growing passion for getting kids fed, and fed well. I’m glad I have gotten involved with this backpack program, but I want to do more. I have stepped up for some new volunteer responsibilities at the kids school next year, partly because it will give me direct access to some exciting things happening related to school gardening, farm-to-table initiatives, and the like. The school is partnered with a local farmer (so don’t worry – I won’t kill the plants), and he is increasingly involved with advocacy groups in D.C. and beyond. As my first child enters her last year of elementary school, it seems like the right time to start following some of my passion and see what may come of it.

  Interestingly enough, a woman you may have heard of named Michelle Obama seems to have a similar passion and has a bit more attention on her than I do. That’s ok – there are plenty of kids to feed and I’m happy to follow her lead, if I must! I’ve seen her promoting her new book, “American Grown,” on the talk show circuit. I really like her, and I’m even going to go to an actual book store and pay actual money for her book! (As opposed to my usual library addiction and lazy e-book downloading.) We have something else in common besides our interest in teaching kids about eating healthy – we have both danced in front of a crowd with elementary school kids, when no other adults were dancing. Yup, been there – done that, too.

   

   

  • 10:38 pm
  • 1 Comment