Loose Leaf Notes

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on April 9, 2009 and HERE.

“I call it ‘The New Math,’” said Harvest Moon store manager Katherine Chantal about the store’s “Healthy Snacks for Healthy Kids” display. “1+1=3. For every two snacks donated by customers, the Harvest Moon donates one more.”

 
Healthy Snacks for Healthy for Healthy Kids, a local program that provides snacks for school children, began last April when Karen Day, a Unitarian Universalist minister and community organizer, became aware of a need.

 
“I was at a planning meeting of Angel’s Bounty to address hunger and needs in Floyd County and someone said, ‘I work in the school system and I know there are some kids who come to school without snacks,”’ Day explained. She remembers thinking that bringing snacks to kids was a doable task to undertake. ‘We can do that,’ she said at the time.

 
Day and her husband, potter and writer McCabe Coolidge, began talking to their friends and neighbors. ‘I want to help with that,’ several people said upon hearing about the project.

 
The first contact Day and Coolidge made was with 1st grade Floyd Elementary School teacher Becky Thompson. “You don’t want to think about a kid without a snack when others have one. Becky and some other teachers were trying to fill the gap out of their own pockets,” Coolidge said, “buying snacks out of their own paychecks.”

 
Healthy Snacks received a $300 seed grant from Angels in the Attic. Jeweler Anne Vaughan matched that donation. Others donated crafts for sale to go to the program. When Chantal heard about it she put Coolidge in touch with the Cliff bar Representative who supplies The Harvest Moon with all natural organic energy bars. The company donated four cases of Cliff bars and the sales rep interviewed Chantal. They’re interested in spreading the Healthy Snacks idea and sponsoring other locales, Chantal said.

 
Pointing out the emphasis on the word “healthy” in Healthy Snacks, Coolidge said, “These are healthy snacks. Were getting the idea out to kids what is healthy.”

 
Initially five volunteers took turns buying snacks – crackers and cheese, granola bars, nuts, and dried fruits – and bringing them to Becky Thompson. “There’s a supply in Becky’s room now and teachers know and come in and get snacks. Kindergarteners and 1st graders only have snack time, but sometimes a teacher from an older grade comes in and gets a granola for a kid that didn’t get breakfast that day,” Day explained.

 
By May of last year the Healthy Snacks volunteer team was providing 100 snacks a week to the school. Efforts were stepped up when a teacher asked Day if they could supply 100 snacks a day so that every kid could have one during SOL testing.’

 
Day and Coolidge, who came to Floyd from North Carolina three years ago, have a long history with food. “We’ve worked in soup kitchens, started soup kitchens. I was a cook in a day care,” Coolidge said. In Asheville the couple started an urban garden project and Day was active in organizing CROP Walks (Community Responding to Overcoming Poverty), a Church World Service initiative that raises money for anti-hunger programs.

 
In Floyd, Day and Coolidge head up Empty Bowls, a fundraiser that benefits the New River Community Action Center’s Backpack Program, which sends some school children home for the weekend with backpacks full of food. At the end of school last year, the couple launched “Portable Produce,” delivering surplus produce from local farms to “people with no cars, mostly seniors, people with disabilities, and children involved in health intervention programs,” Day said.

 
The Healthy Snacks program has also been funded by a cash donation jar at the couple’s Wildfire Pots Studio in the Winter Sun building. Primarily a pottery studio, the space gives the projects visibility. “People come in and look at the snacks display, read the press coverage posted, and start asking question,” Coolidge explained.

 
Wildfire is growing along with the food sharing. The couple is planning to knock out a wall and expand the studio into an adjacent room to give more exposure to the projects. They hope to raise enough money for a cooler for produce, and baking healthy snacks on site is a possible future option. The studio expansion will be unveiled and celebrated at the next First Friday event, which falls on May 1st.

 
“Both Healthy Snacks and Portable Produce started with no money. It started with people willing to drive and to help.” Day pointed out. She refers to the food related projects as neighbor to neighbor sharing that has developed naturally, step by step. Citing the generosity of the community for making the projects successful, she said, “What we like to do is find people who want to help and make it easy for them to.”

 
The Healthy Snacks volunteer pool has also grown. The program now includes all four county elementary schools. The children appreciate that. Some made handmade cards thanking the volunteers for the snacks. ‘Thank you for the dilishies snacks for helping us do our SOL, one colorful card read.