Healthier eating is a hot topic in this country today. Media coverage of the First Lady’s initiative to reduce childhood obesity and instill
healthier eating habits is widespread. We even have ABC’s primetime reality show, “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” where the young English chef is trying to change the dietary habits in Huntington, West Virginia, dubbed America’s unhealthiest city by the Centers for Disease Control.

Here in Washington State obesity rates more than doubled between 1990 (9%) and 2004 (22%). I can’t imagine that things have been getting much better.

On South Whidbey, Good Cheer Food Bank, is leading a food revolution of its own. This involves back-to-basics healthy, low-cost cooking. Good Cheer has been steadily ramping up its efforts to provide fresh, nutritious food. This has been done by focusing on the right purchases for the Food Bank, then by creating an on-site garden, and now by teaching clients how to cook fresh, healthy, unprocessed food in convenient, affordable ways that dispel the notion that fast food has to be junk food.

A lot of people simply don’t know how to cook healthy, which is something we’re trying to change for our clients and the wider community. The Slow Food Movement is very much like what we are trying to do.

Slow food is the antithesis to fast food.  Fast food is popular since it is low priced but the cost to our health is a large one. The dollar menu or some healthy food?

The mission of Slow Food is to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. Slow Food is dedicated to bio-diversity (preservation of food variety) and sustainability (meeting present needs without compromising those of future generations). Slow Food works to support the small farmer, local artisans and preserves cultural food traditions.

Since relocating the Food Bank to the more spacious facility in Bayview in October 2007, Good Cheer has not only been able to increase the volume of food available to neighbors in need, but has made a concerted effort in improving the quality of food with an emphasis on fresh, local and less processed foods.

“We are very aware that the funds used to purchase food for our food bank comes from community donors and thrift store patrons, so we work really hard to spend the money wisely on the most nutritious food we can,” says Damien Cortez the Good Cheer Food Bank Coordinator.

One way the Food Bank encourages clients to select nutritious food is by assigning fresh vegetables, fruits, beans, rice and other raw staples with lower points. A one-person household has a base of 70 points to spend per month at the Food Bank, with an additional 10 points per person in their household.

They will rapidly run out of points selecting highly processed foods at 5 or 10 points instead of fresh vegetables and fruit for 1 point, or a ten pound sack of potatoes for 1 point versus a small box of instant mashed potatoes for 3 points. A can of baked beans is 2 points, whereas a five lb. bag of beans is only 1 point.

What we’re trying to do is to show the benefits to healthy food selections and how much further the basics can go in feeding a family, so that few refined foods and sweets (mainly donated items) are selected only on an occasional basis.

Part Two of this series will deal with education and some of the classes that you can find at the food bank.

Good Cheer!