Oregon Orientation

Every state which hosts FoodCorps service members has an orientation at the beginning of the service term, to help introduce site members to each other, to the sites and to the myriad of rules and regulations we need to know as food service workers.

This week, North Powder was incredibly lucky to be the host for Oregon FoodCorps Orientation, 2012! As well as spending time on food safety and teaching to standards, my fellow volunteers had also asked for some work they could help me with here. Because this community is overwhelming in its generosity and enthusiasm, on Tuesday we taught approximately 110 students in kindergarten-5^th grade how to make fruit smoothies, dehydrate apples, harvest and season sunflower seeds, and make salsa. Initially I was panicked by the amount of work we faced in just over two hours, but as soon as the teaching began I saw we were going to be okay. One of the other service members led the kindergarteners in making fruit smoothies, and even I was enthralled to watch her as we ripped kale apart and put it in the blender. The other service members were equally phenomenal as we taught knife skills to fourth graders, mixed different colors in the blender for first graders and learned about seed saving with the fifth graders as we plucked sunflower seeds from the dried-out blooms. As well as being exhaustingly exhilarating, I found this a great learning experience. The other FoodCorps members reminded me that we are all really good at what we do, and that I am perfectly qualified to share my knowledge and enthusiasm with this school.

Two days later I put this into practice by making crock-pot applesauce with the second grade, which was the first time I had interacted with these students. By mid-afternoon, the entire elementary-school building smelled like apples and cinnamon, and serving up the warm applesauce made me an instant friend to all of the second graders, and everyone else in the vicinity! This week was an appropriate reminder that I have the best job in the world in the most receptive community I could have imagined, and I need to take full advantage of this.

A summary of this week would also not be complete without an introduction to my new puppy, Juniper (Juni for short)! She is a one-year-old German Sheppard/Coonhound mutt whom I have adopted from the animal shelter. Highly energetic and largely untrained, she’s going to keep me very busy!