New Grant Brings Fruit & Vegetable Gardens to Schoolyards!

by The Meal Makeover Moms on January 16th, 2010

Welch’s is one of our blog sponsors, and when they told us about their new Harvest Grants program, we were eager to share the news with all of you. In conjunction with Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine, Harvest Grants aims to help schools across the U.S. plant and grow fruit and vegetable gardens.

Two K-8 schools in every state will receive a Welch’s Harvest Grant:  Welch’s will award 100 garden packages, together valued at $35,000, to the winning schools.  Five schools will receive $1,000 packages; 25 schools will receive $500 packages; and 70 schools will receive $250 packages. Each package will be filled with a variety of tools, seeds, and educational materials that will help students connect with nature and better understand the origins of their food supply.

Between leaders like Michelle Obama whose White House Garden ignited the public’s interest in backyard vegetable gardens and chefs like Alice Waters who founded the Edible Schoolyard, there is no doubt in our minds that the popularity of fresh produce straight from the backyard garden is growing (even Liz, a self-professed plant killer, sowed her first backyard garden last spring with her family).

Getting kids out of the classroom and into the dirt teaches children about sustainability and where their food comes from, and it motivates them to eat nutritious fruits and veggies. They learn as they dig, and it’s fun!

If this sounds like something you think YOUR school would be interested in starting (or if they already have a garden that you think could use a little nurturing), tell your children’s teachers about the Grant (they’re the ones who can apply). Entries will be judged by experts at the National Gardening Association, and the deadline for submission is February 6, 2010. For all the details and the official rules go to the Scholastic Harvest Grants page. By the way, our friends at Welch’s tell us the application will only take 10 minutes to fill out!

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1 Comment | Filed Under CulinaryAdventures, Fruits, GivingBack, Vegetables 

Janice’s Mother’s Day Road Race

by Janice on May 12th, 2009

Janice, Mary, and Courtney at finish lineMy Mother’s Day started the same way it has for the past 12 years with a breakfast of our Hearty Cornmeal Pancakes topped with pecans and chocolate chips followed by a 3 ½ mile road race.  The Melrose Run for Women benefits the Melrose Alliance Against Violence, an organization dedicated to violence prevention in the community. Every year, I run the race with my neighbor and good friend, Mary. Yesterday, Mary’s 24-year old daughter, Courtney, joined us and was kind enough to slow her pace considerably so we could all cross the finish line together!  As always, it felt great to participate in such a worthwhile cause.

Wearing our Donate Life t-shirts, we pounded the pavement with the goal of also promoting organ donation awareness.  Every day, 18 people across America die waiting for an organ transplant.  The reason this issue is so near and dear to our hearts is that our friend’s 20-year-old daughter, Laura, died last year waiting for a liver.  Her struggle prompted a group of friends to form Donate Life Melrose and to urge everyone we know to sign up to be an organ donor (depending where you live, you can even sign up on the Registry of Motor Vehicles website).  I’m always amazed when I hear that one organ donor can save the lives of eight people, so please consider signing up … don’t wait!

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4 Comments | Filed Under GivingBack 

Pretty in Pink

by The Meal Makeover Moms on October 9th, 2008

Although we typically blog about healthy family recipes, tips for feeding kids, and our dietitian/mom opinions on new food products, we’re switching gears today in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To celebrate all the great strides in breast cancer research and the progress yet to come, we have added three pink items to our current line-up of “bling” now available at our new Meal Makeover Moms’ Store (located at Cafepress.com).  All the proceeds from the October/November sales of our pink Meal Makeover Moms’ hat, t-shirt and long-sleeve shirt will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

There are many creative ways to raise money for cancer. Last weekend, Janice walked in her fifth annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. There, she met James Hilton — he’s the zany guy in the photo wearing a giant pink hairdryer — who founded www.myhairdryerforcancer.org. Through his organization, he gets celebrities to donate an autographed hairdryer and then auctions them off. Proceeds go to cancer research. How cool is that?!

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Comment | Filed Under GivingBack 

Don’t Take it with You!

by The Meal Makeover Moms on February 19th, 2008

This blog posting is a bit unusual. Instead of offering up our latest favorite recipe or nutrition news, we’d like to talk about organ donation. You see, Janice’s friend Ann has a 20-year-old daughter named Laura who is in desperate need of a liver transplant. They have moved to Jacksonville, Florida where the wait for a liver is shorter than it is here in Boston.
Thousands of people die each year waiting for a transplant. Ann says the most important thing her friends can do for them it to spread the word about the importance of organ donation. We encourage you to learn more about organ and tissue donation and consider becoming a donor, as we have. Follow this link to The Gift of a Lifetime, an educational, web documentary where you can learn more: http://www.organtransplants.org/. You may well save a life, or two, or three…

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1 Comment | Filed Under GivingBack