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Article reprinted from the Valdosta Daily Times here
June 16, 2010
LAMP lights the way in teaching kids about nutrition
VALDOSTA — Lowndes Associated Ministries to People Inc. (LAMP) recently kicked off a year-long program designed to educate inner city Valdosta and Lowndes County youth about good health and nutrition.
“It’s a whole person concept,” said Diane Howard, LAMP’s ConAgra Heart and Hands Project director. “We’re targeting eating right, staying fit, staying out of trouble (and) abstinence.”
The ConAgra Heart and Hands Project kicked off June 16 after the organization received a portable organic urban garden from Portable Home Garden in Arcadia, Fla. Local children and teenagers helped with the delivery, setup and planning of the home garden. They planted tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, squash and beans.
“The kids did plant. They had a ball,” Howard said. “It was like little ants running around.”
The youth range in age from 10 to 17. Some are residents of New Horizons, an emergency housing shelter at LAMP. Others live in other areas of the Valdosta-Lowndes County community.
“I like the mix (of age groups) here,” Howard said. “It seems to be working out OK. I know the older ones that can work with the younger (kids) and I think that’s important.”
From June 1 to Aug. 6, the youth will go on field trips once a week, visiting farms throughout the area. So far, they have toured farms in four counties — Brooks, Lanier, Berrien and Lowndes — picking strawberries, blueberries, peaches, cucumbers and squash.
Every Monday a van is leased to transport the children to the field trip destination. Howard also brings a cooler full of sandwiches and water.
Keneisha Scott, 13, and Deven Kirkland, 15, have been on every field trip with the program.
“(We are) able to see different farms and (learn) how to take care of your body,” Scott said.
“It (food) actually starts from the farms and it takes people working out there (to get fruit and vegetables),” Kirkland said. “Without farms, we’d have nothing.”
Jarquez Brown, 17, is Howard’s assistant, helping with watering and watching over the plants at the LAMP location.
“He’s the muscle for me (and) he helps me with the kids, whatever I need,” Howard said. “There’s nothing he can’t handle. He’s absolutely amazing.”
“I like it,” he said. “It’s a fun experience.”
The ConAgra Heart and Hands Project has three phases taking place this year. Phase one will teach youth about the process of planting and growing fruits andvegetables and they will visit different farms every week.
“Phase one is know your farmer, know your food, grow your food,” Howard said.
Phase two will take place this fall, with the youth learning about nutrition and exercise. They will also make hot pepper and pickled pepper sauces and design labels for the sauces before they go on sale in Homerville at Station 11 in October and November.
Phase three will teach the youth how to create PowerPoint presentations with the help of Valdosta State University’s Mass Media Department, as well as other area schools. The youth will be placed in teams to create a presentation on everything they learned during the program. They will share their presentations at civic club meetings, in classrooms and churches.
In January, Howard saw the request LAMP was going to make for the $25,000 grant from ConAgra Foods Foundation and decided to write the grant proposal for the program.
“I said, ‘We can do it. This is doable,’” she said. “I knew that with God’s blessing that this would be funded and it was.”
Before the custom-designed garden was delivered, the area had lots of trash, cigarette butts and broken glass, Howard said. After cleaning the area, the garden was designed to fit the location.
“This trashy heap has been redeemed and it’s now a lush, fruit-bearing urban garden,” she said.
To learn more about LAMP’s ConAgra Heart and Hands Project, contact Diane Howard at (229) 244-3998 or dhoward202@mchsi.com. To learn more about LAMP, visit www.lampinc.org/.