Community Gardens as Appleseeds
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER: August 2010-June 2018
Community Gardens as Appleseeds (CGA) is a registered 501c3 non-profit corporation. The goal of CGA is to promote sustainability, education, and the idea that every school should have an edible garden. CGA has provided stipends to help start community gardens in Haiti, Ethiopia, Israel, and other places around the world. I personally travelled to Iran in 2011 and awarded two stipends on behalf of CGA; one went to a pre-school and the second went to a Zoroastrian community center to help them start a community garden. As a member of the advisory board, I help CGA achieve various goals. We were successful in distributing the book "Agroecology. The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems" by Stephen R. Gliessman in Iran with help from Congressperson Anna Eshoo's office and the National Fellowship of Reconciliation. CGA is currently working on translating the book into Arabic and Hebrew.
PROJECT OPEN HAND
COMMUNITY NUTRITION EDUCATOR: November 2015-May 2017
Project Open Hand (POH) was started in 1985 with the intention of providing healthy meals to people who were suffering from HIV/AIDS in San Francisco. The specifics of where, how, and who POH serves have evolved over the years, but their driving principle has remained the same: food = love. Today POH provides meals and groceries to critically ill adults and the elderly throughout San Francisco and Alameda County. My responsibilities at POH were diverse. I usually performed cooking demonstrations to teach the community how to create simple, nutritious meals with ingredients available at the POH grocery center. This involved creating informational flyers, prepping ingredients, and cooking in front of an audience. POH is unique because they serve people from all walks of life; I enjoyed the challenge of relating to people I have never met before. Many of their clients do not have access to a kitchen, so one of my goals when planning my demonstrations was to use easily accessible cooking equipment like an electric skillet, microwave, or crock pot. During the presentations I was able to incorporate nutrition education for the clients who visit the grocery center. I eventually helped POH's community dietitians teach nutrition classes as part of a pilot study to demonstrate the benefits of nutrition support and education in HIV-positive people who also had type-2 diabetes.
VITAS HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE
HOSPICE CARE TEAM MEMBER: October 2015-May 2017
When I starting volunteering with VITAS Healthcare my goal was to learn about end of life care. My main responsibilities were to feed patients, spend time with them, take note of any changes in their behavior, and write a report after each visit detailing my experience. I was able to learn about how the nutritional needs of a patient are assessed during hospice and palliative care. On multiple occasions I was approached by people at the care center that were unruly or incoherent; I had to learn how to deal with that type of situation while making sure I was properly attending to my patient. I gained valuable experience working as part of a health care team to ensure patients were receiving optimal care.
Los Gatos High School
GUEST LECTURER: April 2008-September 2012
I guest lectured at Los Gatos High School because I wanted to evoke a passion for food in those younger than me. I presented a few times per year in Les Kishler's agroecology class and Patricia Sutton's cooking class. It was great to see the student's progression throughout the school year. The general focus of my lecture in the agroecology class was sustainable food systems; I explained different farming methods like composting and 4-field crop rotation. We usually began with a classroom lecture and then visited the Los Gatos Community Gardens to get some hands on experience. My presentations in the cooking class varied. I would usually begin with a demonstration and then have the students cook the same dish. Teaching was an amazing experience for me. I learned to have patience and how to convey complex ideas in a way that high schools students can understand.
Los Gatos Community Gardens
STudent CARETAKER: June 2006-June 2007
I wanted to learn how food grows and what influences variations in the color, flavor, and aroma of different produce. I began to spend time in my local community garden and became friends with the agro-ecology professor at Los Gatos High School, Les Kishler. At first I was excited to learn gardening techniques and how to properly compost organic materials. This evolved into me helping on a regular basis. Mr. Kishler asked me if I would like to be the student caretaker, and I happily accepted the volunteer position. My goal was to learn as much as I could about agriculture. This continued through my senior year of high school. I helped take care of the gardens and monitored the greenhouse. I gained so much firsthand experience growing food and learned how to deal with many of the issues that come with it.