Food for kids

This evening as the farmers market got ready to close, Donna and I went from stall to stall with two 20-gallon Rubbermaid bins, asking the farmers to donate any surplus produce they didn’t want to take home. Within minutes our bins were laden with broccoli, carrots, lettuces, kale, chard, onions, herbs, heirloom tomatoes, apples and apriums.

We lugged the heavy bins into Donna’s car and drove eight blocks west to Seattle Children’s Home, where chef Hollie greeted us in the parking lot. Hollie has the responsibility of cooking three healthful meals each day to 20 resident children and 10 adult staff at the lockdown facility.

Like many children’s charities, SCH operates on a thin budget. But cheap food is not what helps troubled kids, particularly those on meds, to get well.

“Wow!” said Hollie when she peeked in the bins. “This is great. You know, a lot of our kids come from homes where nobody really cooked for them. They got hot dogs. But this, this is real food.”

A warm thank you to the farmers who donated the produce.

Hollie has promised to share her experiences (What did she make? What did the kids eat?), and we’ll post them here on the blog.

If you are interested in gathering and delivering the produce each week between 7 and 7:30 pm, you can sign up at the market booth on Thursdays or email me (with your dates) and I’ll do it for you: julie.whitehorn@gmail.com. We are all set for July but are looking for volunteers in August and September.