Congratulations FSTP San Diego Graduates!

Eleven San Diegans completed our Food Smarts Training Program on Friday, January 6th.  They represented a wide variety of agencies, many working in the City Heights neighborhood.  The training was a collaboration with Feeding American San Diego, who both helped fund the training and outreached to their partners.  The training was held at City Height Wellness Center - a perfect location for our conversations and our cooking. Many thanksto Lisa Vandevort for working her magic to get the room free for two full days!

Thanks also to Shahla Abtahi-Sepah and Ruthi Solari, both of San Diego County Health and Human Services (Ruthi is also the founder of SuperFood Drive) for their wonderful work training our participants in the basics of health, nutrition, and working with underserved populations.

Our thanks and congratulations to:

Maxine Smith, City Heights Community Development Corporation

John Lowther, Salvation Army KROC Center

Caroline Raedeker, Feeding America San Diego

Allen Rosenbaum, Feeding America San Diego

Dollis Peters, South Bay SDA

Kristin Kverland, International Rescue Committee, SD

Lisa Vandevort, City Heights Wellness Center

Yajaira Preciando, YWCA San Diego

Oneida Ramirez, Home Start

Mary Prince, Bayside Community Center

Stephanie Paine, San Diego Rescue Mission

We are looking forward to supporting them as they run their workshops and learning more about the amazing work they are doing in their community.

2011 FSTP Graduates Make a Big Impact!

Welcome Ruthi and Shahla!

We are pleased to announce our trainers for the January 2012 FSTP in San Diego:

Adrienne Markworth, Leah's Pantry

Ruthi Solari, SuperFood Drive

Shahla Abtahi-Sepah, San Diego HHSA

Emily Dore, Leah's Pantry

We will be spending time over the holidays getting ready for the early January event.  Can't wait to connect with the San Diego orgs who will attend!

FSTP San Diego - January 5-6, 2012

We are pleased to announce that our next Food Smarts Training Program will be held in San Diego at the City Heights Wellness Center on January 5th and 6th, 2012.

With support from Feeding America San Diego, we will be recruiting agencies located in the City Heights neighborhood.  Other agencies in the San Diego area are eligible, although we are specifically targeting City Heights agencies with this training.  This will hopefully be the first of a series of San Diego FSTP events.

To sign up, please fill out the form here.

Fall Fundraising Drive gets a great start!

We are so excited to launch our 2011 Fall Fundraising Drive.  Combining the momentum from the successful roll-out of the Food Smarts Training program with our many successful workshops completed this year through our partnerships with the San Francisco Food Bank, BRIDGE Housing Corporation, and SHELTER Inc. of Contra Costa County, we will close this year feeling very positive.  We are looking for lots of healthy families in 2012 - help us!

We are SO grateful for the finanicial support of the following three organizations, all of whom are participating in our Fall Fundraising Drive:

• The Real Food Co. - they are running a campaign at BOTH of their San Francisco locations beginning November 1, 2011 and ending January 2, 2012.  Donate your bag credit to Leah's Pantry or make a donation in any amount.  They can be found at Polk and Broadway and at Greenwich and Fillmore.
• zipongo.com - this daily deal site is expanding to independent grocers throughout the Bay Area (think Andronicos, Raley's, Mollie Stones, Draeger's and Real Food Co.)  They feature healthy foods you buy anyway and give a portion of your sales to awesome nonprofits.  They are featuring us on 10/30, 11/1, 11/7, and 11/18.
• Paragon Real Estate Community Fund - Paragon real estate broker's contribute to this fund and help determine where to donate the funds.  We are a grateful recipient for the quarter.  Thanks to Christine Irsfeld, realtor extraordinaire, for our nomination.