AmeriCorps Alumni are Volunteering!

We’ve been very lucky this year to have past CalSERVES Alumni come back and visit with the mentors and kids this year. The kids LOVE seeing past mentors, especially when they come to help out in a classroom, lead a club, help with data collection, etc.

To alums Emily Nagel, Patrick McGrath, Maria Magana, Brent Watters, Emily Swartzentruber, and Sam Gutierrez who have volunteered,THANK YOU!!!

We were also extremely lucky to have 18 members of the Alpha Psi Fraternity from Sonoma State University help out during our Halloween festivities. Members helped carve pumpkins, clean up lots, paint pumpkins, help with the Middle School social, lead tag games with children outside and much more!

What's Cookin'? Tuesday - Marinated Three-Bean Salad

The CalSERVES Nutrition Program presents "What's Cookin? Tuesdays"!
The Harvest of the Month vegetable for November is Green Beans.

How Do Green Beans Grow?
Green beans are sensitive to cold temperatures and frost, and so they are planted in the spring after the danger of frost has passed. Seeds of all varieties are generally planted one inch deep. Bush bean seeds should be planted two inches apart in rows. Growers only water seeds just after planting or plant them right before a heavy rain, as seeds of most varieties tend to crack and do not germinate properly if the soil’s moisture content is too high.

Once planted, the ovary develops into the pod, which may be six inches or more in length. The pod contains the seeds, which may be white, brown, red, blue or black. Each seed consists of a coat that contains two cotyledons (where food is stored); a hypocotyl (the lower portion of which develops into the root); and an epicotyl (the young stem from which the plumule or primary leaf bud develops).

Beans have shallow and fairly weak root systems, so growers practice frequent, shallow cultivation and hoeing to keep small weeds and grasses under control. Deep cultivation can injure the plant roots and delay harvests or reduce harvest yields.

Harvesting takes place when the pods are firm, crisp and fully elongated, but before the seed within the pod has developed completely. Beans are generally picked in the afternoon or after the morning dew and when the plants are thoroughly dry, as the moisture can spread bean bacterial blight, a disease that seriously damages plants.

The bean plant continues to form new flowers and produce more beans if pods are continually removed before the seeds mature. Growers also assure a continuous supply of snap beans by planting every two to four weeks until early August.

For more information, visit:
http://rics.ucdavis.edu/postharvest2/Produce/ProduceFacts/Veg/snapbeans.shtml

Marinated Three-Bean Salad
Serving Size: 1-1/3 cup
Yield: 4 servings
Time: 70 minutes

Ingredients:
1 (8.5 ounce) can lima beans
1 (8 ounce) can cut green beans
1 (8 ounce) can red kidney beans
1 medium onion, thinly sliced and seperated into two rings
1/2 cup chopped sweet green bell pepper
1 (8 ounce) bottle fat-free Italian salad dressing

Instructions:

1. Wash hands and cooking area.
2. Drain the canned beans
3. Peel and slice the onion and separate into rings
4. In a large bowl, combine the lima beans, green beans, kidney beans, onion rings, and green bell pepper.
5. Pour the Italian dressing over the vegetables and toss lightly.
6. Cover the bowl and marinate in the refrigerator for at least one hour. The salad can be left in the refrigerator over night.
7. Drain before serving.

Cost:
Per Recipe: $ 3.16
Per Serving: $ 0.79
calories 170, fat 0g, sodium 690mg, sugar 10g, protein 7g

Protecting the City Creeks

Katie O'Looney, Supervising Teacher at Wright Charter School

On Monday, October 4th, the Full Time mentors and Leadership Team from Wright Charter School worked alongside with Betsy from the City of Santa Rosa to clean-up a creek off of Sonoma Avenue. We cleaned up lots of broken glass, old cigarettes, trash and pulled clothes and furniture from the creek.

After we cleaned a long stretch of the creek, we cut back invasive ivy from numerous trees along a walking trail. Our leader Betsy said that the Ivy plant usually takes over the tree and cuts off sunlight, nutrients and oxygen from the trees, causing them to eventually die.

We had numerous members who also discovered the wonderful poison oak plant and left them with a wonderful itchy, scratchy rash!

Overall, it was a wonderful day spent beautifying Santa Rosa as well as a great team bonding experience. For our job well done, we received awesome stickers saying we’re “CREEK PROTECTORS!”.

What's Cookin'? Tuesday - Sensational Six-Layer Dinner

The CalSERVES Nutrition Program presents "What's Cookin'? Tuesdays"! This month, it's all about Green Beans.

Veggie Facts

• Green beans are nitrogen fixers, which means they have the ability to draw nitrogen from the air and return it to the soil. Because of this, farmers often plant beans and legumes in their crop rotations to replenish the soil.
• Fresh beans are classified into two basic categories: edible pod beans and shell beans. Green beans are the most popular edible pod bean, while lima beans are the most common shell bean sold in the United States.
• Compared to dry or shell beans, green beans provide less starch and protein, and more Vitamin A, Vitamin C and calcium.

Eat Your Colors

• Fruits and vegetables come in a rainbow of colors. Eat a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables every day — red, yellow/orange, white, green and blue/purple. Although their pods may be different colors (green, gold, purple, red or streaked), green beans are part of the green color group.
• Green fruits and vegetables help maintain vision health and strong bones and teeth. They may also lower the risk of some cancers. Examples of green bean varieties include the Yardlong, Hyacinth, Blue Lake (green pod), Haricot Verts (baby French green beans), Golden Wax (golden pod), Purple King (purple pod), Dragon’s Tongue (streaked pod) and Red Swan (red pod).

For more information, visit:
www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov and www.harvestofthemonth.com

Sensational Six-Layer Dinner
Serving Size: 1/6 of recipe
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:
2 - 3 medium sliced potatoes
2 cups sliced carrots
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup sliced onion
1 pound browned and drained ground beef
1 1/2 cups green beans
1 can tomato-soup

Instructions:
1. Lightly oil or spray baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Layer ingredients in order given. Cover.
3. Bake at 350 degree for 45 minutes or until tender and thoroughly heated.
4. Uncover and bake 15 more minutes.
Note: For variation, use peas or corn instead of green beans. Use your favorite cream soup instead of tomato soup. 

Cost:
Per Recipe: $ 5.56
Per Serving: $ 0.93
calories 230, fat 6g, sodium 580mg, sugar 9g, protein 25g

The "Write" Literacy Night at Wright

 Katie O'Looney, Supervisng Teacher at Wright Charter School

Lights are on at Wright Charter!

On Wednesday, October 20th, Wright Charter School and CalSERVES hosted an annual event with over 90+ students and family members. Spanish BINGO, literacy based board games, signing up for a library cards, delicious snacks and a fun raffle where over 15 prizes were given away were some of the events that took place. Like every other year, all children were able to take a free book home with them to read. Thank you Ellen Desmond for all of your hard work with putting together another successful Literacy Night.

Families receive Literacy resources

Games and Activities for kids

Everyone gets some healthy food

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, and MORE Pumpkins!

Frances Hardie, CalSERVES AmeriCorps VIP Leader

Shone Farm, part of the Junior College’s Agriculture Program, donated 120

absolutely enormous pumpkins- they weighed more than some of our first graders!

Last month was October, which means just one thing in the world of the CalSERVES VIP Fellow: Pumpkins! With almost 1,000 kids in CalSERVES afterschool programs, we had a whole lot of pumpkins to find. Local businesses and farmers were extremely supportive and offered us more pumpkins than we could even carve!


The donations started slowly, with farmers not sure what their crops would be like or how many pumpkins they could offer. However, it turned out to be a bumper crop; combined with a rainy final week of the month and shoppers staying inside, there were tons of pumpkins left over all around Sonoma County. We suddenly had to get to all of the farms, organize trucks for pickups, drive everywhere from Petaluma to Windsor to Forestville, and then pass out pumpkins and carving supplies.

 Here, VIP Fellows Tyler Rockey and Gabby O’Neill 

collect pumpkins from Oluf’s Ranches amidst much rain and mud.

All of the VIPs worked very hard bringing the pumpkins to our eight schools, and the carving days went off without a hitch. I got out to see Meadow View and Bellevue, and the kids were having a wonderful time. My favorite moment was when a girl at Meadow View looked into the Cool School room and saw the huge pile of pumpkins sitting on the floor. Her reaction: “WHAT?!?!”

The last week of October was the most insane and hectic of my time at CalSERVES so far, but it was all worth it to see the kids so excited. I’m just glad it’s November now!

Fun with the Librarian!

Amy Holter, AmeriCorps VIP Fellow at RL Stevens Elementary

Librarian.

For children, the word often conjures an image of someone who hushes you and forces you to read boring books. On November 3rd, however, the first and second graders of R.L. Stevens’ Cool School program had a vastly different experience. As part of our mission to make reading the exciting thing we know it can be, we invited a librarian from Sonoma County Library to come to our after school program. She arrived with giant books, an impressive repertoire of children’s songs and a strong subliminal message – reading is a REALLY good time.

As she read stories to an entranced crowd sitting in a half-moon on the floor around her, the librarian took the students from a farm with talking animals to books written in Spanish to books written entirely in song.

The interactive presentation produced some hilarious moments. While reading about safari animals, she asked what noises all the animals made. When asked what a zebra said, literacy specialists will be happy to know that both classes let out an enthusiastic, “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!”

The children received book marks, applications for a library card, contact information for the libraries in the area, suggested reading lists for their grade and “Read” tattoos. Clearly, reading does not have to be silent and boring. Reading can mean exciting and sometimes noisy participation as a community. Most importantly, reading can mean a really good time.

What's Cookin'? Tuesday - Green Bean and Mushroom Medley

CalSERVES Nutrition Program Presents "What's Cookin? Tuesdays!"

Green Bean Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 cup beans, snap (110g)
Calories 34 Calories from Fat 1
% Daily Value
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Trans Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 7mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate 8g 3%
Dietary Fiber 4g 15%
Sugars 2g
Protein 2g
Vitamin A 15% Vitamin C 30% Calcium 4% Iron 6%

Reasons to Eat Green Beans
One cup of raw snap green beans provides:

• Thirty percent of the recommended Daily Value (DV) for Vitamin C — an excellent source.
• A good source (15% DV) for fiber and Vitamin A.
• Many essential vitamins including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin K.

Green Bean and Mushroom Medley
Serving Size: 1/8 of recipe
Yield: 8 servings




Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths
2 carrots cut into thick strips
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash lemon pepper seasoning
1/2 Tablespoon garlic salt
1/4 cup toasted almonds, slivered

Instructions:

1. Place green beans and carrots in 1 inch of boiling water. Cover, and cook until tender but still firm. Drain.
2. Add oil to heated skillet. Sauté onions and mushrooms until almost tender. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 3 minutes. Stir in green beans, carrots, Lemon pepper, and garlic salt. Cover, and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Cost:
Per Recipe: $ 7.08
Per Serving: $ 0.89
calories 100, fat 6g, Sodium 70mg, sugar 3g, protein 4g