In four years of doing features about the Fort Bragg Food Bank, I”ve made a lot of new friends. There is one I plan to have over for dinner as often I can — cardoon, a new food I have come to love. Cardoon looks like a rough, oversized clump of celery, that”s bitter when eaten raw. Cooked, it tastes like artichokes, but holds the shape and consistency of celery. In my time of eating what Food Bank clients eat, as part of my writing this series, I”ve found true magic in the crock pot. The “just a bit” beyond ripe foods make fabulous and always surprising flavor combinations, with a little planning and a pinch of pepper.
Cardoon stands up and tastes sharp even after 12 hours in the crock-pot, yet many shoppers pass up the not-so-glamorous or advertised vegetable.
How much healthier do these veggies make us?
This year, I took along Petra Schulte, who works as a nutrition educator for Fort Bragg schools, near the end of the day, so not to take from those who needed it most. We looked over everything being distributed and filled my weekly bags. We talked to volunteers and staff about the origins of the available foods. Then we went to my office next door and spread everything out on the table. She discussed each item, while I looked up nutritional facts on the computer.
“I was surprised at the quality and the variety of the fruits and vegetables we saw. It was true that we had to pick through it to find the better quality, but if someone was doing that for their family, they could do very well and eat a nutritionally balanced diet from just what the Food Bank had today,” Schulte said.
Schulte was particularly delighted when we found more than just green lettuce and cabbage but also red beets, white asparagus, blueberries and golden squash in the produce section.
“A rainbow of colors like this is a very healthy mixture,” she said.
“Phytochemicals, which are plant chemicals that protect our bodies, determine the color of plant foods. So eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables give us a variety of plant chemicals that protect our bodies from disease,” she said.
“I like that they had vegetables such as winter squash, sweet potatoes, and broccoli sprouts. Quite a few of the other vegetables were older, which reduces their health benefits,” she said.
She also pointed out someone could eat a diet of lots of unhealthy carbohydrates — bread, chips — if one was of that mind.
Seniors get a special block of cheese from the United States Department of Agriculture. It”s a coveted item among many clients, as is the chicken the Food Bank often gets. Although the elderly need the protein, Schulte said the high fat content, particularly in cheese, make it not such a great deal, even for free.
“I personally would not recommend the cheese or the chicken as you suggested. Both are high in saturated fats and cholesterol, which the 2010 Dietary Guidelines ask consumers to reduce,” Schulte said.
Personally I love cheese and meats, but the overwhelming evidence from health researchers is that a block of cheese isn”t a great health item and we should eat more vegetables. As a person with heart problems, I have to watch both the amount of green vegetables I can eat along with red meat. Health problems from food are at epidemic proportions in the United States, various health organizations report.
The Food Bank tries to give as much nutritious food as possible, but Executive Director Nancy Severy explained to me the difficult balance between what people want and what is good for them. One item people like that is good for them is brown rice. A federal grant ran out that had allowed the Food Bank to put brown rice in every bag for the past two years; increased donations to the Food Bank could allow the return of that item.
In Chinese lore, brown rice, long relegated to peasants, allowed them to survive famines better than upper class people who ate glamorous and unhealthy polished white rice.
Schulte says there is much truth and much good in the foods rejected as unsightly. We found some wonderful, crisp, heavy heads of cabbage given to the Food Bank because their outer leaves had gotten dirt on them during a rain. Schulte had a big smile for celery roots, especially since a client took some for her family.
“Whole plant foods are foods that still have all parts such as brown rice. Brown rice still has the outer layer (bran layer) and the germ, whereas white rice has been stripped of the bran layer and the germ to extend shelf life. The bran layer and germ contain fiber, B vitamins, iron, protein, and phytochemicals, said Schulte.
I often find vegetables to take home that neither I nor the volunteers can identify. Food Bank Warehouse Manager Jim DiMauro usually can help, but there was a light green, pear-shaped hard vegetable none of us could identify. Carlos Villafanio stepped in and said it was a particularly tasty variety of Mexican squash, which is more commonly seen in the striped green variety.
Online I found it is low in calories, high in good carbs but fewer vitamins than brighter squash and pumpkins.
Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are entirely different, with all the trimmings, this year supplemented by extra mushrooms, carrots and Brussels sprouts, all rating high in nutrition.
Santa showed up with hundreds of toys for kids. Cheshire Books donated a new book to any child who asked. And Wells Fargo Bank donated $4,000 to help with the purchase of a new truck.
This year was more difficult; many clients have slipped deeper and deeper into poverty and truly need the food long after the holidays have passed.
The Food Bank served about 650 client households with special Christmas meals. This was up about 7 percent over last Christmas, Severy said.
Season of Sharing
This series goes hand in glove with the Advocate-News and The Mendocino Beacon”s annual Season of Sharing fund drive for the Food Bank. The goal is to give the Food Bank money it can use year-round, not just during the holidays.
The nonprofit Community Foundation of Mendocino County administers the Season of Sharing free of charge as a courtesy to the newspapers.
Every cent taken in by the newspapers goes to the Food Bank.
Checks should be addressed to The Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC), and mailed to the newspaper at P.O. Box 1188, Fort Bragg, 95437, or dropped off at 450 N. Franklin St.
If you have any questions, call us at 964-5642. The fundraiser runs through Dec. 31.
Donors” names are printed each week, unless you ask to remain anonymous. This week”s donors are Lee and Elaine Bull, Michael and Mary Schuh and two anonymous donors.
The amount raised so far totals $19,000.
