 Welcome to our July newsletter, colleagues and friends! Winston Churchill countered critics of his political shifting with: “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” If he was right, we have nearly achieved perfection at Nourish Colorado! Remember not that long ago when we were LiveWell? Part of the path forward as Nourish Colorado has been to transition to a team that is best able to manage the initiatives, lift up the voices, and advocate our mission. We also espouse the values of “being adaptive and responsive” and “working ourselves out of a job.” To that end, there is much news of change in this month’s newsletter. Our team is shifting, growing, and changing to carry our work forward and to allow each of us to grow. Below you will see a goodbye from Managing Director Terri Livermore, a hearty welcome to Outreach Coordinator Sarah Naomi Jones, and a jubilant “welcome home” to Sara Struckman who has been managing grants remotely from New Zealand and is now stateside. There is also a link to read about our fabulous core partners, who may not be full-time employees, but work with us to accomplish our vision. This is not to say that change is easy. It is hard and often quite sad. With many emotions—but clarity around our path—please join us in welcoming our new staff and partners and wishing Terri the absolute very best at her new job, where she’ll be able to get back to flexing her serious policy muscles. -The Nourish Team |
| HEALTHY FOOD INCENTIVES |
 Next week is National Farmers Market Week (August 1-7) and is a great time to support markets, Double Up Food Bucks, and WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FNMP)! To find a market in your area, check out our locator. Visiting a farmers market? Share your pics and spread the word by tagging #FarmersMarketWeek #FarmersMarketsAreEssential #LoveMyMarket! Exciting news for WIC FNMP comes from the most recent COVID-19 relief bill that increases the WIC benefit for fruits and vegetables up to $35 per person/month from June to September 2021. Learn more about FMNP here. Farmers can get authorized to accept WIC here. Advocate for WIC through the next Child Nutrition Reauthorization here. |
| HEALTHY FOOD IN INSTITUTIONS |
 Local Procurement Colorado (LoProCO) Summer is in full swing and we have many things happening with LoProCO and Culinary Trainings! The LoProCO Workshop Series is launching in Southeast Colorado this winter on December 3. The save the date will be available in August. If you reside in Baca, Bent, Prowers, Otero, eastern part of Las Animas, Kiowa, or Cheyenne county, Chef Jess be reaching out to you! In the meantime, check out the upcoming LoProCO calls (including our rescheduled date from the June call). Join us on August 3, from 2-3 pm for our monthly call. It’s back to school time and now is prime time to promote your local food efforts. Rainey Wikstrom will be joining us for this call and we are featuring Sweet Corn and Melons! Register here. |
 The June call has been rescheduled it for September 7, from 2-3 pm, with a topic of “Sprouting Conversations – Building the Farm to School Movement,” and featuring Cucumbers and Radishes. Register here. |
 Culinary Trainings 1. Register here for our Kitchen Math training with CDE and Nourish Colorado on August 18, from 2-3 pm. This training is designed for Food Service Directors, Kitchen Managers, and even your cooks! The training will review the basics behind yields and other common kitchen math terms. It will also help create the connections between how food waste affects food cost, menu planning, portion control, and purchasing. Come with your calculator and be prepared to do some math, while gaining 1.5 hour in professional development credits. 2. Early Childcare Food Service Workers can receive a virtual knife skills training that is open to ALL ECE providers! This is a two-part series with Part 1 scheduled for August 21 and Part 2 on August 28. Both trainings run from 9-9:45 am. Plan to attend both as they build upon each other. Participants will receive a gift card and box full of goodies to ensure you are ready to practice your knife skills with some hands- on practice. Registration closes on August 2 to allow us time to pack boxes and ship materials.Register Here for English | Register Here for Spanish | View the English Flyer and Spanish Flyer for more info 3. The Virtual Knife skills class for K-12 food service workers was such a hit that we are running another series in September! This two-part series is scheduled for September 22 and 29, with both trainings running from 2-3 pm. Plan to attend both as each training also includes a recipe demonstration using all the delicious vegetables you learned how to cut. Participants will receive a gift card to cover the cost of food along with a grocery and equipment list to ensure you are ready to practice your knife skills! This training is an excellent opportunity for your cooks to gain some hands-on practice while receiving 2 hours of professional development credits. There are limited spaces available! Registration closes on Sept 16. Sign up here! |
| HEALTHY FOOD SYSTEMS POLICY |
 As we take a breath after our state legislative session (read our overview of the session here), it is the perfect time to raise awareness about all of the amazing food systems work happening all across the state. Do you have a school food program to highlight? A local food hub or farm? Running a Double Up program, WIC FMNP, or WIC CSA? You all provide phenomenal community spaces and food systems innovations that our legislators need to see and hear about. Let’s show off the amazing work in communities across Colorado by scheduling a visit with our senators and representatives! House is on recess and in their home offices August 5-31, and the Senate is on recess August 5-September 6. Reach out to and invite your congress people to visit and see your amazing work in action. Some tips for a successful visit: Direct ties to specific pieces of legislation (e.g., marker bills for CNR) is always great, but mostly they just need to see and hear about what you are up to. Talk about barriers you are facing at your market as well as what is going well. Be flexible with the date/time of the visit – offer a few options for them to see your market if possible. Don’t be afraid to follow-up on a pending invitation. If they don’t respond, feel free to email or call the scheduler again. Ask them if they are ok with sharing about the visit on social media. Be sure to take pictures and tag their accounts.More tips can be found in the FBAT call recording here. Email amy@nourishcolorado.org or wendy@nourishcolorado.org for assistance with reaching out and scheduling meetings. The more site visits the better. To discuss more about the ins and outs of site visits, and to work with us on federal policy advocacy, please sign up to join our biweekly Food Bill Action Team (FBAT) calls. Let’s show off how Colorado is creating vibrant food systems for all! |
| TEAM UPDATES |
 This month we are excited to welcome our Double Up Outreach Coordinator, Sarah Naomi Jones! Sarah Naomi is a mother of two human children and one fur baby. She was born and raised in Denver. Her relationship to food was nourished by her grandmother, who cooked for her entire family every Sunday. She grew up understanding that food was not only a powerful way to bring people together, but that through coming together people were able to share stories and knowledge, grief, and joy. That they were able to access nourishment to the body and spirit. Although she would say her skill in the kitchen is not what her grandmother’s was, she works to continue the legacy of honoring the power and sacredness of food through farming and food access work. She has worked as an apprentice farmer at the Dahlia Campus for Health and Wellbeing and a Program Manager for Mo Betta Green Farmer’s Markets and Seeds of Power Unity Farm. When Sarah Naomi is not working to create greater access to real food and wellness in her community, you can find her sewing, crafting, hiking, and laughing at her own bad mom jokes. Say hi to Sarah Naomi at SarahNaomi@NourishColorado.org! |
 Completing the exciting transitions occurring at Nourish Colorado this month, is the departure of Terri Livermore, Nourish Colorado’s managing director. Terri held this intentionally temporary position for nearly two years, contributing to the organization’s rebrand, pandemic reaction, and business planning. With the organization thriving, this seemed an appropriate time to exercise the temporary clause and pass the baton to the rest of the staff. Jess and Amy will help Wendy take policy to new heights and the organization’s business operations will be in the capable hands of Sara Struckman and Amber Clemetson. With Wendy planning our strategies and Chef Jessica Wright, Amy Nelms, Caronne Porter, and Sarah Naomi Jones implementing our programs, Nourish Colorado will contribute to nutritious food access by, in part, channeling 69% of the federal, state, and grant funds we receive to individuals, growers, and communities. |
| FOOD SYSTEMS CHANGEMAKERS |
 Our Core Partners You may notice some additions on our “About” page on our website this month. On this page you will be able to see more of the many faces and core partners that make up Team Nourish. Our work does not know the boundaries of 9-5 jobs so we rely on contractors and consultants to lead, support, and implement many aspects of our primary initiatives. We are fortunate to be partnering with our new Value Chain Coordinator, the East Denver Food Hub, to partner with small and large retailers around the state that offer Double Up Food Bucks to find, source, and promote more local produce. We also continue to work with Regional & Community Food Advocates across the state that lead local, on-the-ground engagement around Double Up to ensure we are reaching every possible participant. And we are partnering with chef consultants to design and implement culinary trainings for a variety of food services staff in early care, schools, and other institutions. |
| Funder Spotlight |
 We would like to recognize Kaiser Permanente for their recent support of the Colorado Nutrition Incentive Program: CSA Produce Box Program for Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) participants. Kaiser Permanente has awarded Nourish Colorado a one-year grant to support produce boxes for WIC participants in the Front Range, as well as for the development of a comprehensive evaluation program of CNIP. This grant will considerably increase our capacity to increase access to fresh healthy produce in our communities! |
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| Opportunities We regularly update the events calendar on our website to host the incredible meetings and events happening in the food systems space. We promote both Nourish Colorado events and partner event opportunities. We also update our job board with Nourish Colorado jobs and partner career opportunities. Please submit any upcoming events and details or open job opportunities you’d like to share to Amber Clemetson. Let’s Dig In! Together to Transform the Food System Thank you for digging in with us again this month, and we hope you continue to read our newsletter each month! If you haven’t already, please subscribe. We are working to sustain – and grow – our initiatives across the state and to do the advocacy we know must be done to make these efforts the norm. Through an individual contribution or a corporate sponsorship, we most respectfully ask that you contribute whatever you can, whenever you can, to support our work and help us in these endeavors. For every part you play in transforming the food system, we appreciate you! |
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