Midtown EcoVillage

Daytona Beach Loves Ms. Bee.

May 16th, 2012

This is a video that Cinemomma Pictures created with Midtown EcoVillage to promote Ms.Bee, an amazing series of music CDs, DVDs, and activity books for children created by our friends in New Jersey. When I think of my children that have been to Carenegie Hall multiple times, have seen Alvin Ailey perform year after year, Harry Belafonte, Sweet Honey and the Rock, Prince Live, and that is just a few folks, I feel they have a little culture. After all they were raised in Brooklyn and have a mom that is an artists and surrounds them in all mediums of art, which is so important for children’s development. So when I bumped into Eddie Saunders in Newark one day as I was leaving a meeting with fellow filmmaker Byron Hurt (google Soul FOOD JUNKIES, his upcoming film I worked on that will air on PBS later this year) I was ecstatic as I jammed to Ms. Bee’s music in my car the whole way home and many weeks after, months and years even. Talk about hip! Talk about hip hop, talk about jazz and reggae music that was not cheesy like a lot of the music played on Nick Jr. that shall remain nameless, by the way I hate that music.

I adore that they do not insult the various genres of music that children can jam to and simultaneously learn from. It does not take a rocket scientist to make great music, but is does take a qualified audio engineer, musician, and recordist. See for yourself by visiting their website today and previewing their music, I guarantee you that you will fall in love with Ms. Bee the way my family did. My favorite song is all the songs, LOL. But especially the ones about fruits and veggies and the one about growing up and being smart. Hats off to the dynamic team of created individuals that bring Ms. Bee to life.

Also I just want to say that Ms. Bee came down to support our first Smoothies & Movies event last December and performed for our community here in Daytona Beach without asking for a dime. They came to support Midtown EcoVillage because they too love children and believe in what we are doing. God Bless them and all their talents and I can not wait to work with them again. Buy some of their work for a child you love today!!!

Working With Turie T. Small Elementary

May 16th, 2012

For some strange reason because I make smoothies and my husband looks like he just came from Jamaica, people do not realize that I am a product of this community I live in and serve. I went to Turie T. Small for elementary school, then Campbell Middle, and finally Mainland. I was always in this neighborhood, before it was called Midtown and MMB was called 2^nd Ave. I went to summer programs at Bethune Cookman and church at Allen Chapel AME church.

So it is safe to say that I feel most comfortable here, although I have travelled to Africa, Scotland, Jamaica, Iceland, and many far away places, Daytona Beach is still home and will always be home. If no one cared about me and teaching me about art and literature, nurtured and loved me, disciplined me, and taught me how great I was, I would not have had the confidence to do all the things I have done to date. Stepping back on campus at Turie T. was so inspiring!! Now joined by my husband and children, and tons of strawberries, kale, carrots, and blenders and juciers, we got busy with what we had to share.

The wisdom of eating healthy. Yes children love CANDY, but candy is poison and there is nothing nutritious about artificial colors and flavorings and high fructose corn syrup.

As usual we had a crowd around us, we volunteered to make smoothies for their end of the year Field Day. Well, after the kids watched us make smoothies and tried some, we won them over, all 360 of them on that Friday afternoon. Yes siree, I even got to do the wobble with the kids in the cafeteria and my children got to do the field day games which they loved and did not want to leave.

The principal of Turie T. is Dr. Johnson, a very easy going, intelligent, and progressive man who adores the students and it shows in the way they respond to him and how he moves around the campus. He knows he is suppose to be there and it shows. After such a great response from the children, he asked us to come back and participate in the school carnival the following Friday and you know we could not say no. So not only did we get to keep giving smoothies to the kids, we got to show their parents how to make them and even give them some raw vegan kale salad. We had volunteers from Embry Riddle helping us prep and we just had a blast.

See for yourself, now that is only the beginning, I will say this. . .I can not stay away from that school, it is my old stomping grounds and there are so many things I can give to the students there. Once a bulldog, always a bulldog. Thanks for the warm welcome back home students and faculty, you made me feel like I still belonged there. I see us making a big garden together, having a smoothie bar in the cafeteria, and so much more. We have a lot of work to do bulldogs, you up for it? Okay thats what I thought, lets get busy. ROOF ROOF.

I LOVE YOU TURIE T. SMALL

First Annual Earth Day Festival in Daytona Beach Co-Sponsored by Midtown EcoVillage

May 16th, 2012

It was a beautiful Sunday, April 22 and there we were still going after doing the big Earth Day event in Orlando. Shhh, our secret is the way we eat, a mainly raw food diet with lots of fresh green smoothies and juices gives you tons of energy, no vitamins needed.

There were no balloons, acrobats, bounce houses, polish sausages, and funnel cakes!!! However there was a nice hippie-earthday vibe, as Sitarick played his sitar to greet and calm you as you entered the courtyard at the Chiles Academy, where my husband spends many hours working in the community garden there on our plot. There was vegan cupcakes from Cake for a Cure, the Vegetarian Society of Daytona Beach giving out free vegan ice cream and burger samples. There was Bethune Cookman Nursing student doing free massages with incense burning in the air. There was a clothing swap, a plant swap, composting demos, garden tours, a free belly dancing lesson, African clothes, shea butter, handmade fair trade music instruments and jewelry, need I say more? It was not the mall, it was not overstimulating, it was a low key event for everyone big and small and more than 300 people came out to celebrate our first Earth Day in Daytona.

Although it was small in size compared to the one in Orlando, it was beautiful and had lots of heart and soul. Midtown EcoVillage & Chiles Academy were the organizers of the event. The idea for the event came from a BCU student garden facilitator, Andrew Kamerosky. Together, we solicited some help from our community to get sponsors, prizes to give away, an eco-friendly car to display and much more. Next year will only be bigger and better! We ended the evening by showing the movie Food Inc., in the auditorium on a huge inflatable screen. Did I forget to mention there was a reggae band? How could I forget that little detail. LOL, there was also paper machete activities, FOOD NOT BOMBS folks, a sundial, kids games and activities and the list goes on. It was a fantastic day. A special thanks goes out to all the volunteers that made it possible and the city commissioners that gave personally and from their bike week funds to make the event possible, Edith Shelley, Cassandra Reynolds, Patrick Henry, and Kelly White. We appreciate your support. Please visit www.daytonabeachearthdayfestival.com to see some pics of the event.

Until next April, which will be even more earthy. . .remember to do the little things all year long that make our world special and keep it healthy. Including buying less and reusing more, recycle, and keep it green, plant lots of trees and plants, and before you trash something or buy something, think twice!!

Earthday is everyday Midtown EcoVillage family!!!

Love the Browns

Earth Day Lake Eola Park Orlando 2012

May 16th, 2012

Earth Day in Lake Eola was the only event that Midtown EcoVillage had done not in Volusia County and we were not sure what to expect. However, people in Orlando also loved our smoothies too and we sold over 200 smoothies and raw vegan kale salads. It was a super busy day and we were proud to participate in Central Florida Vegetarian Society’s annual event. There were plenty of vendors all advocating a ways to make our planet healthier.

Earth Day Raw Food Demo

We premiered our new line of packaging for our smoothies and salads. Yup, you guessed it, all eco-friendly and compostable. I am talking about the brown containers they use on the salad bar in Whole Foods fancy, they are called fold-paks. We also had nice paper cups that said “ One choice, one earth, one …” So I think it is safe to say we kicked it up a notch. Yes the products are more expensive than buying plastic, but Midtown EcoVillage advocates healthy lifestyles and environmental sustainability. That being said, we began with the cheap cups we got that were plastic after a Halloween sale last year November because it was within our limited budget, but now we moving on up. LOL

Gearing up for Earth Day was no easy task, we were not equipped to handle the expected crowd of twenty thousand people with the equipment that we had. For those of you who may have never seen us in action, we are bare bones. Two Blendtecs, two blendtec jars, and two Jack Lalane juicers, both donated to us, after our juice-man juicer started to go bananas. No pun intended. So what were we to do? Be the laughing stock at Earth Day or step our game up. We of course stepped our game up.

Central Florida Earth Day 2012

My husband had the bright idea of us starting to sell weekly at the farmers market in Daytona Beach at City Island, so for a month prior to Earth Day, we began setting up shop for 8am customers. For those of you who have never vended before, imagine packing up your entire house onto a truck, unloading it less than five miles away, setting up. . .selling and standing on your feet all day, non stop action, then re-packing everything on the truck, going back home, unpacking it into your house, then cleaning everything you used and returning the truck. Oh, and the prepping beforehand. YES, it is a lot of work. Thank God for our loyal volunteers that help make it possible. What motivates us each week to keep going, children in tow, me pregnant, and all the hard work? Well, our customers and all the random people that get to sample our smoothies that get so excited about mixing greens into smoothies and eating raw foods. The fellowship of talking to people and hearing about their health problems and telling them tips and movies to inspire them. Sharing what we love to do.

In addition, we were able to make enough money to invest in a couple new things, like our industrial grade juicer! ROTOR VITAMAT, said with a superhero voice! Also another blendtec jar and our eco-friendly containers. Not too shabby huh? With the money we made at Earth Day in Lake Eola, we were able to put aside the money we desperately needed to help pay for our non-profit paperwork.

Earth Day Raw Food Demo

Also I was chosen to do a demo at Earth Day in front of a nice size crowd. That was fun, as you know I want to have a cooking show. So, there I was making raw vegan kale salad and my Caribbean salad. The audience loved it and followed me back to the booth and purchased our smoothies and food!

All part of the journey in the lives of a family that loves juicing! What will we do next? Hmm. Just wait and see. We are on the move and we have lots of energy and produce so the possibilities are endless.

Fresh Juice for the Senior Breakfast

May 16th, 2012

It was a special day that Midtown EcoVillage had the opportunity to honor the elders in our community by making them fresh juice to go along with the somewhat healthy breakfast they enjoyed. We were in Midtown at the sister community to the one we live in called Villages of Lakeside. We always make smoothies for children and a general audience, but on that day we got to hang with only the seniors.

Of course there was bacon, eggs, pancakes,and the regular breakfast fanfare that puts us all to sleep shortly after enjoying it, LOL.

Camille juicing for seniors

But what they were not expecting was a demonstration and unlimited fresh carrot, cucumber, apple, lemon, and ginger juice. YUM YUM. I encouraged them to pool their money together and purchase a juicer and start a juicing club that they could make smoothies and juices weekly together.

Omar met an older Jamaican brother that had a big beard like him and they reminisced about mangoes and climbing trees in Jamaica. I guess one of the major influences we had growing up is that we always were exposed to tropical fruits in addition to oranges, bananas, and apples. Having the opportunity to spend summers in Brooklyn where there is a larger West Indian population than all the islands combined it seems, I got to eat tropical fruits every summer, so I knew there was a variety that was not in the local grocery store. I knew there a world of fruit waiting for me to explore.

A fresh juice a day....

VARIETY!!! It is important to have a variety of things to eat when being a vegan or vegetarian. Our bodies need a variety of fresh produce, nuts, and grains to get the nutrients our body needs. Eating the same thing every day would get boring anyway. There are nutrients in kale that are not in strawberries and things that are in apples that are not in cabbage.

I love being around seniors because they remember what tomatoes taste like, they remember being in an orchard or garden growing up and appreciate the simplicity of pure foods that are not processed. It is so important that if you have a senior in your life that you remember to take care of them. Bring them to the farmers market to get fresh produce, buy them a blender and make a smoothie for them and show them how to do it for themselves. Empower them to eat healthier and live longer.

I love hanging out with elders in the community

Make a commitment to them that you help them not just eat a bunch of canned and frozen vegetables but will help them get the vitamins they need by helping them get access to fresh foods.

After all they would have and probably already do that for you. Help a senior eat healthy today Midtown EcoVillage Family!

If you know a group of seniors that would like to take a healthy cooking class, tell them about us. We having an entire curriculum specifically for seniors and are ready when they are. Look under the tab for our services for more info.

Midtown Ecovillage appreciates and loves the seniors in our community

Natural Awakening Magazine Holistic Health Fair

May 14th, 2012

We journeyed all the way to South Daytona Mall to be part of the Natural Awakening magazine’s annual holistic health fair. Picture being surrounded by people doing reiki, giving massages, doing acupuncture, chi gong, blood analysis, and all things related to living a holistic life and that was what it was like being in the healthy time capsule in the Sunshine Mall that day. There we were with our juicer, blender, and salad and we were giving samples, doing demos, and selling our yummy vegan raw foods and meeting lots of like-minded people. It was a relaxing day, we did not have to convince a lot of people to try our food, it spoke for itself, it was the captive audience that already knew the benefits of eating lots of living food. They were just happy we were there providing it. As people gathered around our booth watching us make fresh juices or caught a glimpse of a plate of food someone was eating that they purchased from us, the deal was done. People were flocking to us for lunch and that was great feeling. I even told the people in the adjacent diner that I kept going to the bathroom in to come grab a free smoothie. I glanced at people having their grilled cheese with french fries and soda or a sandwich with oiled high with meat and white bread and I could not help but be sad that so many people still do not know how how eating those foods adversely affect their health. I wanted to stand on top of the diner counter and make a speech that the food you are consuming is killing you!!! However I refrained and instead smiled and walked back out leaving the stench of heavy grease and clogged arteries behind me as I moved back into nature and the aroma of nutritious cucumber juice.

No one wants to be beat over the head with how harmful the foods they love are, the foods they grew up eating and have so many fond memories of. I hear you, I too love the foods I grew up eating, my family is Jamaican, need I say more. BUT, a long time ago I realized that eating for energy, indulging in moderation, and a diet rich in plant-based foods uncooked is the best way to eat and that is what my family likes to share with other people. Not preach but simply share, take from it what you like, and I am proud to say that approach has been very effective. Tons of people in our community have been introduced to the benefits of jucing, and invested in a juicer or blender. Also, some people have cut out meat altogether from their diets, have been inspired to buy kale, a vegetable most people thought was only decorative, LOL, and make my kale salad weekly and tell me all about it.

Who needs an Oscar award when you see a group of elementary school kids drinking a green smoothie and asking for seconds or watching an adult that hates carrots drink a juice that has tons of carrots, apples, and kale in it. That gets me excited and I feel like, if we can help get our community healthy just by being here and sharing our knowledge, and people actually are receptive to us, then I am ready to walk down the red carpet in my neighborhood with a basket of produce on my head and say “PRODUCE TO THE PEOPLE!!!” I digressed but you get the picture, our greatest wealth is health and the accolades are in the reflection of beautiful healthy and happy people.

JUICE ON MIDTOWN ECOVILLAGE!

Midtown EcoVillage Does The Mutt Strut

May 14th, 2012

No it’s not a dance, it was an event that the Halifax Humane Society did to raise money and get some stray pets homes. Also, of course it was on the beach and involved walking miles in the sand. Hmm. Well, we do not personally have any pets, but lets face it, some dogs are just so darn cute!! People love their pets as much as we love our children and caring for someone else keeps us healthy like drinking smoothies does. Life is about balance so love is the secret ingredient to any recipe, whether it be a fresh juice, doggie biscuit, or gourmet meal.

What's up Dog?

So there we were at the Daytona Beach Bandshell giving away free vegan whole wheat cinnabons that were being eaten by both dogs and humans alike. People were shocked that something vegan could taste so good. I was shocked that the dogs had a better wardrobe than me. LOL.

We did not have smoothies with us because Omar, Sally, and Mamma Barbara were selling them at the farmers market and all the equipment was there. However, Jessie and the children and I, along with Mamma Maria were holding down the cinnabon crowd. Yes it was a nice day in Daytona Beach. I enjoy working with other non profits, we were invited by the Junior League who were also involved with the event. We had been part of the Cooking With Kids event a couple weeks prior so when they asked us to support the pound puppies, I responded “ARF WOOF WOOF!” That’s dog talk for, “sure thing.”

Dog gone it!!!

Last but not least, I do think the Mutt Strutt could be a dance that catches on. . . so for those of you with pets, put some music on tonite and dance with your dogs, who knows it could be the next hit TV SHOW. “Dancing with the Dogs.”

Forgive, me I do not know what has come over me, maybe in addition to having a husband and 4 children, I will perhaps have a pet puppy to add to the chaos one day.

Daytona Beach Earth Day Festival & Central Florida Earth Day at Lake Eola Park, in Orlando

April 17th, 2012

EARTH DAY IS COMING!!

TWO EARTH DAY EVENTS WE ARE DOING:

April 21^st Central Florida Earth Day at Lake Eola Park, in Orlando from 10am-6pm.

http://www.cfearthday.org

Click link for more details, we will be there all day representing on the high tech juicer we just purchased and our Blendtecs. Bringing you the freshest, locally grown produce, that we mix up into some amazing and nutritious smoothies and juices. Don’t forget we make a “likkle Jamaican food” some jerk seitan skewers and a mango salad. Yea Mon, fi real, very authentic because we are Jamaican and love spice and fresh flavors. And for the vegans that want to get their nostalgic blast into the past, we have a whole wheat vegan cinnabon made with coconut milk, flaxseeds, and earth balance. I am getting hungry just thinking about it. Of course we will have our raw vegan kale salad that I call the disco kale, because it makes me want to dance down a Soul Train Line. LOL. At 1pm I will also be doing a demo at the festival so watch out, they are calling me Chef Camille now, it could get ugly.

April 22^nd is the first Daytona Beach Earth Day Festival that we co-organized with the Chiles Academy to benefit the Bonner Center Community Garden. The event will go from Noon-6pm and it is not something you want to miss. It is going to be a lot of fun. We will have smoothies and also will show the movie Food Inc., Additionally, there will be eco-friendly vendors, entertainment, kids activities, a plant swap, and we will will have tours of the garden and composting workshops, raw food demos, and some college student making a real life sundial. FREE admissions and we will accept donations all day to help us grown the community garden. http://daytonabeachearthdayfestival.com

Earth Day is technically everyday if you celebrate the earth and do things daily to care for it. My family does little things that make a big difference on a daily basis, like our plant based diet uses less natural resources to produce and does not have the horrible effects of mass meat production. Additionally, the majority of our clothes are used, yea I said it, USED, SWAPPED, HANDED DOWN! In a world filled with children working in sweat shops and fashions that change daily and clothes made to fall apart as the style ends, who needs a bunch of new clothes anyway. Farmer Brown grows a good portion of our food and is growing more produce each day in our organic community garden, which means we have to buy less. That means less kale coming from California and what have you. We try to support other local farmers by buying things like strawberries that are grown in Plant City, Florida and collard greens from Samsula. Again, locally grown food has more vitamins in it because it did not travel forever and it does not use all the fossil fuels to and carbon emissions traveling for thousands of miles.

Other little things we do is reuse jars as cups, never use styrofoam and never accept and food that is packaged in it. Personally I hate plastic stuff, toys, tupperware, etc. so I always try to use non-plastic items when I can. My rule of thumb is buy less, reuse more. It is easy to be swept away in Walmart and a dollar stores buying tons of inexpensive crap from other countries, mainly China, but buying cheap things mean they will break quickly and end up in the trash, creating more waste. Half the crap we buy we don’t use or need so we must be conscious consumers.

Composting is another great way to alleviate the tons of food scraps that end up in landfills. Compared to plastic that takes 500 years to break down, organic matter like food only takes six months or less. We have a bucket with a lid and we put all the banana peels in there, fruit peelings, veggie scraps, tea bags, old rotten leftovers, etc. in there to rot and attract gnats. LOL. Did I say that I out loud, it is not the easiest thing to do indoors but it is the responsible thing to do, and we take it to the garden a couple times a week to add to the compost pile, where it is complimented with brown leaves, bugs, hot sun, and water so it can “cook” and break down and make rich soil for the plants. Truly worth it, promise.

Cloth diapers. Need I say more, I started using cloth diapers hard core with my third child, dabbled with my second child and was regular pamper waster landfill filler upper with my first. Well, not exactly, I always tried to buy chlorine-free and gel free pampers but they got so expensive once my second child came along and I had two in pampers. Then I had to hurry and potty train Amali and get her out of the pampers. Tandiwe was my child that used cloth diapers all the time, even outside during the long summer days in Brooklyn where I would ride the subway and bring plastic bags to lug the soiled nappies back home. Where I would soak them in baking soda and vinegar and let them stink up my bathroom until I had enough to wash them. There was a learning curve to using them, but we figured it out and I am a loyal to my cloth diapers and will use the same ones with baby number four!

When things seem tough and I get squeamish, I always tell myself that women all over the world have been doing without pampers and maxi pads for centuries, so I can do it too. So then I put on my big girl panties and thats that!

On that same note, I have used cloth pads for my cycle, lunapads to be exact for over 8 years! Not too shabby again for a city girl, no they are not gross, they are very natural and I love them and my own have cool designs on them. Check out lunapads.com for more info. So those are some of the ways my family celebrates our beautiful Earth daily.

Where I live does not recycle and it is a big apartment complex so that is disappointing and we are working to change that. We always have to be the change we want to see in the world.

Letting Their Community Garden Grow

April 17th, 2012

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 08:59 AM PDT

Chiles Academy to host Daytona’s Earth Day Festival

BY JAMES HARPER DAYTONA TIMES

The Chiles Academy will be hosting Daytona Beach’s first Earth Day Festival on April 22. Organizers are hoping this will be an annual event.

A Community Garden at Chiles Academy will be the focus of Daytona Beach’s Earth Day Festival on April 22. It will take place from noon to 8 p.m. at the school on George Engram Boulevard. (PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHILES ACADEMY)

The festival, which is free and open to the public, will take place from noon to 8 p.m. at the site of the old Bonner Elementary School on George Engram Boulevard.

Forty-two years ago, the first Earth Day was held nationwide involving over 20 million Americans “to celebrate the Earth and promote awareness of the work needed to protect the environment through teach-ins and rallies,” according to a press release.

Today, Earth Day is celebrated worldwide and many causes are championed such as renewable energy, clean water, stronger communities and eating healthy foods.

‘Educational resource’Anne K. Ferguson, executive director of the Chiles Academy, says the idea of celebrating Earth Day at the school came about because of their community garden.

Ferguson said that in January 2011 Chiles Academy broke ground on the Bonner Center Community Garden with help from Joel Tippens of Salt of the Earth and eventually local organizations who shared their time, expertise and supplies.

“The garden now provides fresh produce to the school and acts as an educational resource for teaching organic gardening. It also provides free gardening plots to the community along with expert advice, supplies, and a friendly community,” Ferguson explained.

Music, workshopsThis year’s Earth Day event will be in support of the garden. The festival will be featuring local farmers, merchants, businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

Making sure parents and children who attend Chiles Academy get fresh produce has been a goal of school officials.

There will be live music, events for all ages, workshops, and many other events throughout the day.

Fresh food for studentsThe mission of the Chiles Academy is to combine a community of support and guidance for pregnant and parenting students with the goal of attaining a high school diploma, which will empower them to become independent and responsible citizens. The academy serves 150 pregnant/parenting teens and children in Volusia County.

Ferguson said what’s grown in the garden is used at the school to feed the students. She added that the produce also is available to residents in the city.

“A community garden helps people who live in poverty have access to fresh vegetables and fruits,” said Ferguson.

Camille Holder Brown, the founder of Midtown Eco Village and her husband, Omar, have been volunteers at the garden and plan to be one of the vendors at the festival.

Eco-friendly eventsThe couple is also a co-organizer of the event.

“We are having eco-friendly vendors, showing the movie “Food Inc.’’ and have free activities and entertainment all day,” Camille Brown said.

Brown said there will also be a hybrid car on display, free face painting, a clothes swap, field day games and Bethune-Cookman College students will be constructing a sundial.

“My husband Omar Brown, ‘Farmer Brown’ as I so fondly call him, has been growing food since he was a little boy with his grandfather and is now working on a large plot in Chiles’ Community Garden,’’ she added.

‘Plotting and planning’Jody Williams also has volunteered at the garden and says she enjoys spreading the word about it and the school.

“The Community Garden attracted me because I like gardens and vegetables and meeting new people and working and learning together. I learned a lot about the nutritional value of fresh foods for everyone but especially for folks in neighborhoods without good supermarkets or sources of fresh foods,” said Williams.

“I got excited to see what local folks, including college students and neighbors and churches, and the Chiles students (even the little ones) were plotting and planning,” added Williams.Other partners located at The Chiles Academy who are helping to establish the vision of “a full-service community school” include Early Head Start, the Reign Academy, the Pyramid Community Café, Agape Midwifery, and Fruit-on-Deck.

For information about the festival, contact Camille Brown at 386-227-7393. The website for Earth Day is http://daytonabeachearthdayfestival.com.

Midtown EcoVillage & Westside Elementary: A Perfect Combination

March 29th, 2012

It all started last fall when City Commissioner Edith Shelley, who is now running for mayor, met us at the Cypress Aquatics Center when we were doing Move to the Groove. She fell in love with us and insisted that we had to meet Judy Winch the principal over at Westside Elementary School. We first volunteered doing fruit and veggie stamping at their annual block party in the community adjacent to the school called Cedar Highlands and it was a blast.

Westside fruit and veggie people

The next thing we know we are making smoothies in the cafeteria for a group of kids and after volunteering that second time we were hooked. The children fell in love with our smoothies, they named our stuffed fruit and vegetables crazy names like “Cleveland the Carrot” and “Brenda the Broccoli” we had already named “Donovon the Bananamom” he’s Jamaican like us. LOL. Where are your children in all this madness you asked? With us of course, we homeschool and it’s all journey we take together and they always need “socialization” LOL.

Kids cooking At Westside Elementary

Naturally when the school received a grant, since we were such wonderful volunteers, toot toot, they invited us to come out weekly and work with the kids. We began in the library with a free vegan family cooking class where we made fresh carrot ginger salad dressing and salad, all raw vegan and also introduced the families to vegan meat alternatives like gardein and tofu. That series was called Tofu and Tae Bo because Farmer Brown is quite the athlete and lead in some fancy martial arts moves, only to be showed up by a parent that was a boxer, LOL. Shhh, I did not say that, but he held his ground and it was great time. Did the librarian think so, well we were not quiet that is for sure.

Although we will make smoothies on occasion, our weekly commitment to Westside students is teaching culture in the classroom. Each week we get three groups of students in 45min increments and we focus on having fun and learning about how people live in other parts of the world.

Vegan Cooking with Kids at Westside

We learn geography, bartering, various customs, dances, and about vegetarian food from all over the world. The children really enjoy it because the focus now in education is on standardized test results. As homeschoolers, we bring a unique approach to the children and really get to get them to see that not only do people live drastically different in other parts of the world, but also we get them to think critically and challenge them to play less video games, watch less TV, and read more. Our children love being there as much as we do.

Westside Smoothie Blender

Whenever Westside is having any special program like Black History Month, you bet we are in the audience cheering those children on,

Thank You Midtown EcoVillage, Inc.

after all, I gave birth to Tandiwe, Amali, and Fela but I there are many children in the village that I treat as my own. Who needs to be a Hollywood celeb when the Westside Eagles see us around town in the grocery stores and come hug as greet us warmly with “Hi Mrs. Brown and Mr. Brown!” priceless and if that is not fame, I do not not know what to call that feeling but it sure brings me a lot of joy.

GO WESTSIDE EAGLES and see you later this week.

Love The Browns