Project MANA - A Hunger Relief Agency

Stone Soup is a weekly soup night designed to bring the community together in this time of economic stress
By Ryan Slabaugh
Sierra Sun,
TRUCKEE — Billy McCullough and Mark Estee are busy men these days. Both are starting new restaurants at area resorts, and combined with managing their popular eateries in Truckee, rarely have time to chat. When calling their restaurants to talk, it’s not uncommon to hear an employee say, “They’re pretty slammed. Can I send you to voicemail?”

Despite their frantic schedules, McCullough and Estee are working with a group to start Stone Soup, a weekly soup night designed to bring the community together in this time of economic stress.

Local Penny Fink speaks for the group, which has partnered with Project MANA and other area charities to launch a free soup night (donations are accepted) every Sunday between March 1 and May 17. And when Fink speaks about this new venture, she sounds like most everyone in the world these days — unsure.

“We have no idea how many people will show up,” Fink said. “We think it could be a fairly big number ... We’re looking at close to 100 people, but we have no idea.”

McCullough, who operates the Dragonfly in Truckee, and Estee, who operates Moody’s, join other locals like Deb Ryan, leaders at the Truckee Recreation Department, and MANA’s Kaili Sanchez in crafting the vision of a communal pow-wow over some hot food.

Organizers want to avoid the traditional stigma attached to “soup kitchens,” and as Fink put it, “Our main goal is to bring the community together. If you’re not in need, you can come eat soup and donate some money.”

The rest of the community is taking notice, too. Fink said her group will manage the first two Sundays, but hope other groups like businesses and clubs will step in and manage future Stone Soups. At first, she wondered how many would volunteer.

“But now, I think at this point we will fill all the Sundays,” she said. “And even though we’re saying it might end May 17 when it starts to get warmer, we’re not saying that’s the end of it. We’re saying we’ll figure it out as we go based on the need and its success.”

Estee has one request for those who do plan on attending: “Bring your own bowl and spoon to save some plastic stuff, and to save all the dishes we’ll have to wash,” he said.

Sundays are still available. Organizations or individuals interested in helping can contact Penny Fink at (530) 587-8242, or at ppennyfink@gmail.com.

First soup offering
What: Stone Soup is a weekly community soup night in times of economic stress.

Cost: Free

When: Sunday, March 1, from 4:30-7:30 p.m.

Where: Truckee Rec Center

To sponsor a Sunday: Contact Penny Fink at (530) 587-8242, or at ppennyfink@gmail.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a four part series by Gwen Straley for National Nutrition Month. Look for her articles every Friday in March.

March is National Nutrition Month, and that means Project MANA will be augmenting its education and outreach efforts in our community. National Nutrition Month is a campaign of the American Dietetic Association, first launched in 1973 as National Nutrition Week. In 1980, because of increased pressure and need for more education and outreach, the campaign lengthened to a month long event.

The motivation behind the month is to help consumers develop and maintain healthy eating habits and physical activity.

Though many people in our community know of Project MANA, not every one knows that the MANA acronym stands for “Making Adequate Nutrition Accessible.” That, of course, involves emergency food relief, but it also relies heavily on our nutrition education and outreach programs.  Therefore, during the month of March, we will be engaging in an assortment of nutrition-related events and programs.

We will begin by practicing what we preach, as the Project MANA staff will be hosting and competing in The Fruit and Veggie Challenge at the Parasol Building. The Fruit and Veggie Challenge will also be held in the elementary schools. 

Each competition will determine which office, or which classroom, consumes the most servings of fruit and vegetables during the month of March. The winning office in the Parasol Building will receive a lunch cooked by Project MANA Executive Director George LeBard.  The winning classroom will receive recognition in the paper for their outstanding nutritional practice. If you are interested in participating in the challenge as well, please contact us at (775) 298-0008.

Next, Project MANA will extend its efforts to promote healthy eating and exercise to its clients. We'll be including low budget recipes, nutritional information, and tips for easy exercise in our bags for distribution this month.

This month we will also launch Kids Can Cook, an after school course at Incline Middle School that teaches nutrition, basic cooking skills, and food safety to students.

Natalie Hull, our Nutrition Education Coordinator, will be teaching nutrition classes to second graders based on the Harvard School of Public Health's Healthy Eating Pyramid.

Lastly, keep your eyes out for more articles in the paper this month that will cover various aspects of nutrition and healthy eating.

Gwen Straley is the Community Outreach Coordinator and AmeriCorps Member at Project MANA. For more information on Project MANA, please check out www.projectmana.org or call (775) 298-0008. She is a 2003 graduate of Incline High School and graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. This is her first year as an AmeriCorp Volunteer with Project MANA.

The overall goal of stepping up to better nutrition and health is so simple that it is often overlooked. That is the goal to feel good.

Individuals on the path to eating better and exercising more often tend to focus on specific medical or physical benefits that are supposed to transpire naturally from their efforts to attain a healthier lifestyle.

It seems that the public is frequently swept away with the continual onset of new fad diets that promote severely cutting down how much we eat, often involving cutting out entire food groups from our diets.

The fact that these fad diets are so popular among Americans while rates of obesity and cardiovascular diseases continue to rise is a clear indicator that the general public is neglecting to honor the fundamental goal of making healthier choices.

To sustain the practice of healthier habits, it is vital to do some major repairs to the mental approach we generally take towards making changes. The first step is to constantly focus on the fact that our ultimate goal is to be healthy and feel good.

That’s it.

Alternative sub-goals like weight loss might prove to be a good incentive, but the objective to feel good must be what drives our choices.

A key component of the goal to feel good is that it is a very positive goal. There should be absolutely nothing negative about striving for and sustaining a state of feeling truly good and healthy. Yet the way almost everyone approaches making healthier choices is through a negative mental framework. The term, “I will cut down on my consumption of sweets and fried foods to lose some extra weight,” is far more common than the term, “I will purchase and consume more of my favorite fruits and vegetables, and walk or ride my bike every day.”

Though both terms aim at sustaining healthier choices, the first is negative and likely to lead to frustration and disappointment. To “cut down” or “lose” something that we enjoy feels tough if not unbearable.

On the other hand, to “add more” of the things we enjoy feels easy and fun.

I’m inclined to believe that adding enjoyable healthy practices to our lives naturally decreases unhealthy practices. Why expend mental energy worrying over a bowl of ice cream when you could get excited about consuming fresh squeezed orange juice or a colorful salad? You just might find that by adding more tasty nutritious foods to your diet, you will indulge in that bowl of ice cream less often, but when you do you’ll reap full satisfaction in the place of your former worry.

When it comes to nutrition, the bottom line is to feel good and think in positives rather than negatives. Once the proper mental approach is in place, the rest should follow quite naturally. The following are some basic principles of healthy eating that are easy to put to use when making positive choices.

Indulge in fruit and vegetables. The reasons are infinite. A variety of fruit and vegetables will load you up with the micronutrients, minerals, and fiber that you need to function optimally. It pays off for well-being in the long run, as research shows that a diet rich in produce defends the body from multiple diseases and ailments, including high blood pressure, strokes and heart disease, digestive problems, and probably some cancers. A diet high in fruit and vegetables also strengthens eyesight, and wards off diseases that threaten vision.

To take on this practice, say good-bye to the “five a day” motto and start including fruit and vegetables in every meal. Aim for covering half of your plate with them. This should be a fun task. The key is to assemble a variety of nutritious, versatile, and flavorful fruit and vegetables that you can work with every day. Stroll the produce aisles and experiment with new items. Think in color. Bright orange, red, or yellow items deliver serious results for your health and taste buds.

Leafy greens constitute another nutritional powerhouse. Play with different ways to prepare fruit and vegetables, and enjoy it!

Choose whole grain carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are not evil and you should not cut them from your diet if you want to feel good. Instead, try maximizing their potential to increase and sustain your energy level by choosing the best bang for your buck. The foods that we typically think of when choosing carbohydrates include high starch items like bread, pasta, grains, and potatoes. So substitute whole wheat bread for white bread, whole grain pasta for regular, and brown rice (or other whole grains) for white rice or refined grains. If that doesn’t sound fun, try it and see how it feels.

Consuming whole grain foods delivers approximately all the essential and naturally occurring nutrients found in the grain seed. It also has a more gradual impact on blood sugar, since the body takes longer to digest these carbohydrates. On the other hand, the body converts potatoes and refined grain foods like white bread to blood sugar quickly, even though they consist of complex carbohydrates.

Eat healthy fats. Like carbohydrates, fats are an essential component of the diet that help the body function at full capacity. The key when choosing fatty foods is to focus on foods containing a high degree of healthy fats. Look for sources of mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fats such as olive and canola oils, avocado, or a variety of nuts and seeds including walnuts, almonds, flax seeds, or sunflower seeds. Saturated fat is less necessary in the diet, since the body produces the amount that it needs on its own. However, it is an unnecessary challenge to eliminate saturated fat from the diet.

Just recall that in excess, it contributes to cardiovascular disease. Trans-fat, at the risk of taking a negative frame of mind, is dangerous. For every extra 2 percent of calories consumed from transfat daily, the risk of coronary heart disease increases by 23 percent. Avoid this fat as much as possible.

Consume protein from a variety of healthy foods. Also essential for optimal health, protein serves a variety of functions for the body. It produces necessary enzymes and hormones. It regulates important body processes and assists the construction and repair of tissues. Though Americans generally eat far more protein than they need, it somehow feels reassuring for us to center most of our meals around some form of protein.

When choosing foods high in protein, choose foods high in nutrients and low in harmful fats. Great examples of vegetable proteins are beans, nuts, and whole grains. Fish and poultry are the best animal sources of protein. Try new high-protein grains like quinoa. Experiment with beans and lentils to make burgers, soups, or curries. Seek out enticing new recipes for salmon or chicken.

Taking care of yourself through nutrition will make you feel healthy, so remember to enjoy the whole process from preparation to mealtime.

Continually experiment with new ingredients. Use aromatic herbs and spices. Blend in vibrant color schemes. And sit down to as many meals as possible with friends and loved ones. These tasks are equally important in developing and sustaining healthier nutrition practices that lead to overall enjoyment and well-being.

Gwen Staley is the community outread coordinator and AmeriCorps member at Project MANA.