A Coldplay fan tries out a week on GROW

From the October 19, 2012 post on the Oxfam On Tour blog, a blog dedicated to following the Coldplay Tour and Oxfam fans around the world! Click here to read more about the Coldplay tour and blog posts from fans!

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Coldplay Fan Sian came to our attention when she tweeted about her fundraising blog.  Sian, from Darlington, England, decided she was going to do something to create change in her own way and support Oxfam through living the GROW method for a week. She asked her friends and family to sponsor her for a week full of vegetarianism, buying local food and reducing her food waste.

So of course we interviewed her for GROW week and asked her to share her diary with us. Check out what song got her through the week and her discovery of new food.

Name: Sian

City: Darlington, England

Coldplay activity: Living the GROW method for a week

Money raised for Oxfam: £50 and still counting!

How did you find out about Oxfam?

I looked into Oxfam a lot more after attending my first Coldplay concert. I already knew how involved Coldplay were with the organisation but I learnt to understand it a lot more after noticing the Oxfam campaigners at the gigs. This made me do some research into Oxfam and get more involved.

What inspired you to get more involved with Oxfam?

My school is very ‘into’ fundraising and encourages others to do so. I’ve always been a busy person and felt very guilty for not doing my own fundraiser and I wanted to feel good about helping others. Also I felt as being a Coldplay fan that it was my duty to get involved.

What did your family think about your GROW method week?

Surprised! That I’d decided to do something I’d never normally do and organise it all by myself. I think they realised how independent I can be!

What did your friends do to help you?

Well they all sponsored me! They also came round with me to collect donations and kept my spirits up during the week!

Did you discover any new foods?

Veggie burgers and soup! I’m usually a tomato soup girl, but I realised how much variety there is and they are a very helpful way of creating a dinner from your leftovers.

Did you have anything that kept you going through the week? A song, snack, picture etc.

My friends definitely did and Oxfam. I can’t thank Oxfam enough for all their support and encouragement. Also of course a bit of Coldplay! ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’ was on constant replay!

I love your quotes, what made you start a daily quote?

It was to encourage people to get involved, words are powerful things and used in the right way can make a huge impact on people.

What was the most important thing you learnt from doing the GROW method week?

I never realised how much work Oxfam does with people internationally and what an impact their work makes on others. Since completing the GROW method week I am much more efficient now with food and try to buy local to reduce air miles and support local farmers. It made me realise that although I may have a bad day at school, there are millions of people out there who are much worse off and need your help.

What advice would you give people who wanted to do something like you too?

DO IT! It gives you such a buzz helping others and doing something. Using an idea you’ve thought of and developed is also a lot of fun and changes people’s mindset towards you. It’s hard but it’s a great way to help people less fortunate than you and although the challenge is hard it’s so easy to get involved and Oxfam, who are extremely helpful and supportive!

Sian’s GROW week diary. 

What’s is all about?

I recently got a email from Oxfam and they’ve opened up my eyes to this campaign all you need to know about the GROW method is here  and if you want to know more about getting involved click here  and to Join GROW click here.

I’m going to get people to sponsor me on a GROw method week, if you want to do the same download a sponsorship form here, wish me luck!

The GROW Method- DAY 1

I’ve started my GROW method week and I’m over the moon with the amount of interest I’ve had from class mates, friends and Oxfam. I can’t thank you all enough. From all my sponsors (I’m still getting more at the moment) so far I have around £50. This week will be challenging and I’m sure I will enjoy it! So here goes my weekly diary of living GROW method.

Breakfast: I kick started the day with a breakfast of toast and homemade jam!

Lunch: For lunch I had some potatoes, vegetables and a slice of margarita pizza. To finish I had a pot of strawberry yoghurt to which one person decided it would be funny to read out the ingredients and tell me it contained crab-which of course it did not!

Dinner: For dinner I had planned to go out for a meal with friends and devour another margarita pizza! But got stuck in traffic and couldn’t make it so had to settle for some tomato pasta and a cup of Yorkshire tea! For dessert I had a cheeky chocolate bar – but made sure it was fair trade!

The GROW Method – DAY 2 

Hello again! Going veggie today was proving hard as I had to resist some beef curry!

Breakfast: I had my braces tightened yesterday evening and I went down stairs and made some toast again but discovered I could not eat it! My teeth were hurting too much! Had to settle for porridge!

Lunch: For lunch I ate some vegetables and potatoes along with some vegetarian gravy and a pot of yoghurt to finish!

Dinner: I settled for some pasta again tonight but this time spaghetti!

I think soup is on the agenda tomorrow 

Today I went food shopping buy local/fair trade items as a key point of the GROW method is to eat local to support local farmers and ensure people globally get a fairer price for their produce.

Below are just a few of my items I managed to snap before they were cooked!

GROW method – DAY 3

Oh dear, having some technical difficulties with the laptop sorry for the late post!

Breakfast: Ok so I started off the day with porridge again as still having brace problems!

Lunch: I was very upset to find no vegetarian option at school today for lunch so had to settle for a jacket potato beans and vegetables! I then had to have my fair trade Kitkat as I was still hungry!

Dinner: When I got home I was welcomed to some lovely spicy tomato soup made from the tomatoes we didn’t use in our pasta. This proves it’s easy to eat your leftovers as the GROW method promotes being careful with your food to reduce food waste. It was yummy too!

All is well with the GROW method; it’s hard, but not as hard as I imagined but certainly not easy! Can’t thank Oxfam on tour enough for all their support so far! Here’s to Oxfam  I’m very excited to see how much has been raised! I’ll leave you all with these beautiful quotes I found!

Quotes of the day:

‘No one has ever become poor from giving’. – Anne Frank

‘You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give’. – Winston Churchill

GROW Method – DAY 4

WOAH, today I almost ate a haribo! We had a netball match against Darlington town netball team and we won so we were given haribo gummy sweets as a prize but I had to pass it on as gummy sweets contain gelatine. Gelatine is a protein product that is present in animals so I couldn’t eat it. Anyways hello again!

Breakfast: I finally got to have toast again Yey with chocolate spread mmmmm.

Lunch: For lunch I had some spaghetti pasta at school with some carrots and some chocolate sponge!

Dinner: For dinner I finished my day with beans on toast.

And here’s a quote goodnight!

Quote of the day:

 ‘I believe the world is one big family and we need to help each other’. – Jet Li

GROW Method – DAY 5 

Only two days left! Where has this week gone! It’s been extremely fun though and although people have tried to tempt me I’ve stayed strong!

Breakfast:  For breakfast I had weetabix 

Lunch: I then had some lovely cheesy pasta, peas and chips for lunch!

Dinner: I then had leak and potato soup for tea (aka dinner)! The recipe for it is below.

Quote of the day:

‘Every charitable act is a step towards heaven’ – Henry Ward Beecher

GROW Method- DAY 6

Hello! Sorry I didn’t post yesterday I was very busy at school helping with a school open day then had to go to Teesside shopping! Anyway

Breakfast: to start the day I had banana yoghurt and a cereal bar!

Lunch: I had carrot and coriander soup!

Dinner: I had a veggie burger and chips!

GROW Method- Day 7:

Breakfast: This morning I had eggy bread. This is cheap and tasty dish of bread soaked in eggs and then fried. Try it out to use up your left over eggs and bread.

Dinner: I was then naughty and skipped lunch! I just forgot and had some pasta for tea. I would have killed for a Sunday roast though WA :’)

Quote of the day:

‘I don’t wish to be everything to everyone, but I wish to be something to somebody’ – Javan.

So that’s it! My grow method week is done, sad face. I really enjoyed it and it has made me appreciate what I’ve got much more. I can’t thank everyone enough for supporting me particularly my friends and Oxfam on tour. So goodbye and a massive thank you!!

Leek,Onion and Potato Soup

Ingredients

4 Large Leeks

2 Medium Potatoes peeled and diced.

1 Medium Onion,Chopped small

2oz butter (50g)

11/2 pints water (850ml)

10fl oz Milk ( 275)

Salt and black pepper

1) Cut off the tops and roots of the leeks and get rid of the tough outer layer. Split them in half lengthways and slice them finely. Then wash them thoroughly and drain.

2) In a large saucepan melt the butter then add leeks potatoes and onion stirring them into the butter.Add salt and pepper to season and cover to let the vegetables sweat on a very low heat for roughly 15 minutes.

3)Add the water and milk and bring to simmering point and put the lid back on and let the soup simmer gently for a further 20minutes (or until the vegetables are soft).

4) Then put it into the liquidizer and blend to a purée or press through  sieve.

5) Return the soup to  saucepan and reheat gently and serve.

The Happiest Day of the Week!

By Susan Tamoney

Our latest guest blogger, Susan Tamoney, is an active member of the Boston Oxfam Action Corps as well as a member of a local CSA! In the following series of posts, Sue will share a look at the rich variety of local options and how she has chosen to play a larger part in her own food. Below, Susan shares her tips and tricks to following the GROW Method with her CSA produce, not to mention some delicious recipes with some unlikely vegetables.

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For me, the happiest day of the week is Tuesday. This is the day that I pick up our CSA share at Land’s Sake Farm. For anyone who doesn’t know, purchasing a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share allows small scale farmers to plan their growing season more efficiently by having shareholders pay for their entire season of produce up front, in advance of the growing season. Supporting and connecting with local farmers is one important part of Oxfam America’s GROW Method initiative in support of the GROW campaign.

But back to my happiest day of the week. It wasn’t always this way. Don’t misunderstand; it’s easy to look forward to going to the farm to pick up your CSA. The beautifully organized tables with baskets of produce spilling over their edges. The just harvested vegetables, practically crying out for their moment in the spotlight, begging to be photographed. The sunburned, enthusiastic farmers, proudly explaining what produce is in our share this week. The friendly neighbors exchanging recipes and making cooking suggestions. What’s not to love?

All of this against a backdrop of neatly tended rows of vegetables and colorful fields of flowers is pretty hard to resist. Toss in a bit of happy background noise as children, arriving with their parents, take off laughing to check out a fluffy farm rabbit and some elegant chickens clucking softly in their coop. What’s not to love?

Like many, we’ve always done a bit of backyard gardening at our house. The easy stuff: tomatoes, peas, a bit of bib lettuce, some basil. It was enough to toss together an impromptu Insalata Caprese. We’ve always sought out produce from small local farms and farmer’s markets. But this year, inspired by Oxfam and GROW, we decided that it was time to step up and commit to a CSA share all our own.
So, here’s a picture of our share for one week:

Looks like a good amount of produce for a two to four person family, right? Surprisingly, I found that there was a bit of stress involved. When I first start buying produce this way, I felt a bit overwhelmed by what I brought home in my bags, which can vary greatly for week to week. The good news is that with a bit of advance preparation and a tiny bit of practice, it was all very doable.

Be advised, if you, like me, have ever felt guilty at having to pitch into the compost (or even worse, into the trash) a head of lettuce that wilted before it made it into your salad or the zucchini that was in the back of the vegetable drawer and is now beyond salvation, even for soup, this feeling of guilt will be even worse when something from a CSA ends up in the bin. Not sure exactly why, but it definitely is. Maybe it’s picturing the sweat streaked faces of your farmers, all of whom you are on a first name basis with by the middle of the summer.

So, I decided early on in the season to make a kind of challenge of it.

The challenge:

• Use only what we get in our share, no running out to Whole Foods to buy what we might “feel” like having for dinner tonight, 
• Use everything in the share, even the things that we don’t have a clue what they are (“Oh, so that’s a kohlrabi.”), 
• If we absolutely can’t eat something, share it with friends or neighbors.

These are kohlrabi. I’ve already removed the leaves. Aren’t they a beautiful color? They transform into beautiful chips with a purpled ruffled edge, very Prada!

The great news is that we did it! And not only that but I can say with complete honesty that we have never eaten better than we did this summer. We had some truly amazing meals, and they were all simple and delicious and healthy and VERY easy to prepare. It took a bit of experimentation and “tweeking”, but by end of the season, I’d finally got it down. Supporting lots of parts of the GROW Method in the process and eating some amazingly delicious food. Now that REALLY makes me happy!

Kohlrabi Chip Recipe:

1. Wash and dry one or two kohlrabi. 
2. Thinly slice them into discs using a mandolin (careful of your fingers!). 
3.  Put the slices into a bowl and toss them lightly with a little olive oil, just to coat. 
4.  Place them in a single layer on parchment (very important) covered cookie sheets and bake in a 425F oven for about 5 minutes. You should keep an eye on them. Keep them in longer if you like them crispier.

I made these a lot this summer because they are great to serve as a little nibble before dinner or on the side with an entrée and because everyone loved them. So, I hit on a sweet and salty version that I liked even better:

1. After tossing the kohlrabi slices with olive oil, sprinkle them with some coarse salt, some ground cinnamon and a bit of granulated sugar. 
2.  Keep a close eye on them while they’re in the oven, they can burn quickly with the added bit of sugar.

Hope you like these as much as we all did! Kohlrabi got the prize in our house for “Vegetable That We Never Would Have Tried Without A CSA” and now it’s a hands down favorite!

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Susan introduced us to what her CSA looks like and what her challenges were in using up all of her delicious produce!  Next she'll reveal her best tips and tricks for getting the most out of a CSA!  And of course more great recipes!

Have your own tips and tricks? What about favorite recipes for our lesser - known veggies? Email them in to actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org!

A Look at Juribidá, Colombia

Carolina Garcia, a Oxfam Action Corps leaders in Boston, Massachusetts and FAST Program Assistant at Oxfam America, recently returned from a trip to Juribidá, Colombia. Read on for Carolina's fascinating experiences and insights, beautiful photos, and inspiring GROW Method take-aways.

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This summer, I had the privilege to visit Juribidá, a small town in the wonderful Colombian Pacific Ocean where, in almost every garden and backyard, one can find raised beds with herbs and vegetables for personal consumption.

In spite of the many problems this entire region faces -mainly government neglect-, towns like Juribidá have managed to subsist almost entirely on their own resources for centuries: catching their own fish and growing basic produce like plantains, onions, peppers, etc. Unfortunately, the commercial fishing industry has proven to be disastrous for them, as it has nearly depleted their waters of many of the species that used to inhabit them.

But this post is about positively inspiring us to GROW our own food, locally and seasonally, and to support those who do it at a small scale, so here it goes.

That's a drill!

By Carolina Garcia, Boston Oxfam Action Corps

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What did you see this summer that inspired you to GROW? Whether in your backyard or across the globe, let us know how what new experiences you've had this summer! Send them to actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org.

Des Moines Urges - Decrease Your "Foodprint"!

Down in the dumps about American food waste? So are the Iowa Action Corps volunteers and the Natural Resources Defense Council. A new report demonstrates exactly where this waste is all coming from - and just how much good could be done by wasting less. Read this great post urging you to waste less and go GROW by the Iowa Action Corps!

It shouldn't come as a huge surprise. You wander into the kitchen, open the refrigerator door, and there they are: moldy strawberries, wilting lettuce, and an array of weeks-old leftovers that you either forgot about or were too busy to eat. "Oh yeah! I WAS going to eat that..."

Let's face the ugly truth: As Americans, we're quite wasteful. A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council  (Motto: "The Earth's Best Defense") puts a stunning number on the wastefulness, too...40%. But they don't stop there. Their report examines every stage from Farm to Fork to Landfill and all those steps in between to provide a truly comprehensive look at where the inefficiencies exist in our food system that result in such a mind-blowing number.

Now, you might think that mega-farms or corporations are to blame for the majority of the 40%. Yes, they are responsible for a share of it...but it's actually us - the individuals and families making food purchases who contribute the largest share of food waste. Yuk! In fact, if 15% of the food waste was recovered and put on the table for hungry families, we could feed 25 million people! That makes a huge difference considering here in the U.S., 1 in 6 people are food insecure.

So, it only makes sense that Oxfam's GROW Method is the next logical step in the process. One of the key components is reducing food waste so that we, as individuals, can make a difference. Between the Pinterest page and Facebook app, you can learn (and contribute!) new ways of thinking about your food and how to lower your "foodprint".

For a one-pager version of the NRDC report highlights, click here.

The average American household throws 
out 20 pounds of food per person per month!

For the complete NRDC 25+ page report "Wasted", click here.

MY PLEDGE: MEATLESS MONDAYS

Jasmine McBeath from the New Mexico Action Corps has made a promise to cut down on her meat intake for Meatless Mondays! Take a look at her post below to see why Jasmine decided to go meatless on Monday - and you won't believe what a difference it can make!

To see what else is up in New Mexico, check out their blog: http://newmexico.oxfamactioncorps.org

What have you done to implement the GROW Method? Have you tried meatless Mondays? Have any vegetarian specialties to share? Let us know at actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org!

I have to admit that I only recently considered the changes I could make to my diet that would affect others. Although I grew up in a conscientious, environment-oriented family, we were more concerned with saving water than food. In fact, my boyfriend still refers to me as "The Water Nazi" for turning off the facet while he's midway through brushing his teeth or shaving.

But when I read about "Meatless Mondays", something stuck. I had learned about Oxfam's GROW Campaign from my training, and this plan provided a simple, concrete way to support the "eat less meat" objective. 

The phrase has been around for almost 100 years (originally a WWI slogan to ration food), but I didn’t know about “Meatless Mondays” until a recent backlash from ranchers about the content of a USDA newsletter. This flurry of articles made me dig a little deeper, and realize that the campaign has reached a lot of people. According to a report by the American Meat Institute, nearly 20% of households participate. 

Chefs are on board; schools, hospitals, and even whole towns have implemented meat-free Mondays. 80,000 children attending Baltimore City Public Schools made the switch. University of California Santa Cruz and Carnegie Mellon students enjoy Meatless Mondays at their dining halls. The Cobblestone Café at John Hopkins Hospital offers only vegetarian options on Mondays. Bigger still, San Francisco and Washington D.C. have passed city-wide resolutions. And in 2011, Aspen became the first “Meatless Monday Community” with over 30 restaurants and organizations participating.

If you're like many of my friends, you're probably asking, "What difference does it make?" The answer is: a lot.  A family of four that trades in their steak dinner for lentils once a week saves 12.5 Olympic-size swimming pools of water per year. Moreover,“if everybody in America did that, that would be the equivalent of taking 20 million midsize sedans off the road,” food advocate Michael Pollan commented on Oprah. Water, land, fertilizer, oil. These are all things we don’t often consider when eating meat. Maybe you knew that livestock farming accounts for almost 20% of greenhouse gases, but did you know it also represents 8% of water use worldwide?

                   

 What it Takes to Make a Quarter-Pounder

Source: J.L. Capper, Journal of Animal Science, December, 2011.

Credit: Producers: Eliza Barclay, Jessica Stoller-Conrad 

Designer: Kevin Uhrmacher/NPR

The drain on resources gives rise to other problems. According to Oxfam press officer Ben Grossman-Cohen, "If we don't reduce our environmental footprints as we increase production, poor people, particularly women, will be the first to suffer. Eating less meat is a simple way to reduce the pressure on global resources and help ensure that everyone has enough to eat." Oxfam's GROW campaign goes a long way toward feeding a world population estimated to grow to nine billion by 2050. 

Now, I realize there are many people that go way beyond the once-a-week pledge. There are vegans and vegetarians, and others like a former roommate of mine that ate veggie burgers every other day just because they were simple to prepare and tasted good. However, we all do what we can, and that means "Meatless Mondays” for me. This plan assures I eat less meat by making it a priority at least once a week. I've conned my boyfriend into joining in also. As a big meat-eater, it’s a significant sacrifice for him, but I’m confident I can cook up some great vegetarian meals. I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going, and post some fun recipes so you can join in too.

By Jasmine McBeath