Rising Into the Community

Week 4

Maelyn and Tatum in north central Iowa.

This week was spent keeping busy with programming, traveling with the Rollin’ Rec Mobile, and having the opportunity to tour the HACAP Corporate Office in Hiawatha.

On Monday, we created 200 to-go kits for children to take and grow their own spinach. Each kit included a starter pot, a peat pellet, spinach seeds, and information about growing and harvesting spinach. We took a deeper look into food insecurity in Linn County. We have partnered with Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) to provide education about hunger and the need for food assistance in the area. HACAP is a food bank that serves nine counties in Iowa, including Benton, Dubuque, Delaware, Iowa, Jackson, Johnson, Jones, Linn, and Washington. Our role is to update data on informational display boards about the number of food-insecure individuals in Linn County. We will then take that display to farmer’s markets and fairs to raise awareness about food insecurity. We finished the day by preparing lessons for the Jane Boyd Community House that we will begin next week. 

Tuesday was another busy day of programming in Benton. The morning was spent participating in orientation and learning all about Human Sciences extension as well as preparing for our afternoon programs. In the later part of the afternoon, we traveled to Happy Time Childcare at Tilford Elementary to complete programming. The older kids learned about soil and plating seeds. The kids had fun practicing planting by making edible soil cups. The kids used their imagination and planted various M&M “seeds” such as carrots, strawberries, watermelons, and cucumbers. One of the most special moments of the day was when one child came up to us after the activity, thanked us for coming and told us how much they enjoyed making soil cups. The preschoolers had a blast reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and identifying all of the different fruits that the caterpillar ate its way through. They were also very excited to be able to make their own caterpillars with grapes and strawberries at the end while we talked about how fruits help us to build strong bodies. 

One of The Very Hungry Caterpillars that was made.

Wednesday was a busy day in Linn County. We started the morning by getting a tour of the Jane Boyd Community House where we will start doing programming, including Watch Me Grow and Pick a Better Snack, with some of the younger kids next week. Upon returning to the office, we finalized the packaging of our Growing Spinach kits and worked to finish preparing those for future events. We spent our afternoon alongside the Rollin’ Rec Mobile and handed out activity bags to the kids so they could plant their own seed as part of the Watch Me Grow series. We had a bit of downtime before our next event, so we spent some time exploring Marion, IA and stopping for dinner at Zoey’s Pizzeria. We had the taco pizza and would definitely recommend to anyone looking for great Chicago-Deep Dish pizza in the Linn County area. We ended our day with a tour of HACAP. This was a great chance to see one facility that helps fight local food insecurity. It gave more meaning to our research about food insecurity in Linn County. During the tour, we volunteered to package bags for the Backpack Program. HACAP partners with local elementary schools to provide supplemental food for children to take home to their families. 

Handing out Watch Me Grow kits at the Rollin’ Rec Mobile.

Thursday, we started our day by traveling to Shellsburg and meeting with the Creative Kids Company. We got a tour of where we will be doing our programming and met with some staff members. We begin our programming here in July, so be sure to stay tuned for that in later blogs! The rest of the day was spent in the office preparing for all of next week’s programs and preparing different programs and cards for the fair. The Benton County Fair is June 22-June 27, and everyone is hard at work in the extension office to make sure this year’s fair is a success, so be sure to come and check it out. 
Be sure to stay cool out there and we will catch you next week!

– Tatum and Maelyn