From Our Garden to the Table

Hundreds of bell peppers in shades of green, red, orange and yellow were on the chopping block today at the DC Central Kitchen. The peppers, personally delivered by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack from the USDA Farmer’s Market, were on their way into quesadillas as part of the lunch menu at the DC Central Kitchen.

Secretary Vilsack was at the DC Central Kitchen today as part of the Obama Administration's 'National Day of Service and Remembrance'. The Secretary, with sleeves rolled up and proper food safety procedures in place, jumped on the food production line and demonstrated his dicing skills as the peppers made their journey into quesadillas.

In addition to the cases of peppers, the Secretary delivered fresh green beans and other vegetables picked only an hour early from the People’s Garden at the USDA headquarters. Altogether, he People's Garden has produced 300 pounds of fresh produce that has been donated to DC Central Kitchen over the course of the summer.

Under the banner of President Obama’s 'United We Serve' initiative, the DC Central Kitchen was packed with volunteers eager to give back to the community. And what better way to give back than to help those members of the community that are underserved and the most vulnerable. The DC Central Kitchen represents the best of our community and has used their facility to recover unused food, prepare and deliver meals to partner social service agencies, train and employ homeless men and women for the food service industry, and intellectually engage volunteers.



The DC Central Kitchen takes their dedication to the local community a step further by reaching out to local farmers and producers for the food they use. From local gardens and farms to the dinner table on a large scale is quite a sight. As a community kitchen, they recycle over one ton of surplus food each day that would otherwise go to waste and turn it into 4,500 meals for the hungry in the greater Washington, D.C., region.

Thank you to those Americans that volunteered their time on this National Day of Service and Remembrance.

Permalink  |  Posted: 04:25PM Sep 11, 2009 by USDAblogger in USDA Web Site  |  Add Your Comment Here [3]

Rural Tour fostering a nationwide discussion on rural issues

Since the first event in June, we've been excited to see the Rural Tour generating really thoughtful conversation and debate on the issues facing rural America. At town hall forums across the nation, Secretary Vilsack and his counterparts across the government have met with large, sometimes overflow, crowds. They've been able to answer questions and engage in productive debate on the best ways to help rural America.

And, people are starting to notice:

Charlotte Observer: Civility and respect rule at bipartisan town hall meeting
Breaking a pattern of raucous encounters across the country, more than 600 people Monday attended a town hall meeting marked by civility, substance and even bipartisanship.

Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell joined two Cabinet secretaries in fielding questions from an overflow audience at Richmond Community College.

PoliticsDaily: Tom Vilsack's Farm-Country Tour: A Different Kind of Town Hall
Health care town-hall meetings are certainly stealing the spotlight these days -- but they're not the only game in town. Mostly unnoticed, a quieter series of town halls is taking place on a different crisis: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has embarked on a listening tour through rural America to hear about the problems facing farmers. And it's a good thing too, because back on the farm, all is not well.

On Wednesday at the Iowa State Fair, a group of farmers gathered from all over the state. Walking straight past the 1,000-pound squash, a 600-pound butter sculpture of a cow and the stand selling fried Milky Way bars, the farmers sat down to detail some of the problems they were facing to their former governor.

Quad City Times: Vilsack Returns To Iowa Fair, Talks About Rural Issues
Wednesday's rural issues forum at the Iowa State Fair featuring U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack lacked some of the fireworks that have accompanied health-care forums around the nation. This forum was more polite, with the former Iowa governor telling about the Obama administration's policies and farmers asking questions about specific programs, such as a recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it would give borrowers more leeway to restructure loans.

This forum was more polite, with the former Iowa governor telling about the Obama administration's policies and farmers asking questions about specific programs, such as a recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it would give borrowers more leeway to restructure loans.

Richmond County Daily Journal: Elected leaders touch on issues
The emerging green economy, school nutrition and healthcare were just some of the subjects discussed at a meeting that followed the White House’s Rural Tour event at Cole Auditorium Monday.

The four-person panel consisted of U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell and two Obama cabinet members: Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The purpose of the Rural Tour is to listen to the concerns of individuals in rural areas, and share what the administration is putting in place to answer those concerns. The meeting at Cole was scheduled to focus on education and workforce development.

Permalink  |  Posted: 03:58PM Aug 20, 2009 by USDAblogger in USDA Web Site  |  Add Your Comment Here [1]

Secretaries Vilsack and Duncan participate in food packaging event to promote “United We Serve”

On Monday, August 17, Secretary Vilsack joined Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for a Rural Tour event in Hamlet, North Carolina. While they were there, the Secretaries had the opportunity to participate in a meal packaging service project at Richmond Community College to promote President Obama’s United We Serve summer volunteerism initiative. The event was coordinated by Stop Hunger Now, a Raleigh-based non-profit organization that has hosted similar events at area colleges, including North Carolina State, the University of North Carolina, NC Central and others.

Stop Hunger Now's meal packaging program is a volunteer-based effort through which participants package high protein, dehydrated meals for use in crisis situations, and which also provide a highly nutritious meal to support school feeding programs in schools and orphanages around the world. They have provided 13 million meals to more than 70 countries worldwide to date. For this event, the meal packages were assembled to benefit a group based in Winston-Salem, NC

When the Secretaries arrived at the event, they were greeted by Stop Hunger Now founder and president Ray Buchanan, who gave them a brief introduction to the project.



The Secretaries then joined about 70 students from local college preparatory programs to assemble an astounding 10,000 meals.



Secretary Vilsack highlighted the fact that USDA works to feed hungry people in places like Hamlet, North Carolina through programs such as the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, as well as through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which helps support food banks all over the country. USDA also helps to feed hungry children around the world through the Foreign Agricultural Service.

The Secretaries also emphasized President Obama’s call to engage in service to help people in need. Through this event, young people from rural North Carolina had a chance to learn about global hunger and make a difference in the lives of needy children overseas.

Permalink  |  Posted: 02:29PM Aug 19, 2009 by USDAblogger in USDA Web Site  |  Add Your Comment Here [3]

Vilsack outlines vision for our nation's forests in Seattle remarks

With Secretary Vilsack doing so much this month, I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to check out his great remarks last week on the future of our nation’s forests, and share people’s reaction.

On Friday, between our Rural Tour stop in Western Alaska and a brief return to DC, we made the flight down to Seattle, Washington for the Secretary Vilsack to address the future of our forests in Seward Park.

The event was held in the city park, just in front of a magnificent lake, with about 100 people in attendance – Forest Service employees, Seattle residents, even a group of local kids from an Audubon Society youth program.



After Congressman Norm Dix kicked off the event with remarks on the vitality of Washington agriculture, Secretary Vilsack made clear that our nation’s forests are in critical need of restoration and renewed conservation efforts.

He outlined the important role of the forests in maintaining a safe water supply and called on all Americans to take a stake in the future of our nation’s forestlands.

The reaction was very positive among environmental groups, and the media reported on widespread agreement with the Secretary’s long-term vision.



It’s worth noting, too, that just this afternoon Vilsack announced another $94 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to go toward restoring national forests.

If you’d like to read the remarks, you can view them here; you can also check out news clips:

L.A. Times: Vilsack's forest agenda welcomed by conservationists, loggers
"Reporting from Seattle - Restoration and conservation are the goals that will guide management of the U.S. forest system under the Obama administration, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Friday."

Associated Press: Vilsack calls for renewed emphasis on forests
"U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday outlined a vision for managing the nation's forests that placed a high priority on restoration to protect water resources and combat climate change.

'Conserving our forests is not a luxury,' but a necessity, the former Iowa governor said at Seward Park in Seattle in his first major address on the Forest Service."

Caleb Weaver
USDA Press Secretary

Permalink  |  Posted: 05:26PM Aug 18, 2009 by USDAblogger in USDA Web Site  |  Add Your Comment Here [0]