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Vicki Pierce: "What Has Changed Is The Way We Feed Kids"

vicki pierce

Vicki Pierce is the Executive Director of the Community Kitchen of Monroe County, a position she's held since 2004. On her watch, the organization moved into a larger facility; it expanded outreach programs to kids and seniors; and the Community Kitchen developed a signature fundraiser, Chef's Challenge. In its tenth year, that event is expected to bring in up to $30,000.

I invited Vicki Pierce into the Earth Eats studio to reflect on twelve years of service.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Annie Corrigan: Let's think twelve years ago. Paint a picture for me of the food needs of our community then.

Vicki Pierce: In terms of the kitchen especially, then we were looking at mostly adults, middle adults who either were difficult to employ, let's say that, either because they had physical or mental issues that made it difficult for them to get employment or maintain employment. Or they were folks who had been transient enough and were having trouble getting a job. And then a significant number of seniors. And then the recession hit, and then everything changed. We saw more and more folks who previously had been employable who couldn't find jobs, and if they could, especially in a community like Bloomington that's saturated with intelligent, able-bodied people because of the university, unable to get jobs other than maybe minimum wage jobs. So, we saw a lot of folks for the first time who needed services for the first time in their lives. But the big change for us was starting to see more families with kids in the dining room daily. Twelve years ago when I started, almost never saw children in the dining room at dinner time. Over the years, that's kind of started to get a little better, but now it's still unusual to not see kids at some point during the evening.

AC: Tell me why kids are so affected by food issues, by food insecurity.

VP: Having two kids who are almost eleven years old myself, I can speak from experience that they eat constantly. That's what they're supposed to be doing. They're supposed to be getting exercise; they're supposed to be growing. Their bodies are growing and developing. Ideally they're getting fed all the right things. They're getting the proteins and the grains and the fruits and vegetables they need to get the nutrition that's most important and most valuable to them. But, what happens when the family doesn't have enough money for food is that, even if the parents sort of stop eating to feed the kids, if you've been to the grocery store on a limited budget ever, you know that it's more expensive to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. It's cheaper to buy them ultra-processed in the can with too much sodium and too much sugar. It's also cheaper to buy a lot of carbs and a lot of empty calories. Unfortunately, when that's the way they eat, the hidden effects of that are that they're not as able to focus in school, they're not learning as well, maybe their grades slip a little bit. And if you have several years of that, then you have stunted their potential at that point.

Making sure that at least in the way that we feed kids, we're hopefully having a positive impact on the way they see eating in the future.

AC: I wonder if the food you're calling ‘healthy' that you serve at the kitchen has changed over the past decade as our understanding of what is and isn't healthy has also changed.

VP: A little bit. I will say what we have served at dinner time in our main dinner meal has always really been pretty consistent. When I came 12 years ago, they were already serving a vegetarian option in addition to the main entree which almost always has meat. The staff, when I got there, were already very conscious about sodium levels and sugar in foods, because they know a lot of our patrons may be diabetic. What has changed drastically for us is the way we feed kids. When I came 12 years ago, they were doing the best they could, but we didn't have enough funding to be able to buy food for all the kids' programs, so it was what we could glean out of what was donated that we didn't eat for dinner and that's what they would provide kids. So sometimes it was, unfortunately, it was chips or cookies or Capri Sun, which is 10-percent juice. I remember one of the first changes we made I think my second year there is I said, ‘No more 10-percent juice. We're going at least 100-percent juice.' That's one step. Over the years we've gotten where now when we provide lunches to kids this summer, they're getting a healthy wrap or sandwich. It's a whole grain wrap with maybe ham or turkey; you know, it's processed, it's not the most stellar, but it'll have real cheese with it. And sometimes it'll have vegetable on it as well. And then they may be getting sugar snap peas or carrots or celery or broccoli. And then they're also getting a fruit, so it could be oranges, apples, bananas, pears, grapes, other berries. And so making sure that at least in the way that we feed kids, we're hopefully having a positive impact on the way they see eating in the future.

AC: Let's say you're in this job for another ten years. What's your goal ten years from now?

VP: My first goal for the next ten years is to have the mortgage paid off. We moved into our new facility in 2011. It was a $1.4 million project, and we only owe about $225,000 on the building. That's another $2,200 a month we could put back into program. That's another 1,100 meals a month we could provide with no additional expense.

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