Wellness Report: Jesse Crouch, Garden & Wellness Coordinator

Seed to Supper, April 2017

The six-week gardening program offered at Alliance Medical Ministry in partnership with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Seed to Supper, has successfully ended!  This program is taught by local Master Gardeners (including volunteer Rich Woynicz), and teaches adult novice gardeners how to grow their own vegetables.  

Three Alliance patients will be graduating this month (including patient Blanca Perez), and at least two patients will be growing vegetables in the Alliance Community Garden this summer! 

“I came to Alliance originally with serious asthma, needing medication to control it. I use to go the emergency room with my asthma attacks. Now I’m healthy.

Alliance gave me so many gifts: losing weight, exercise, things that I don’t always do. Last year, I did a Cooking Matters class, and learned so many new things. I’ve never eaten healthy like this, and I needed to learn. All of the food we’re making now is healthy and good. It’s been hard to make some changes with my family because we grew up eating a different way, but we now have new favorites, like quinoa and hummus.

Now I’m learning how to garden in the Seed to Supper Program. This is new for me! I’ve always wanted to grow my own tomatoes and peppers. We’re deciding whether to grow at home or grow at Alliance.”

— Blanca Perez

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Zumba, April 2017

After a successful 6-week trial run, we're excited to have Zumba as a permanent, weekly offering for our patients!  We're excited to watch this community grow further. 

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Million Step Challenge, April 2017

The Million Step Challenge is well underway, with our physicians and patients competing against each other in teams and individually to "get their steps in"!  

Alliance Team Rankings for Week 6: 

Team Joyner at 10,709 steps per day steps per participant

Team Wasserman at 12,418 steps per day per participant 

Team Burkhead at 7,551 steps per day per participant

Patients and providers are walking together on week nights and weekends to get in the needed average of 9,000 steps per day to achieve one million steps by the end of the challenge!

Garden Report: Jesse Crouch, Garden & Wellness Coordinator

This April, the garden is ALIVE and harvests are picking up! As temps have normalized, our cool weather crops are feeling more at home. Lettuce, radishes, spinach, kale, and swiss chard are growing in abundance for our patients! It's a great joy to give someone food that you've grown, and we're so grateful to have that privilege.

Our new bee hives are off to a great start and we owe a great debt of gratitude to our bee keeper Alice Hinman, founder of the non-profit, Apiopolis.  Check out her work and show your support in honor of Alliance! Bee populations are in decline.  Having bees onsite at Alliance helps ensure that our flowering vegetables get pollinated and are able to produce fruit successfully, such as okra, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, peas, and beans.   

Over April and May, we'll begin planting and work with our summer crops. We'll be transplanting tomatoes, peppers, okra, and squash, and seedling lots of beans! Perhaps the tastiest of all is our strawberry transplants, which are producing well in their first year. It's really fun getting to watch them ripen!

We hope you'll join us on one of our Garden workdays!  We count on the support of hundreds of garden volunteers over the course of the year to plant, weed, water, and harvest vegetables for our patients.  Email to me to learn more: garden@alliancemedicalministry.org.

Jesse Crouch
Garden & Wellness Program Coordinator
Alliance Medical Ministry
101 Donald Ross Dr. Raleigh, NC 27610
garden@alliancemedicalministry.org 
office: (919) 250-3320 x436

2017 Garden Launch

Our Spring garden is now blessed and well underway, thanks to community and patient support at our April 8th Garden Launch!  

Over 30 individuals -- including two Missional Communities from Edenton Street United Methodist Church -- joined our Garden Launch, helping weed, water, plant and harvest.

Volunteers painted new signs for our garden boxes and terra cotta pots for container gardening.

Volunteers helped lay the groundwork for new herb and pea garden, planted beans, built a trellis for the beans to climb, spread mulch, and pulled weeds to add to compost.

A little landscaping was performed to get our campus ready for Spring!

Alliance Director of Pastoral Care & Counseling Toby Bonar blessed the garden.

“Loving God, you have created all that is,
and you deemed it good.
When you created humankind,
you set them in a garden,
where they were to be fruitful, to care for your creation,
and to receive and share your goodness and abundance.
You journeyed with wandering people, and you
delivered them into a fertile land.
You came to be among us and taught us parables about tilling, weeding, preparing good soil, and sowing.
You warned us against building barns for hoarding,
and encouraged us to share with the community.
We stand before you now in this garden,
and thank you for the gift that it is.
We thank you for the many hands
that have toiled out of love for you and neighbor.
Lord, bless this garden to be a blessing,
a place to receive your gifts and share them with others.
We dedicate this garden to you and our neighbors so that,
by your grace, we may till, weed, and prepare our hearts to cultivate, nourish, and harvest your fruitful love. ”

— Toby Bonar, Director of Pastoral Care & Counseling

We look forward to a bountiful harvest of lettuces, radishes, asparagus, and beans!  Thank you to all for your service.

March 2017 Garden and Wellness Update

March was another busy month for the Alliance Garden and Wellness Programs. Zumba is taking off, drawing 11 participants to our most recent session, the garden made it through a brief cold snap last week, and our Spring Seed to Supper Course with the Interfaith Food Shuttle has begun!

Garden Goods

Not too surprisingly the weather switched back to Winter again just before the Equinox on March 20th. With the help of row cover and some leaves we bundled up our veggies and only lost a few chard plants and some radishes. Many of our overanxious strawberry buds made it through the freezing temps. Otherwise our peas, lettuce, chard, are very happy and taking off to provide awesome nutrition, and education to our patients this Spring! Big thanks to our volunteers from Vintage Church and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority!

Beyond the cold we've planted 25 new Asparagus plants which will live 20+ years in the garden. We've even gotten some Alliance staff to get outside and get their hands dirty with some planting projects in the Garden.

Get Involved: Garden Launch April 8th 9am-12pm

Come see these beautiful veggies up close and personal. Volunteer at our Annual Garden Launch and Community Picnic on April 8th. We'll be working on some fun planting, construction and painting projects and blessing the garden for the year to come! RSVP as an individual or group here: RSVP Garden Launch

The Wonders of Wellness

It's been exciting to see our Wellness program growing and regaining its momentum in 2017. The Million Step Challenge is well underway in its fourth week and going great. Zumba is growing each week and we anticipate it becoming a permanent program for our patients! Perhaps most exciting is how patients have been able to expand on their investment in their health by going from one program to the next. 2 of our Cooking Matters Graduates are now in the Seed to Supper Class and almost all of our Zumba dancers want to enroll in the next Cooking Matters Course. We're so excited to be a place where people can connect with one another and make time for themselves to be healthy.

Million Step Challenge and Walk with a Doc

We're 4 weeks in to the challenge and we can't wait for the next 12. Many of the walkers are already reporting weight loss and have been able to connect with and support each other in getting their steps in every day. The leader board features  walkers hitting at or near 20,000 steps EACH DAY. That's 10 miles! Our Saturday Walks have been going great too and we're excited to see them grow as temps rise. Come join in the fun every 1st, 2nd, and last Saturday of each month at 10am at Alliance!

Zumba Creates Community at Alliance

It's been amazing to see community grow around our new Zumba class. The class is primarily attended by Spanish Speaking women who now get to catch up week over a 45 minute Zumba session. We're so grateful for our bi-lingual volunteer instructor Paula who helps foster these connections. Although there are only 2 weeks left in our current series we're already planning the next one and possibly expanding the program to include a strength training session after the Zumba class.

Growing Gardeners at Alliance

This month we started our newest class of future Raleigh gardeners in the Interfaith Food Shuttle's Seed to Supper Course. Through this partnership we are able to host the class for 3 Alliance Patients and about 10 others from the surrounding community. Our 3 participants (2 Cooking Matters Grads and one hopeful) will soon have their own garden plots in the Alliance Community Garden!

Thanks for your support and for reading. Please reach out if you'd like to find yourself more involved at Alliance!

We're excited about all the good work ahead and we hope you are too.

Jesse Crouch
Garden & Wellness Program Coordinator
Alliance Medical Ministry
101 Donald Ross Dr. Raleigh, NC 27610
garden@alliancemedicalministry.org 
office: (919) 250-3320 x436

February 2017 Garden and Wellness Update

By Jesse Crouch, Garden & Wellness Coordinator

Community Garden Updates

We enjoyed the benefits of many 70+ degree days in February, sending the Alliance Community Garden into bloom!  We're a little weirded out, but the warmer temperatures haven't set back our radish, lettuce, and pea sprouts that are making their way into the world.  We're also celebrating the fact that our strawberry transplants are healthy and adjusting well to the garden! The deer seem to like to stroll through out strawberry and pea beds but we're just grateful they aren't grabbing a snack as well.

We do hope Father Winter didn't completely check out so that our spring crops like lettuce, arugula, and spinach don't just all go straight to seed. But if that happens, more tomatoes and squash!

1: Radish seedlings. 2. Pea sprouts and trellis. 3. Pea spouts. 4. Deer hoof prints in strawberry bed.

 

Good lookin' and cookin'

It's been a very busy month in the Wellness department! Cooking Matters has been a blast with our new students and we hosted our kickoff dinner for the Million Step Challenge Program.

Cooking Matters has been a hit with our new passionate students! It's been exciting learning more about nutrition facts, the importance fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, how much protein you need, what foods have to most protein! And all over amazing recipes like Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burgers, Veggie Fajitas, Sweet Potato Curry, and 3 bean Veggie Chili. We're excited for the remaining two weeks of the course.

The Million Step Challenge kickoff went off without a hitch! Seven Alliance Medical Ministry staff, five WakeMed staff, three N.C. State University Park Scholars, and five volunteers came together for a delicious meal and to enroll 31 Alliance patients in the Million Step Walking challenge!  

The Million Step Challenge officially begins on March 1, with the goal of achieving a million steps within 120 days.  Alliance will kick-off its Walk with a Doc program on Saturday, March 4 from 10-11 to enable our patient participants to "get their steps in".  Thanks to WakeMed for providing FitBits to all participants!  

We're excited to post updates as our physicians and their awesome teams of patients challenge other clinics and community groups over the next four months. Stay tuned!

Zumba is on the horizon at Alliance!  We're so grateful to have found a volunteer instructor to deliver a six-week course to our patients.  Zumba comes on the heels of a success SalsaFit program offered in Summer 2016.  

We're so very blessed, excited, and hopeful in 2017.  Each day, Alliance staff serves a community of the strongest and most wonderful people I've ever met. Thanks for your support and for reading this blog. Check us out in March. Things will be wilder yet! (also like us on facebook)

Stay groovy, Jesse Crouch, AmeriCorps Garden and Wellness Coordinator

January '17 Garden and Wellness Update - Jesse Crouch

We're only a few weeks into 2017 but the new year is already bringing us hope and excitement, and we are looking forward to making this year a wonderful one! We'll be introducing bees, a hoop house, and more perennials, including asparagus, blueberries, strawberries, figs, and pears!

With carefully coordinated wellness outcome tracking, we will be able to hone in on patient impact of new programs like the Million Step Challenge and the Diabetes Prevention Program.  We look forward to expanding our offerings of Seed to Supper and Cooking Matters, and continuing yoga, a patient favorite.  Follow all the happenings each month through this blog!

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". - Lao Tzu

Garden Flourishes Despite Wild Temps

Despite the early January snow that blanketed the Alliance Community Garden and the single-digit temperatures, our spinach, arugula, kale, carrot and beets survived, insulated from the single digit temperature by the snow and their row covers.  We even had a few special four-legged visitors to the garden during those snowy days!

In the wake of the snow storm, we're excited for our new plantings!  The Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian Church's Community Garden donated strawberry bush seedlings, which we have transplanted in the back of the garden.  After a successful germination test, snap pea seeds are in the ground; in a few months, they'll be covering our bamboo trelis.  We'll be excited to see the "fruits of our labor" in a few months!

Wellness in the Works

Weekly yoga and diabetes education continued in January, and we are gearing up for exciting spring initiatives, including the launch of the Million Step Challenge and kick-off of the Diabetes Prevention Program. 

Alliance Medical Ministry is excited to participate this Spring in the Million Step Challenge with WakeMed Hospital!  The Million Step Challenge begins on March 1st, with Alliance medical providers each leading a team of ten patients to reach one million steps by June 15.  Each day, patients and providers will aim to reach 9,000 steps to achieve this goal!  Alliance will offer a weekly "Walk with a Doc" to help our teams achieve their goals, and encourage community members to jump in and offer support.  Alliance competes with teams from WakeMed Hospital, Advance Community Health, and the Open Door Clinic.  The team with the most steps at the conclusion of the challenge WINS!  We're excited to be more involved in our patients' exercise routines and to see what we can accomplish together through the challenge!

February will also kick off our new Diabetes Prevention Program in partnership with the YMCA, led by former Garden and Wellness Coordinator, Ashley Toscano.  In this 12-month program, pre-diabetic Spanish-speaking patients will work to achieve the goals of losing 7% of their body fat and exercising 150 minutes each week.  For a portion of the program, patient participants receive YMCA gym memberships and are encouraged to exercise with friends and classmates.  We'll check in on their progress over the course of the year!

Cooking Matters kicks off the winter six-week program this week, teaching nutrition to participating patients as well as skills to cook, meal plan, and shop for healthy food items on a budget.  Be sure to follow weekly updates and recipes on the Alliance Facebook Page: facebook.com/alliancemedicalministry 

Peace be with you fellow travelers! 

Garden and Wellness Report Fall 2016

 

Late Fall Garden Updates

Pounds of produce harvested this year to date: 2,170!

It's been an interesting Fall in the Garden! Unusually warm temperatures have kept our plants growing late into the season. The frost has come, but many brave veggie endured the nights in the low 20s, including our spinach, kale, turnips, and arugula, providing essential nutrients to our patients.

Thank you to our late Fall garden volunteers:

Church on Morgan

Crosspointe Men's Group

Edenton Street United Methodist Church

With their help we've installed our new irrigation system, planted fall vegetables, and prepared the garden for the Winter months.

New Pollinator Garden Installed

Boy Scout Griffin Bensen led fellow scouts in his Eagle Scout project -- designing and installing a pollinator garden!  Among the pollinator plants found in our new garden are climbing aster, purple coneflower, St. John's Wort, and Butterfly weed.  These plants will help attract bees and local pollinating insects to our garden.

Exciting plans for 2017!

While the garden is resting this winter, we are gearing up to plant more blueberry bushes, a small strawberry patch, and asparagus in the garden come Spring.  

We are excited to announce that we are bringing BEES to the Alliance Garden! Alice Hinman, founder of Apiopolis, is providing support to bring two bee colonies to the Alliance Community Garden in April! 

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Late Fall Wellness News

Chair Yoga

Yoga continues to be a great and popular program for patients and is held every Thursday evening in the clinic. Instructor Elise from "You Call this Yoga" incorporates mind, body, and spirit into her classes, giving patients stress relief, and an increased sense of value. The class is offered in English and Spanish.

Cooking Matters

We had a great Fall Cooking Matters Course, graduating eight students! These patients now have increased knowledge and abilities to use food as medicine for themselves, not to mention a new great group of friends. Big thanks to all of our volunteers that made the course possible! Our next course will begin January 23rd, 2017.

One of our favorite recipes was brought to us by volunteer Lori who led the class in making chickpea stuffed sweet potatoes and fruit smoothies. Here are the recipes for you to try at home:

Mediterranean Chickpea Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Hummus Sauce

Vegan, Gluten-Free

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE STUFFED SWEET POTATOES:

4 large sweet potatoes, washed, ends trimmed, and then slightly halved

1 15.5-ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

A drizzle of olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Salt and pepper, to taste

FOR THE HUMMUS SAUCE:

1/2 cup hummus

1/2 of a lemon, juiced

3 garlic cloves, minced

Fresh or dried parsley, for topping

PREPARATION

1.      Preheat the oven to 400°F and line your baking sheet with a silicone baking mat. Rub each of the potato halves with a bit of olive oil. Place each potato, cut side down on your baking sheet trying to keep them to one side.

2.      In a separate bowl, add your chickpeas, a drizzle of olive oil, and spices. Mix to coat. Then, pour them out on the baking sheet (opposite the potatoes) and place in the oven. Roast until the potatoes are cooked completely through and the chickpeas are crunchy. Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes to cool.

3.      While the sweet potato is cooling, mix the sauce together until thinned out and able to pour.

4.      Taking the back of a spoon, press down the centers a bit of each potato. Place on a serving platter and then add the chickpeas. Drizzle the sauce on top of each potato and serve.

Simple Green Smoothie

INGREDIENTS

2-3 cups leafy green of choice (kale, spinach, arugula, mustard, turnip greens, radish greens etc.)

3-4 cups fruit (bananas, berries, oranges, apples, mango etc.)

1 cup water (add more or less to determine thickness)

PREPARATION

Add ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

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Exciting Wellness Plans for 2017!

Walk With a Doc and the Million Step Challenge

Winter weather and early sunsets have Walk with a Doc on hold until our next meeting on February 23rd at 5:15pm.  Join us for a snack and good company on this 1.3 mile walk around the block, open to patients and community members!

This March, Alliance is excited to participate in the Million Step Challenge with WakeMed and other healthcare organizations! Thirty Alliance patients will participate to make up three teams of ten patients.  Each team will be led by one of our providers, Dr. Sheryl Joyner, Dr. Maggie Burkhead and Nurse Practitioner Laura Wasserman.  Each patient participant will receive a FitBit, with the goal of walking 10,000 steps each day to meet the Million Step Challenge!  Stay tuned in the New Year to find out more about the kick-off!

Zumba

We're excited to be hosting our first zumba class on December 19th from 7:45-8:45pm.  The class will be low impact and appropriate for all fitness levels. No dancing experience or rhythm required!

Any zumba instructors interested in becoming involved at Alliance can contact the Wellness Coordinator at garden@alliancemedicalministry.org or 919-250-3320 x 436.