Interested in developing GreenSTEM?
Get Connected with Environmental Educators in Northern Virginia with NoVA Outside!

NoVA Outside Networking and Professional Development Event for Environmental Educators - Friday January 25

Guest Speaker: Vince Meldrum - Vice President of EarthEcho International


Register now at http://goo.gl/VFTQp

When: Friday January 25, 2013

Time: 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

1952 Gallows Road
3rd floor conference room
Vienna, VA

This event will include:

• NoVA Outside’s business meeting to shape the future of this soon-to-be 501C3
• Discussion of NoVA Outside's 2013 events for students and educators
• Networking lunch
• Guest Speaker: Vince Meldrum, Vice President of EarthEcho International talks about organization development and fundraising
• This will be the first of four quarterly NoVA Outside networking events

Early bird registration http://goo.gl/VFTQp - now thru Jan 11th

December 2012 Calendar

Cooking Matters Program Leads to Healthy Changes

Jennifer completed two Cooking Matters courses in November. This popular program is the one in which participants attend six weekly classes where they receive a nutrition lesson, cooking instruction, and a bag of groceries featuring the ingredients for the recipe prepared in class. On November 26 she and Hareg Tecklu completed a Cooking Matters for Adults course at Ruby Tucker Family Center and on November 30 she and Shazell Robinson completed a Cooking Matters for Kids course at Mt Vernon Community Center.


Both programs had 15 participants each and both were in Alexandria. If you know of a site that could benefit from this course contact Jennifer Abel.

New Program in the Making

Family & Consumer Sciences agents are developing programming to teach healthy lifestyles for people with type 2 diabetes in Arlington.  The program, Balanced Living with Diabetes, was developed by Virginia Tech researchers in the Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise Department.  It is aimed at teaching people how to manage blood glucose better by improving their eating and physical activity habits.

Katie and Jennifer are in the planning process now and look forward to piloting classes in the spring.

The Mission in ANR Involving Four Basic Program Areas

The Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension program will focus on core mission messages in
2013.  Our basic programs fall within the areas of Urban Agriculture, Sustainable Landscape Management Practices, Urban Forestry, and Natural Resource Conservation with much overlap in these four areas. Our support for the Tree Stewards volunteers helps to support the Urban Forestry canopy mission.  The work of these trained volunteers, provides the backbone for a package of public education that promotes concepts of the right tree, right place and correct pruning and planting  techniques. Tree Stewards will begin their annual volunteer training course on February 13th.   Applications are available at their website at www.treestewards.org    

The Arlington Regional Master Naturalists will again be offering a spring training class for members interested in working to protect and promote good management practices for our green space natural resources. Engaged in outreach that reaches from water quality monitoring to native plant sales, and bringing wildlife to schools, this growing group of volunteers has been supported and sponsored by Extension for the past 5 years.  For more information about their activities and programs see: www.armn.org

VCE Master Gardeners are the arms of Extension ANR outreach that encompass Sustainable Landscape Management practices and urban agriculture education. ANR provided 112 public programs on these subjects during 2012.  With the recently completed 2012 training class completed, the program is safely moving forward on a new fall training rotation.  We are so pleased to be looking forward to the following events:    March: Arlington Home Show and Landscaping Expo,   April: Alexandria Earth Day; MGNV Plant Sale; the opening of our fifth farmer’s market plant clinics and our fifth demonstration gardens.  In 2013, we will offer new online course resources.  Look for our series at the Arlington Public Schools Adult Continuing Education classes in the spring and the new U.S. Botanical Garden curriculum-based, Landscaping for a Sustainable Yard beginning on January 19th. For more information about this series or any of our fine public education offerings go to our website or to the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia website at:  www.mgnv.org

Kids get a Dose of Reality

Every year FCS agent Jennifer Abel and the Master Financial Education Volunteers conduct several Kids Marketplace and Reality Store events to help teach children and teens about smart money management skills.  In these hands-on simulations, students receive hypothetical family situations and a monthly income.  They visit a series of stations (housing, transportation, entertainment, groceries, clothing, personal care, medical, etc.) and make decisions about how to spend their money.

The goal of the exercise is for the participants to take care of the needs of their hypothetical families without running out of money while also putting some money into savings.  Kids Marketplace is for elementary school students while Reality Store is for teens in middle and high school.

These events have been very popular this fall.  In November, staff and volunteers led a Kids Marketplace for 71 students at Barrett Elementary School, a Reality Store for 347 eighth graders at Hammond  Middle School, and a Reality Store for 25 teens from military families from around the country who assembled for a conference at the Crystal City Sheraton.

Participants learn a great deal at these events as evidenced by the evaluations that they complete. Many cite the importance of saving, gaining a greater understanding for what their parents have to deal with, and the importance of planning before having children as key lessons that they learn.  Many more events will be held in 2013 so if you are interested in volunteering (requires no preparation work before the event) please contact Jennifer Abel: jabel@vt.edu.

Master Food Volunteers Cook Up a Healthy Summer

Ever since Katie and Jennifer graduated the first local group of Master Food Volunteers in May these 15 people have wasted no time in teaching Arlington and Alexandria residents about healthy food choices. Here is a summary of just some of the things they have done.

                Aleksandra Damsz taught a lesson to a group of kids at Carver Community Center on how to choose fast food with less fat and sugar. She also helped Sue Grace with a series of nutrition classes for a group at the Nauck Family Life Center by leading physical activity lessons. Carolina Spencer led a class on Cooking for One at the Aurora Hills Senior Center. Catherine Hader helped Katie teach a series of classes to TSA employees on the DASH diet and worked together with Alice Eichers to teach a class on low-salt cooking. She also taught a low-salt cooking class at the Nauck Family Life Center. Desiree Morningstar taught a series of three classes on hearty salads for weekday lunches. The classes were very well received and Desiree will be taking her show on the road, providing the series at a local church. Desiree also helped Sue Grace with the series at the Nauck Center by teaching a physical activity lesson and has been helping Jennifer and Hareg with the Cooking Matters course at Macedonia Baptist Church. Volunteer Kris Angerthal  has been helping with these classes as well. Diane Blust helped Katie with several canning classes in Fairfax and worked with Katie and Jennifer on a canning class in Arlington. Janet Al-Hussaini has been doing cooking demonstrations at the Great Falls Farmers’ Market and will be offering a series of Middle Eastern Cooking classes at Fairlington on Wednesdays in September. Julie Mendoza helped Katie with a canning class out in Reston. Lynnette Vango taught nutrition to three groups of pre-schoolers, helped with a series of three cooking classes at the Carpenter’s Shelter in Alexandria, and has helped with nutrition and cooking lessons at all five of the Cooking Matters classes at Macedonia Baptist Church. Ruth Schulman led two of the cooking classes at the Carpenter’s Shelter. Sara Knopp helped out at one of the Carpenter’s Shelter classes. Ruth and Desiree also represented Master Food Volunteers at VCE’s exhibit at the Arlington County Fair. Susan Grace led a series of three nutrition classes at the Nauck Family Life Center. Susan Lagon helped with a canning class in July and is teaching several healthy eating programs for seniors at various centers in August.

                 We are grateful for the enthusiasm of these volunteers and look forward to their contributions in the fall.