Friday, June 19, 2009

Congratulations, Debbie!! 20 Years at Martha's Table!

Today marked the 20th anniversary of Debbie Cooper working at Martha's Table. She is the welcoming face behind the receptionist desk and for many, she is the face of Martha's Table, always willing to lend a helping hand.

Congratulations, Debbie! And here's to 20 more!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Martha's Table School Yard Garden




This past week Martha's Table volunteers and kids have been hard at work making sure our school yard garden is under way for this years harvest season.

As you see in the two slide-shows below, our volunteers are making sure all of the garden plots are put together with care. After all, these gardens will help feed the children in our programs as well as folks that receive food from our mobile soup kitchen, McKenna's Wagon.







The best part is that the kids from our daycare program got their hands dirty. Children from our pre-school classrooms helped our volunteer and garden engineer, Bobby, plant:

  • Marigolds - they act as a natural bug repelant
  • Tomato vines
  • Russian kale
  • Red bell peppers
  • and the very speical bean sprouts that started as seeds and planted in plastic cups by the children in our pre-school (please see previous post in May, Planting Seeds!)
Enjoy the photos and feel free to stop by anytime to see the garden in the Martha's Table school yard.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Let's kick it up a notch!




Bam! Martha's Table! Bam! Clagett Farm! Bam! Emeril!

That's what I call a recipe for success!

Clagett Farm is a working farm, owned and operated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. They grow vegetables for their Community Supported Agriculture program, raise grass fed cattle and have a native tree nursery on more than 285 acres.

At Clagett Farm, the ultimate goal is to use farming methods that are truly sustainable—both economically and environmentally.Check them out at http://www.clagettfarm.org/ and http://cbf.typepad.com/clagett_farm/

Clagett Farm supports Martha's Table with a vegetable production project called "From the Ground Up." Started in 1992 as a collaboration between Capital Area Food Bank and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, almost half of the produce is distributed free or at reduced prices to under-served communities in

Washington D.C., including Martha's Table.

We were scheduled to pick up some produce on Monday afternoon, and we decided to thoroughly check it out and spend some time volunteering there. Emeril Lagasse, the famous chef, happened to be there filming for his show. We met Emeril, watched a little bit of the taping of his show, harvested garlic scapes, and packed up fresh produce to bring back to Martha's

Table. A successful day on the farm - all in a day's work!