A Message from Lynne Kunins |
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Dear Friends of FLIPANY,
Is your heart wide open? This is February, y’all! At FLIPANY, we are talking all things HEART.
In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed the month of February to be American Heart Month. Ten years later, at age 64, he died from a heart attack.
Yes, February is also Black History Month. While we celebrate the dazzling achievements of African Americans, history shows us how black and brown communities have been systematically underserved and under resourced, creating cruel health disparities. FLIPANY works hard to flip the script on health inequity by engaging with neglected neighborhoods to create access to healthy foods (when there is no nearby grocery store), to create opportunities for safe and fun physical activity (when there are no shaded sidewalks), and to provide culturally relevant nutrition education.
Resilience is the theme for this year’s Black History Month, and I am excited to see that we are offering a timely book review in this month’s newsletter: Farming While Black, by Leah Penneman. This book is a valued resource for FLIPANY staff working with students in school gardens and agriculture lessons.
And, speaking of staff, I am super excited to reveal another new newsletter feature—our Staff Spotlight. This month you will meet the remarkable Amy Gough, Senior Program & Quality Assurance Manager, who has been with FLIPANY for seven years.
My heart is already beating fast, and I haven’t even mentioned Valentine’s Day! Check out FLIPANY’s Wall of Hearts for a unique opportunity to show your love and help others live a healthy life at the same time.
February 14 is also a special Day of Service and Love in commemoration of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy. Broward County Schools and Hands On Broward have organized service opportunities for students to engage with helping others as a way to continue healing and building resilience, and a group has volunteered to support FLIPANY!
February may be the shortest month of the year, but it’s got the biggest heart.
Here’s to your health!
Lynne Kunins
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Introducing Amy Gough, Director of Public Health
You know the game, two truths and a lie?
Let’s see if you can spot the lie in Amy’s “resume”.
- Amy has investigated human trafficking on commercial fishing vessels.
- Amy has studied soil quality and nutrition in Malawi.
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Amy owns a mango farm in the Dominican Republic.
Ok, she does not own a mango farm in the Dominican Republic, but she has studied crop diversification programs in D.R. This woman has traveled the world studying how humans manage their food systems, and she brings all that experience to designing FLIPANY’s program management system. Amy has created the detailed policies and procedures for delivering our programs, assuring program quality, and measuring program outcomes. Amy’s work has helped make FLIPANY a trusted partner in health, securing grants and contracts that fund our life-changing programs. It is an honor to shine a light on such a star as Amy Gough.
Consistent with her great generosity, Amy shares her personal Heart Month Message:
“Heart health is a topic very close to me, personally, so I appreciate that FLIPANY is dedicating this newsletter to promote all things related to heart health. My husband, Christopher Meredith, passed away, due to heart disease, in July 2022. [Ed. Note: Christopher Meredith was one of the most prominent Bass players in all of Reggae music.]
As a Jamaican, Chris was raised on traditional Jamaican food, which consists of very healthy ingredients, and can be healthy or unhealthy depending on the preparation. And Chris ate it both ways! Also, as a Rasta, his diet included an abundance of pure and natural fruits, veggies, and coconut-based foods. This diet is typically called ‘ITAL’ food (like ‘vital’), with an emphasis on purity in ingredients, omission of salts, unadulterated oils, and a focus on food directly from the earth. Chris didn’t follow this diet completely, but ITAL influenced his eating, as did I, as someone who works for a wellness based and nutrition focused non-profit, FLIPANY.
Despite the positive aspects of his diet, his medical care was shabby. He started seeking medical care later in life, and he traveled often so he sometimes saw different doctors. Each doctor seemed to treat just one symptom and then “wait and see” for the next symptom to arrive. We had to fight with these doctors for closer attention and additional testing. His passing has opened the eyes of many people, focusing now on the gaps in their own health agendas and finding the balance between western medicine and naturally based lifestyles.
I personally believe one must balance a diet rich in pure and natural foods alongside western medicine, prevention, and routine care that gives you an accurate baseline of your health and a good understanding of what is changing in you as you age.
Chris was only 54, which is very young for heart disease, but here we are. Now, as my children and I heal our own hearts from this huge loss, I strive to focus on my own heart health and spread the word to the community just how important this issue really is."
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FLIPANY PROVIDES FREE MEALS |
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Good health begins with regular, nutritious food. Do you know a child development center, an afterschool program, or summer camp that are not receiving healthy meals?
FLIPANY can help!
FLIPANY provides FREE meals to youth at your location. Email meals@FLIPANY.org to see if you qualify.
Check out our Access to healthy meals video:
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PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT:
FLIPANY's NUTRITION EDUCATION
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FLIPANY programs are hands-on, personal experiences that bring healthy choices to life. Our February spotlight is on FLIPANY’s preschool strawberry gardens.
Strawberries are, of course, a major Florida crop that bears fabulous fruit twice a year and is the reason for the famous ten-day long Strawberry Festival.
FLIPANY’s program guides kids through their own adventures of planting, tending, harvesting, eating, and transplanting for the next harvest cycle. Kids learn about gardening, food preparation, nutrition, and delicious eating in this rich experience.
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Check out FLIPANY's featured recipe this month, our Curry Vegetable Jerk Rice!
A Caribbean-inspired curry with loads of colorful vegetables that's perfect served with brown rice.
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BOOK REVIEW: FARMING WHILE BLACK
by Leah Penniman
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This book celebrates the long history of wise Black and Indigenous multicultural stewardship of the land, and it celebrates the modern-day healing that can come from growing your own food.
Author Leah Penniman is a Haitian American woman who founded the Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York. She has dedicated her life’s work to racial justice through the food system.
Through its 350 pages of brilliant color photographs, artwork, poems, planting guides, recipes, historical accounts, youth-engagement activities, guidelines for uprooting racism, and uplifting inspiration pieces, this book speaks to every aspect of Community Health from the ground up. Organized into 18 chapters under the umbrella theme of “Black Land Matters”, this book is written in a direct and engaging voice. Facts stated are carefully footnoted at the end of the book, and over 250 resources are listed.
In Chapter 13, Youth on the Land, Penniman presents curriculum highlights of Soul Fire Farm’s youth program. In activities like “Media does not have my mind” participants learn about the role of advertising in determining their diets. For instance, fast food is advertised 40 times as much as fruit and vegetable advertising, and preschoolers view over 1,000 fast food ads per year. African American children and teens in the U.S. see tv ads for candy and soda twice as often as their white counterparts. How do you deal with that? You experience hands-on nutrition education and food experiences with fresh garden produce. Then what happens? The kids produce a fabulous music video about what they have learned. Check it out! (Appetite for Change, published in 2016 on YouTube).
Farming While Black is a must-have for anyone interested in planting seeds in the ground, but it is also a must read for everyone. These pages provide a welcome cure for the delusions of modern life—that the highly-processed and factory-packaged items we put in our grocery bags are food. This book reminds us that real food that comes from the earth and that all nutrition begins with plants, soil, sun and water.
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This Valentine's Day, show your love with the FLIPANY Wall of Love! Add your heart to our Wall of Love to help children have the opportunity to live their healthiest life this Valentine's Day!
It's easy, just do the following:
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Visit www.FLIPANY.org/WallOfLove
- Click on a heart
- Make a donation
- Write your Valentine message
- Share with the one you love and on social media!
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Chefs Up Front is an intimate, individualized gourmet dining experience featuring a locally celebrated chef who prepares an exclusive five-course dinner with wine pairings. All proceeds earned from this “over the top” sit-down dinner and auction generate the necessary funds for FLIPANY to continue providing health and wellness programs in South Florida.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: September 29, 2023 at the Hilton West Palm Beach Hotel
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES CONTACT
ANGIE RODRIGUEZ AT: ARODRIGUEZ@FLIPANY.ORG
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Have you heard yet? FLIPANY is finally on TikTok!!!
Connect with us for the latest FLIPANY news, challenges, games, and plenty of program FUN updates!
Follow us today @FLIPANY
New Challenge in our Tiktok page; take the FLIPANY song and create an exercise challenge. Check out our FLIPANY kids and what they created and then follow them and then tag us!
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💌 Ordering last-minute gifts online for your Valentine? 💌
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You can choose FLIPANY as your charitable organization!
YOU SHOP. AMAZON GIVES.
VALENTINE'S DAY IS AROUND THE CORNER!
Shop at Amazon and support your favorite health equity partner at the same time.
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Go to smile.amazon.com
- Select FLIPANY (Florida Introduces Physical Activity to Youth) as your AmazonSmile beneficiary,
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Shop through the link, and
- A portion of your sales will be donated at no extra cost to you.
Now that’s something to smile about!
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