`

Oberlin Community Service

Just for Kids: A Fruit Smoothie Party

Oberlin Community Services (OCS) will host a cooking demonstration for children, “Just for Kids: a Fruit Smoothie Party,” on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from 10 to 10:30 a.m. in conjunction with its monthly Food Distribution Day. On the second Saturday of every month, OCS opens its doors for a mass food distribution to low-income clients of Oberlin, Wellington and nearby towns.

The kiddie cooking demo will take place at OCS at 285 South Professor Street, Oberlin.

With guidance from OCS officials and volunteers, “Just for Kids” will have children prepare a simple but tasty fruit smoothie involving fresh and frozen fruit, such as strawberries and watermelon. Kids will learn how to prepare the fruit, then pop it in a blender to make yummy-licious fruit smoothies, just in time for summer. The children and OCS clients will then get to sample the smoothies.


“The ‘Just for Kids’ cooking demo is an exciting part of Oberlin Community Services’ mission to provide nutritious food to low-income residents and to give instruction on how to cook inexpensive but healthy foods,” says Alan Mitchell II, Food Coordinator of OCS. “With ever-increasing obesity rates among children in the U.S., it is important to teach kids healthy eating habits. The ‘Fruit Smoothie Party’ will make it fun for kids to learn better nutrition,” adds Alan.

OCS plans to videotape the cooking demo and post it on YouTube. Parents will be asked to sign video release permission forms provided by OCS if they agree to have their children appear in the video.

Alan notes that children and their parents will have an opportunity this summer to volunteer and learn how to grow a wide variety of vegetables and herbs in the “People’s Garden,” adjacent to the OCS building. Each summer, OCS grows produce in the Garden that is free to people in need. Oberlin College graduate Laura Rose Brylowski (’13) will serve as Lead Gardener this summer.

Three years ago, the Green Edge Fund of Oberlin College funded the building of raised beds in the People’s Garden, and this year, the Fund will help support efforts to create an organic gardening education center in an outbuilding near the Garden.

The Giving Women of Oberlin organization helps support the summer stipend of the Lead Gardener.

The OCS cooking demonstrations, begun in 2010 by food writer Margaret Swendseid, focus on simple and healthy dishes with low-cost ingredients. Some of the cooking demonstrations have featured tomato-and-spinach pasta, vegetable frittatas and white chili with chicken.

Oberlin Community Services cooking demonstrations, including the Fruit Smoothie Party, are done in cooperation with Lorain County General Health District (LCGHD) through Creating Healthy Communities. LCGHD has provided OCS with a grill, blenders and other cooking equipment for the demonstrations.

Contact: Margaret Swendseid
Marketing Communications
440/774-8246, tel.
mswend@frontier.com

Family Nutrition Program

Join us at 5:00pm on the first and third Tuesday of every month for our family nutrition program and extended pantry hours (5p-7p). Marcia Kubach of the Ohio State University Extension Office will run a cooking and nutrition demonstration. If you are interested in attending RSVP to Oberlin Community Services.

As always, the Choice Pantry is also open Monday through Friday 9:00 am to noon and 1:00 to 5:00 pm.

Oberlin Community Services serves income-eligible residents of southern Lorain County to include the cities of Oberlin and Wellington and the following townships: Brighton, Camden, Carlisle, Huntington, Kipton, LaGrange, New Russia, Penfield, Pittsfield, and Rochester.

About OCS

Oberlin Community Services is a responsive community organization that provides direct assistance, referrals, outreach services and educational support to Oberlin, New Russia Township, and southern Lorain County residents who seek help meeting basic needs.

Since 1955, Oberlin Community Services (OCS) has supported the community in sensitive and caring ways. The OCS staff, Oberlin College work-study students, and more than a hundred volunteers join forces with schools, churches, medical and social service providers, civic groups, businesses, and government to offer a wide array of services to low-income citizens of Oberlin and Southern Lorain County.

unloading food

The need is greater than ever today.

OCS provides a safety net to help people get back on their feet. We assist with food, housing, utilities, clothes, transportation, medicine, counseling, and much more. This year the staff met with more than 100 clients each month, a quarter of whom had never needed assistance before.

As the economy worsens, more people are left behind.
* Nearly 20 percent of all Oberlin residents live in poverty.
* More than half of public school children in Oberlin qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches because their families are poor.

These are our neighbors.

The poor and least powerful are often invisible in our community: older people who need help with food, utility bills or medicines, the newly unemployed, or those who need help with mortgages or rent payments.

You can help.

OCS relies entirely on donations and grants to meet its budget. Through your job, church, club, school, civic group, or on-line donation, you can help. Contributions are needed, and donations are tax deductible.