New
Jersey Agriculture Secretary Art Brown, Jr., sampled
federally-donated commodities in gourmet dishes
during his tour of Ocean County Vo-Tech's (OCVT)
culinary arts program in Brick as part of Governor
Whitman's Cabinet on the Road visit to Ocean County
today. Brown's complete review of the culinary
arts and supermarket careers programs enabled him
to talk with students in both curricula and took
him through the kitchen, bakery, mini-mart and
café where Department of Health and Senior
Services Commissioner Christine Grant lunched with
senior citizens from the area1. Joining
Brown were Chris Martin, Mid-Atlantic Regional
Administrator, USDA Food and Nutrition Service;
Ian Smith, director of OCVT's culinary arts program;
Laurie O'Donnell, director of the supermarket careers
program; Brooke Tarabour, Executive Director of
the FoodBank of Monmouth & Ocean Counties;
and approximately 50 VoTech students from various
programs. "The purpose of the federal commodity
distribution program is to help make a positive
difference in the daily lives of the less affluent
members of our society," Brown said. "But this
innovative public/private partnership has done
more than provide tasty, nutritious meals for some
of our senior citizens. It has also helped OCVT
students gain excellent experience in food handling
and preparation." Through a unique partnership
between NJDA, USDA and FoodBank of Monmouth & Ocean
Counties (FBMOC), OCVT's culinary arts program
uses donated federal commodities from NJDA's food
distribution program (fact sheet follows) as the
basic ingredients in high-quality prepared foods
that are distributed for use by a variety of community
agencies that feed needy populations in the area.
At the same time, OCVT welcomes those commodities
because they not only stretch the budget of the
vocational school but also expand the vocational
training opportunities the students enjoy. Tarabour
said the Food Bank welcomes the prepared food from
OCVT in soup kitchens and shelters throughout the
county. "In a little more than one year, we have
fed more than 5,000 people through our Commodity
Kitchen program at no additional cost to taxpayers.
The system was already in place," she said. "We
just made sure that it benefited as many people
as possible. Martin noted that federally-donated
commodities extend the purchasing power of commodity
recipients, many of whom are on fixed incomes. "This
translates into better nutrition and health for
the people of New Jersey," he said, adding, "USDA
has worked very hard to offer a wider variety of
more healthful commodities and we intend to continue
that work." Today's
menu included barbequed lamb, turkey in fruited
cream sauce, rice pilaf and oatmeal bread, all
prepared in whole or in part with USDA commodities.
Side dishes included a baby greens salad featuring
Jersey-grown greens in a red onion/Jersey Fresh
honey vinaigrette and Jersey Fresh asparagus in
a fruit sauce prepared from USDA-donated orange
juice and figs. Since the project began at OCVT
as a "Commodity Kitchen" pilot program in September
1998, over 3,200 pounds of donated commodities
have been transformed into fully-cooked, flash-frozen
main dishes, side dishes and deserts for distribution
through FBMOC's Second Helping program. In addition
to the dishes prepared today, federally-donated
commodities such as rice, dry beans, turkey roasts,
canned cherries, prunes, figs, and potato granules
have been used to prepare a variety of dishes including
ham and bean soup, turkey noodle soup, turkey pot
pies, rice pilaf, raisin rice pudding and cherry
crisp.
There are approximately
150 students in OCVT's culinary arts program, ranging
from ninth grade to post-secondary. The curriculum
trains students for careers in food preparation,
food service or related management positions and
even enables students to earn up to 15 college credits. OCVT's
supermarket careers program opens a wide range of
vocational opportunities in the $40 billion wholesale/retail
food industry to its students, most of whom have
special educational needs. This is a segment of the
food and agriculture complex that is strongly supported
by both the Jersey Fresh marketing program and the
Jersey Fresh Quality Grading Program. The senior
citizens who participated in today's event are eligible
to receive USDA commodities. When they left, they
each took with them a bag that included USDA rice,
salmon, tomato sauce, spaghetti, pears, milk, cereal,
toothpaste and mouthwash.
NJDA'S
FOOD DISTRIBUTION PROGRAMS
NJDA
administers the federally-sponsored donated commodity
distribution program, through which a variety of
donated foods reach over 700 eligible school districts,
summer feeding programs, institutions, and needy
populations each month. NJDA has been extremely successful
in taking advantage of all available foods by accepting
New Jersey's fair-share entitlement, plus substantial
volumes of bonus foods offered throughout the year
by USDA. In FY99, NJDA accepted over 27 million pounds
of USDA foods with a commercial value of almost $16
million for use in a variety of feeding programs
other than The Emergency Food Assistance Program
(TEFAP). These commodities were particularly important
to the school lunch program, which provided monthly
allocations of frozen, canned and dry foods to more
than 2,200 schools throughout New Jersey feeding
over 500,000 students daily. The
department also worked with more than 28 commercial
food processors to process over four million pounds
of the total foods offered and accepted into more
easily used, cost-effective, oven-ready products
such as hamburgers, sandwich steaks, pizza and a
variety of turkey and chicken products. The goal
of this planned and monitored conversion of bulk
foods is to increase the value-added usefulness of
federally-donated raw commodities and help local
school districts reduce preparation time and purchase
costs. The Emergency Food Assistance Program During
FY99, TEFAP received more than 8.5 million pounds
of federally-donated foods during, an increase of
nearly 12 percent over the previous year. These foods
reached food banks, hot meal sites, and pantry feeding
sites, which served more than 225,000 of the state's
neediest citizens. Typical of the 40 different federally-donated
foods were canned fruits and vegetables, peanut butter,
rice, instant dry milk, pasta, cereal, fruit juice
and frozen beef. In addition, for the fourth consecutive
year, NJDA participated in a $400,000 fresh fruit
and vegetable purchase through the federal Department
of Defense. The produce, much of which was locally
grown by New Jersey farmers, was used in New Jersey's
School Lunch Program. Child Nutrition Programs The
first state agriculture department in the nation
to house child nutrition programs, NJDA's Bureau
of Child Nutrition Programs operates six child nutrition
programs in the public and private schools, residential
and non-residential child care institutions, day
care centers, adult day care centers, family day
care homes, recreation centers and other agencies
that qualify for federal and state child nutrition
funds. These six programs are National School Lunch
Program, School Breakfast Program, Special Milk Program,
Child and Adult care Feeding Program and the Summer
Food Service Program, and the After School Snack
Program. NJDA
administered more than $189 million in federal and
state funds to the various BCNP programs during FY99.
Over 155 million meals and supplements were served
by participating sponsors statewide last year. _______________________________
1 Transportation was provided by Meridian Health System
Senior Health Services.
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