Success Story

This entry corresponds with a staff meeting held here. We were asked to write out a success story we had been involved with in order to better communicate our hopes for the work we do:

At one point during the full staff meeting on Friday Vanessa emphasized our roles as advocates for young people and the corresponding responsibilities to point out health issues to other leaders in the schools. What she didn’t either mention or understand is the kind of critical tension that develops when a nutrition educator (seen as idealist as opposed to realist) begins a conversation with school staff about better nutrition (no matter how polite or diplomatic the conversation is). With this in mind, I entered New Life Youth and Family services last week looking to advocate in the right way.

Knowing the upcoming nutrition theme to be vegetables, and knowing the young men’s aversion to vegetables in general, I decided to use Lynne’s Swiss chard recipe and attempt to shock them with the odd food. As soon as I put the electric skillet on and pulled the garlic from my bag their eyes got big. “I love garlic,” I heard one young person say. A sincere moment only food can pull from these kids. They began slicing (carefully and with proper food safety instruction, of course) and gathering the ingredients, learning as they went that mistakes would affect the food.

Smells rose from the skillet that surprised even me. After all I had never actually prepared this dish with anyone else. The room filled with the hiss of the skillet as the onions cooked and the chard wilted and slightly browned. One young person who had been cursing me and the whole venture stopped talking and seemed regretful (he probably wanted to be involved now that he smelled the food.).

The food looked and tasted great. The teacher tried it and loved it. The students loved it. I supervised two more groups of young people to make the same dish. They all loved it. The kitchen manager even came out from her post in the very back of the kitchen to take a recipe after trying the dish. I felt like we could move on knowing these young people had tried something not only new but green and really liked it.

The lesson and momentum taken from this experience doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the food made (although it is a positive side effect). No, what I took from this experience was the opportunity for genuine advocacy and connection between staff, students, and myself. I now feel confident asking for more from the kitchen manager who was visibly impressed with the food and the presentation. And the students were actually listening to the nurse as she talked about a number of nutrition and health issues.

Advocacy is difficult when it involves navigating tense relationships. I find no more tense relationships than those I have with staff at schools or facilities where students complain about the food or health resources in general (at New Life students always complain about the food and their health). This day the tension subsided even for just a few hours and in that pocket of time, no one was advocating, but everyone was listening. Advocacy is no longer necessary when leaders actually listen.