3 Rivers Natural Grocery Co-op & Deli Currents September 2018

September 2018

Okay parents. We all know that back to school is, although bittersweet for our children, pretty good for us. Our children are again occupied in noble pursuits, they get regular exercise, they have plenty of time with their friends and the echo of “I’m bored” vanishes from the halls of our homes. Things are always good for a few weeks—at least until a new boredom sets in. School lunch burnout.

For those who regularly pack school lunches for an elementary school-aged child, you may have run into a few common points of friction. Namely, boredom with content, arguments over what did and did not get eaten that day, and issues revolving around trading for junk food. Let’s look over the issues, one at a time.

BATTLING BOREDOM I had always planned on being the mom who would break out the cookie cutters to make lunchtime sandwiches special, or who would

creatively market sacks of carrot coins or a stand-up broccoli forest to my child. But the reality is, that takes time. Our family tries to put emphasis on dinner and having (mostly) home-cooked meals we can eat together at night, so with already limited time in the evenings, packing elaborate bag lunches, by and large, has fallen by the wayside.

Working under time constraints might take some of the creativity out of presentation, but it doesn't have to mean a boring or unbalanced lunch. We adopted a baseline of this equation: 1 + 1 + 1 = 1. One fruit or vegetable (i.e. carrots, banana, cucumber, apple), one protein (turkey, peanut

1612 SHERMAN BLVD. FORT WAYNE, IN • 260-424-8812

nose, anyone?). This is also when your child is supposed to focus and eat their whole lunch.

Remembering to keep portions small and the eating process efficient (think bite-

size finger foods) helps ensure that more food gets eaten. This is the way toddlers eat, but I find it works great at any age (I love a “snack lunch” at the office myself). It doesn't have to look extremely coordinated to be a good lunch—a handful of nuts, a bag of snap peas, some cheese cubes, grapes, whole wheat bagel half, all these things are easy to eat, and more important, can be safely eaten while paying attention to at least three other things at once.

HELP THEM HEDGE THEIR BETS Even though it isn't officially allowed at his school, my son reports that kids still manage a lot of lunch trading. This means that packaged foods designed for kids’ lunchboxes in the form of fruit snacks, energy bars, and single servings of cookies, chips and cheese puffs become a hot commodity. For a kid who brings a healthy lunch every day, those things help them build an argument that you (parent) are the meanest, most boring person alive. They may present you with the reusable baggie used for whole wheat crackers as evidence. For my part, it is disappointing to think

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butter, ham, cheese), and one carbohydrate (bagel, crackers, English muffin, tortillas) = one lunch. This divides lunch-building into predictable units, which makes it easy for my son to participate by choosing

different, changing components. This simple structure effectively reduces a lot of the negotiating and whining that can otherwise accompany shopping for lunch items. One of the best side effects of this lunch style is that it teaches my son about nutrition—which types of food have what nutritional value. Now my son knows that peanut butter is a protein, not a vegetable. He knows that a banana is not a significant source of complex carbohydrates but that a whole wheat bagel is.

EMPHASIZE EFFICIENCY There was a time, I am sure, when all kids would sit down to lunch at school with enthusiasm and dig in, focused on the task of chewing their food and getting refueled for an afternoon of learning. I believe that time was somewhere around the year 19-oh…never?

The truth is that lunch is, and has always been, an important social time for kids. This is when jokes get told, bragging gets done and where today’s hilarious sight gags are tomorrow’s doctor’s visits (raisins in the

Brown Bag

Boredom

by Mandi Makinen, Co+op, Stronger Together

MINE. YOURS. OURS.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7, 8-10 pm

MEET ·· EAT · MINGLE · MUSIC

2 3 Rivers Natural Grocery Co-op & Deli Currents September 2018

September 5-18 Special orders due September 16

Cycle B Sales: September 19-October 2

Special orders due September 30

Mine. Yours. Ours: Owner News You Can Use

News from the Board

Our member-owners will have a chance to cast a ballot for our board of directors in October. Voting will take place all month in store and at our Annual Owners’ Meeting on October 7, 2018. Democratic Member Control, or one person=one vote, is one of the tenets of the co-operative principles, first set forth by Rochdale in 1844!

We all have good intentions when it

comes to our health and, perhaps, our

reading list. Raise both up a notch with

our new book club, focused on books

about health/wellness issues. First book

up? How Not to Die by Michael Greger.

The first three chapters will be up for

discussion.

Monday, September 24,

7 pm, in the Café

Monday, September 10, 6-8 pm Don’t lose the of the last days of the fresh summer

produce! Get fresh inspiration for main dish salads.

And don't drown out the nutrition of your healthy,

nutrient rich salad in oil--learn some tricks to make oil-

free salad dressings your new norm.

Instructor Laurie Beck is certified in Plant-Based

Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for

Nutrition Studies – eCornell University and took a

Forks over Knives Plant-Based Cooking Class from

Roubxe Cooking School.

Register at https://goo.gl/THLrWj. This 2-hour class is

$20. Recipes and samples provided!

ORZO PASTA LUNCH SALAD Total Time: 30 minutes Servings: 4-6

Preparation Cook the orzo according to package directions. Drain, chill and set aside. In a blender or food processor, puree the dressing ingredients until smooth. Set aside. To assemble the salads in the jars, pour 2 to 3 tablespoons of dressing and then layer a quarter of each of the ingredients into each of the four jars as follows: artichoke hearts, red peppers, spinach, ham, cooked orzo and Parmesan cheese. Place lids tightly onto the jars and refrigerate. Gently stir or shake together the ingredients just before eating.

Serving Suggestion Make this salad your own by adding olives, feta cheese, salami or cooked garbanzo beans. The salad will last a few days in the refrigerator.

© Co+op, Stronger Together

Dressing 1 clove Garlic, peeled 1/3

c Fresh Basil 4-5 Sun-Dried Tomato halves, chopped 3 T Red Wine Vinegar 3 T Olive Oil 1 T Water Pinch each, Salt and Black Pepper

Salad ½ c Dry Orzo Pasta ½ c Artichoke Hearts, quartered 1 c Red Bell Peppers, finely diced 2 c Fresh Spinach, roughly-chopped ¾ lb Ham, cut into bite-sized pieces 4 T shredded Parmesan Cheese (optional)

Equipment 4 wide-mouth pint canning jars with lids

Making the switch to vegan or just changing our a few items in your diet? Both rounds of

sales feature plant based foods! Look for savings on Almond Breeze, Forager, Daiya, New Barn, So Delicious, Ripple, Chao, and Califia Farms. A sale is always a good time to try new products! As the interest in plant based foods grows so does our selection! There’s always something new to taste!

3 3 Rivers Natural Grocery Co-op & Deli Currents September 2018

Well Read Women Book Club Thursday, September 20, 6:30 pm

Become a well read woman of nonfiction: one book, poem, or essay at a time. Everyone is welcome to attend this inclusive, accepting group for women. This month's pick: "You Play the Girl" by Carina Chocano (http://bit.ly/2p4UPCl) Questions? Call Sarah at the Little Turtle Branch Library at 260-421-1335.

General Manager Janelle Young

Management Staff April Bickel

Alisha Dunkleberger Robin Holman Jason Johnson

Three Rivers Co-op Natural Grocery & Deli

1612 Sherman Blvd. Fort Wayne, IN 46808 (260)424-8812 www.3riversfood.coop

BOARD OF DIRECTORS President

Scott Kammerer

Vice President Daniel Whiteley

Secretary/Treasurer James Ringswald

Stephanie Demorest

Sarah Hyndman Lindsay Koler Robert Novak

Kelli Vandemark

NEWSLETTER STAFF

Editor/Design & Layout Heather Grady

Want more? Owners can sign up for our owner only newsletter to get unadvertised specials, deli menus, fliers, and

info about events. Non-owner shoppers can receive a monthly

newsletter as well. Send an email to

news@3riversfood.coop or visit our webpage at www.3riversfood.coop/

newsletter/

Music in the Café ♫♪ Big changes ahead for our music jam!

Beginning September 17 our jam night will be Mondays. A 4th Monday session will also be added monthly, beginning in October. These toe tapping tunes are played by a different

gathering of musicians each week. As always, come to listen or bring an instrument to play

along!

that the money and time spent on the planning and purchasing of healthy food could get traded for less healthy food, on a whim. Though I suspect my son’s whole wheat bagel or almonds rank low in lunch table trading values.

But to alleviate the feeling that my child is going to be scarred by his health-fanatic mom who never allowed him to have fun foods, we've added “mystery” items to the lunchbox—something fun that doesn't obviously fall into the main food groups: fruit leather, organic chocolate milk, natural nutrition/energy bars, a single serving of chips. My hope is that he’ll covet these treats enough that they don’t end up in trading action. We shop for these mystery items, along with the rest of his lunch, at our local food co-op. This makes it easier to minimize the stuff I really don’t want him to eat: high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, artificial chemical sweeteners and dyes. An occasional treat is a compromise on my part, but my hope is that it keeps him eating our home lunches, which are healthier than the alternative overall, for years to come.

Although the process is ongoing (there are no constants in child-rearing), and I make new discoveries to address new needs along the way, following these few simple concepts has made my son’s school lunches pretty healthy, simple and relatively friction-free. At least for now. Authored by Mandy Makinen for Stronger Together. Reprinted by permission from StrongerTogether.coop. Find articles about your food and where it comes from, recipes and a whole lot more at www.strongertogether.coop.

Brown Bags, continued from page 1) HIDDEN SPINACH BERRY SMOOTHIE

Ingredients 2 c Raspberries, Strawberries, Blackberries, or a mix, fresh or frozen 3 c Spinach (packed) 1 c Yogurt, Kefir, or a Non-Dairy Alternative like almond milk 1 large Banana, fresh or frozen

Preparation Put the berries and spinach in the blender first, and add the yogurt and banana. Process, scraping down as needed. Blend until smooth and serve.

© Co+op, Stronger Together

Start your day with a big spinach salad? You will enjoy a salad's worth of healthy spinach in this luscious smoothie, and hardly notice it's there. Try freezing your own local berries when they are in season to use in smoothies all year long. When bananas start getting soft, just peel them, pop them in a freezer bag, and freeze to use in smoothies. Using frozen berries and bananas will give you a thick, almost ice-cream texture, and you may need to add a little milk to help it blend.

September 4, 6:30-8:30 pm 1st Tuesdays (Will be 1st Mondays)

Southern Appalachian Fiddle Music Jam (NOT bluegrass)

September 17, 6:30-8:30 pm

Switching to 3rd Mondays

Traditional Irish Music Jam

4 3 Rivers Natural Grocery Co-op & Deli Currents September 2018

1612 Sherman Blvd Fort Wayne IN 46808 Hours: Sundays 10 am-8 pm, Mon-Sat 8 am-9 pm

www.3riversfood.coop

(260) 424-8812 September 2018

PRESORTED STANDARD

U.S. POSTAGE PAID FORT WAYNE, IN PERMIT NO. 2092

IN THIS ISSUE:

Brown Bag Boredom, pages 1 & 3

Owner News, Co+op Deals, page 2

In Store Events, pages 2 & 3

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