Learn about local efforts to bring healthy food to all kids in Ithaca and Tompkins County

Interested in learning about local efforts to bring healthy food to everyone in Tompkins County? Christine Porter, Cornell graduate student, sent me this list of listservs addressing problems and solutions related to obesity.

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Every single child in Tompkins County should have all the healthy food they need and plenty of opportunities for safe, fun and active play. The Whole Community Project (WCP) aims to change “should have” to “has.” It’s a community-based childhood obesity prevention effort with an environmental change and social justice focus based at Cornell Cooperative Extension, Tompkins County (CCE). Our current email discussion lists are below.  Currently they tend to have only a handful of messages a month, other than the Recreation list, which averages 1-2 announcements each day.

To join any of these lists send an email from the account you want to use and put the word “join” (and only the word join, no quotation marks, no email signature) in the body of the email.

WCP main (wcp-l-request@cornell.edu): This is the main Whole Community Project list. It is open for discussion, however, to date it mainly includes announcements of all open WCP meetings (including garden and school food meetings), especially relevant news items or grant opportunities, and dissemination of Reality Bites. Currently has 108 members.

Healthy School Food (cce-healthyschoolfoodtc-l-request@cornell.edu): This list discusses and supports work of supporting our local school food directors in providing nutritious food for our children. To date, it has been used to organize meetings and taste testings as well as to share and sometimes discuss relevant news. Currently has 47 members.

School and Community Gardens (cce-schoolandcommunitygardens-L-request@cornell.edu):  This list connects people involved or interested in gardening in schools and communities. To date, it announces garden-related meetings, opportunities and events as well as a bit of discussion and news sharing.  It has 97 members so far.

Recreation Announcements (cce-tcrecreation-l-request@cornell.edu): This is for announcements of recreation opportunities in the county (not a discussion list), with emails almost daily. Melissa Bianconi of Dryden recreation co-hosts and moderates this list. It has 141 members to date.

Food Justice (cce-wcp-foodjustice-l-request@cornell.edu): This is one of our newest lists, for sharing how we are already working for a more equitable and sustainable food system in Tompkins County and discussing how we can step up mobilization to this end. It has 48 members to date.

Reality Bites (cce-wcp-realitybites-l-request@cornell.edu): This new list is for people who don’t want to be on other WCP lists, but would like to get calls for submissions to the project’s Reality Bites newsletter and receive the newsletter. You should not subscribe to this list if you are on other WCP lists.

Volunteers (cce-wcpvolunteer-l-request@cornell.edu): This list is for receiving information about volunteer opportunities in Tompkins County that relate to the WCP mission.  Join if you would like to make or receive these announcements (which range from one-day events to ongoing projects and initiatives).  Currently has 48 members, mostly but not only Cornell students.

See www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/elist/lyris/ for more guidance.