Food Movement Radio

Do you love all the farmers markets popping up everywhere? Are you passionate about ending hunger? Does nutritious cooking pique your interest? If you shouted a resounding “yes!” to any (or all!) of these, then this is the show for you. The Food Movement Radio Show is a weekly radio program on 91.3 WCUW Community Radio in Worcester, hosted by Jean McMurray of the Worcester County Food Bank and Liz Sheehan Castro of the Worcester Food & Active Living Policy Council. We explore all things food (and some movement too!). We host guests that are doing amazing work in Worcester and beyond so we can learn about the issues, the projects and programs, and how we all can get involved in creating a healthy, sustainable, equitable food system for all!

Listen every Monday from 12:30-1:00 pm on 91.3 FM or stream live from WCUW.

Missed a show? Listen here!

4/20/15: Zach Dyer of the Worcester Division of Public Health.
Zach talks about Mass in Motion, public health, and coming home to Worcester to make change.

4/27/15: Jean McMurray on the Worcester County Food Bank
Jean talks about the changing landscape of emergency food.

5/4/15: Liz Sheehan Castro on the Worcester Food & Active Living Policy Council
Liz talks about food policy and how its an avenue to make big change in our food system.

5/11/15: Casey Burns, Food Justice of the Regional Environmental Council
Casey talks about REC’s Food Justice programming, from YouthGROW to farmers’ markets and community gardens.

5/18/15: Nancy Thibeault, Rainbow Child Development Center
Can you imagine toddlers growing basil hydroponically? Well, they are! Nancy tells us all about the exciting gardening and food education happening at Rainbow Child Development Center, and about their plans to make basil lemonade…mmmmm

5/25/15: Alicia Cianciola, Community Harvest Project
Alicia tells us about the exciting farming and education work happening at CHP in North Grafton.

6/1/15: Pamela Kane, Greater Worcester Community Foundation
Pam tells us about how the Foundation supports a variety of food related initiatives in and around Worcester.

6/8/15: Lynn Stromberg, Lettuce Be Local
Lynn tells us all about what its like to be the Matchmaker between farms and Chefs around Central Massachusetts.  Her entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm for what she does is contagious.  You’ll want to go out and immediately eat some yummy meals at the restaurants she’s running around delivering fresh, local, amazing products to!

6/15/15: Trish Settles & Clarence Snyder, Central Mass Grown
Trish and Clarence tell us about the marketing and education initiatives that are promoting the growers and producers of Central Mass.

6/22/15: Grace Silowski and Chad McClain of REC’s YouthGROW
Grace and Chad tell us about the youth leadership program that uses urban agriculture to talk about social justice, leadership, and personal development.

6/29/15: Donna Lombardi of Worcester Public Schools
Donna tells us all about how she became the Child Nutrition Director of the Worcester Public Schools, and what its like to serve 15,000 healthy lunches every day!

7/6/15: John Lawrence of Peppers Fine Catering
John Lawrence tells us about the commitment Peppers Fine Catering makes to local food and how he came to be the co-owner of this fine business.

7/13/15: Yvette Dyson of Worcester Common Ground
In this episode Yvette Dyson of WCG tells us all about why a Community Development Corporation is getting involved in food work, and about all the awesome, amazing work they are doing to support small urban farms, an urban orchard and about the Bioshelter they’re working on building!  What’s a bioshelter, you ask? Well we asked, too. Have a listen and hear more!

7/20/15: Bob Hersh of Worcester Polytech Institutes Center for Sustainable Food Systems
In this show Bob tells us about all the exciting community-based research his students at WPI do to serve and benefit community organizations doing food work.  We talk about urban agriculture, bioshelters (again!), and about Bob’s experience harvesting potatoes in the UK!

7/27/15: Weayonnah Nelson Davies of Community Legal Aid
In this show Weayonnah shares her amazing story of how she knew she wanted to be a lawyer who really served the people since the age of 12, and then gives us details on what’s going wrong in the SNAP (food stamps) system right now and what she and her team at Community Legal Aid are doing to fix it.  And she shares tips on what anyone who is struggling with their own SNAP benefits issues can do, too!

8/3/15: Martha Asseffa of Pure Juz
We were able to steal Martha away from Pure Juz for a half hour so she could tell us all about how she and her partner, Dante Camparetto, came to be the co-owners of Pure Juz and how its the most amazing thing ever!  Your mouth will water as Martha tells us about the most popular juices and you’ll be totally convinced you need to (and want to!) do a juice cleanse with Pure Juz.  Mmmm I’m thirsty just writing about it…

8/10/15: Isabel Burgess of the Kindergarten Initiative
Imagine taking Kindergarteners to a farm, planting tomatoes with them, reading books and singing songs about vegetables, and doing little cooking projects with them.  Now imagine that this is your job….does it sound amazingly adorable? Daunting? Fun? Well come here about it from Isabel Burgess, because it is her job in her position at the MA Farm to School Project. She runs a program in Worcester called the Kindergarten Initiative, and if you’re anything like me you’ll be wanting to go back to Kindergarten by the end of this interview!

8/17/15: Dr. Melanie Gnazzo and Blair Robinson
Dr. Gnazzo and UMass Medical School Student Blair Robinson are putting research into action by working with the Community Harvest Project to bring high quality, local fruits and vegetables to patients at the Family Health Center of Worcester on Queen Street.  Listen to how they have set up a farmers’ market system for patients to access, and how they are tracking health outcomes to see how this strategy is really helping patients that may not have enough money to spend on fresh healthy foods.

8/24/15: Julie Rawson of Many Hands Organic Farm and NOFA-MA
Julie Rawson farms Many Hands Organic Farm with her husband Jack Kittredge.  The two are also leaders in the Northeast Organic Farming Project (NOFA) Massachusetts Chapter.  Julie and Jack have been involved with NOFA-MA since its beginnings when they were first farming in Barre, MA.  Julie and Jack use their farm not only to grow delicious, organic food, but also to build community.  Listen to the many ways both Many Hands and NOFA-MA are being innovative and leading the organic food movement in Central Mass.

8/31/15: Alexandra Salcedo of Jeremiah’s Inn
Alexandra Salcedo is the Pantry Manager at Jeremiah’s Inn in Main South.  Jeremiah’s Inn is a residential recovery program for men that also operates a food pantry that is open to the community and feeds 1200 people a month and helps manage a Community Garden along with Amanda Barker of Nuestro Huerto.  They also collaborate with Cooking Matters to do Grocery Store Tours with food pantry clients.  Alex also has a love for plantains, and we all discover that we have something in common by the end!

9/7/15: Andrea Freeman of the MA Public Health Association
Andrea Freeman is a Field Organizer at MPHA, working (amongst other thigns) for healthy food access across Massachusetts.  Listen to Andrea tell us about the coalition they manage and how they run a state-wide campaign.  MPHA is the leader of the MA Food Trust legislation and implementation and they give us a little update of where things are at with that campaign.

9/21/15: Laura Smith of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation
Laura Smith joins us to tell us all about Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation’s giving as it relates to healthy food.  The Foundation has been a leader in funding healthy food iniatitives, and Laura joins us to tell us about the Healthy Food Fund, as well as how the Foundation incorporates their values into how they run their organization internally.  By the end you’ll be wanting a job at the Foundation for yourself!

9/28/15: Marlene Narrow of Vegan Nation
Join us for this great show with fellow WCUW Radio Host, Marlene Narrow.  Marlene hosts the hit show “Vegan Nation” which airs on WCUW on Fridays from 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm.  Marlene gives Jean and Liz an education in the three pillars of vegan living and really inspires them.  Listen in and learn something new about what it means to be Vegan.

10/5/15: Rose Arruda of Mass. Dept. of Agriculture
Few people in the world have as much energy as Rose Arruda, which is why she is awesome at organizing Food Day activities all over the state of Massachusetts. Listen and catch some of her contagious enthusiasm!

10/12/15: Kathy Abbott of Tower Hill Botanic Garden
Kathy Abbott, the Executive Director of Tower Hill Botanic Garden, is a wealth of knowledge (and inspiration!) on plants, land, gardening and climate change.

10/19/15: Holly Kosisky of Food for Good Conference

10/26/15: City Council Candidates: Episode 1

11/2/15: City Council Candidates: Episode 2

11/9/15: Dave MacMahon of Dismas House
Dave and his wife Colleen co-direct Dismas House, a unique program that works to facilitate healthy re-entry for former prisoners.  Dave tells us all about Dismas, and focuses in on the Family Farm in Oakham and what role food and farming play in the program.