NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Program Brings Lessons on Diet to Classroom

After meeting anti-hunger workers in the Mississippi Delta, seeing neighborhood vegetable gardens in Pico Union and listening to community members across the country, federal agriculture official Joel Berg offered his assessment of AmeriCorps, the President’s national service program.

“It’s here, it’s real and it’s working,” Berg said, standing in a classroom at Arminta Street School. “A lot of people thought it was just another promise, that it wasn’t going to happen.”

Berg, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Service Program, visited the school as part of a national tour of AmeriCorps projects. Since the program was launched in September, AmeriCorps workers have been placed at community-based projects throughout the country, wrestling with a range of problems, from drug abuse to illiteracy and hunger.

Although organizations are required to submit quarterly reports detailing their progress, officials should observe the projects for themselves, Berg said.

“I don’t believe you can learn how things are going by sitting at your desk in Washington,” Berg said. “You have to be out here, talking to the people.”

At Arminta Street School, the last stop on his two-week tour, Berg watched as the third- and fourth-graders in Jan Shaffer’s class participated in a presentation on nutrition and the importance of eating breakfast.

On one side of the room, students gathered around a TV watching several “Start Your Head” commercials promoting breakfast.

“What happens when you don’t eat breakfast?” asked Peter Val Verde, an AmeriCorps worker assigned to the Southern California Anti-Hunger Coalition.

Hands--and bodies--shot up jostling for a chance to answer.

“You don’t have enough energy to play,” said Alfonso Garcia, 10.

“You get grouchy,” another student answered.

Students laughed and howled at the short, comical commercials.

Across the room, AmeriCorps workers Terri Piggee and Lee Henderson taught students the five groups and demonstrated how fruit smoothies are made--part of an attempt to show that food that is healthy can also taste good.

“It tastes like candy,” said 9-year-old Elizabeth Meza, after taking a sip.

For the students at Arminta, which has a high number of homeless and low-income students, the nutrition message is an important one.

“It’s really needed--especially in areas like this,” said Principal Marcia Cholodenko.

Elizabeth Riley, executive director of the Southern California Interfaith Hunger Coalition, said the presentation was one of many anti-hunger projects conducted by AmeriCorps workers assigned to the organization.

“AmeriCorps really has enabled us to impact various communities in a very sort time,” she said.

For Berg, scenes like those at Arminta are evidence that the program works.

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words,” he said.