National Office Blog

Two months have passed since the earthquake in Haiti, but the Nourish Chapter at Cornell University has not forgotten about the many Haitian citizens in Port au Prince that are still helpless and homeless. This week they held two Hunger Lunches in collaboration with another organization on their campus, Cornell Health International. Half of the proceeds of the Ventures will go towards the relief effort in Haiti, and the other half will be directed towards Cornell's International Project in El Salvador, where they will be working to implement an agricultural project with the Chapter at Brown University. Several other Chapters have also donated the proceeds of a Venture to alleviate the devastating effects of the earthquake, and the National Office applauds their global consciousness and giving spirit.

Members of the University of Texas chapter are busy getting ready for their project.

Under the leadership of International Projects Director Suchi Pahi, the chapter has developed an innovative curriculum which will prepare the team technically, culturally and linguistically for this summer’s trip.

About five chapter members plan to go to Ecuador to work with members of the Kichwa tribe through CIMA, an organization in Mushuk Llacta de Chipaota. They will likely teach marketing classes and hold workshops to help women in the tribe generate a steady income from their production of handicrafts.

To help develop a culture-specific curriculum, the chapter is working with a professor who specializes in development projects.

Although many of those who will go on the project already speak Spanish, the committee is preparing flash cards for the technical terms. And, in two weeks the committee meetings will switch entirely to Spanish.

The chapter found CIMA by contacting Rainforest Partnership, which has an office in Austin.  The Partnership will meet with the project team about six times before the project to give cultural training and help familiarize the students with the area to which they will go.

To help with group cohesion, the team will take a camping trip to an isolated part of Texas.

All of this in order to see a great, sustainable project this summer.

To learn more about the project, visit the chapter Web site (http://www.nourishinternationalaustin.org/international-project/rainforest-partnership) and Global Giving page (http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/rainforestkichwaperu/)

On Sunday, March 7, 2010, the Nourish International Chapter at UC-Davis hosted “Strides for Change—Taking Steps to End Poverty”, a 5K fun run and kids race. Kaitlin Gregg, founder and director of Nourish International at UC-Davis, competes in distance running events for the university and thought that a race was a great way to raise awareness and to raise money for their upcoming project in the Dominican Republic.

The venture was a great success, making headlines in the school paper, The California Aggie! ( http://theaggie.org/article/2010/03/08/runners-race-to-end-global-poverty). About 75 runners participated in the 5K run through the local community park, and at the end, prizes and food were handed out. The $20 adult registration fee included a race T-shirt, and the kids fun run fee was $5. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the race are being put toward this summer’s project. This summer, the Davis chapter will be partnering with Yale University and MUDE, (Mujeres en Desarrollo Dominicana), a nonprofit in the Dominican Republic, to put on a nutrition-education project in the city of Barahona. Thanks to Kaitlin’s great venture idea, they now have more funds to put towards the project! Great job UC-Davis!

The Nourish Chapters at Brown University and Cornell University are collaborating together to go to El Salvador for their International Project this year. These are two out of many Chapters that have decided to team up to go on Projects this year, and we are excited to see and facilitate increasing level of collaboration and communication between all Nourish chapters. The Brown Chapter and the Cornell Chapter decided their geographic proximity would make it easy to partner up and allow both Chapters to combine their funds to make a greater impact.

Beginning in June, 4-6 Members from each Chapter will travel to the Morazan region of El Salvador for five weeks this summer to help elementary-school student build and sustain organic, community gardens. The Project participants will also have the opportunity to teach the children on topics related to gardening and nutrition. Hopefully, the children will take this knowledge home with them and share it with their families and communities, ultimately raising the awareness of health and nutrition areas in Morazan. This Project is being accomplished through FUNDAHMER, a social non-profit focused on the development and empowerment of impoverished communities in El Salvador.

If you would like to contribute to this Project, donate to it and other Nourish Projects at http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/nourish-international-challenge/

Two weeks ago, while the rest of the world was getting ready for the Olympic Games in Vancouver, the Nourish Chapter at Ohio State University was hosted their own exciting version of the Olympics. OSU's Nourish Olympics was a three event event tournament, in which students teamed up into countries and competed in basketball, dodge ball, and mat ball. The team with the highest number of points was crowned the tournament champions and awarded with prizes, and each individual event winner also received a prize. The Ohio State chapter also decided to award an individual who adhered to his or her country’s colors and style with title of “Best Dressed”.
This is a very unique and creative venture in the history of Nourish International, and we look forward to seeing how the OSU Chapter can extend upon this venture's success in future years.

For the full story of how the OSU Chapter planned and implemented this venture, stay tuned for Nourish's first "Best Venture Handbook".

Check out the video!

OSU\'s Olympic Venture