431: Laurie Ouding on Food Inequity and Kids’ Health.
Educating kids and their parents on the role food plays in their health.
Laurie is an RN currently working at Rush University Medical Center as a pediatric nurse. She was raised in rural Michigan where she spent much of her life working in cultivation of gardens, raising her three daughters and active in volunteer organizations and nursing. She is also a Master Urban Farmer through University of Illinois.
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Working with local community organizations, she is moving toward opening an indoor, year-round farmers market, greenhouse with vertical hydroponics, and a spirulina farm. Her south side Chicago project will employ commercial kitchen facilities to provide inner city communities a path back to prosperity through self-enabled, local food industries.
In This Podcast:
Laurie Ouding is working to revolutionize the food system on the south side of Chicago. Through her work as a nurse, she identified the need for healthy, affordable, and available food in local neighborhoods. Now, she is working with local educators to teach kids and their families healthy food habits through gardening and cooking at home. Listen in to hear about her amazing plans to build a year-round farmers market and empower her community to grow nutritious food near home!
Listen in and learn about:
- The cultural shock that led her to seek solutions to make healthy food affordable and available in the South side of Chicago
- How to create community change within your city and suburbs
- Urban Agriculture Groups in Chicago
- Identifying food inequality in a community
- Going back to cooking whole food-based diets to combat obesity
- The difference in nutritional value between the grocery store and a local garden
- Net zero greenhouses
- Urban agriculture technology
- Teaching healthy food habits to kids through gardening
- Educating families on how to cook nutritious meals at home
- How to work with your city to build your urban farming dream from the ground up
- Growing nutrition dense foods using aquaponics
- The benefits of spirulina and how to grow, harvest and use it.
As well as:
Her failure– Jumping in and accidentally skipping steps, sometimes it means backtracking every now and then!
Her success – Raising her children and grandkids to love the earth and their community.
Her drive – To prevent suffering through education and nutritious food.
Her advice – It’s never too late to try something new. Big changes start with small steps!
Laurie’s Book recommendations:
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Laurie’s article on our blog:
Food Insecurity – How it’s affecting our children
How to reach Laurie:
Website: www.foodmatters.life
Email: info@foodmatters.life
UrbanFarm.org/foodmatters
Note: You can also find these books mentioned above at one of our favorite local independent bookstores and have the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting a small business.
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