recently I've found myself spending a lot of my down time reading various blogs with a similar theme: nutrition. more specifically, childhood nutrition. even more recently, a coworker sent a mass email with a link to an article about hipsters on foodstamps. all of this information has got me thinking about my own situation...
i feel no shame in telling people that i am currently receiving foodstamps. in fact, i consider it a benefit of serving Americorps, along with kickass health insurance and an education award to help pay for grad school next year. without foodstamps, it is likely that either a) my parents would have to help me with money, or b) i would starve. however, i would like to point out that i have made some major sacrifices since the days of my meal plan exemption at earlham, including putting an end to my all-organic diet and giving up juice, soda, and other overly-processed drinks in exchange for tap water (note: i do drink coffee and tea, but i only drink one cup of coffee and brew my own tea).
to this date, i only have one issue with foodstamps. i currently receive $200 a month in foodstamps, which is put directly on my QUEST card. this is the maximum amount that an applicant can receive. this means that the unemployed single mom with three kids is receiving the same amount as the college educated Americorps volunteer who receives a living allowance. granted, i do not receive other forms of government assistance, such as unemployment, subsidized housing, or energy assistance, but i doubt that it could total to my monthly living allowance, which is enough to cover the rent for my studio apartment, utilities, parking, cable, and internet. for a person living at the poverty level, i definitely get by.
ok, enough with my off-topic rant. back to the point of this post...
i am considering starting another blog that would focus less on my day-to-day VISTA life and more on how i maintain my vegetarian lifestyle and cook healthy meals for myself on the budget allotted by my foodstamps. i want to prove that there doesn't have to be a correlation between a tight budget and lack of nutrition. the blog will include photos, recipes, and my weekly shopping list (complete with how much my trips to the grocery store total out to).
so here is my question to you, blog followers (if there are any of you left): would you consider reading/following this blog? this would be a time-consuming project, so i want to make sure this effort doesn't go wasted! leave a comment with some feedback, please!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
for the first time, things are still the same
(except I wish this wasn't true)
I've only had a handful of interactions between myself and the HIP coordinator since my last post. I've tried to be nice to her, but my actions have not been reciprocated on her end. I say good morning to her while passing her in the hallway, and she responds by shrugging her shoulders and sighing. no longer does she stop by my office to check in with me when she arrives at maple tree in the morning. the more I think about her actions, the harder it is for me not to feel like I'm back in high school.
yesterday was saint patrick's day. I opted not to wear green for two reasons: a) i thought it would be too cliche, and b) i don't own a lot of green clothes (not a good color for me). after a two hour staff meeting at maple tree, i went home and had two hours to get my eyebrows done, get dressed, and eat dinner before heading over to paddy's to celebrate with some friends. naturally, there was a 45 minute wait at supercuts to get my eyebrows done, which meant rushing through everything else. Got to paddy's 10 minutes late, but it wasn't the end of the world. that is, until lizzy arrived and was told that she wasn't allowed upstairs where the rest of the group was because they were at capacity. this was such b.s. regardless, i said goodbye to the group and went to a different bar with lizzy to hang out with steve, nicole, and some of their friends. we drank some beer and discussed our halloween costume plans (it's gonna be AWESOME) and our super-cool kickball team. went to bed a little on the late side, and was woken up at 12:30 in the morning by syd calling to tell me about the failure that is blue fish fencing. i'm amazed i'm awake right now.
today has been productive so far. I've written up some reminders for the parent who is volunteering for snack sales, which i'm going to stick in the cash box. I've also been fielding phone calls and emails for an event i'm going to tomorrow and trying to schedule a meeting with growing power about their community garden at our school. This has become a huge priority for me, because i just found out that the reason why growing power hasn't been in contact with me is because the representative i was working with no longer works there. this means i need to seriously make up for lost time with them.
This weekend is the camping trip planned by the HIP coordinator. I was planning on going to help supervise, but I'm no longer going. There's a summit for the Milwaukee Graduation Project tomorrow that VISTAs are required to attend. I've agreed to help out as a facilitator for a group discussion -I'm hoping it works out. I signed up a while ago to do a canvassing project on saturday, but I'm thinking I might bail out if the weather is anything like they've been predicting...
I've only had a handful of interactions between myself and the HIP coordinator since my last post. I've tried to be nice to her, but my actions have not been reciprocated on her end. I say good morning to her while passing her in the hallway, and she responds by shrugging her shoulders and sighing. no longer does she stop by my office to check in with me when she arrives at maple tree in the morning. the more I think about her actions, the harder it is for me not to feel like I'm back in high school.
yesterday was saint patrick's day. I opted not to wear green for two reasons: a) i thought it would be too cliche, and b) i don't own a lot of green clothes (not a good color for me). after a two hour staff meeting at maple tree, i went home and had two hours to get my eyebrows done, get dressed, and eat dinner before heading over to paddy's to celebrate with some friends. naturally, there was a 45 minute wait at supercuts to get my eyebrows done, which meant rushing through everything else. Got to paddy's 10 minutes late, but it wasn't the end of the world. that is, until lizzy arrived and was told that she wasn't allowed upstairs where the rest of the group was because they were at capacity. this was such b.s. regardless, i said goodbye to the group and went to a different bar with lizzy to hang out with steve, nicole, and some of their friends. we drank some beer and discussed our halloween costume plans (it's gonna be AWESOME) and our super-cool kickball team. went to bed a little on the late side, and was woken up at 12:30 in the morning by syd calling to tell me about the failure that is blue fish fencing. i'm amazed i'm awake right now.
today has been productive so far. I've written up some reminders for the parent who is volunteering for snack sales, which i'm going to stick in the cash box. I've also been fielding phone calls and emails for an event i'm going to tomorrow and trying to schedule a meeting with growing power about their community garden at our school. This has become a huge priority for me, because i just found out that the reason why growing power hasn't been in contact with me is because the representative i was working with no longer works there. this means i need to seriously make up for lost time with them.
This weekend is the camping trip planned by the HIP coordinator. I was planning on going to help supervise, but I'm no longer going. There's a summit for the Milwaukee Graduation Project tomorrow that VISTAs are required to attend. I've agreed to help out as a facilitator for a group discussion -I'm hoping it works out. I signed up a while ago to do a canvassing project on saturday, but I'm thinking I might bail out if the weather is anything like they've been predicting...
Friday, March 12, 2010
March Has Arrived as a Lion and Will Probably Leave the Same Way
Conflict has arisen between myself and Maple Tree's HIP coordinator. True, she has picked on me from early on, but I always considered it to be friendly, since she only did it occasionally and in a joking manner.
And then things started to escalate. The friendly jokes about my hair flipping turned into harsh criticism about how I carry myself and my lack of energy when I was sick. She started telling me and our coworkers that she has taken it upon myself to play the role of my mom since my parents live so far away from me. That bothered me. I have two parents, and they are more than enough. I have lived without them since my freshman year of college, and I can continue to do so without her help.
The breaking point occurred roughly two weeks ago. In anticipation of a Parents Plus workshop hosted by Maple Tree's Action Team, I contacted Trader Joe's for a donation. They donated $25 worth of snack food -popcorn, cookies, chips, and salsa. When I told her about the donation, I referred to the activity we were using it for as "the thing on March 9th," by which I meant the Parents Plus workshop. However, the HIP coordinator thought I was referring to the magic show that she had planned for later that night. When I told her that wasn't true, she picked a fight with me, accused me of refusing to work with her, then dismissed the argument when I proved that she had no reason to be upset with me. I sent an email to Yvette and told her to call a meeting for next week.
The meeting consisted of myself, Yvette, my site supervisor, the HIP coordinator, and her supervisor. The HIP coordinator decided that instead of using this meeting as a chance to resolve our conflicts so we can work together in an efficient manner, she would take this opportunity to act like she's hot shit and tell me how to do my job. In the process of doing so, she accused me of not attending/helping out during her events, that I don't know how to relate to the parents, and that I never asked for donations before she suggested it. When I called her out on all of these accusations and proved her wrong, she simply dismissed me and said that there was no reason get into details. Whenever someone criticized her activities, she got defensive and claimed that parents aren't coming just for the raffles and free food. She also wasted no time in bashing everything that was said by myself and my supervisors when they left.
I met with my with site supervisor yesterday afternoon to make sure we were on the same page about the meeting, and I'm happy to say that we are. She also mentioned that before she was offered position of HIP coordinator, this parent was only seen in the school for conferences. I reported all of this to my Parents Plus supervisor today, and I'm glad that we're on the same page, too. Furthermore, the three of us all agree that the best thing to do is just finish up the school year at Maple Tree, make sure the Action Team will continue next year, and have minimal contact with the HIP coordinator.
Between this meeting and two 12 hour days, I'm pretty exhausted. I foresee a weekend of sleep.
And then things started to escalate. The friendly jokes about my hair flipping turned into harsh criticism about how I carry myself and my lack of energy when I was sick. She started telling me and our coworkers that she has taken it upon myself to play the role of my mom since my parents live so far away from me. That bothered me. I have two parents, and they are more than enough. I have lived without them since my freshman year of college, and I can continue to do so without her help.
The breaking point occurred roughly two weeks ago. In anticipation of a Parents Plus workshop hosted by Maple Tree's Action Team, I contacted Trader Joe's for a donation. They donated $25 worth of snack food -popcorn, cookies, chips, and salsa. When I told her about the donation, I referred to the activity we were using it for as "the thing on March 9th," by which I meant the Parents Plus workshop. However, the HIP coordinator thought I was referring to the magic show that she had planned for later that night. When I told her that wasn't true, she picked a fight with me, accused me of refusing to work with her, then dismissed the argument when I proved that she had no reason to be upset with me. I sent an email to Yvette and told her to call a meeting for next week.
The meeting consisted of myself, Yvette, my site supervisor, the HIP coordinator, and her supervisor. The HIP coordinator decided that instead of using this meeting as a chance to resolve our conflicts so we can work together in an efficient manner, she would take this opportunity to act like she's hot shit and tell me how to do my job. In the process of doing so, she accused me of not attending/helping out during her events, that I don't know how to relate to the parents, and that I never asked for donations before she suggested it. When I called her out on all of these accusations and proved her wrong, she simply dismissed me and said that there was no reason get into details. Whenever someone criticized her activities, she got defensive and claimed that parents aren't coming just for the raffles and free food. She also wasted no time in bashing everything that was said by myself and my supervisors when they left.
I met with my with site supervisor yesterday afternoon to make sure we were on the same page about the meeting, and I'm happy to say that we are. She also mentioned that before she was offered position of HIP coordinator, this parent was only seen in the school for conferences. I reported all of this to my Parents Plus supervisor today, and I'm glad that we're on the same page, too. Furthermore, the three of us all agree that the best thing to do is just finish up the school year at Maple Tree, make sure the Action Team will continue next year, and have minimal contact with the HIP coordinator.
Between this meeting and two 12 hour days, I'm pretty exhausted. I foresee a weekend of sleep.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Remember that time I actually updated my blog?
Naturally, a lot has happened since my last post. there isn't enough time to go into detail, so i'm just going to do a fresh start.
today is our Read Across America celebration in conjunction with Dr. Seuss' birthday. Students and staff were invited to wear their pajamas to school, and parents were asked to join us for breakfast/lunch and to read to their child's class. I managed to get donations from panera for breakfast and lunch, as well as from bruegger's for breakfast.
I came in at 9:00 this morning because the sandwiches had to be made fresh this morning. Also factor in the fact that panera thought the event wasn't until April 2nd (that was a fun conversation). Have I heard any positive remarks in the hour I have been here? no. here is what I've heard so far:
"When are the students getting their posters back from the black history poster contest?"
"What do you want to do with all of this breakfast food from the breakfast that no parents came to?"
"There's no reason to serve a snack at your event if the HIP coordinator is serving dinner later that day."
"Is there snack today?"
"What's on these sandwiches?"
oh, did i mention the roach i found in my office?
I also got another chocolate stain on my americorps hoodie while drowning my sorrows in a chocolate croissant that I shouldn't have eaten, since I'm still recovering from yesterday's chocolate overload (dark chocolate from trader joe's followed by a boston cream donut during the Action Team meeting).
so I guess the point to all this rambling is that I'm not really feeling appreciated. maybe I'm feeling the six-month blues, but no matter what the reason is, I feel like I need nothing more than someone at this school to tell me that I'm doing a good job.
time to go return snack money to all the teachers!
today is our Read Across America celebration in conjunction with Dr. Seuss' birthday. Students and staff were invited to wear their pajamas to school, and parents were asked to join us for breakfast/lunch and to read to their child's class. I managed to get donations from panera for breakfast and lunch, as well as from bruegger's for breakfast.
I came in at 9:00 this morning because the sandwiches had to be made fresh this morning. Also factor in the fact that panera thought the event wasn't until April 2nd (that was a fun conversation). Have I heard any positive remarks in the hour I have been here? no. here is what I've heard so far:
"When are the students getting their posters back from the black history poster contest?"
"What do you want to do with all of this breakfast food from the breakfast that no parents came to?"
"There's no reason to serve a snack at your event if the HIP coordinator is serving dinner later that day."
"Is there snack today?"
"What's on these sandwiches?"
oh, did i mention the roach i found in my office?
I also got another chocolate stain on my americorps hoodie while drowning my sorrows in a chocolate croissant that I shouldn't have eaten, since I'm still recovering from yesterday's chocolate overload (dark chocolate from trader joe's followed by a boston cream donut during the Action Team meeting).
so I guess the point to all this rambling is that I'm not really feeling appreciated. maybe I'm feeling the six-month blues, but no matter what the reason is, I feel like I need nothing more than someone at this school to tell me that I'm doing a good job.
time to go return snack money to all the teachers!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
The holidays have officially started
Yesterday was Maple Tree's breakfast with Santa family event. Putting the event together took a lot of last minute assembly. I went to the school on friday afternoon and left after 3 hours, and even then there was still a lot left to do. the HIP coordinator stayed at the school pretty late. I helped her as much as I could, but I had friends coming over for poker night. Poker night was also good. we actually played poker this time, which was interesting. more people came and it was a pretty different group from last time, so it was interesting.
Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early at 7, picked up Angela, and headed to Maple Tree. Things were chaotic when we got there and everyone was scrambling to do some last-minute assembly. despite the stress of this, the event turned out to be a huge success! we got a good crowd of families and teachers. I spent the entire time with Pastor Dee helping with the read-alouds and making sure the kids didnt destroy the K-4 classroom that we used.
saturday night was the feed milwaukee charity gala at the harley davidson museum. a bunch of VISTAs were there, and it was nice to see them all. i didnt stay too long, though, since the place was packed and lizzy wasnt feeling well. we ended up going to roman coin to play pool and hang out.
i have been chained to the oven all afternoon today. i finished making my holiday presents for everyone and am now waiting for my pumpkin gingerbread to finish baking for tomorrow's staff brunch. i have a lot of ingredients leftover from the gifts i made, so i'm not sure what i'm going to do with them.
the next couple of days will be interesting. tomorrow is the staff brunch at maple tree and also the day that growing power is coming to deliver 50 market baskets that they're donating to the school. tuesday is the last day of school before the break, which means the day of the holiday program.
Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early at 7, picked up Angela, and headed to Maple Tree. Things were chaotic when we got there and everyone was scrambling to do some last-minute assembly. despite the stress of this, the event turned out to be a huge success! we got a good crowd of families and teachers. I spent the entire time with Pastor Dee helping with the read-alouds and making sure the kids didnt destroy the K-4 classroom that we used.
saturday night was the feed milwaukee charity gala at the harley davidson museum. a bunch of VISTAs were there, and it was nice to see them all. i didnt stay too long, though, since the place was packed and lizzy wasnt feeling well. we ended up going to roman coin to play pool and hang out.
i have been chained to the oven all afternoon today. i finished making my holiday presents for everyone and am now waiting for my pumpkin gingerbread to finish baking for tomorrow's staff brunch. i have a lot of ingredients leftover from the gifts i made, so i'm not sure what i'm going to do with them.
the next couple of days will be interesting. tomorrow is the staff brunch at maple tree and also the day that growing power is coming to deliver 50 market baskets that they're donating to the school. tuesday is the last day of school before the break, which means the day of the holiday program.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
rfffffffffeuilfnh.sd,fwel;jsdafed
the title of this post is me taking my frustration out on the keyboard of the computer i work on. healthy? no, but it's my best option without a fencing club to work with.
i just found out during last night's sgc meeting that the breakfast with santa event we planned as a fundraiser for maple tree's tot-lot is no longer a fundraiser, but a family event funded by coa. maple tree has a HIP coordinator who has to plan one family function a month. we wanted her to plan her's after the breakfast with santa event so we didn't run the risk of having too much going on in a short period of time. however, it was decided on tuesday by the HIP coordinator and the school principal that it would be easier for her to take over the event. because of this, it is no longer a fundraiser for the school's tot-lot, but a COA funded family event.
this frustrates me for two reasons: a) i was not told about this change until almost a week later, which means i have been giving people incorrect information all this time, and b) the work i put into this event will most likely be credited to the HIP coordinator. the energy i put into securing a guest to read books to the children that attend the event will go unnoticed, as will the time i put combing through google images looking for the perfect picture of a child sitting on santa's lap for the flyers. my name has been taken off the flyers and replaced with her's.
furthermore, i'm still expected to help out with the event. in fact, i'm still expected to have other VISTAs come help, too. i'm not sure if i'm ok with this. if this is a COA funded event, shouldn't the HIP coordinator take care of finding volunteers? don't get me wrong, i'm all for collaboration, but i wish that i had some say in this decision instead of finding out about it through some gossip in the teacher's lounge a week later.
/end rant.
there is also a snack order that had no room number on it, so it is sitting next to me until a teacher sends a student to me to complain. i'm hoping this happens soon, since there's yogurt and string cheese in the order. also, i may help myself to the cereal bar in the bag if no one claims it...
i just found out during last night's sgc meeting that the breakfast with santa event we planned as a fundraiser for maple tree's tot-lot is no longer a fundraiser, but a family event funded by coa. maple tree has a HIP coordinator who has to plan one family function a month. we wanted her to plan her's after the breakfast with santa event so we didn't run the risk of having too much going on in a short period of time. however, it was decided on tuesday by the HIP coordinator and the school principal that it would be easier for her to take over the event. because of this, it is no longer a fundraiser for the school's tot-lot, but a COA funded family event.
this frustrates me for two reasons: a) i was not told about this change until almost a week later, which means i have been giving people incorrect information all this time, and b) the work i put into this event will most likely be credited to the HIP coordinator. the energy i put into securing a guest to read books to the children that attend the event will go unnoticed, as will the time i put combing through google images looking for the perfect picture of a child sitting on santa's lap for the flyers. my name has been taken off the flyers and replaced with her's.
furthermore, i'm still expected to help out with the event. in fact, i'm still expected to have other VISTAs come help, too. i'm not sure if i'm ok with this. if this is a COA funded event, shouldn't the HIP coordinator take care of finding volunteers? don't get me wrong, i'm all for collaboration, but i wish that i had some say in this decision instead of finding out about it through some gossip in the teacher's lounge a week later.
/end rant.
there is also a snack order that had no room number on it, so it is sitting next to me until a teacher sends a student to me to complain. i'm hoping this happens soon, since there's yogurt and string cheese in the order. also, i may help myself to the cereal bar in the bag if no one claims it...
Saturday, December 5, 2009
"this easily could have been condensed into an hour"
this week has been pretty exhausting for me. mps' action team trainings started on monday, which was the date that maple tree was scheduled for. the day was filled with confusion for many of us, and i left the training feeling a little frustrated. i didn't think maple tree's action team understood how we were supposed to write our action plan, yet i couldn't voice this concern to them because of other people are our table distracting the group. we did set a date for our next meeting, though, so i'm hoping to get it all straightened out during the meeting. i think it will help that the entire group will be present, too.
tuesday was pretty normal at maple tree, except i had to go back to marshall high school afterwards to do childcare for an evening action team training. we were told we would have 7 children to look after, so 3 VISTAs went to do childcare. only one child came. however, he turned out to be the cutest and politest child i have met in the longest time. my favorite moment was when i walked into the room after filling up my water bottle and he looked up at me and said, "what are you drinking," and when i told him water, he said, "can i please have some?" obviously, i couldn't say no.
wednesday was a nice change for me, because i didn't have a staff/learning team meeting after school, so i got to leave a little earlier than i normally do on wednesdays. i took this opportunity to go to the gym, since i didn't have the energy to go on tuesday. thursday was pretty normal, too-spent most of the day getting things in order for monday's sgc meeting in terms of writing up something for a parentlink and such.
yesterday turned out to be interesting. sarah and i decided to instate a biweekly poker night for VISTAs, and this week would be the first one. except i'm smart and forgot to do the facebook invites until thursday afternoon. despite this, three people came over-mark, lizzy, and mary. lizzy and mary brought six packs and left a bunch of beer in my fridge. mark had his first encounter with brie (he actually thought it was a slice of cake) and ate crazy amounts of the crackers i bought at trader joe's. we played several rounds of various card games, had lots of laughs, and ended up at nomad at midnight.
next week's looking busy, too-SGC meeting on monday, staff meeting on wednesday, ATP on thursday, and breakfast with santa at ICS on saturday! stay tuned!
tuesday was pretty normal at maple tree, except i had to go back to marshall high school afterwards to do childcare for an evening action team training. we were told we would have 7 children to look after, so 3 VISTAs went to do childcare. only one child came. however, he turned out to be the cutest and politest child i have met in the longest time. my favorite moment was when i walked into the room after filling up my water bottle and he looked up at me and said, "what are you drinking," and when i told him water, he said, "can i please have some?" obviously, i couldn't say no.
wednesday was a nice change for me, because i didn't have a staff/learning team meeting after school, so i got to leave a little earlier than i normally do on wednesdays. i took this opportunity to go to the gym, since i didn't have the energy to go on tuesday. thursday was pretty normal, too-spent most of the day getting things in order for monday's sgc meeting in terms of writing up something for a parentlink and such.
yesterday turned out to be interesting. sarah and i decided to instate a biweekly poker night for VISTAs, and this week would be the first one. except i'm smart and forgot to do the facebook invites until thursday afternoon. despite this, three people came over-mark, lizzy, and mary. lizzy and mary brought six packs and left a bunch of beer in my fridge. mark had his first encounter with brie (he actually thought it was a slice of cake) and ate crazy amounts of the crackers i bought at trader joe's. we played several rounds of various card games, had lots of laughs, and ended up at nomad at midnight.
next week's looking busy, too-SGC meeting on monday, staff meeting on wednesday, ATP on thursday, and breakfast with santa at ICS on saturday! stay tuned!
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