The New York Times today posted an article on foodborne.

The main idea: be careful

Apparently, it doesn’t seem to matter whether the food you eat came from a long chained manufacturing process or was locally grown, there’s always a danger of it containing foodborne pathogens.

Some of the incidents mentioned are pretty scary.

In the end, I guess the point is there’s always a risk of foodborne illnesses. As consumers, we need to be aware of and practice proper food handling once the products come into our possession.

Check out the article

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While we here at DooF have focused mainly on what good food is and where they come from, composting is one natural end of unused food: food wastes and scraps such as leftover uneaten food, food gone bad, food trimmings from meal preparation, etc. (not to also mention yard and garden trimmings, leaves, clippings, etc.)

By making a concerted effort, such food scraps and biomatter are put into their natural decomposition process at a sped up rate, resulting in large quantities of high quality humus that is used to enrich the soils of local growers.

One little tidbit that I did not know is that good, rich soil (enriched by humus) retains carbon dioxide, the global warming gas.

Anyhow, you can see how a circle is formed: local farms provide good, nutritious organic fruits and produce, and the resulting scraps go back into making compost that wind up in local farms.

So, if you’re in the Bay Area, do your part, and make the (small) effort to put your food scraps in the provided compost bins. If you don’t live in an area with a community-wide composting program, consider home composting. Check with your local waste management service for more information. Below are some resources for your area:

• www.sfrecycling.com - San Francisco
• www.stopwaste.org - Alameda County
• www.reducewaste.org - Santa Clara County
• www.recycleworks.org - San Mateo County
• www.recyclenow.org - Sonoma County
• www.wastediversion.org - Contra Costa County
• www.naparecycling.com - Napa County

Sounds like a great topic for an episode of DooF, don’t you think?

Check out the article here.

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Late last week, an article came out discussing a UC Berkeley study that links fast food proximity to obesity: how restaurants like McDonald’s being close to high schools contribute to obesity levels of ninth graders (high school freshman).

Interestingly, the major point seems to be that such fast food joints need to be one-tenth of a mile to the school, meaning — at least here in San Francisco — within one block. If the restaurants are a quarter to one-half mile away from the school, there doesn’t seem to be any correlation.

Further, the study points out that

…while just 7 percent of California’s high schools have a fast food restaurant within a tenth of a mile, 65 percent have one within half a mile. Schools within a tenth of a mile of a fast food restaurant have more Hispanic students, slightly more students eligible for free lunches, lower test scores, tend to be in poorer and urban neighborhoods - and have a higher than average incidence of obesity among their students

What does it mean?

From the article, we can infer that socio-economic class plays a role in determining whether a child will grow up to be obese.

The study seems to suggest that city planners, if they want to help combat obesity, should consider zoning requirements in the areas immediately surrounding schools.

Treating a Symptom

Of course, zoning requirements for fast food restaurants is just a small piece in the overall strategy to combat obesity.

A lot of low-income households have parents who need to work all day, and so children, both young and old, are left unsupervised, exposed to TV’s multitude of advertising on junk and fast foods, and thus most likely uneducated about healthy choices.

Thus, it’s really no surprise to hear that having a fast-food restaurant one block away from school will be a magnet for kids to get a quick “snack” after school, whether it be fries or a full-on “happy” meal. The meals are certainly not healthy, but they are fast, convenient, and cheap.

To really fight obesity, we’re really going to have to attack the issue on many fronts.

In future articles, we’ll take a look at other strategies.

In the meantime, if you wish to see the original article, click here.

There is also a pdf of the UCB study here.

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Here’s a really clever take on what may be our most popular cultural icon in cinema:

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I am especially appreciative of the time, money, effort and materials contributed by our sponsors and Sourcerers in order to participate. Their passion and enthusiasm made the event the success it was, and it was clear that the kids and families who attended the event got a chance to experience something very wonderful and unique.

The event exceeded our wildest expectations, allowing kids and their families an intimate understanding of food through the fabulous range of hands-on activities that were the fruit of our collaborations. Looking out over the crowd, it was clear that they were completely immersed in what they were doing, and stayed that way the entire day.

From the Google side, the event was considered to be a great success! The Google Culinary team contributed over 150 volunteers to the event and very much enjoyed getting to work with all of you. We were especially appreciative of the “model sourcerers” who contributed both their time and their products to the event. A special shout out goes to:

• Barefoot Coffee Roasters
• Bassian Farms
• Charles Chocolates
• Clean Fish
• Earl’s Organic Produce
• Greenleaf Produce
• Interactive Parenting Media
• Kaiser Permanente
• King of Mushrooms
• Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Monterey Fish
• Nick Sciabica & Sons
• Obentec
• Planet Organics
• Second Harvest Food Bank
• 4H Youth Development
• Straus Family Creamery
• Sunset Scavenger

We’d also like to thank ALL of you for contributing the time and effort that it took to make our dream-event a reality. Here at Google, the culinary team is used to feeding large crowds for all sorts of reasons - from everyday lunch to large-scale celebrations and fundraisers.

This event was different, though.

At DooF-a-Palooza, the chefs were not simply the help, but the main attraction, along with all of you!

That made the work all that more enjoyable and the end result was tangibly magical.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

We hope to see you all again at the next DooF-a-Palooza.

Mike, Mirit and the entire DooF-a-Palooza Team

(Download the DooF-a-Palooza 2008 Digest)

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DooF-a-Palooza was an amazing success, from this humble photographer’s eye.

There was so much to see, and everywhere I looked, adults and children alike were engrossed in various activities presented by the numerous “Sourcerers” on hand, as well as trying out all the scrumptious food!

There was a huge lounge area where visitors saw videos of themselves taken around the campus in what must have been minutes (or maybe 10’s of minutes) before.

In one of the campus’s cafe was a makeshift studio, where celebrity chef Joey Altman held his Kitchen Sink Cook Off, a friendly competition between teams of kids to see which team put together the best tasting pasta salad — all caught on video and recorded onto DVD for the participants.  How cool was that!

Here are some teaser photos from the day:

See the full set of photos in our Photo Gallery

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Things are coming together quickly.

Please note that there will be NO physical tickets if you are registering online. Simply come to the will-call area with your name (and ID), and you should be good to go.

We’re very excited about what we’ve cooked up, and hope you will be as well!

See you all then!

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DooF-a-Palooza is nearly upon us. The fact that it is ‘a thing’ that has meaning to people is one of the more exciting aspects of our development and, in many ways, a crucial catalyst to the success of the DooF television show. But what is DooF-a-Palooza and why has it caught on so so fast?

A Bit of History

A fortuitous introduction to Mirit Cohen (Thanks, Barry!) — one of the chefs in Google’s amazing employee food service program and a force of nature in her own right — led to an invitation to do a fundraising event on the Google campus last year. This became our First Annual DooF-a-Palooza.

It seemed our mission to share the magic of good food with children struck a chord with Google’s own commitment to sustainable food practices. We thought, why not invite food purveyors to come up with activities that enable children and adults to participate in and understand how they create their very special food products? Add a dash of Google magic and the opportunity to participate in the creation of DooF and you’ve got DooF-a-Palooza.

DooF-a-Palooza Facts

• Kids are much more willing to try different foods when they make them themselves
• Many adults (including me) have no idea how much of what we eat gets here
• A Sourcerer is someone who creates a fun hands-on activity that involves kids in the process of bringing good food from source to table
• DooF-a-Palooza activities involve a ‘making’ component and an ‘eating’ component
• DooF-a-Palooza activites underscore the unique nature of what our Sourcerers do
• DooF-a-Palooza will include nearly forty hands-on activities, each one paired with one of Google’s amazing cafes
• The DooF-a-Palooza stage will include live music, performance, a raffle and our now-famous food backwards spelling bee
• DooF-a-Palooza will also feature a roving DooF film crew and the opportunity to audition for DooF by telling a funny food story

Provisional List of Sourcerer Activities

• Apron Strings — Around the World to Vietnam
• Bassian Farms — “Best Burgers and Shakes”
• Blue Moon Organics — Berry Sampling & Sustainability
• Brown Sugar Kitchen — Healthy ‘Down Home’ Waffles
• Charles Chocolates — Chocolate Immersion
• Calfia Cafe & Market a Go Go — Book signings and Food Fun
• Chronicle Books — Author Signings
• CleanFish — Digging for Shrimp and Protecting the Ocean Floor
• DooF — Food Backwards Foragers Treasure Hunt
• Sunset Scavenger — Stinky Trash to Black Gold
• Earls Organic Produce — How to Cut Fruit and How to Choose Ripe Fruit
• Eat See India — Mix Your Own Bhelpuri Street Snacks in a Cone
• Google Master Gardener — Planting Demonstration and “H2O Infusion”
• Google Kitchen Tour
• Hippy Gourmet TV — Solar Baked Cookies
• Interactive Parenting Media — Food Face Painting
• Joey Altman — Kitchen Sink Cook Off
• Julia Myall “Cook it in a Cup” Potato baskets
• Kaiser Permanente — Mini-Farmer’s Market
• ’The Best Me’ stage performance
• King of Mushrooms — Informative Booth
• Kitchen on Fire — Crazy Food Science
• Lemon Ladies Orchard — When life gives you Lemons!
• Monterey Bay Aquarium — Seafood Watch
• Monterey Fish — Squishy Squid
• Nick Sciabica & Sons — What’s in the Olive Oil
• Obentec — Make Your Own Pretend Lunch
• Palo Alto Creamery — Build Your Own Sandwich
• Petit Appetit — Personalized Trail Mix
• Planet Organics — Organic Trivia Basketball
• Revolution Foods — Custom Quesadillas
• Slide Ranch — Awaken the Senses
• Straus Family Creamery — Making Butter by Kickin’ It (in a soccer ball)
• Urban Village Farmers’ Market Association — Stone Fruit Bingo
• Veritable Vegetable — “The Root Grow Down and the Plants Grow Up!”
• VW Nutrition — What Would Your Favorite Super Hero Eat for Breakfast?
• What’s Cooking and The Toddler Cafe — Happy Trails Mix – For You & Our Planet

Hope to see you there!

Registration: www.foodbackwards.com/doof-a-palooza/2008/

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Check them out!

• DooF-a-Palooza Radio Spot
• DooF-a-Palooza Radio Spot (Spanish version)

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We’re pleased to announce that our own media blitz for DooF-a-Palooza began today with ads in the the June Edition of Bay Area Parents. Please check out the latest issue and help spread the word.

Teaser in the DooFLetter

For those of you who are subscribed to our “DooFLetter”, you should have received a nifty-looking email teaser that looked like this:

The DooF-a-Palooza Landing Page (updated)

And, of course, for the rest of you who have subscribed to the Glob (this blog) itself in an RSS reader, well, I just want to say that registration has officially begun.

Check out the DooF-a-Palooza landing page at:

www.foodbackwards.com/doof-a-palooza/2008

where you can

• read more about some of the key events we have lined up so far
• purchase tickets
• volunteer
• see some of our sponsors

We hope you’re as excited about DooF-a-Palooza as we are.

Stay tuned for more updates!

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