February 2010 Trip

Our upcoming trip to Puerto Rico is by far the most ambitious trip to date.  Our individually catered programming delves deep into the educational mission of our organization.  Our biggest motivator for these events?  The project partners themselves!  We could not have taken on these incredibly exciting challenges without their support and enthusiasm.

For a small taste of our upcoming week of culanthropy, we’ve consolidated our trip itinerary below:

Sunday 1/31 Arrival

Guavate Roast Pig Route Road Trip and Traditional “Christmas Dinner” in Cayey.

Monday 2/1 Bill’s Kitchen

Created in 1992, Bill’s Kitchen creates over 3,000 frozen meals per week for residents living with HIV/AIDS.  Our day will focus on troubleshooting a selection of their industrial-size, healthy menu items for efficiency, economy and taste – a recent problem for the kitchen.  Simultaneously, we will be working Ray Ban outlet side by side with the full-time kitchen staff and nutritionist team to teach them requested culinary basics including an herb exploration workshop, and protein cooking times and temperature lesson.  The goal is to equip with the staff with the basic tools to make future improvements to the meals well after we depart.

Tour of Plaza del Mercado de Santurce with Slow Food Puerto Rico.  Healthy cooking class with Slow Food chef and naturalist, Rebecca Mendez of Afrodita Catering.

Tuesday 2/2 Sapientis

Sapientis creates positive learning environments for youth at-risk in Puerto Rico.  All programs encourage self-respect and community leadership.  At Albert Einstein High School in Barrio Obrero, a culturally rich but underserved area of the city, Sapientis has set up a three-year baking and pastry program for 60 students ages 14-17.  CulinaryCorps will be be hosting cooking workshops (one for each grade) that will focus on the creation of fresh pasta and traditional Italian tomato sauce.  The day will start with an exploration of the flavors in the marinara and an exchange of seeds/plants to create a “sauce garden” in their soon to be open school garden.  Students will be divided into small teams to work with the chefs in creating sauce and http://www.raybandasoleit.com/ pasta  dough from scratch.  At the end of each workshop, students and chefs will sit down to share their meal which will be rounded out by salad from a local hydroponic farm.  For the final hour of the day, all three grades will meet with the chefs in a panel discussion on careers in the culinary industry.

An taste exploration of the Spanish influence on Puerto Rican cuisine at Cien Vinos.

Wednesday 2/3 Hogar Ruth

Founded in 1983, Hogar Ruth is a safe-haven for women and children escaping the cycle of violence in their homes.  CulinaryCorps will work with the residents of this women and children’s shelter to create a cookbook of family and staff recipes for their fundraising efforts.  Activities will include recipe capture, testing and serving a sit-down dinner for all the residents.  This book will also double as a “covert” abuse prevention manual, a seemingly innocuous cookbook that the aggressor will not realize is a resource for the woman in need. We will also be creating a children’s cooking activity for the youth living in the facility.

An evening free to explore Old San Juan and environs.

Thursday 2/4 VIDAS

VIDAS believes in early-childhood intervention through the creation and management of positive learning spaces.  These community centers impact youth most at-risk for abuse and educational under-achievement.  CulinaryCorps will be traveling to the island of Vieques to launch a series of healthy cooking classes for youth ages 2-14 and their parents.  In accordance with national nutritional guidelines, CulinaryCorps will host a Saborea el Arcoiris (“eat the rainbow”) activity that explores fruits and veggies and allows the students themselves to turn them into a simple, kid-friendly, dish.  Three workshops of one-hour each will help break-up the activities by age-group.

Driving tour and traditional beachside Fonda dinner on the island of Vieques. Savoring the wonders of Argentinian Pizza – a Puerto Rican speciality.

Friday 2/5 Iniciativa Comunitaria

Founded in 1992, IC helps provide social services to struggling populations in San Juan including the homeless and drug-addicted as well as sex workers and residents living with HIV/AIDS.  In partnership with Gafas Ray Ban outlet the Inter-American University culinary program, CulinaryCorps will work with a select group of the IC population from all service areas to teach basic kitchen skills and create a balanced, budget and tasty meal for them to execute at home.  The meal will be shared by the students and chefs, and packed up for distribution throughout San Juan.  Meals will be delivered from 10pm-112am to the homeless populations by the chefs and IC volunteers from a mobile serving van.

Saturday 2/6 Loiza

Food and cultural exchange with the Mayor’s Office of the Township of Loiza.  Insiders trip to explore the flavors and culture of Piñones and Loiza including a private cooking lesson.

JUST ADDED! Possible community-wide project involvement providing relief to Haiti including canned good collection, packing and shipping.

Read on after the jump as we answer the question “Why a CulinaryCorps trip to Puerto Rico?”

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CulinaryCorps could not have grown into the organization it is today without the incredible teams of culinary professionals that have poured their hearts, souls and http://www.raybanoutletes.com/ talents into our trips.  Since 2006, our culanthropy sojourns have recruited from a diverse and gifted group of applicants from all over the nation.

Our recruiting efforts for our upcoming trip to Puerto Rico have proven to be no exception.

In fact, it was the most competitive trip to date with nearly 100 applicants applying for only eight available slots.  The pool of potential volunteers was incredibly strong, and some very tough decisions were made.  In the end, we chose a team that incorporated a diverse set of culinary skills as well backgrounds including those who had ties to Puerto Rico or spoke Spanish fluently.

In the lead-up to our departure in one week, we thought we would share brief biographies of those chosen to be part of the Puerto Rico outreach trip.

Meet this amazing crew after the jump.

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CulinaryCorps was deeply honored when approached by The Culinary Trust about partnering with their organization’s efforts to motivate chefs to explore their world through food.  Eager to help fund our upcoming trip to Puerto Rico, The Culinary Trust helped put together a chef-scholarship to assist with our efforts.

We would like to congratulate Thomas Medrow, this year’s oakley sunglasses cheap recipient of the 2010 Culinary Trust Scholarship sponsored by Zwilling-J.A. Henckels.

This scholarship will help fund Thomas and our culanthropic activities on the island of Puerto Rico during our upcoming trip in January.  As this trip’s Assistant Leader and a three-time CulinaryCorps participant, we cannot be more pleased with the decision.

For those of you unfamiliar with The Culinary Trust, please read on:

Founded in 1984 under the name Cooking Advancement Research and Education Foundation (CAREF), it names the late Julia Child as one of its first trustees.  CAREF formed to support research and education in the broad fields of culinary studies, whether from a scientific, literary or practical standpoint.

Recognizing the close affinity of its mission http://www.lependart.com with the goals of the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals), in 1994, the two blended to form IACP Foundation.  The next ten years were spent working closely with the IACP to promote culinary research and education, as well as charitable activities such as hunger relief.

By 2004, however, the IACP Foundation saw a need and opportunity to expand its efforts to include the preservation of culinary heritage in our rapidly changing foodways.  A sentiment CulinaryCorps could not agree more with!

The IACP Foundation changed its name to the all-inclusive The Culinary Trust, reflecting its updated mission. The Culinary Trust achieves its mission through scholarships and grants for students and professionals, cookbook preservation and restoration, educational programs and grants for hunger alleviation.

Thank you Culinary Trust for your generosity to CulinaryCorps.  We will do our best to fully Cheap Oakley embrace your motto while in Puerto Rico:

“Celebrating the Past.  Funding the Future.”

A wonderful, in-depth, piece about CulinaryCorps and our work in Puerto Rico on Voluntourism.com: The Supply Chain.

Miranda Restaurant in Brooklyn, New York will be hosting a 4-course Puerto Rican tasting menu on January 18th, 2010.

The menu is $50 per person, and 25% of all proceeds will be donated to CulinaryCorps.  Miranda’s chef and owner, Sasha Rodriguez, will be participating as a volunteer on the trip!

The menu sounds stunning:

• Ensalada de Pulpo (Octopus Salad)
• Asopao (a hearty soup)
• Pernil (Slow roasted pork)
• Biscocho de Ron (Spiced Rum Cake)

For reservations, call 718-387-0711, e-mail at info@mirandarestaurant.com or visit the Miranda website. For those of you who would like to dine on their regular menu, 10% of those proceeds will be donated as well.

Donating to a good cause never tasted so great!

The French Culinary Institute (FCI) is Manhattan’s premiere cooking school in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1984 by Dorothy Cann Hamilton, FCI offers full-time courses in culinary arts, pastry arts, and http://www.veridianinc.com international bread baking. FCI is consistently ranked among the top cooking schools in the country . In April 2006, The French Culinary Institute received “The Award of Excellence for Vocational Cooking School from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).

FCI has been a guiding force for CulinaryCorps, helping the organization grow and prosper since its inception in 2006. Many of our chef-alumni have been graduates of FCI including founder, Christine Carroll, Program Coordinator, Thomas Medrow, and Trip Co-Leader, Sandy Tuason.  In addition, FCI’s Director of Career Services, Erik Murnighan, was an instrumental chef-volunteer in New Orleans during our June 2007 trip.

In 2010, FCI has joined an elite team of maglie calcio poco prezzo donors who are helping to sponsor the cost of our trip to Puerto Rico.  We are pleased to announce that The French Culinary Institute is the first culinary school to contribute at a BENEFACTOR level to the organization. These funds will directly contribute to our work on the island.

We are hugely appreciative of the FCI’s generosity of not only funds but of time and mentorship.  Their continued support of CulinaryCorps has contributed directly to the organization’s accomplishments.  We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship as both entities grow and thrive.

Who said video killed the radio star?  We’ve been tremendsouly lucky to get some amazing radio press over the past few weeks:

On Friday, November 20th Christine Carroll, Founding Director, sat down with Terry Trespacio of Martha Stewart Radio for a 20-minute interview about CulinaryCorps.   If you have Sirius Radio, tune into the Whole Living show every day from 11pm-12pm!

On Saturday, December 6th Viviana Acosta-Padial, Program Coordinator, interviewed with Evan Kleiman on her KCRW Good Food show.  It was our second time on the program, and Viviana took special care to explain our Puerto Rico sojourn. To listen to the show, please visit the streaming version here.

A huge thanks to both shows for taking the cheap oakley sunglasses time to spread the word about CulinaryCorps.  In this time of giving, we hope our mission resonated with those who are passionate about food and support change in their world.

We are happy to announce the highly anticipated release of our 2010 application for the upcoming CulinaryCorps trip to Puerto Rico.

As we all know, food has the ability to transform lives and revitalize communities.  Our upcoming CulinaryCorps trip is devoted to bringing this ethos to life.  And in order to recruit the most highly qualified team http://www.oakleyonorder.com/ we can find, in a new model for the organization, this trip is FREE for participants.  Each team member is solely responsible for their transportation to and from San Juan.  We will also be asking all team members to assist with a group  fundraising goal.

For details about the trip including our service project itinerary, please click here.

The application process is now open and will be conducted on a rolling admissions basis until November 23rd, 2009.  All final team decisions will be made on November 25th.

If you have just one week next year to do cheap oakley something good, why not do something you love?

In good food and good service,

The CulinaryCorps Team

In an exciting development for the organization, CulinaryCorps will be expanding their trip footprint to Puerto Rico in 2010. With the help of four-time trip participant and San Juan native, Viviana Acosta-Padial, a trip will be launched from January 31 – February 7, 2010.  For trip details, please click here.

The island nation of Puerto Rico has one of the most dynamic economies and cuisines in the Caribbean region. However, sustainable economic development remains a challenge for this United States Commonwealth.  Currently, the average median household income is less than half of Mississippi, the poorest state in the USA, and a majority of Puerto Rican citizens live under the poverty line set by the cheap oakley American government. Puerto Rico receives some US federal aid but does not get equal coverage or qualify for most welfare programs. In 2007, the US halted its funding to clinics serving HIV/AIDS patients, a devastating blow for a country with over double the rate of AIDS than in America. However, Puerto Rico’s network of dynamic non-profits have helped reduce mortality, increase literacy, improve medical services, raise life expectancy and increase quality of life for all citizens including the domestically abused and those afflicted with long-term illness.  CulinaryCorps is honored and privileged to help further the work of these admirable organizations.

Equally as important to the work that is keeping the country healthy is the cuisine that keeps the country happy. With roots in the cooking traditions and practices of Spain/Europe, the Amerindian Taínos (pre-Colombian indigenous inhabitants), and the African continent, the mingling of flavors and ingredients passed from generation to generation have resulted in an incredible food culture unique to the island.  Puerto Ricans are fiercely proud of their cuisine but unfortunately, US influence and island industrialization have eroded the viability of agriculture, and Puerto Rico is now largely dependent on food imports.  With this shift, practice and preservation of traditional http://www.oakleyonorder.com/ cooking techniques, products and recipes is quickly fading.  Indeed, as these native foodways are exchanged for convenience foods, instances of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease have increased among the young.   Fortunately, Puerto Rico is beginning to recognize this trend and are taking first steps to quell the backslide.

CulinaryCorps is excited to be a small part of this forward progress, and upon our return home, is keen to be voice boxes for both the plight and the progress of this cheap oakley sunglasses culturally rich country.