site.openhandstore.org Blog

Presenting POH Peanut Butter!!!

Did you know that your average peanut butter contains more than just peanuts? A typical jar of your favorite creamy (or chunky?) nutty butter is chock full of sugar, molasses, hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt, and mono and diglycerides… whatever that means. That’s why Project Open Hand decided to stop using the store bought butter that is full of mysterious, and not so healthy ingredients. Thanks to Dan, one of our amazing staff members, Project Open Hand currently grinds our own fresh peanut butter regularly for our wonderful clients. And it gets better! Our peanut butter is made with just one ingredient… peanuts! Just the way it should be. By doing this, not only are we producing an all-natural, preservative-free product, but we have also reduced our annual peanut butter costs by forty percent! With these savings, we are able to produce more food for more people every year. Curious as to how this delicious and healthy treat tastes? Project Open Hand is excited to announce that their Peanut Butter will be available to the public at Whole Foods on Franklin and California Streets in San Francisco very soon. And, thanks to the generosity of Whole Foods, one-hundred percent of the proceeds will be donated back to Project Open Hand so that we can continue serving nutritious meals with love. We will announce our Peanut Butter’s premiere on the grocery store shelf as soon as possible – but start spreading the word today!

-Hannah and Ilana

CALL TO ACTION to Restore Weekend Senior Meals

In a last-minute budget cut, the Department of Aging & Adult Services has directed Project Open Hand and other senior nutrition providers to close all weekend meal sites serving low-income seniors throughout the City!

Project Open Hand has been providing hot nutritious meals and socialization for 300-500 seniors every weekend at five weekend meal sites for 12 years. Our weekend meal services are in the lowest-income neighborhoods of San Francisco, including the Tenderloin (at Curry and Downtown Senior Centers) and in the southeast section of town (at Visitacion Valley Community Center). Closing the Curry site will also stop the breakfast program for 190 seniors on weekends and holidays.

The Department’s plan calls for replacing the sit-down congregate hot lunches served on Saturdays and Sundays with substandard take-out meals distributed on Fridays, and laying off the staff who prepare, cook, distribute, and serve these meals on weekends. The Department proposed to cut $107,367 from Project Open Hand’s weekend meal service, and directed us to substitute bag lunches that don’t follow the Older Americans Act nutrition standards, instead of our “meals with love” that exceed those standards.

We know that our Senior Lunch Program is more than a meal – it is the opportunity to get out and socialize over a nutritious hot lunch with longtime friends. The program addresses the problems of isolation and depression as much as the nutritional needs of our elderly neighbors. These meal sites are essential community gathering-places for the lowest-income seniors who are struggling to live in dignity despite their poverty. Without the meal program on weekends, the sites would be closed, and seniors would be left alone in their SRO rooms eating a bag lunch.

The Board of Supervisors will consider the Department budgets this week and next, and they need to hear from voters who say they should not balance the City’s budget on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens. Please call or fax the Supervisors and tell them not to cut senior services, especially the meals served to hundreds of seniors each weekend by Project Open Hand.

Supervisor              District     Phone          Fax         Room          E Mail
ALIOTO-PIER, Michela  2          554-7752       554-7843     274   Michela.Alioto-Pier@sfgov.org
AVALOS, John              11         554-6975     554-6979     256 John.Avalos@sfgov.org
CAMPOS, David            9          554-5144       554-6255     272 David.Campos@sfgov.org
CHIU, David                 3          554-7450        554-7454    264 David.Chiu@sfgov.org
CHU, Carmen               4          554-7460         554-7432    260 Carmen.Chu@sfgov.org
DALY, Chris                 6          554-7970        554-7974     273 Chris.Daly@sfgov.org
DUFTY, Bevan             8          554-6968         554-6909     268 Bevan.Dufty@sfgov.org
ELSBERND, Sean          7         554-6516          554-6546     280 Sean.Elsbernd@sfgov.org
MAR, Eric L.               1         554-7410          554-7415      284 Eric.L.Mar@sfgov.org
MAXWELL, Sophie      10       554-7670          554-7674       279 Sophie.Maxwell@sfgov.org
MIRKARIMI, Ross        5         554-7630          554-7634       282 Ross.Mirkarimi@sfgov.org

When Life Hands You Lemons

Interesting story in today’s Wall Street Journal about efforts to to deal with the invasive Asian Carp. It seems that efforts to control the carp population with electrified gates and poison are not having the desired effect but there is one weapon in the omnivore’s arsenal that may yet prevail, our appetite!

Chicago Chef Phillip Foss has hit upon the not-so-novel idea of feeding the carp to his patrons. Although the fish is popular in Asia and Israel, it yas yet to find a place on the American dinner table, enter Chef Foss:

Chef Phillip Foss gazed into the mouth of the giant, slippery Asian carp that had just flopped into the back of a boat writhing with two tons of the fish. “Mmm, carp,” said Mr. Foss of the 25-pound catch.For months, Mr. Foss has been trying to elevate the invader fish to fine-dining at his swanky Lockwood Restaurant and Bar in downtown Chicago.

He has tried to entice diners every which way: carp ceviche with lime and fiddlehead fern; broiled carp with grilled fennel; carp chowder; and even carp-accio, a play on the raw Italian dish carpaccio, which Mr. Foss makes with a thinly sliced version of the fish served with watermelon.

Small Change = Big Impact

The Operations Department at Project Open Hand always has it’s collective ear to the ground to find ways to save money and energy and we have just completed a small job that could help in both of those arenas.

 A recent development in refrigeration technology is the ECM motor.  This stands for Electrically Commutated Motor.  ECM motors are microprocessor controlled, requiring less current for the same effect and therefore resulting in greater efficiency.  ECM motors are also brushless causing them to have a minimal amount of resistance (friction) which translates into less heat in the coolers and freezers  from the motors themselves.  Refrigeration in it’s most basic form is getting rid of heat, rather than cooling air, so reducing heat from the fan motors is a great first step.  

We were able to have Bay Area Refrigeration install these ECM’s in our freezers and coolers at a minimal cost to POH.  We will be tracking our electrical usage over the next year to see how much of a difference these motors make, but my first impression is that they are already having an impact.

 I have observed over the last few days that the compressors,  which are outside of the boxes at various locations are simply not turning on as frequently as they were, but still maintaining the same temperature in the boxes.   Bingo, energy savings!  We will have some data within the next 6 months to indicate what kind of savings we are generating.  We are hoping to pay off the cost of the installation in energy savings in that amount of time. 

Every small increment of energy savings translates to more resources we can dedicate to our clients.

Posted by Steve

Still, No Magic Bullets

Fitness supplements are big business, billion-dollar big and it got that way by promising to make you bigger, stronger and faster but of course that begs the question, do they work? The answer is a a qualified, “maybe”:

Doctors and nutritionists say that people who eat a normal diet generally don’t need nutritional supplements, even if they exercise vigorously. But among the subset of people who already eat healthfully and want to bulk up in the gym, some supplements, when taken in sensible doses, can provide a lift.

We are pretty clear on our pro-food stance, as in: eat food, not pills but we are also open-minded and this article in particular gave some credence to certain types of supplements. If you take your excercise seriously, the story is worth a full read.You can read the whole story over at the NY Times.

Posted by: Dan

Drink Tea, Be Happy

Green tea to be precise.

Dr. Kaijun Niu, at Tohoku University Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering in Sendai, and colleagues found men and women aged 70 and older who drank four or more, versus one or fewer, cups of green tea daily were 44 percent less likely to have symptoms of depression.

You can read the rest of the story, here.

Posted by: Dan

No such thing as a natural athlete

If you’re a fan of professional sports, it can be easy to look at the athletes on the field and assume that it all comes too easily for them. Sure, all of the pros running around on our TV screens were born with physical gifts that distinguish them from the great, unwashed Us. On the other hand, genetics only gets you so far, take the example of formerly portly Phillies slugger, Ryan Howard:

Howard was getting fat. Not just a wee plump, either. Between the long 2008 season and the celebrations for Philadelphia’s championship, Howard was carrying around 275 pounds on his 6-foot-4 frame. He knew the history of fat hitters, too. Mo Vaughn and Cecil Fielder and countless others faded in their early 30s, waistlines expanding and hitting zones contracting. Howard turns 30 in November. He refused to peter out like the others. So Ryan Howard, the one legitimate threat to the single-season home run record, the man who hit 200 faster than anyone in history, did something drastic.

The drastic step that Howard took was to take control of his eating habits.

He ate organic for the first time. He cut out fat. He feasted on lean meats and whole grains. He ate chicken covered with an almond crust instead of bread.

You can read the whole story @ Yahoo Sports. And then go check out this video of Ryan Howard getting a tour of the White House garden from Chef Sam Kass.

Posted by: Dan

2012

There certainly is a lot of hullabaloo about the upcoming year 2012. Movies, television documentaries, and the Internet seem to have a fascination with the year because that’s when the Mayan calendar ends…and so does civilization, as we know it!

Earthquakes, meteors, giant murderous poodles—it’s all rather unclear exactly what will happen, but it has a lot of people freaking out. Me? I’m not worried. Our calendar ends every year and usually the worst thing that happens is a New Year’s hangover.

 Super famous calendar aside, the ancient Mayans introduced the world to many foods we eat every day, like tomatoes and corn.  Not only were they great astronomers and mathematicians, they were also masters of agriculture. Some of my favorite foods—chocolate, vanilla, and avocado—all owe a tip of the hat to those old Yucatáns.

 Anyways, 2012…don’t buy into the fear mongering.  Instead of fretting about the future and doubtful catastrophes, I suggest you make a nice cup of cocoa (thanks again, Mayans!), and think nice thoughts.

And, stop worrying about killer poodles.  It’s not going to happen.

10 Maya foods that changed the world’s eating habits

Posted By: Kelly K.

Is the milk still good?

Back when I was a young man, my refrigerator was the nightmare of mothers and epidemiologists everywhere. I kept food until it turned moldy, smelled bad, or started to move. Now, I’m a lot better about tossing old fruit and vegetables.  I know carrots taste better when they’re fresh, oranges are juicier, and celery crunchier. Still, I need help when it came to knowing when some food was past its prime and that’s where StillTasty comes in.

StillTasty gives me the recommended storage length for thousands of foods and beverages. It tells me how to identify when a fruit or vegetable is ripe, how long its good, and how to store it to maximize its freshness. It’s also got a FAQ section where I learned I should never eat the pizza that’s been lying on the coffee table all night long, no matter how tempting.  Dang.

StillTasty – Save Money, Eat Better, Help The Environment

Posted by: Kelly K.

No Magic Bullets, Part III

Another in a our ongoing series of pieces that examine the seemingly innate human need to find that one thing, be it pill or seed or delectable piece of dark chocolate that will make us younger, thinner and possibly immortal.

Today’s installment focusses on “probiotics,” those (possibly) beneficial bacterium that we consume that may or may not lead to improved health. If you’ve cruised the supermarket shelves lately you’ve doubtless noticed many new products featuring added probiotic ingredients. These products often include claims for improved health and often, improved digestion. The NY TImes examines some of those claims in their health column, The Well:

So what health problems can probiotics really help? After gathering at a Yale workshop to review the available evidence, a panel of 12 experts concluded that there was strong evidence that several probiotic strains could reduce diarrhea, including that associated with antibiotic use. Several studies have also suggested that certain probiotics may be useful for irritable bowel syndrome, with the strongest recommendation for Bifidobacterium infantis 35624, the probiotic in the Procter & Gamble supplement Align.

Whoa, wait, what? A magic bullet that really works? Tell me more:

(Two members of the panel had ties to Procter & Gamble; three others had ties to other companies that sell probiotics.)

Hmm, that sounds like a conflict of interest, anything else I should know?

A variety of other claims for probiotics, like lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, preventing cavities and reducing cancer risk, were not reviewed by the panel.

And scientists continue to debate whether probiotics offer a meaningful benefit to the immune system.

“The evidence for the general immune strengthening is just not there,” said Barry R. Goldin, a Tufts professor who helped discover LGG but no longer receives royalties from the patent.

Okay, so probiotics are not a cure-all but there is evidence that shows improvement in digestive health. I can get behind that.

You can read the entire article, here.

Posted by: Dan