2B — Thursday, September 17, 2015
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
“How it works is that if you’re
a family, or you’re someone who’s
received
Supplemental
Nutri-
tional Assistance Program ben-
efits, and you go to a participating
site, and you spend $20 of your
Nutrition Benefits at that site, you
get a dollar-dollar match up to
$20 a day to buy Michigan-grown
fruits and vegetables,” Engelhard
explained. “You can bring home
$40 worth of healthy food for just
$20.”
Fair Food Network puts an
emphasis on producing and pub-
licizing tangible results with its
programs, and the results of Dou-
ble Up Food Bucks have proven to
be a success. Since 2009, families
participating in Double Up Food
Bucks have purchased 4 mil-
lion
pounds
of
healthy
food using the
program
and
SNAP benefits.
According
to
surveys
con-
ducted by Fair
Food Network,
participants of
the
program
have
greater
access to fruits
and vegetables
and, as a result,
can
decrease
the amount of
junk food they
consume.
Farmers
have also ben-
efited from the
program, with
the year 2009
seeing a $7 mil-
lion
increase
in SNAP and
Double Up sales for farmers. 63
percent of farmers report mak-
ing more money, and 50 percent
report gaining a new customer
base. Additionally, farmers are
able to buy new equipment and
plant a wider variety of crops
with the money they have
earned.
Since its formation in 2009,
the program has expanded to
more than 150 sites across the
state of Michigan, and Fair Food
Network intends to expand this
program even more.
“We’re now helping partners
in communities across the coun-
try to bring this proven model
to their community,” Engelhard
said. “There will be 239 Double
Up markets in 13 states includ-
ing Michigan. We’ve done a lot
of work, translated the program
into a toolkit and are now ready
to provide technical assistance to
partners to help them get up and
running and leverage all the les-
sons learned.”
The success of this program is
the paragon of one of Fair Food
Network’s primary goals: to cre-
ate programs that can create a
tangible impact in one area of the
country and replicate the program
for use in other places. While their
programs always begin at the local
level, the company’s aspirations
are to spread nationally.
As communications director for
Fair Food Network, Engelhard is
tasked with presenting the orga-
nization’s goals and utility to the
public in an accessible way.
“The power of communication
is really about storytelling,” Engel-
hard said. “What is the story of the
work we do as an organization?
Why is it important in the world
today? And what are the results
and evidence of the work that
we’re doing? How I see my role, in
a couple parts, is helping articulate
that story and then communicate
that story to both internal and
external audiences. The other part
of it is creating a lot of tools to sup-
port the organization in telling the
story as well.”
Some
tools
at
Engelhard’s
disposal include social media
channels and presentations. But
perhaps the most powerful tool
Engelhard uses to display Fair
Food Network’s usefulness is the
bounty of statistics that speak to
the positive impact of the compa-
ny’s programs such as Double Up
Food Bucks.
By keeping detailed tabs on the
economic impact of the Double
Up Food Bucks program, Fair
Food Network has gained lever-
age to influence public policy and
has used that leverage to great
effect. The success of Double Up
Food Bucks led to a provision in
the 2014 Farm Bill to supply the
Food Insecurity Nutrition Incen-
tive program with $100 million,
which will be used to fund similar
programs — a massive financial
gain for pioneers of sustainable
food.
Additionally, Fair Food Net-
work received a $5.1 million grant
from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture to expand Double Up
Food Bucks’ operations. Over the
next three years, the grant will
be matched with private funds,
which will amount to more than
$10.4 million, which will be used
to spread the program’s reach
even further throughout Michigan
farmer’s markets.
Cooperating with the govern-
ment is one of the many ways that
Fair Food Network uses collabo-
ration as a means of reaching its
goals.
“The success of this program is
completely grounded in partner-
ship,” Engelhard said. “Only by
working together have we had the
success that we have had. From
local markets to meeting public,
private and nonprofit organiza-
tions across the state, we really
rely on the support of a diverse
network of partners.”
Integral to the success of the
Double Up Food Bucks program is
Fair Food Network’s cooperation
with SNAP-Ed agencies, organi-
zations that provide information
about the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance
Program.
These
agencies
integrate
informa-
tion
about
Double Up
Food Bucks
into
their
social media
campaigns,
bringing
more expo-
sure to the
program
and to Fair
Food
Net-
work as a
whole.
Another
important
collaborator
is the Michi-
gan
Farm-
ers Market
Association.
Through extensive communica-
tion with this organization, Fair
Food Network received clear-
ance to implement their programs
in farmers markets throughout
the state of Michigan, and the
two organizations have jointly
increased the prevalence of gov-
ernment food assistance in the
state of Michigan. In 2007, less
than $16,000 in SNAP dollars were
used at Michigan farmers markets,
whereas in 2014, just under $1.6
million in SNAP dollars were used.
Today, Michigan ranks third in the
nation and first in the Midwest for
the use of SNAP dollars in farm-
ers markets, even though less than
four percent of all SNAP users live
in the state of Michigan. This dis-
proportionate amount of Michigan
SNAP users has Fair Food Net-
work and its collaborators to thank
for helping them attain access to
fresh, sustainably grown food.
Fair Food Network does not
claim to have invented the concept
of the Healthy Food Incentive pro-
gram, but does take credit for pio-
neering the idea of spreading such
programs to the national level.
“What makes our program
unique is that Double Up Food
Bucks is the first statewide
healthy food incentive program
to employ that reformed design
and centralize administration in
a local implementation,” Engel-
hard said. “Fair Food Network
has developed the program —
we administered the program
at a statewide level. You can also
earn Double Up Food Bucks in
Detroit and use them at anoth-
er participating site. Fair Food
Network pioneered the first
uniformly designed, robust pro-
gram and demonstrated that
we can really work at that scale
in a huge geography supporting
rural, urban and suburban com-
munities alike.”
Even considering everything
the organization has done and the
sheer scope of its operations, the
Fair Food Network can’t take on
this problem alone. To make sure
the goal of a sustainable food sys-
tem is met, ordinary people also
have to do their part.
“Research shows that when
most of us think about food, we
tend to think about what’s going
to be for dinner at night,” Engel-
hard said. “We think about the
food in our fridge. Some of us
think about where we’re going
to be shopping. What’s really
needed right now is for us to
be thinking more dynamically
about food as a system. The
opportunity ahead of us is to
envision food as a system and
not just our individual experi-
ences with food.”
“We cannot eat our way out of
the challenges we face as a nation,”
she continued with gravity. Hope-
fully, with the help of organiza-
tions such as Fair Food Network,
we won’t have to.
FAIR FOOD
From Page 1B
By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK
Daily Health and Fitness Columnist
In Stats 250, homework assign-
ments always ended with the same
yes or no question: Do you consider
yourself sleep deprived?
We were never told the reason
behind the survey, so I’m assum-
ing it was a longitudinal study
on whether our sleep patterns
changed throughout the course
(see, look how much I learned!) but
it needs closer inspection. Without
fail, my cursor would drift toward
the “Yes” box, because I’m a college
kid. Saying “I’m so tired” has mani-
fested into a nervous tick, some-
thing to groan when the Blue Bus
comes around the corner: “How
are you?” “I’m so tired.”
Mutual fatigue is something we
all share — at least, everyone tells
us we’re sleep deprived and we
dazedly agree. It’s widely accepted
that the average college student’s
schedule looks something like
this: Wake up around 11:00 a.m.,
make a minimal effort to prepare
for 11:30 class, buy a cheap meal
around 2:00, hit the gym on a good
day, then hunker down for a study
session that will last until the wee
hours of morning. Or, if it’s a week-
end, replace the stacks with Skeeps.
In every scenario, the com-
mon denominator is clear: Late
nights and absent mornings. In
order to balance sleep depriva-
tion, our tried and
true solution is
to maximize the nighttime hours
(where the “magic” happens) and
sleep in as long as possible. This
“magic” comes in different forms
— it’s cracking that sweet solution
in orgo after a midnight espresso
shot, or sprinting down Hill Street
in four
-inch heels because the bars
are closed and why not? — and is
always more monumental in the
moment than the next day, when
we wake up with pounding head-
aches and a ticking reminder that
half the day is spent.
But wait — unconventional or
not, if we students still get seven
hours of sleep a night, sometimes
more, why are we sleep deprived?
What can we do to not always feel
so tired?
The answer is fundamentally
obvious: We aren’t nocturnal.
Our bodies are programmed to
rise with the sun and rest when
it sets, so that our memories can
consolidate, our muscles rebuild
and our bones elongate. When the
body’s internal clock is tweaked
by habitual late nights and sleep-
ing in, these processes stutter and
slow, resulting in an unkickable
feeling of fatigue. This tiredness
then sets off a host of other bad
habits, like disorganization, poor
diet and exercise slack. Accord-
ing to Women’s Health, night owls
consume about 248 more calories
a day, double the junk food and
half the amount of fruits and veg-
etables of an early riser — they’re
also more sedentary, possibly due
to a smaller time-frame to hit the
gym. Forbes reports that people
who hit the sack earlier and rise
early are more in sync with Earth’s
circadian rhythms, which provides
more restorative sleep — and less
pounding headaches.
But the benefits of going to
bed early and waking up earlier
stretch beyond simply feeling less
tired and making smarter choices
about diet and exercise. Though
we stubbornly associate early
mornings with grogginess, stud-
ies have shown that the opposite is
true — early birds tend to be more
focused and self aware. In the
Forbes article, studies found that
“morning people” came out ahead
in the workplace by using their
early hours for setting goals and
organizing the day; they were also
more likely to anticipate challenges
and tackle problems efficiently.
Since memory is consolidated dur-
ing sleep (meaning information
we’ve absorbed throughout the day
“sticks” so it can be later recalled),
restorative sleep is the key ingre-
dient to speedier mental function.
Like muscles need protein to grow
stronger, brains need sleep to be
sharper.
Ok. So say you close your lap-
top at 11:00 and set your alarm for
8:00, getting a full eight hours of
Earth-dictated, circadian rhythm
-
-synched sleep. But when you wake
up with the chirping birds, you’re
still — drumroll — exhausted.
What then?
Roll out of bed and work out.
Yes, it may be the last thing you
want to do — as we tend to think
early mornings cause grogginess,
we also assume that exercising at
dawn only exacerbates exhaustion
— but you won’t regret it. Here’s
why: Physical activity spikes ener-
gy levels and revs up metabolism,
waking up your body much more
effectively than a shot of espresso,
or even an extra hour of sleep.
While this energy boost can hap-
pen at any time of the day, morn-
ing exercise induces better sleep at
night, whereas a sunset run is likely
to leave you tossing in your sheets.
Chances are, you’ve already
heard this: Early bird catches the
worm. Early to bed, early to rise,
makes a man happy, healthy and
wise. Like most habits, it’s hard to
nip late nights and lazy mornings in
the bud, no matter how many stud-
ies tell us we’ll be happier if we run
six miles at 7 a.m. and then spend
an hour organizing our weekly
schedule. The trick to becoming a
morning person — or adapting any
healthy habit, really — is to make
compromises.
For me, that compromise is a
steaming cup of coffee. Every time
I stumble out of bed to run at 6
a.m., I make a beeline for my cof-
fee maker. While the coffee brews,
I change into running clothes, lace
up my shoes and pad back to the
kitchen just in time for its sputter-
ing stop. For 10 perfect minutes,
I’ll sip my coffee and feel my body
slowly twitch awake. This little
routine is just enough motivation
to keep me running out the door.
And let’s face it. Drooping eye-
lids, pounding headaches and
bloating from the Pizza House
cheesy bread you had delivered to
the UgLi last night aren’t pretty.
Make it a goal to become a morning
person by finding your own com-
promise, whether it’s an immediate
cup of coffee or a stop at Bruegger’s
on the way to your eight a.m. class.
Then check “No” for the sleep
deprivation survey — your body
and mind will thank you for it.
If you’re reading this, it’s too late
to join Middlebrook on her run. To
reschedule, email hailharp@umich.edu
HEALTH AND FITNESS COLUMN
Why you should
take the 8:00 a.m.
TRAILER REVIEW
“Black Mass” will mark the first
time in probably a decade since
Johnny Depp did not play “John-
ny Depp.”
You know the
ones — those
sad renditions
and varia-
tions on Jack
Sparrow. It’s
an endearing
kind of char-
acter, but the joke really expired
in 2005. We’ve all come to expect
the same old song and dance from
the three-time Academy Award
nominee.
Well, Depp reinvents himself
here as Whitey Bolger, the savage
Irish-American crime boss from
Boston who created the Winter
Hill Gang. Bolger is famous for
serving as an FBI informant
for several years until fleeing
supervision in the mid-1990s.
He remained at large for 16 years
until the age of 81 when he was
apprehended in Santa Monica.
“Black Mass” focuses on the
period in the late 1970s and early
‘80s when Bolger rose to crimi-
nal prominence. A star-studded
cast of supporting talent, which
includes Joel Edgerton, Benedict
Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson
and Kevin Bacon, gives the film a
strong sense of character — obvi-
ously with Bolger at the helm.
The most unnerving aspect of
Depp’s character seems to be the
way in which he compels people
to betray their secrets, beliefs and
alliances. He narrows his blue
eyes, gets tense about the shoul-
ders, inverts the natural smirk
on his face and he digs. He digs
straight to the things guarded and
buried deep.
- BRIAN BURLAGE
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
A-
Black Mass
Warner Bros.
Sept. 18, 2015
SINGLE REVIEW
It’s been nearly three years
since P!NK dropped her last stu-
dio album, The Truth About Love.
And aside
from her col-
lab album
with City and
Colour, she
has been rela-
tively quiet
until … until
now. She’s
back and so is
her singular sound.
This year marks Ellen Dege-
neres’s 14th season on air, and
seeing that her and the pop star
are close friends, it only makes
sense that she would pen the
show’s new theme, “Today’s the
Day.” However, this song is much
more than a catchy intro to an
afternoon talk show. It’s loud. It’s
fun. It’s inspiring, much like its
singer/songwriter.
In typical P!NK fashion, the
chorus soars up and away from
the rhythmically spoken verses
which pack a tongue-in-cheek
punch of their own. Despite age
and motherhood pulling the
pop star away from her tough
demeanor, lyrics “This kool-aid
ain’t for me” and “I get so vicious
when I don’t feel delicious”
remind fans that the fire and
eye-rolling still radiate from the
“Blow Me” songstress.
Beyond the obvious self
empowerment, the beats, deliv-
ery and bridge embody what a
great pop song is. If you’ve been
alone and bored in your bed-
room, or are just looking for a
song to score your fall semester,
look no further. Today is P!NK’s
day; Today is my day; Today is
your day.
- CHRISTIAN KENNEDY
RCA
A-
Today’s
the Day
P!NK
RCA
VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily