New Pi’s Food & Garden Educator Scott Koepke Asked to Talk to Congress for The Pew Charitable Trusts This Monday & Tuesday
Iowa City, Feb. 18, 2016 – This is a big week for Scott Koepke of New Pi Soilmates. It starts like a typical week for New Pi’s food & organic garden educator: first Koepke teaches his free "Let's Eat!" food & gardening class to all of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at Viola Gibson Elementary in Cedar Rapids. Then he speaks at the Sustainability & Self-Reliance Conference at the Hartman Nature Reserve in Cedar Falls. And then the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C., flies him out to attend a series of Congressional meetings on Monday and Tuesday to lobby representatives and senators for the reauthorization of the Child's Nutrition & Farm To School Act!
The Pew Charitable Trusts representatives say they love the passion Koepke articulates in his New Pi Soilmates outreach with thousands of kids each year on messages of balanced diets, food production, and food waste management, and the academic evidence showing a direct link between school gardens and better nutritional habits. Koepke taught New Pi Soilmates organic garden and food education classes for free in 40 local schools just in the past year, has helped start pilot cafeteria compost projects at Hiawatha Elementary in Hiawatha, North Central Jr. High in North Liberty, & West High’s 9th Grade Cafeteria in Iowa City, and New Pi donated $20,000 to local school & community garden projects this past year!
On the Child's Nutrition & Farm To School Act, Koepke says: “This is not the time to turn back. We’ve made too much progress in schools by providing children with healthier food options. Plus, our local Farm To School chapter continues to get more locally grown food into cafeterias, and is working with New Pi Soilmates on implementing more composting systems. The awareness we’re spreading alone is invaluable. And I credit the First Lady, Michelle Obama, for getting this on the national agenda.”
Koepke’s food and garden education and outreach work, provided free to the schools and community, is funded by New Pioneer Food Co-op, which has grocery stores everyone’s welcome to shop in Iowa City, Coralville, and Cedar Rapids. Sales at New Pi’s stores support its mission: “To stimulate the local agricultural production of natural and organic foods,” and make work like Koepke’s possible.
New Pioneer Cooperative Society was founded as a natural foods cooperative grocery in Iowa City in 1971, opened its Coralville branch in 2001, and opened a third store in Cedar Rapids in December of 2014. New Pi is a thriving food co-op with over 33,000 members-owners. The stores provide local, organic, and natural foods to the Corridor and everyone is welcome to shop – owner or not. New Pi is located at 22 S. Van Buren St. in Iowa City, at 1101 2nd St. in Coralville, and at 3338 Center Point Road NE in Cedar Rapids. Please visit www.newpi.coop for more information.
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