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Great, Healthy Food Nourishes the Human Spirit…

Chopping board with herbs, wooden spoon, and love background

I graduated from high school a few months before my senior year was over, and I began working at a health-food sandwich shop by day while pursuing my music career by night. My experiences at that shop helped establish the healthy eating habits that I have maintained to this day. Before that, while still in high school, I had a three or four-month stint of eating at fast-food restaurants.

It was the only period in my life of unhealthy eating. At the time, I was vaguely aware of the negative effects that kind of food had on my body. I would frequently order not just one fast-food meal, but owing to my unbounded energy, I would order two. They usually consisted of two big, double burgers, two large orders of fries, and two chocolate shakes. And I was still hungry even after scarfing down those two loads of garbage for my gut. Again, I did not have much of an understanding of why these foods were bad for me. But the details of what this food was actually doing to my body escaped me.

When I landed the job at the health-food sandwich shop, I had no idea what a grace from above that serendipitous moment held. It was the beginning of one of many paradigm shifts that I would go through in my life. I was immediately hooked on healthy eating and healthy concepts, especially after tasting the delicious food. The passionate store manager began to teach me about why this food was so much better for me than what I had been eating for the past four months. The store also sold books about healthy eating, and she would recommend various selections for me to read. As I gathered information, I found a new love and a penchant for learning about healthy eating. I also noticed a real difference in my energy levels and my health. This new way of eating took me to new heights! Through the work of Urban Farming, we have raised a lot of awareness about the importance of growing one’s own food, as well as the spectacular health benefits that fresh, high-quality food brings to our bodies, minds, and spirits. – From The Root, A Memoir and A Philosophy for Balance in Our World, pp 44.

 

How has healthy eating affected your life, your mood, and your creative ideas?

 

If you don’t believe that great food can nourish your body, mind, and soul, then I submit that you have likely not eaten at these four restaurants:

Peoples Organic: https://www.peoplesorganic.com/ Peoples Organic is growing across the country! They offer vegan and non-vegan repasts, all meat is nitrate-free, grass-fed, free-range, etc. I LOVE the Peoples Organic vegan “Beyond Burger” -it is absolutely amazing! Served on a 100% sprouted organic wheat bun, also served with sweet potato waffle fries or organic green salad. Yummy! You may also select the grass-fed burger at Peoples Organic. You can’t go wrong on this menu which also features breakfast served all day!

Mama Lombardi’s Restaurant:  (400 Furrows Rd, Holbrook, NY 11741- next to Brookhaven, NY.) http://www.mammalombardis.com/

Everything is homemade! I love the Minestrone Soup, the Sautéed Spinach with garlic and oil, and the Chicken Tantillo (I am 98% vegan, but this Chicken Tantillo was a part of my 2% non-vegan moment, and ahh…what a delicious moment…)

GreenSpace Café: https://greenspacecafe.com/ ( 32867 Woodward Ave
Royal Oak MI 48073)  This is another amazing vegan restaurant! Owned by noted Cardiologist, Dr. Kahn, and his family. The Cauliflower Wings are amazing! And, try the Black Bean Burger, or the Barbecue Bowl with Barbecued Tempeh, caramelized onions, cole slaw, roasted sweet potato, baby kale and avocado.

Urth Café: https://www.urthcaffe.com/  (10 locations in California and in Las Vegas)  The Urth Match Tea latte- sooo smooth and delicious. The Urth Farmer’s Salad is excellent, excellent, excellent! And don’t even get me started on their baked goods, because I can’t go there…just too good! (I’m rehearsing my new show and cutting way down on sweets…)

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The Power of Love…

Who would imagine how important a community garden of free food could be…I am so grateful that I was moved to start Urban Farming. As I have mentioned in a prior blog, this “calling” changed my life for the best. I have learned so much about our world and how we are all so intricately connected. Below, I will share an excerpt from my book, From The Root:

On this particular day, in the very beginning, we stood at the first official Urban Farming Community Garden on the corner of Collingwood and Cascade on the west side of Detroit. This was the same garden that would be featured on the Montel Williams Show only weeks after this encounter. A young woman approached me and told me how happy she was to be able to pick free food. Her voice was saddled with burden, and her face was visibly battled. Her story unfolded as we talked. She told me that she was desperately trying to transition out of homelessness. Our free garden gave her the ability to eat any time, day or night. 

She shared how soothing this was for her, as she pulled me aside and spoke in a soft undertone, offering more of her story. Many times she had been so hungry she’d had to beg for food. Tears welled up in her eyes as she told me that she had recently asked a man to help her buy some food. He demanded that she perform a sexual act in exchange. She felt dirty and worthless, with an increased broken trust in men. That man saw a woman in need and instead of protecting her and helping her, he took advantage of her. Clearly he was also a broken spirit, and likely from similarly rooted circumstances. The young woman broke down and cried, letting me know that the garden was a place where she could go to eat without compromising her dignity. That was why it was of such special importance to her that our gardens provided free food and free access 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.  I was moved and shaken.

–Page 44 and 45 of From The Root, A Memoir and A Roadmap for Balance in Our World.

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urbanfarming.org

#LoveIsContagious

#HealOurWorldFromTheRoot

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We CAN change our patterns at a faster rate.

We can usher forth a peaceful, easy age. The alternative is to go on repeating the same patterns and approaches to life together on this planet that keep us repeating the same struggles and pain.  Do we want to continue the antiquated approaches that require armies to protect us, and generations to heal? 

 

The goal in a free-market economy is for all people to be able to attain a good quality of life and standard of living. Reaching that goal requires healing the roots of our challenges; achieving inner balance; and empowering people with the tools to become innovative, self-reliant, productive, and competitive in a global economy. It also requires weaning ourselves off of the thinking and behavior that is piloted by selfish desire. This behavior, borne from toxic roots, leads us to act only when there is personal gain to be had, or a threatening emergency. When we heal the roots of our challenges, our short-term and long-term actions contribute to our collective humanness.  

What are the ways that we can immediately impact our communities? 

 

Start a petition for healthy communication in the schools in your area. Or in the workplaces in your area. Or petition the networks to provide content in shows that are uplifting and that illustrate humans treating each other humanely. 

These are a few ideas- there are many more solutions in my new book that empower individuals and communities, providing a roadmap of how to create a world that is joyful for all of us to live in, without having to wait for the political system to take action.

 

If you want healthy, uplifting content, check out this live, streaming TV station, Healthwire FM: 

https://healthwire.fm/live-tv

 

If you start a petition in your area, let us know about it! Share your ideas and your actions that help to #HealOurWorldFromTheRoot.

 

“From The Root” by Taja Sevelle

Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/Taja-Sevelle/e/B07SG77DYG%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

 

Edwin Andrade

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Urban Farming

Urban Farming™ changed my life!

The act of starting and developing the non-profit organization, Urban Farming,
opened up a whole new understanding of our world for me.
Prince was a dedicated supporter of the vision of Urban Farming, which is to
Create Abundance for All in Our Generation. He was adamant about helping our world and he had a particular interest in helping people who have limited access to fresh, healthy food.

Urban Farming works in rural, suburban, and urban areas to raise awareness
about growing one’s own food and about healthy eating. The act of growing one’s own food is also an act of empowerment! But the Urban Farming approach is holistic and extends beyond gardening. It has led me to see that “from the root thinking” is critical to improving our overall society. It is one approach to transforming a financially stressed community or municipality into one that is healed, empowered, and able to attract global investment. Our demographic includes all ages, cultures, and backgrounds of people who are unemployed, underemployed, laid off, malnourished, suffering from food insecurity, or just flat-out starving.

A critical component of the mission is the Urban Farming Coexistence Model,
which includes Health and Wellness, Business Growth, Job Creation, Urban
Redevelopment, Urban Agriculture, and Global Investment. Coexistence investing: public/private partnerships invest in healthy concepts, including all of the principles and solutions that I list in each chapter of my new book, From The Root. Coexistence investing in healthy concepts allows us to recapture and reallocate wasted capital, and helps us to heal From The Root.
I will share more solutions that include coexistence investing in subsequent blogs. Please share how you are helping to Create Abundance in your life or your community.
Urbanfarming.org

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The Story of the Liberty Gardens and the Victory Gardens…

This is a powerful example of what we can do now, to help change our world:

During World War I, citizens of the United States and Canada planted liberty gardens as a war-relief effort. In early 1917, Charles Lathrop Pack (who ironically was originally from Michigan), founded the National War Garden Commission. Through a campaign of posters, cartoons, press releases, and pamphlets, the commission strove to “arouse the patriots of America to the importance of putting all idle land to work, to teach them how to do it, and to educate them to conserve by canning and drying all food that they could not use while fresh.” Their posters blazoned phrases such as “Will You Have a Part in Victory?” “Every War Garden a Peace Plant,” “Sow the Seeds of Victory.” President Woodrow Wilson “called for every American to contribute in the war to establish democracy and human rights.” In a proclamation, the president told Americans, “Everyone who creates or cultivates a garden helps…This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance.” This is an early example of a presidential administration facing the facts regarding wasted capital, and taking action to stop the waste. They recaptured and reallocated funds and invested in a campaign for a new structure to better serve the nation and win the war.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture formed a committee on public information to help plant “a million new backyard and vacant lot gardens.” It was thought that gardens would not only feed America so that we could send food abroad, but also that they would help us save on fuel and transportation.2 Gardens helping to save on fuel and transportation. What a concept! (Have you noticed recently, a greater awareness of the call for locally grown food?) 

But the garden movement did not stop there. During World War II, the Victory Gardens produced nearly half the produce supply in the United States. Nearly 20 million people planted gardens in their yards and neighborhoods. This massive movement took place before the use of television, cell phones and the Internet.3 Imagine what could be done in this day and age if people around the world planted their own food to cut down on their monthly bills and feed their families. 

As of September, 2019, more than 66,000 residential and community gardens across the United States and abroad had joined the Urban Farming Global Food Chain®. The gardens are located in urban, suburban, and (as we like to say) “rurban”—rural—areas all around the world.