At the Table, In the Garden
In July 2021, the Athenaeum was one of 35 libraries awarded a grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) under the Federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), which is funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services. With these funds, we launched a series of programming centered on healthy eating and wellness for Westfield residents: At the Table, In the Garden! We aligned our theme for 2022’s Summer Reading Program, using our programming to promote healthy eating to people of all ages.
Our goal was to raise awareness about local resources and offer a variety of workshops, discussions and other programs for folks to gain a better understanding of healthy eating and wellness. Together with our community partners, the Westfield Farmers Market and Westfield Food Pantry, the Athenaeum aimed to foster a more cohesive focus on healthy eating and culinary literacy as part of a healthy lifestyle in Westfield.
We provided 33 unique educational programs and purchased more than 80 books and items that will empower our community to explore new options for healthy eating. In Youth Services, we created hands-on learning experiences for children, teens, and families. Most of this programming was created in-house and run by library staff. We taught children and teens how to make easy, healthy foods at home with common ingredients, showing them that eating healthy doesn’t need to be costly or difficult. In Adult Services, we hired presenters to do a series of virtual and in-person programs focused on healthy, local, and affordable foods.
Community Cookbook: Whipping it Up in Westfield
Members of the community submitted family recipes showing off their excellent tastes! These recipes were combined into a community cookbook, and are available to check out from our cooking section! You can download a copy in PDF form here. If you’d like to own a professionally printed copy on thicker stock (thanks to Latka Printing for their work!), you can buy one from the Reference Desk for $15 apiece.
Additions to the Library of Things
When people think “library”, they tend to think that all you can check out are books to read. But did you know that we offer a ton of other items? Aside from our DVDs, TV shows, audiobooks, and music CDs, we also cultivate what’s called a Library of Things!
As part of At the Table, In the Garden, we were able to add a ton of Things to this collection, including gardening tools, soil testing kits, and six incredible kitchen gadgets! All of these items are available year-round from the Circulation Desk. Learn more about it here!
Below, check out the list of all thirty-three programs that we ran through 2022! Many thanks to all our presenters, participants and patrons who helped make At the Table, In the Garden a great series.
Past Events
September 8th: Intuitive Eating – What is it and how does it work?
Intuitive Eating has taken social media by storm! But there’s a lot of confusion about what it actually is. Is it the “eat whatever you want diet”? Is it the “hungry/full diet”? With all of the diets on the market, it can seem hard to determine what plan is best for you. Learn the principles of intuitive eating, where we let our body be our guide in knowing what types of foods to eat and how much to eat for optimal health and well-being! There are many benefits to Intuitive Eating, and a number of research studies have indicated: high self-esteem, better body image, greater life satisfaction, optimism and well-being, better coping skills, lower body mass index, higher HDL (good cholesterol) levels, and less emotional eating, so sign up for this workshop today!
August 18th: Book Club – Summer Reading
This summer reading “assignment” is to select and read three books that fit under this summer’s reading theme of “At the Table, In the Garden.” We encourage you to interpret the theme in any way you choose – fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, cookbooks, gardening books, art books, poetry…the choice is entirely yours! The name comes from a grant the library received to promote healthy eating and wellness, but we encourage you to interpret the phrase(s) as creatively or literally as you would like. We will meet via Zoom (to accommodate anyone on holiday!
August 11th: Summer Reading Final Celebration
We celebrate the end of summer reading with an At the Table in the Garden garden party! Come take a spin on our smoothie bike, play some yard games and have some snacks!
August 8th through 13th: Harvest Hunt Part II
Hunt around the Children’s Library to find all fruits and veggies that are harvested during the summer!
August 6th: Wild Edibles Walk with the Animal Man
Join the Animal Man for a 1 hour slideshow and then a 1 hour interactive walk and Q&A all about local wild edible, medicinal and utilitarian plants. Don’t be fooled – just because we are in the city and there is professional landscaping doesn’t mean we won’t find anything, wild edibles are absolutely everywhere!
August 2nd: How to Make Your Summer Harvest Last!
Connie Adams from Yellow Stonehouse Farm, Westfield’s first USDA Certified Organic Farm CSA, will discuss ways to make the affordable fresh foods of summer last past picking time. Connie will share food preservation methods such as making refrigerator pickles, roasting a week’s worth of vegetables and how to use them, making salads, soups & stews to last for a week, and then how to freeze vegetables/food in small batches for the winter. She will touch on CSA membership as a way to have a bounty of local vegetables to freeze and process. Please Note: Canning will not be a part of this presentation.
August 1st: Harry Potter Food Explorers Fun!
Join Food Explorers to cook up some tasty magic from Harry Potter! Take your turn under the Sorting Hat and test your knowledge of the food groups, concoct some potions and make a witchy snack. Recipe will be nut free but may contain dairy and/or eggs.
July 27th: Fun in the Sun Snacking
Come make cool, easy, healthy snacks for hot summer days. There will be dairy products and fruit at this event.
July 26th: Guac Your World
Get ready to mash! You’ll learn how to make the best guacamole and take home what you made.
July 21st: Anyone Can Grow Their Own Food! (With a Little Ingenuity)
This is a Canva presentation shown in-house at the Westfield Athenaeum. Join Sustainable Sanctuary’s Casey Doyle as she shows you that anyone can grow their own food! The presentation will discuss alternative methods of growing food even if you don’t have a yard, and better methods than building beds, using unsightly plastic containers, or not using soil.
Casey E. Doyle, MS is an environmental & sustainable food systems scientist. She’s an agriculture & garden consultant for Sustainable Sanctuary. She specializes in English, French Potager, Victory gardens, community gardens, and soil health management.
July 21st: Make Your Own Pizza Party!
Come Join us in making mini pizzas!… And then eating them. YUM! Dairy products will be served at this event.
July 14th: The Nature of Mindful Eating (Virtual Presentation)
The food of life is found not only on our plates (or bag of take-out) but also within five integral life areas. Sustenance is located within the quality of our rest, companionship, novelty, and outdoor nature time. How you fulfill your unique needs depends on understanding what floats your boat! You are one of eight billion people living on this beautiful planet. Our consumer culture preaching one size fits all makes discovering what gives or dissipates our life energies a challenge. Why not turn the challenge into a game of detection? Mindfulness, the current term for an age-old wisdom practice, is key.
Whether you’re seeking a healthier weight, new friendship, struggling with depression, contending with a bully at work, or wish to be outside more often, the obstacles preventing you from experiencing the change you seek are found at the moment. Key to mindfulness; tuning into the sensations experienced within your body. Are your shoulders tight, do you have a stomach ache or tightness in your chest, maybe a hot flash’s sweaty exit has awakened you? Paying attention is a powerful mindful practice step. Noticing (not analyzing) the thoughts running through your mind naturally allow a gap, a step away from the commotion of thoughts streaming through your mind. This moment of self-witness de-escalates reactive energy. Paying attention to your body sensations and inner narratives allows you to step back and take stock.
July 14th: Baked Donuts
Join Food Explorers to bake some delicious donuts! Learn how to make and bake donuts from scratch, and how to make the perfect glaze to dip them in. Sprinkles are a must! Children will make recipes as a group then decorate their own donuts. Recipe will be nut free but may contain dairy and/or eggs.
July 14th: Food Sensory Exploration
Join Food Explorers to get your tiny hands interested in food and cooking! If you have a picky eater at home then this program is perfect for you, as the little chefs will be touching and exploring foods with all their senses, and making a creative snack. Recipe will be nut free but may contain dairy and/or eggs.
July 13th : Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Let’s have some fun with this classic, rollicking story. Then we’ll make our own coconut trees and have a delicious snack. This event will have coconuts.
July 5th-9th: Harvest Hunt
Hunt around the Children’s Library to find all fruits and veggies that are harvested during the summer!
July 1st: Brownie In A Mug (Take Home Craft)
Want an easy comfort snack to make in under 2 minutes? Come pick up a brownie in a mug kit in the Children’s Library! You will get a mug with all of your dry ingredients inside and ready to go. All you have to do is add your own wet ingredients and pop it in the microwave!
June 30th: Plant Focused Cooking with a Gourmet and a Grump
Join Registered Dietitian Jennifer Giffune and unwilling meal maker Andrea Bugbee to learn both fancy and simple ways to eat less meat, enjoy a healthier diet, and save the planet – all while eating supper. Jennifer is an exceptional cook known for her gorgeous cakes and meat-free masterpieces. Andrea scowls in the kitchen and champions easy, environmentally friendly, “meat lite” meals. Whether you’re a gourmet like Jen, or a grump like Andrea, this presentation is sure to bring an idea or two to your table. Dietary allergens may be present in any of the foods demonstrated and sampled.
June 30th: Red White & Blue for the 4th
Let’s get ready for the 4th with patriotic snacks (including strawberries), songs and stories.
June 27th: Roll a Burrito Like a Pro
Always have trouble rolling your burrito? Then come learn how to roll one like a pro! This program will have wheat products.
June 25th: Bees are Awesome!
Hear beekeeper Emily Focosi’s stories of bears and other hazards and joys of keeping bees. We will also put together an insect hotel to create habitat for these very important Insects that are very important to our ecosystem as they pollinate the plants we eat. Providing shelter for them in your yard is a hands on way to help our environment.
June 23rd: Movie – Traditional Beekeeping
In Macedonia, the last native beekeeper relies upon traditional methods to harvest honey deep in the mountains. However, her livelihood is jeopardized when a nomadic farming family attempts to infringe on her beekeeping and competes with her for resources, all the while ignoring her beekeeping knowledge. Join us for this enlightening look into these important parts of our food supply!
June 16th: Making Your Yard Pollinator Friendly
Would you like to learn easy ways to make your yard more attractive to pollinators such as bees, butterflies and other insects that contribute to our world and food supply? We welcome Peggy Macleod to give us resources, plants and other tips and tricks to do just this. Founder of Western Mass Pollinator Networks, Peggy helped launch the Massachusetts Pollinator Network in 2021 to provide resources and inspire individuals and groups to take action for the benefit of pollinators. Peggy will explain how residents and towns are using a few basic garden design principles to transform residential yards across the Northeast into an emerging network of pollinator-friendly corridors.
June 8th: Cookbook Book Club
Light Lunch is a Cookbook Bookclub. Every month there is a different cookbook with an emphasis on healthy cooking. Member sign up to receive the zoom login and a copy of the month’s cookbook is placed on hold for them. Everyone cooks whatever looks good from the book and we discuss at lunchtime (noon) on the second Tuesday of the month. Tell us what worked but especially what didn’t. It gives cooks a chance to try different ingredients and methods and talk about it with other people who love to cook (and eat!)
June’s cookbook is Milk Street: Cookish Throw it Together by Christopher Kimball!
June 3rd: Janey Junkfood’s Fresh Adventure! Video Storybook
Foodplay’s popular children’s book, created in a highly illustrated scrapbook fashion, gives youngsters everything they need to make healthy food choices in today’s confusing food marketplace. As told by her best friend, ToBe Fit, readers follow Janey in her quest to make the National Junior Juggling Team and discover the missing ingredient to her juggling success—healthy food choices! This video story book is only available for a limited time! Sign up to receive the link and password to access this engaging and fun story.
June 2nd: Hear the Buzz? All About Bees!
Nate Sperry of the Hampden County Beekeepers Association will discuss local pollinators, with an emphasis on Honey Bees and Beekeeping within the local area. Within the presentation a number of topics are covered, including: local pollen and nectar sources for insects, backyard beekeeping and planting for pollinators, as well as a demonstration of beekeeping equipment, and an overview of products of the honey bee hive. Local bee products will be available for purchase.
May 26th: All About the Dirt: Growing with Minerals with Dan Allie
Dan Allie wrote a Spring & Fall Planting Guide, Growing with Minerals because of his concern with the decline in the nutritional value of vegetables in the last 70 years, that coincides with the rise of health issues, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, the inability to digest food and other chronic conditions especially in children, which did not exist a generation ago. Mom told us to eat all our vegetables. But, nobody told mom how many we needed to eat. Most people eat a simplified diet of the same fruits and vegetables. Allie will discuss the need to eat a wide variety of plant-based foods to replenish the biology in our gut biome and obtain the minerals we need to have a healthy immune and digestive system. “A person would need to eat 4 to 5 times as many vegetables to get the same nutrients as in 1940. You are what you eat. Let food be your medicine,” says Allie.
Dan Allie will discuss why the nutritional value of vegetables has declined, and what people can do to eat healthy and ensure the food they eat has all the minerals, biology and flavor that God and nature intended. Farming methods ignored the soil biology and disrupted the soil structure. According to Allie, “It is only recently, that scientists and farmers have realized the importance of the relationship of plants and microorganisms working together to build soil structure and obtain minerals and nutrients from the soil, resist disease, control pH to produce delicious vegetables loaded with minerals, while restoring the soil and the environment”.
May 10th: ToBe Fit, The Juggling Nutrition Magician Show
Emmy Award-winning FoodPlay Productions is excited to present “ToBe Fit, The Juggling Nutrition Magician Show” – a fun-filled performance and follow-up resources to turn kids and families on to healthy eating and active living. Featuring the power of live theater, juggling, music, magic, and lots of audience participation, ToBe Fit empowers kids with the skills needed to make healthy food choices and take charge of growing up healthy, happy, and fit.
May 6th: Poetry Discussion Group
This month’s poetry theme is “Cooking, Eating & Meals,” which is part of our At the Table, In the Garden summer reading program. Share a poem (1-2 pages long) written by you or someone else, then discuss it with fellow poetry lovers. This group meets on Zoom, typically on the first Friday of every month.
April 28th: Superfoods 101
Educational culinary workshop celebrating the powerhouses of nutrition. Fun, colorful presentation that highlights the powerful properties of popular Superfoods and how best to incorporate them into your life. Tips, techniques, unique superfood samplings (i.e. cacao protein balls, acai smoothies, goji berries and dark choc.). Handouts and recipes included.
April 21: Saving at the Supermarket!
Everyone is noticing and talking about skyrocketing grocery prices. Join us for this informative and engaging workshop where we will learn strategies to slash our grocery bill while eating nutritiously. Get ready to feel energized with healthy nutrient rich foods and saving money! Specific action strategies, interactive game questions, and recipe resources will be included. As a registered dietitian and nutrition expert, Jill also brings her background of menu planning on a budget for school systems, consulting for grocery store chains, and being a cost conscious shopper herself.
Jill Patterson, RDN is an award-winning registered dietitian nutritionist, certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor. She has been quoted in the Huffington Post, Parents Magazine, and local news outlets. She specializes in providing wellness education programs that inspire individuals to implement healthy habits. She works with community organizations and workplaces and has provided programs for libraries, senior centers, town departments, universities, schools, banking/financial institutions, manufacturing companies, athletic apparel companies, wholesale stores, grocery stores, furniture stores, energy companies, travel companies, technology companies, and more. She is passionate about helping people live their happiest, healthiest lives! You can find her at www.jillpatterson.com.
March 17th: Collect and Preserve Your Family’s Folklore
Every family has a wealth of stories and traditions that symbolize who they are, whether recent immigrants or long-settled local families. (Re)Telling Coming-to-America stories or surviving hard times, living through historical events, how you celebrate large and small occasions throughout a lifetime—even tales of pets or songs or nonsense words and “Black Sheep”—all make up a family’s unique folklore. Then there’s recipes unique to each family, often lovingly handed down, usually not written. Learn how to collect and create perhaps the first tangible record of your family lore where none exists except in memory. Or add to accounts you already have. How did your family come to live where you live today? What stories are passed on about forebears, occupations, residences, nicknames, superstitions, home remedies, rituals, and seasonal celebrations religious and secular? This talk will give you some basics for collecting and preserving your family lore in various ways and formats, and look at how the family story, the community history, and the significant events of humanity are intertwined and experienced by individuals and their kith and kin. Your descendants will love you for collecting it and passing it on.
March 3rd: Celtic Chocolate Program
A cheerful program celebrating Ireland, Irish chocolate pioneers, lore, famous Irish foods, Irish poetry, The Book of Kells artistry, famous Irish authors and the history of the Claddagh. Samplings of Irish tea, Irish bread, and beautiful Irish Claddagh chocolates. There may even be a sing-along at the program’s end! Perfect for embracing Irish heritage all year round!
