{"id":5459,"date":"2014-04-25T15:14:20","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T19:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=5459"},"modified":"2023-02-01T10:27:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T15:27:05","slug":"hunter-gabel-is-5000-vegetarian-resource-group-2014-scholarship-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/25\/hunter-gabel-is-5000-vegetarian-resource-group-2014-scholarship-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"HUNTER GABEL IS $5,000 VEGETARIAN RESOURCE GROUP 2014 SCHOLARSHIP WINNER"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hunter wrote from California:<\/p>\n

In the fifth grade, I had the idea to start a movement with a few other students focusing on both personal and environmental health. We spent the year working and researching with my school\u2019s
\nprincipal and a local gardening expert before finally planting a \u201cgarden wall\u201d of native vegetation as a way to block off the airport to the north of our school aesthetically, and to show that in spirit our school and community was working toward a healthier place. The plants at this stage didn’t provide an edible option as I had hoped, but I was determined to see that part of my dream come true. Though I graduated and went to middle school, I felt the project had room to grow into a movement.
\nI came back as a Peer Assistance mentor and worked with the Green Team\u2019s
\nnext incarnation and in classrooms with students. What started as the garden wall grew into the idea for an on campus garden, dubbed the Cougar Patch, as a way to help the entire campus community get involved in the spirit of healthful eating and environmental awareness. The garden got backing from the school district after testimony from me and other stakeholders in the program, and it started scaling up from there. Once the teachers saw how students across so many age groups were engaged by
\nthe program, it quickly spread to all the other schools in our district. I still stop by to work in the gardens and have seen first hand how excited the students are during community garden days, as it has truly become part of the campus and its culture.
\nThe programs focused on healthy eating put the founding ideas of my team
\ninto action with the garden\u2019s first harvest. It was determined the harvest from the schools garden could be used in healthy eating lessons for the students. Each class picks some of the harvest together, and then a teacher or parent volunteer prepares a dish with their pickings and serves it to
\nthe students. While preparing the food and eating it, they discuss the benefits of vegetarian options, healthy eating, and fresh food. Since everyone had put so much work into raising the crops
\nin the garden, you never would have seen a bunch of kids more excited about eating their vegetables.
\nI am still involved in the programs across the district, though my
\ninvolvement varies by program and time of year. For example during the high school\u2019s Grades of Green campaign, I was involved at all the school sites as I tried to bring our composting programs together with those of all the school sites to prepare for a presentation to our city counsel.
\nI am also heavily involved around Health Fair time each year, when I try to assess what each school is doing and how they compare to the city\u2019s Wellness Day programs. All in all though, the community garden is still my baby. It provides the most engaging long term education and direct
\naccess to healthy, vegetarian foods of any of the activities. I am the most passionate and inspired by those efforts and how they have allowed me to start a movement that spread across my district and community.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hunter also worked to add vegetarian options at school events in high school. He reports:<\/p>\n

The veggie options at school events have been varied depending on the type and size of event. A few examples are at our football snack bar where I implemented veggie patties for hamburgers, vegetarian noodles, and meatless burritos on Mexican nights onto our menu. The football items sold very well, as vegetarianism is a growing movement in my town, and the students and parents alike were excited to have an option to fit their diets. At our Student Government Mixers I made sure that meatless pasta, pizza, or stir-fry (depending on the theme of the evening) was available. It was also important to me to set aside specific vegetarian plates so that regardless of when people got up to get their food, there was still food available they could eat because unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) sometimes people who were not strict vegetarians would eat all of the meatless options early, leaving the vegetarians without food. I also implemented veggie options at our campus dances. At our prom, a vegetarian lasagna was offered and one of the first items to run out, which I believe showed that with an open mind even people who don\u2019t
\nfollow the vegetarian lifestyle can still enjoy the food.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hunter is working with the The Salad Creations program, which currently
\nis still in a pilot phase. The company, which focuses on fresh products
\nand customizable salads, had the option where teachers could drop off
\norders ahead of time and the cafeteria could get the salads to them by
\nlunch.<\/p>\n

My role has really been as an advocate for keeping the program
\nas a full fledged service and opening it up to a wider audience. While I
\nknow it would be harder to scale up to availability to the entire school
\npopulation, I have held my stance that the added options for vegetarians
\nand non-vegetarians alike who are searching for healthier foods at
\nschool are worth the effort.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hunter said,<\/p>\n

In 5 years, I hope to be in Medical School, hopefully
\nfinding a program that allows me to explore my interests in human
\nhealth, nutrition, and environmental health as well. This plan for my
\nfuture also related to the story of how I became a vegetarian, because
\nboth of my passions stem from an illness \u2026 When I was diagnosed with a
\nrare, chronic disease, I began to look into ways to make my body
\nhealthier. After fully grasping the benefits it could have on my health
\nwhile allowing me to take a stand on issues I felt so strongly about, I
\nfinally made the personal commitment to vegetarianism. My health has
\nnever been better and I feel great emotionally knowing that fewer
\nanimals are dying and fewer forest are being clear cut due to my decision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To apply for next year’s scholarship or read about other scholarship
\nwinners, go to http:\/\/www.vrg.org\/student\/scholar.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

To apply for our video scholarship, go to http:\/\/www.vrg.org\/videoscholarship.php<\/a><\/p>\n

To support Vegetarian Resource Group scholarships and internships, donate at
\nwww.vrg.org\/donate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hunter wrote from California: In the fifth grade, I had the idea to start a movement with a few other students focusing on both personal and environmental health. We spent the year working and researching with my school\u2019s principal and a local gardening expert before finally planting a \u201cgarden wall\u201d of native vegetation as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5459"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20757,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459\/revisions\/20757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}