The afternoon sun is sweeping aside the clouds, bakery aromas and the smell of soap suds are wafting around 24th street, and it’s time for …the Afternoon Report!
Lights On Afterschool
The Mission Education Project on 24th Street was a quiet, almost deserted place when I stopped by, but I soon learned it was only the calm before the storm. The after-school center for underserved children was about to be overrun by excited kindergarteners through eighth graders ready to replant a garden and bake some muffins. Today marks the 15th annual national Lights On After School Day, a day organized by the Afterschool Alliance to highlight the benefits of after school programs.
“Lights On Aftershchool is to keep the lights on at after school programs, keep them open,” Program Coordinator Lana Alviar said.
To celebrate, children at the Mission Educational Project will be heading to Garfield Park today to use the recreation center’s kitchen to make healthy muffins they’ve developed in teams. They’ll return to the after school center to present their muffins to assembled parents, who get to judge the teams’ culinary prowess on taste, health, and appearance. The healthified muffin recipes include pear granola, pumpkin chocolate chip, and carrot muffins.
Alviar explained that the children would also be replanting the somewhat dried-out planter box garden in front of the center’s Treat Street-facing windows, an ever popular pastime among the kids. The new plants are supplied by the Garden Project, a nonprofit that offers job training to former offenders in coordination with the San Francisco County Jail. Vegetables from the project are also regularly cooked for the children to teach them about proper nutrition and passed on to the parents, who may not be able to afford a diet of nutrient-rich produce.
“That makes them very happy, because they’re very expensive,” said Executive Director Rita Alviar, adding, “I can’t even afford to buy these vegetables!”
Partial Solar Eclipse Coming Up!
If you direct your attention to the skies in the next half hour or so (until around 4:30 p.m.) you might be able to see the partial solar eclipse expected today. The moon will partially cover the sun, taking out a 39 percent chunk of it at the eclipse’s peak. Make sure to only check out the eclipse if you take measures to protect your eyes!
The easiest clever way to see the shape of the eclipse is to make a simple pinhole projector by poking a hole in one piece of paper or cardboard and allowing the sun to shine through it onto another piece, held below it. More on the science of the eclipse, and how to view it, at KQED.
This has been your Afternoon Report—a new series we’re trying out in which we offer a quickie post-meridian rundown of some minor developments in the always-happening streets of the Mission District. Got ideas or suggestions? Let us know what you think by sending an email to info@missionlocal.com.