Today we launched a 30 day campaign to raise $4,000 on ioby.org to support young people who want to dedicate their summers to working with Summer of Solutions Hartford!
Summer of Solutions Hartford's IOBY Campaign
We have so many wonderful applicants this year, and we're excited to invite them to join our program and spend their summers immersed in food justice; learning about urban agriculture, home sustainability, leadership development, and healthy cooking.
On April 19th, Summer of Solutions is opening the Wesley Colbert Zion Street Community Garden with a community workday from 2-6pm!
You should come if:
- You want your own 4'x6' plot at the garden this season
- You want to bring your community, school, or religious group to volunteer for the afternoon
- You love being outside in the dirt and want to help your neighbors plant!
Above: Footprints in the Broad Street Community Garden
At the Wesley Colbert Zion Street Community Garden, perennial flowers in tire planters line the fence
See more winter garden photos...
For some of us, the first time we met was on the car ride to the airport. We were on our way to the Chicago January Gathering – a meeting of program leaders from Summer of Solutions programs all across the region, to envision and plan the third summer of SoS Hartford.
Since I got involved in SoS Hartford in 2010, I’ve been going to the January Gathering in Chicago every year.
Produce Tales from the Wesley Colbert Zion Street Garden
Because our participant summer program delayed the start of our growing season, our team didn't begin planting until June. Still, by the time mid-summer came, our garden was already producing regularly. At first our veggies came in slowly, supplying some cherry tomatoes for salads and hot peppers for spicing up our team's chili.
By Twin Cities Summer of Solutions participant Lee Samuelson
On the second to last day of Lynne Mayo’s permaculture project, we had the special privilege of meeting with Karen Clark, the state representative from the neighborhood.
She did not originally intend to run for office, but has gotten elected every 2 years since 1980. She has been an activist in the anti-war movement, anti-nuclear, and pro-affordable housing movements.
The central theme of the legislation Karen Clark presented was people’s “right to know” about the presence of toxic chemicals.
Rep. Clark helped pass a workers’ right to know bill. As a result of her efforts, material safety data sheets have to be posted in workplaces. Now, numerous states have copied the bill. When union members at a facility were found to be sterile, it motivated grassroots pressure to overcome resistance from the chemical companies.
In addition to workers, families also have a right to know. They had to take Bisphenol A out of baby bottles because it was an endocrine disruptor. She talked a lot about public health and childhood lead poisoning. Even dust from paint in old houses cause irreversible damage. Kids are also in danger from arsenic.
Karen Clark wears more hats than the legislative one. She is a central volunteer for the Women’s Environmental Institute and teaches Holistic Health at St Kate’s. Wearing both her legislative hat and Women’s Environmental Institute hats, she mapped out the toxic sites in Phillips.
What they found was that there was a closed pesticide plant in East Phillips that was releasing chemical pollutants all the way to the aquifer. Residents had been dealing with the cumulative health effects of the lead, mercury and arsenic. These included hypertension, asthma and heart disease.
Soil tests are required when lead and arsenic poisoning are found. Soil tests used to be state subsidized. But, in the name of cutting costs, we have to pay for it now. Our host Lynne Mayo wanted to get the soil from the city compost pile tested and it would cost $82. It is an injustice to ask low-income people to pay for the service. For example, the Hmong farmers needed soil testing but it was prohibitively expensive. Rep. Clark has also done some soil remediation on her 100 year old home.
Rep Clark’s perspectives do not come out of a vacuum but draw a lot from her personal experience. She promoted getting alternative medicine subsidized because she is a cancer survivor. Karen Clark’s parents were sharecroppers for rich but stingy California Landlord, which “taught her a lot about who runs things”.
Our first flowers started to bloom!
And our basil was ready to harvest so we picked the leaves
And made pesto
Our zucchini plants were huge and ready to pick. Have you ever seen such a large and beautiful zucchini? (or a cuter kid?)
With all of our gorgeous zucchini, we made zucchini muffins and taught the kids that vegetables can be delicious!
Annie Fisher-
The Annie Fisher team started off the week with introductory lessons to our garden for the summer school students, who were ranging from age 3 to 10. In every section, the kids had a look at and learn about the plants growing in our gardens, as well as building a list of gardening rules by themselves! In addition to spending time with the hyperactive yet lovely kids , we now follow a brand new schedule of watering and taking care of beds around the school to make Annie Fisher as beautiful as possible.
So much has happened in Hartford since Summer of Solutions Hartford kicked off on June 15th! Now that I've had time to upload some photos, I'd like to take you through the story of our program, 3 weeks in:
Chapter 1: Training Week
We had a Training and Orientation Week from June 15th-22nd to orient our participants to the program and train them in important solutionary skills.
(The following is a blog post written by participants Tara, Drell, and Joe on the Monday following Training Week. Since then we've added a heat wave to our list of weird weather experiences!)
The weather in Hartford has been pretty ridiculous lately. Last week it was over 100 degrees for a couple of days, so we weren’t all too keen to be in the sun.
