This summer, these youth created three healthy snacks (pictured) and even designed labels for them!
Food justice, gender equality – these were once new concepts for many of the young people that we have encountered this summer, and I am proud to say that in those short weeks, they’ve been exposed to and adopted a new way of thinking about these issues.
Heidi, a program leader in East Tennessee has started a new job at Second Harvest and is blogging about her experience. Below is a recent post.
Unicoi, TN
Well, my worst fear happened today. The very first day of service we ran out of food. It was an easy fix, we survived and even managed to just be 15 minutes off schedule the whole day.
The drive home was particularly beautiful after a stressful day and I realized why I love it here so much. I realized why I love coming home no matter how far I’ve gone. It’s the view. Every where you turn rich blue hues and many shades of green dazzle your eyes. The mountains surround us in this fantastic hug. You can’t help but feel at peace and protected by the mountains. Continue reading
Summer of Solutions Hartford is one of a few local organizations participating in the food justice workshop series at the CT River Academy in East Hartford, CT. Last week, we had a booth at their food justice fair. Students had an hour in the fair to talk to representatives from urban farms, seed companies, dining services, green jobs organizations, and local food producers.
At our booth, we had information about the program, and an origami seed pot activity. We had a big box of soil, some basil, parsley, and flower seeds, and a lot of newspaper.
Each student learned how to fold a square of newspaper into a little seed pot, and then planted some seeds to take home! The boxes turn out impressively sturdy. Continue reading
By: Josephine Chu
For the past 6 years, multiple community organizations, spearheaded by DC Greens, in Washington, DC have worked together to host a day-long gardening forum called Rooting DC to educate residents about urban food production and consumption to cultivate health and protect the environment. It is a really wonderful resource for all those interested in learning more about gardening, composting, garden design, school gardens, fruit trees, organic pest management, seed saving, cooking with kids, and so on. This year, the conference organized workshops around five tracks: eat it (cooking and food preservation techniques), teach it (learn ways to share what you know with others), start it (gardening basics), grow it (advanced gardening skills), and the big picture (workshops about how gardening fits into the broader landscape).
In addition to all the workshops, Rooting DC also provides an opportunity for community organizations to table and offer information about the work that they are doing around gardening, food, health, justice, etc. This year, our project, Cultivating Intergenerational Leaders, had the opportunity to table and provide conference attendees with information about the summer program that we are planning and ways that interested people can become involved. It was an awesome opportunity to reach out to a ton of people (as more than 800 people registered!) and develop deeper relationships with other organizations with similar missions in the community. The conference gave me (Josephine) and Jeremiah an opportunity to discuss further with Sasha Bruce Youthwork and Beet Street Gardens what our partnership with the two organizations would look like to organize and run a summer program for youth around food justice issues. Continue reading
Greetings from Johnson City! We’ve been super busy getting our programs set up and scheduling events for the coming spring season. But let’s just go ahead and get down to the fun stuff:
Johnson City, Tennessee is currently in the midst of an incredible blossoming of energy for food justice! Just last month we had a new café hold a “First Seed” fundraiser. Now, what’s so exciting about any old café? Well, let me tell you. This café, One Acre Café, is part of the “One World Everybody Eats Foundation” (http://www.oneworldeverybodyeatsfoundation.org/). Their mission statement is: “To nourish the body, replenish the spirit, and grow the community so that all might be fed.” In addition,
“It is the intent of One Acre Cafe to build a healthy community by providing the basic need of food in a respectful and dignified manner to anyone who walks through the door. One Acre Cafe will be unique in the lack of a set menu as well as set prices. Daily menus will be made using fresh ingredients and funded by the donations of patrons and community members. Everyone will be invited to pay what they felt their meal was worth or to leave a little more in order to help pay for someone else’s meal. If a diner does not have sufficient money to leave, they are encouraged to exchange one hour of service to the cafe for their meal.”
Hi Everyone, I’m Sarana, Ra for short. This year will be my first year as a member of the Summer of Solutions team in Hartford CT. I learned about the program through another food justice organization I work for in the city called Cooking Matters. As I have just returned from Wisconsin, to my home city of Hartford, CT, I have been so inspired by the many initiatives within the city to make food scarcity, and access to healthy affordable foods a priority in our communities. My work revolves around sustainability and social justice, primarily with youth. I combine these passions by being part of initiatives that serve to empower underserved demographics of people. This has taken many faces from, teaching art with youth, to running a permaculture garden at a local community center, to teaching sexual health to young women and working as a doula for a non-profit organization. I love the many ways there are to be involved in supporting, enlivening, and contributing to the overall health of our communities. It is in fact, our natural state of being.
Solutionaries 