Tag Archives: Indiegogo

Kids in the Garden and Community Support

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It’s already been a busy month in Middleton!

Kids in the Garden: We just wrapped-up our first after school program! We had a wonderful five weeks learning about the greenhouse and seed starting, planning dream gardens, preparing the garden for planting, and cooking!

2Showing off their dream gardens

We made many tasty seasonal dishes with the kids including carrot muffins, apple crisp, spinach frittata, and oven fries. Our snack for the last day of the program was 5 weeks in the making: we planted greens in the greenhouse back in April and they were finally big enough to harvest for a tasty salad. We made a home made balsamic vinaigrette dressing and enjoyed the fruits of our labors 🙂 Continue reading →

Summer of Solutions: Ithaca, March update

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Summer of Solutions: Ithaca has hit the ground running from every angle. Program development and partnership work has succeeded tremendously in solidifying local allies, contributors, and educators, and in formulating program design for our 8-week program. Dynamic mechanisms of outreach have been employed to target potential participants, many of whom have gone on to apply to SoSI through our first round of applications.

We also just recently launched our Indiegogo site, full of comprehensive information and opportunities to donate, the link to which is below:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/summer-of-solutions-ithaca

Additionally, we are very proud to announce that we have been awarded a $435 grant through Sustainable Tompkins, an organization that has been at the forefront of community organizing and sustainability in the area.

Our next steps include fundraising veraciously, processing our second round of applicants, continuing to reach out to local partners, and fine-tuning program details. Continue checking in for more exciting updates!

Middleton Launches an Indiegogo Campaign!

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GFS Middleton (aka Growing Food and Sustainability) just launched an Indiegogo campaign!  Learn more and donate on our Indiegogo page!

Indiegogo facebook profileOne of Growing Food and Sustainability’s core goals is to train and inspire a new generation of youth leaders to create their own solutions to the world’s challenges.  Our Indiegogo campaign is focused on raising money for stipends so that we can train youth through our summer internship program.  Last summer, two local college students participated in our internship.  This summer, we plan to select five interns to participate in this leadership development experience.  Interns learn through peer-lead trainings as well as by taking an active, hands-on role in our organization. They learn how to plan curriculum for the summer garden camp, serve as camp counselors, workshop leaders, and meeting facilitators, coordinate community workdays, harvest days, the weekly compost pick-up, and the weekly produce delivery, and will learn green entrepreneurship skills by helping to run our farmers’ market stand.   Our goal is to make sure that every graduate of our internship program leaves with the skills and knowledge to start an initiative of their own.

Though our experience has proven that young people of all ages do care about current social and environmental issues, we realize that summer jobs must often take precedence over unpaid programs. By providing stipends to interns, we will make sure that these opportunities for enrichment and growth are available to all.  Through our model of peer-to-peer training and collaboration, we believe that summer interns will develop leadership and organizational skills that will prepare them for the future as much or more as any summer job. Continue reading →