RE: Fwd: community garden for youth

Title: Fwd: community garden for youth
Dear Ms. Duden,
 
I appreciate people with "fire in their bellies" for a project. However, community garden building is more of a marathon event than a sprint - this is the time to do your "carbo loading", make yourself a pot of your favorite hot beverage, go to the American Community Gardening website: http://www.communitygarden.org and click and read everything. Print out everything that interests you. There is a wealth of information there and the links are truly a hoot.
 
The garden that I work with is  the Clinton Community Garden in NYC, http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org . Having been involved with been food security issues for a number of years now, through my synagogue and in my neighborhood(s), I have come to realize that the best way to make sure that the circle is never broken is to nuture close relationships in your community. I'm sure you're quite a networker. This is the time to start showing up a neighborhood meetings, talking to churches with soup kitchens, getting to know the fine people in your area engaged in Food Security and Food Rescue and make them your friends. As an attorney, you know that who you know is as important as what you know. This is the time to make friends with your local electeds and people of good will. I know that you've been doing this already, but we all can't do this enough.  
 
A great place to start is the St. Louis Area Foodbank:  http://stlfoodbank.org/index.html .
 
The Missouri  Food Circles network is another splendid local food security group:   http://www.foodcircles.missouri.edu/
 
Now all politics is local, and the interlocking of resources, community gardening and local programs ( synergy is the buzz word) is very important. One of the finest models for this kind of synergy is the Little Rock based Arkansas Hunger Coalition which does so much with so limited financial resources. Here is their website http://www.arkansashunger.org/ Clicking on their hunger, school garden and hunger organization links should be quite useful.
 
On My Good Friends from Gateway Greening:
 
A New Yorker, I have to tell you that Gateway Greening is one of the best community garden organizations in the country, with a highly intelligent board, a sweetheart of a Director, Gwenne Hayes Stewart, and a very interesting research program associated with it, the Whitmire Study, that promises to teach all of us involved with community gardens a thing or three.
 
Here is the link to Gateway Greening, in case you haven't seen it yet: http://stlouis.missouri.org/gatewaygreening/index.html
 
One of the fundraisers that Gateway Greening does is called, if I'm not mistaken, "Chefs in the Garden". A long established non-for-profit, I think it is worth your while to contact them again, and even arrange for a visit to their offices. They are very nice and knowledgable people who have done a great deal of good in your area. As the folks who are involved with this group are mostly volunteers ( like the folks in the project that you will be setting up) patience, a trait that it's taken me a long time of banging my head in the wall to learn, is a virtue. 
 
Great luck with your project, the team of wonderful volunteers you will nuture and the interesting times your journey will bring bring you.
 
Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, Clinton Community Garden 
-----Original Message-----
From: Sally McCabe [mailto:sallymcc@libertynet.org]
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 7:40 PM
To: community_garden@mallorn.com
Subject: [cg] Fwd: community garden for youth

X-Originating-IP: [165.134.23.160]
From: "Christine Duden" <christineduden@hotmail.com>
To: <smccabe@pennhort.org>,
       <sallymcc@libertynet.org>
Subject: community garden for youth
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 12:13:41 -0500
X-Priority: 3
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 14 Aug 2002 17:14:59.0621 (UTC) FILETIME=[1E986D50:01C243B6]
I would like to use communtiy garden space in St. Louis,
Missouri to begin a garden for disadvantaged youth.  I am an attorney currently working as a university administrator and have summers off.  I am also an avid community gardener.  I would like to start a garden in cooperation with the juvenile court system as a diversionary program for young first time misdemeanor offenders.  The program would also be open
to other at-risk teens.  The organic produce raised would be sold to local restaurants, to sustainable community garden individual suscribers (much like The Food Project does) and donated to local food shelters.  I am partial to garden models that sell at least a portion of the harvest, as kids then learn a great deal about marketing, finance, accounting, sales, etc.  Additionally, St. Louis has a very vibrant upscale restaurant community.  It is common to see our local chefs shopping at farmer's markets, and my initial research shows that there should be eager restaurant customers.  Profits from the sales would fund college
scholarships for student workers, much like Food From the 'Hood in LA.
 
I am still in the very initial stages of research.  I have contacted Gateway Greening, my local community garden association, but have not yet met with them.  I would appreciate any other direction you can provide on resources and contacts.  I have already come accross Food From the 'Hood in LA and The Food Project in Boston. 
 
Thanks for your help!
 
Christine Duden
dudence@slu.edu
(w) 314-977-8176
(h) 314-577-0526

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