Hi Everyone,
It's a hot day outside ... not quite so warm sitting at the computer, so here goes ... a bit of a report about a book and website worth looking at if you want some inspiration about what urban agriculture can produce.
Let's start with the book - Growing a Garden City*: how farmers, first graders, counselors, troubled teens, foodies, a homeless shelter chef, single mothers, and more are transforming themselves and their neighborhoods through the interesection of local agriculture and community - and how you can too.
Fifteen people involved with the Garden City Harvest programs of Missoula, Montana recount their stories and their excitement about food and food production. The ideas are inspiring and the photographs wonderful. Example after example of how food connects people, not just the growers but all the eaters - and remember, eaters are every one of us!
Missoula has become what the book terms an Agriculture Supported Community. This means "1. A community bound to one another by local food and farming. Such a group often encompasses diverse members and multiple locations and projects, each undertaken to improve lives and create individual connections. 2. 'The new faces of local food.' "
Agriculture Supported Community is a term I'd never heard before, but it sure gives me a good feeling! Missoula, Montana is a city of only 68,000 people. One in 5 people live in poverty, and it has a frost-free growing season averaging fewer than 100 days (short). Missoula's Garden City Harvest has 7 neighbourhood-based farms and community gardens and produces 100,000 pounds of food per year grown to feed people in need.
The book is an absolute inspiration.
And the book leads to the Garden City Harvest website at www.gardencityharvest.org
from the website, "Garden City Harvest builds community through agriculture by growing produce with and for people with low-incomes, offering education and training in ecologically conscious agriculture, and using our sites for the personal restoration of youth and adults ... Garden City Harvest was established in 1996 to provide local, sustainably grown produce to those in need. We are reviving the regional tradition of producing our own food for our community, focusing on the 20% of Missoulians who live in poverty.
Garden City Harvest has community education programs that offer children and adults opportunities to do some gardening or farming. GCH has four farms around Missoula, including one that works in conjunction with the University of Montana's environmental sciences masters degree program and another that gives job experience to young people. All the gardens provide food for social agencies in Missoula. There is also a program offering employment and therapeutic support to at-risk youth referred by several social agencies. The teens work at a mobile food market, and harvest and deliver produce for low cost to seniors. employment.
The Garden City Harvest project also has community gardens in low-income neighbourhoods in Missoula. Each community garden provides "the participants with a 15 by 15 foot plot, tools, water, compost, straw, common space, and the knowledge and guidance of a garden coordinator. Weekly programs for young gardeners include lessons about gardening, botany, food sources, and cooking.
In their own words "Our gardens are places where long time growers and newcomers garden together, learn from each other, and share resources. Gardens reduce stress on food budgets. They teach an essential skill: how to grow our own food. Gardens mean self sufficiency, pride, and the taste of a homegrown tomato. They bring people together for potlucks and workdays."
If you have time, check out the book, the website, or the blog below. It'll bring a smile!
Best regards,
Why's Woman
PEAS farm The PEAS farm - part of the Garden City Harvest - is the 10 acre farm where students in the Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society program of the University of Montana work as part of their degree. Check this post for a great overview. Facing Hunger in America, July 7, 2011 http://facinghungerinamerica.blogspot.com/
*Growing a Garden City: Written by Jeremy N. Smith. Published in 2010 by Sky Horse Publishing (Thomas Allen in Canada). London Public Library call # 635.0978685 Smi
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