Measuring success in community gardens

A speaker at the Nashville Food Summit: “Community gardens are more about the community then the gardening.” I agree that has been true in recent years but is that the future?
And then this morning saw this on the comfood listserve:

Community Gardens Win the Food Wars
Millions of pounds of fresh food and produce were raised during the World War II years—as much as 40% of all vegetables consumed nationally.

5,285,000 Victory Gardens in the United States

According to The War Garden Victorious, Indianapolis “estimated the value of its war-garden crop in 1918 at $1,473,165. Denver placed its yield at $2,500,000 and Los Angeles at $1,000,000. Washington, District of Columbia reached $1,396,5000.” Thanks to propaganda (“your garden is a munitions plant”) there were 5,285,000 victory gardens in 1918. The City of Rochester, New York alone had more than 15,000. The “estimated value of our war-garden crops for 1918 (was) $525,000,000! A half billion dollars!”

Important history for us to know and to use as an impetus for today. Speaking of today:

Thanks to the research efforts of Farming Concrete, we know the value and weight of produce created by 67 of the 500 community gardens in NYC:

* 67 gardens comprise 1,200 plots
* 1,200 gardeners (give or take) raised 39,518 plants
* 39,518 plants produced 87,690 lbs of food
* 87,690 lbs of food  worth $214,060

But here is the statistic that really caught my eye. All this work, all this fresh food was produced on just 1.7 acres of land, or 71,950 square feet. The parking lots at suburban malls are bigger than that!

Check out Farming Concrete for their excellent resources to measure the benefits of urban gardens; the toolkit is very similar to the Farmers Market Metrics we are creating at the Farmers Market Coalition.

 

 

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National Farm to School Network Position Announcement

Community Food Security Coalition
National Farm to School Network
Position Announcement: Associate Director
Deadline for Applications is May 6, 2011
The selected candidate will be employed by the Community Food Security Coalition with
the option to work remotely from any location in the continental US. This position is funded
full‐time until August 31, 2012. Continued employment is based upon availability of funds.

CFSC

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Nashville Food Summit May 7, 2011

Community Food Advocates, in partnership with the Nashville Food Policy Council, will host Food Summit 2011 at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel on May 7th, 2011 from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. The Summit will be a gathering of stakeholders – from farm to fork – across Nashville’s diverse food system.

“Food Summit 2011 – Growing an Agenda for Change” will celebrate and highlight food systems accomplishments in Nashville, feature “best practices” from national experts, equip participants with advocacy and change-making skills, and help set an agenda for change for the future.

Community Food Advocates is a non-profit organization in Nashville dedicated to the notion that all members of our community should have access to food grown in a way that promotes the health of people, planet and community. Community Food Advocates works with community residents, policy makers and businesses to provide education about food assistance programs, advocate for policies that ensure equitable access to healthy food, and bring healthy foods back into food desert neighborhoods.

The Nashville Food Policy Council is a program of Community Food Advocates and is funded in full by the Department of Health and Human Services, as part of the Metro Public Health Department’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work campaign. The Nashville Food Policy Council engages City/County policy makers, consumer interest groups, retail food industry, local agriculture industry, and faith- and community-based organizations to strengthen and align efforts to create food system change in our community.

For more information on Food Summit 2011, please contact Shavaun Evans at 615-385-2286 ext. 226

The event is free and open to the public.

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CSAs are not for everyone

Barbara Haber is an author, food historian and the former curator of books at Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library at Harvard University. She is a former director of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and was elected to the James Beard Foundation’s “Who’s Who’s in Food and Beverages” and received the M.F.K. Fisher Award from Les Dames d’Escofier. This article comes from Zester daily, a food blog:

blog piece on CSAs

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Help those in need Alabama and across the South

EPES, ALABAMA…. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives is offering its Training Center in Epes, Alabama to house volunteers and others assisting those who have been displaced from the tornadoes. Assistance to devastated communities will also include food, water, clothing, equipment, supplies, to Tuscaloosa and surrounding rural communities, impacted by the storms. Financial assistance is critical to offer this much needed support. Please consider donating on the Federation’s website at http://www.federation.coop to help with this much needed assistance.
The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF or Federation) is a regional, non-profit, IRS 501c 3 organization that provides information, technical assistance, training, resources and advocacy to a membership of 20,000 low income families working in cooperatives, credit unions and other self-help community based associations across the rural South. Organized in 1967, they are in their 44th year of operation.
A primary focus of the Federation is on Black farmers and landowners as well as other family farmers struggling to maintain their land, livelihood, culture and communities. The Federation utilizes the cooperative form of democratic economic organization to help people collectively address their problems and uplift their communities.
The Federation’s membership owns and operates a Rural Training and Research Center on 850 acres of land, near Epes, Alabama in rural Sumter County. The Center is halfway between Meridian, Mississippi and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, five miles from the Epes-Gainesville Exit – No. 23 on Interstate 59/20. The center has a dormitory (that sleeps 72 in bunk beds – 4 to a room), a commercial kitchen, auditorium, classrooms, offices and a demonstration farm and timber program.
For more information as to how you can help through the Federation:
http://www.federation.coop/

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Cheesemonger works to save the essex market

Many of you know Essex Market as the home of Saxelby Cheesemongers, the little stand run by our friend Anne Saxelby and featured in The Greenhorns film. Here’s a note from Anne regarding the future of the market.

“For over 70 years, the Essex Street Market has been feeding the Lower East Side. This dynamic market has evolved with the neighborhood over the years, representing the ever-changing demographics of one of New York’s most vibrant quarters. Now, because of the SPURA redevelopment project, that could all change.

SPURA stands for the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, and is primarily comprised of a string of empty lots on the south side of Delancey Street between Essex Street and the Williamsburg Bridge. These lots were cleared for development in 1965. For over 40 years, the fate of this land has been hotly contested by city planners and neighborhood residents, with no solution found.

Recently, the community board (CB3) approved a set of guidelines to move the redevelopment process forward. The redevelopment zone now includes all city-owned property in the area, including the Essex Street Market. In their guidelines, the city proposed demolishing the current Essex Market and moving it to a ‘superior location.’ If the Essex Street Market were to move, it would not only lose its historic context, it would lose the soul and spirit of the place, an intangible but real thing created by merchants and customers over the past seven decades. We need your help and support to save the Essex Market!

Built by mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1940, the Essex Market was originally intended to get pushcart vendors off the street. The Lower East Side was always a neighborhood of immigrants, a veritable patchwork quilt of different cultures and nationalities all struggling to make a life for their families. To walk the streets in the early 1900′s was to navigate dense arteries of commerce, with merchants setting up shop in pushcarts selling everything from clothing to fresh meat and produce.

The city decided to build a series of indoor markets for these merchants to do business. These markets were built all over the city, but there was a large concentration on the Lower East Side. Their goal was twofold: to give these merchants an opportunity to do business in a proper market with more amenities, and to clear crowded city streets to allow traffic to pass. Of all these markets, only three remain today: Essex Street, La Marqueta in Harlem, and the Moore Street Market in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

These markets are historic places that deserve to be saved. They hearken back to a time when the city built public markets to uphold communities, when the market was considered not just a place to buy food, but a community space to gather and exchange news.

For the vendors these markets also represent an opportunity to start and build a small business, which is a very egalitarian thing indeed, especially in a city like New York.

Since 1940, the Essex Market has seen many different stages of life. The 1940′s through the 1960′s were booming years. The Lower East Side was a thriving shopping district, known for good value and good products. The 1948 film ‘The Naked City’ depicts the Essex Market in its heyday, with throngs of people clamoring to buy fruits, live poultry and live fish from market vendors. In the 1970′s the advent of the supermarket drew shoppers away from the Essex Market, but the vendors persevered through the hard times and continued to do business.

In the past 10 years, the Essex Market has undergone yet another change, with new vendors moving in alongside the old, proving again that the market evolves with the neighborhood. The vendors may change, but the market is still a bastion of community, full of vibrant unique small businesses serving the needs of a diverse clientele… just as Mayor LaGuardia intended it to be.

What can you do to help save the Essex Street Market? Please sign the online petition, or attend the next community board meeting on May 25th at the University Settlement on Eldridge Street to speak your mind. With your support, we can preserve a New York institution, one that I am extremely proud to be a part of!”

online petition

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Request for proposals for CFSC’s fall conference

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
“Food Justice:
Honoring our Roots, Growing the Movement” Community Food Security Coalition’s 15th Annual Conference Oakland, California November 5-8, 2011
Submit proposals online: here
Proposal Deadline: May 13, 2011
As you design your session, consider the following:
• We will prioritize creative and interactive sessions that provide opportunities for significant audience
participation, such as structured group activities, mapping or drawing, small group discussions, “think, pair, and share,” and dialogue circles.
• We encourage sessions that lead to a specific outcome, that are linked to the activities of the Community Food Security Coalition, and/or that build the community food security movement.
• “How to” and skill building workshops that provide ideas and tools will be prioritized.
• We encourage workshop organizers to include a diverse group of workshop leaders, such as youth, project participants, and community members.
• The number of people involved in food system related efforts is growing. We want to offer sessions for people new to the movement, as well as for people who have been involved in the food movement for a longer period of time. Both introductory and specialized workshops are welcome, as are sessions that would appeal to a broad spectrum of attendees.
• We urge presenters to avoid proposing workshops that highlight only a specific project or program. Instead, we suggest that you connect with colleagues from other organizations or communities to create a more comprehensive collaborative workshop. These workshops will be given priority during the review process.
• Technical Assistance for developing effective presentations will be available through the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Food and Society Fellowship. Details will be provided to leaders of the workshops chosen for the conference.
• All sessions will be 90 minutes in length. Expect approximately 30 – 75 attendees per session.
Expectations of Presenters
Presenters are required to submit all materials (powerpoints, tools, etc) used in the session prior to the conference for distribution to attendees.
The workshop leader must attend a conference orientation webinar prior to the conference.
CFSC is seeking proposals for two session formats:
Workshops
These sessions are skill building,
educational, or informative in nature. We
encourage a participatory approach, but
presentations with adequate time for
discussion are acceptable.

Networking Sessions
Facilitated discussions designed to engage participants
in a discussion about a situation, challenge, or
strategy. While there will be a facilitator, all
participants are on equal footing. Presentations

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Eastern Market is asked to expand its days

April 12, The Detroit News: “Why should Eastern Market only be open on Saturday? Why not Sunday? Why not every day?” said Stabenow, D-Lansing, at an appearance at the Detroit Economic Club in Southfield. “They are looking at expanding.

Detroit News story

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HUFED newsletter

This list of some of the conferences happening soon is from the Wallace Center’s newsletter, which I encourage everyone to sign up for.

EVENTS AND WEBINARS

April 29 Homefront to Heartland: A Conference for Women in Agriculture; Nashville, TN

Conference topics include marketing and financing, advocacy tools, diet and utilizing new technology.

May 5 National Good Food Network (NGFN) Webinar on Fair Food

Register for the upcoming NGFN webinar where Oran Hesterman, President and CEO of Fair Food Network, will discuss his soon-to-be-released book Fair Food: Growing a Healthy Sustainable Food System for All from 3:30-4:45pm EST.

May 5 Local and Sustainable Meat & Poultry: Making the Shift in Institutional Purchasing; Clarksville, MD

This regional conference will bring together a variety of stakeholders to identify barriers and possible solutions and strategies for establishing new institutional purchasing practices for local sustainable beef, pork and poultry. The conference will be held from 7:30am – 3:00pm at the Ten Oaks Ballroom and Conference Center in Clarksville, Maryland. An agenda is coming soon. This initiative is funded by a grant from the Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP) within USDA Agricultural Marketing Service with matching funds from the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers.

May 19-21 Community Food Security Coalition Conference; Portland, OR

The CFSC’s “Food Policy from Neighborhood to Nation” conference will include field trips, short courses and workshops focused on local and state level food policy issues.

May 31 Healthy Corner Store Network Webinar “Low-cost strategies for Bringing Healthier Foods into Small-scale Stores”

This webinar, sponsored by the Community Food Security Coalition, will be held May 31 from 1:00 pm – 2:15pm EST and cover low-cost methods for introducing, displaying and promoting healthy foods in corner stores and other small-scale retail stores.

June 6 Illinois Public Health Association Sustainable Food Systems Workshop; Lombard, Illinois

The Food and Nutrition Section of the Illinois Public Health Association (IPHA) will host a workshop at their 2011 IPHA Annual Meeting, “Sustainable Food Systems Building the Foundation for Prepared Communities.” The keynote speaker will be John W. Boyd, Jr. President of the National Black Farmers Association, and a panel discussion will cover international food systems and Illinois statewide food issues.

June 2-4 School Food FOCUS Annual Conference “Transforming School Food” Denver, Colorado

At this three day conference at the Inverness Hotel in Denver, participants will “tour Denver schools, gardens, and other food facilities, learn about the new School Food FOCUS Strategic Plan, discover best practices and learnings from the field, meet and sample food during the School Food Showcase from vendors providing wholesome options for school food service, including Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools, collaborate in workshops and roundtables that get to the heart of food systems change, participate in a dialogue with USDA representatives, a unique chance to voice concerns and be heard, become familiar with emerging regional school food hubs across the country”.

October 3-4 Consumer Federation of America National Food Policy Conference; Washington, DC

The National Food Policy Conference is for those involved in agriculture, and food and nutrition policy to explore the critical food policy issues with policymakers, advocates and scientists. Major speakers include cabinet members and leaders on food and agriculture policy on Capitol Hill.

November 4-8 Community Food Security Coalition’s 15th Annual Conference; Oakland, CA

This four day food systems networking and educational event will include presentations, workshops, networking opportunities, local grown food, and field trips around the San Francisco Bay area.

November 8-11 Policy Link’s Equity Summit 2011; Detroit, MI

Registration is now open for Policy Link’s Equity Summit “Healthy Communities, Strong Regions, A Prosperous America” to discuss sustainable and equitable development and the relationship between access to jobs, transportation, education, health, and housing.

November 11-12 Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG) Annual Conference; Albany, NY

NESAWG, a network of 12 Northeastern states that focuses on regional food system development, will have their annual “It Takes a Region” conference that will draw on the success of their 2009 & 2010 conferences to discuss distribution logistics, research, messaging, access & nutrition, and advocacy in relation to the 2012 Farm Bill.

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Swipe Fee War (from Huff Post)

Oh man, this is unbelievable. You’ve got the banking community, the financial community, pitted against the retail community,” says Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.). “They’ve both been in my office and I’m a clear yes vote on this … so you can only imagine those who are trying to figure this out or are still on the fence. They must be getting flooded.”…
…But there has been little serious attention paid to the effects swipe fees have beyond the corporate world. Only one major economic study has attempted to quantify how much swipe fees cost U.S. consumers in terms of higher prices– a February 2010 paper by respected economist Robert Shapiro and analyst Jiwon Vellucci, which found that 56 percent of all swipe fees are passed on to consumers, raising costs for the average household by about $230 a year.

That extra $230 isn’t a burden for affluent families accustomed to paying for convenience. Still, for families living below the poverty line, that money translates into two weeks worth of groceries or the monthly heating bill.

Yet the poor have no voice in Washington. Even the Shaprio and Vellucci study would never have been conducted without major corporate backing — it was funded by Consumers for Competitive Choice, a front group for telecommunications giants, which tried to kill last year’s financial reform bill at the same time it was pushing for the swipe fee crackdown included in the bill. Consumers for Competitive Choice President Robert Johnson tells HuffPost that he commissioned the study in order to shed light on how much swipe fees were costing consumers, and insists that the group had never worked with big retailers on the issue.

Whatever the ultimate cost of swipe fees for consumers, there’s no question that the resulting higher prices hit the poor hardest of all. Affluent consumers are more likely to pay with plastic, and both credit cards and debit cards frequently come with rewards programs that bestow frequent flyer miles, amazon.com discounts, trips to Disney World and a host of other benefits upon card users. So while swipe fees cause higher prices for everyone, affluent consumers get some of that money back in the form of rewards. The result is an effective transfer of wealth from poor shoppers to wealthier consumers: stores charge higher prices for goods in order to cover higher swipe fees, and those higher swipe fees are converted into rewards programs. According to an August study by the Boston Federal Reserve, the perks associated with plastic lead to an average wealth transfer of $771 from families making less than $20,000 a year to households earning $150,000 or more.

Huffington Post story

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Another good link

only at farmers market

I like the interviews of the farmers and managers on this site.

interviews

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Strong Towns

A link to a site that explores land use from a planners point of view. I downloaded the Tactical Urbanism report that talks about diversity of use (both informal and formal).
Jane Jacobs’ words and ideas are embedded throughout the site and that is always a good thing for us in the public market movement…

They write:
“The American approach to growth is causing economic stagnation and decline along with land use practices that force a dependency on public subsidies. The inefficiencies of the current approach have left American towns financially insolvent, unable to pay even the maintenance costs of their basic infrastructure. A new approach that accounts for the full cost of growth is needed to make our towns strong again.”

I look forward to reading more.

Strong Towns

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BBC interview with CCFM fisher on BP anniversary

The Crescent City Farmers Market is featured in 2 of the interviews. One with our LSU Sea Grant extension agent and one of our fishing families, Gerica Seafood. I think you can hear in Clara’s voice the trust she has in her market shoppers. I know I can.

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Soil Kitchen

Next American City » Buzz » Soil Kitchen: An Invitation to a Greener Future.

wow. cool.

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