MLK Day Work Party @ Nokomis School Garden (1.20.14)

FoodCorps Service Member Keegan Niland is hosting a garden work party in tribute to Dr. King!

Where: Nokomis School Garden @ 495 Washington Avenue (Garden is located west of school on Helen Avenue).
When: Monday January 20, 2014. From 9am to 12:30pm.
What: Transferring soil to garden beds, creating a garden reading circle, and planting.
Why: "The Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is a way to transform Dr. King's life and teachings into community service that helps empower and strengthen local communities."

* Snacks and beverage will be provided. Please wear closed toe shoes and bring garden gloves if preferred.

YouthBuild Revitalizes Nokomis School Garden

Fifteen young people celebrate the winter holiday by gifting Nokomis School Garden 10 new garden beds!

YouthBuild of Pinoleville Pomo Nation devoted the first half of their holiday break (Nov. 25 - 26) to support a garden revitalization effort by FoodCorps Service Member Keegan Niland. The project was coordinated by YouthBuild's Vaughn Pena and led by Licensed Contractor Mike Sherosick.

North Cal Wood Company sourced nearly a ton of beautiful Redwood to help in the effort.

The YouthBuild Team prepared, flushed, and constructed ten (plus two) garden beds on day one. They tore through the batteries of their power drills and had a great time doing it. The young folks showed their creativity, talent, and drive to gain experience in the trades. They even organized a game of pick-up football during lunch break!

On day two the team dug, sunk, and leveled the garden beds into the ground. This was not an easy feat and took patience and persistence. The YouthBuilders worked efficiently and were good to sprinkle in some humor along the way. 

The new 18" tall garden beds at Nokomis Garden were built with the intention of simplifying maintenance, emboldening the space, and promoting productivity for the 430 students and staff.

YouthBuild is an incredible organization -- help the Ukiah branch grow!

See more pictures on our Flickr account.

Pictures courtesy of Tara from YouthBuild 2013

 

Local Families Plant Nutritious Winter Gardens

This community garden story is told from the perspective of Steph Logsdon, our Community Healthcorps Service Member.

On October 9th, members of the Thunderbird apartment complex in Ukiah learned about nutritious winter crops to plant in their gardens.

 When Highway 101 ran through Ukiah years ago, Thunderbird was a motel. Now, Thunderbird is a low-income family apartment complex in which most of the residents are Latino/Latina. Some are more recent immigrants from Mexico and most adults speak little English. The mothers of Thunderbird requested to learn more about nutritious crops they could plant to feed their children outside of the traditional Mexican crops they already knew so well. This summer their gardens produced bountiful crops of tomatoes, corn, tomatillos, peppers; gardening is no new thing for them.

I myself speak only the bare necessities of Spanish, but with the lingual help of Americorps FIRST 5 VISTA, Ligia Lopes, and my co-worker at the Gardens Project, Caitlin Morgan, we were able to have a successful workshop.

For our workshop, I prepared information sheets on planting and care for Broccoli, Cabbage and Collards in Spanish and brought 72 green plant starts to share.  After the greetings of “hola!” and “como estas?” we went ahead and started the workshop. First in my broken Spanish naming the vegetables with a poor accent, “Brócoli, Repollo, Quelites!” and saying other English things in which Ligia and Caitlin translating for me, we had the residents read from the Spanish hand out I gave them, learning together about how to care for the plants.

I thought maybe one person would volunteer to put a few plants in their garden to show everyone else and then we’d leave the starts for them to plant when they were ready. No, they all got it done right there. Everyone went straight to their garden plots and started digging and loosening the soil right away. Within 15 minutes, most all of the 72 plants that we brought were planted in their garden beds. Only those participants that didn’t live right there took plants home with them.

Their enthusiasm and readiness to get the veggies into the ground was inspiring. We barely had enough time to evenly divide up the plants between everyone there. One woman and her child rode the bus to come to our workshop, and there was one non-Hispanic man with his daughter who spoke English that had just moved into the complex that attended as well.  Thankfully I had one copy of the planting care still in English for him! All the children around spent their time coloring pictures of cabbage, pumpkins and other vegetables and were proud to show off their art.

I didn’t realize how much I could communicate with people by smiling, saying “Si!” and “Bueno!”… over and over and over again. I am overjoyed that the families at Thunderbird take such pride in growing their own food. Even though I couldn’t actually have a Spanish conversation with them (yet, I’m trying to learn), being there with them motivated me to try and learn more for next time.

California Conservation Corps Partners with FoodCorps at Nokomis School Garden

Three cheers for the Triple-C's!

15 members of Ukiah's California Conservation Corps volunteered their Saturday to help maintain Nokomis School Garden on November 16, 2013 from 9am - 3pm.

The CCC's Members muscled through Nokomis Garden's Bermuda Grass problem by hacking through it with McLeod Hoes and covering it with landscape fabric. After the fabric covered the garden floor all members were hands on moving wood chips supplied by Johnson Family Tree Care (note: the wood chips came from a Caltrans project one of the CCC members interned for earlier in the week).

The CCC's Team also helped FoodCorps Service Member Keegan Niland reshape the garden maze into it's new form - a fantastic reading circle for Nokomis School students and educators. Keegan and the CCC's Members also excavated nearly 10 cubic-yards of non-compostable materials and wooden pallets from the garden.

The group was re-energized when a neighbor walked by the garden mid-day and exclaimed, "You all do great work - I know the kids will enjoy this!"

 

Mendocino County Educators Reach-Out to Keep School Gardens Growing

Twenty Mendocino County educators dug in and shared a nutritious meal in celebration of Garden Enhanced Nutrition Education in October. Let's ensure that healthy gardens and children grow in Mendo'!



Food Systems Project Assistant April Cunningham of the Gardens Project led a G.E.N.E. Workshop at Nokomis Elementary School Saturday October 5, 2013. The G.E.N.E. Workshop served as an opportunity for educators in Mendocino County to strengthen their network, share and acquire resources, and fortify their ability to utilize garden space as an additional classroom.

The G.E.N.E. Workshop served 20 Mendo' County educators from in-school and after-school programs; ranging from Willits Charter to Pomolita Middle School. In collaboration with Master Gardeners Gloria Jarrell and Karen House, Food Corps Service Member Keegan Niland, HealthCorps Service Member Steph Logsdon, Teacher Pam Chiriboga, and G.E.N.E. Coordinator Terry d’Selkie; April demonstrated activities like “Eat a Rainbow” where the importance of eating fruits and vegetables rich in a variety of colors is highlighted; and, “Food Safety in the Garden” where educators learn the importance of preparing foods from the garden safely while recycling water.


The Mendocino County teachers were happy to be a kid for the day while demonstrating garden and nutrition education activities. Keegan led a Life Lab activity called “Six of One Thing, Half Dozen of the Other” where participants classified objects in the garden and talked about them as a group. The activity was a great way to explore how the new common core curriculum set to launch next school year can be incorporated into garden education. Steph led a workshop showing how toilet paper rolls, newspaper, and good potting soil is enough to germinate seeds and grow starts. Steph’s workshop opened up avenues and explored how starting a garden is accessible and cost-effective. April led a cooking workshop to instruct on proper knife technique and facilitating minimal-heat/no-heat recipes for kids. Mendo' County teachers were excited to create their own salad dressing and try bulgur wheat for the first time!

Educators left the G.E.N.E. Training feeling supported by their peers and community. In addition to the information and technical components, Terry d’Selkie helped source a gardening kit with basic tools; and seeds from Bountiful Gardens. It’s an incredible experience to meet and collaborate with folks in the community that choose to teach and empower young people to grow, eat, and celebrate healthy foods.

Ford Street Cooking Class is a Success!

Homemade Turkey Sausage Breakfast Sandwiches and Sweet Potato Hash started off the second session of COCER (Community Organized Cooking and Edible Resources) last Tuesday. COCER is a pilot cooking class held at the Buddy Eller Center of the Ford Street Project. The impetus for the project is teaching healthy recipes and cooking techniques to those living in transitional housing at Ford Street.
In the first session, participants enjoyed tasting new foods like kale, chard and fennel, and experimenting with healthy alternatives and learning new tricks in the kitchen.
The first session was a series of four classes, meeting once a week. During one of these classes, the group took a trip to the Ukiah farmer's market, where they learned about the Food Stamp Match program and purchased produced to make hearty Spring Veggie Quiche with Fruit Salad.

The classes are taught by three AmeriCorps members serving in the community (Natalie Loots, Lucy Shapiro and Jessica Ohland). These three have enjoyed the successes of the first session and are excited to continue the class!

Try out this tasty COCER recipe:
Sweet Potato Hash
Makes 6 servings

2 medium sweet potatoes skins on, chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper, finely diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation: 
-Wash and chop all vegetables
-Saute onions and bell peppers in olive oil over medium heat
-Add potatoes, spices and jalapeno. Stir to prevent sticking until potatoes are tender (about 10 minutes)
-Serve hot. Enjoy as side dish for breakfast, lunch or dinner

Become an AmeriCorps with the Gardens Project!

Want to be of service? Improve the health and resilience of our community by boosting the local food system?
Then AmeriCorps HealthCorps is for you!

The Gardens Project is currently recruiting  one AmeriCorps Community HealthCorps member for 2013-2014!

Applications are due May 24th!
 

Position Description: 

* Facilitate the development of community supported and school gardens based on a community ownership model.
* Coordinate a continuously expanding Gardens Network of community and school gardens
* Perform outreach and promote access to existing and new community and school garden programs.
* Increase community and school-based gardening opportunities.
* Research and develop garden, nutrition and garden leadership based educational and training resources
* Develop and manage volunteer Program  

Minimum Qualifications:

* Bilingual in Spanish/English
* Strong writing and oral presentation skills
* Knowledge and experience with gardening/farming, and nutrition education
* Experience working with youth, tutoring, and/or teaching
* Competency in MS Office suite
 

Stipend & Benefits:
 

      * A $12,100 living allowance paid in bimonthly installments
* CalFresh food program (food stamps) benefits of up to $200/month
* Health insurance coverage and child care benefits starting immediately
* May be eligible for a $5,550 education award upon successful completion of term of service
* Student loan forbearance
* Requires a minimum of 1700 service hours over a minimum 10 month term
 

Apply through AmeriCorps at americorps.gov and submit a supplemental application as outlined under the programs tab at ruralcommunityhealth.org

 Contact the Gardens Project if you have additional questions about this local opportunity. 

FoodCorps Now! Apply!

Want to be of service?   Improve the health and resilience of our local food system by engaging schools and students?  
Then AmeriCorps' new FoodCorps is for you!


The Gardens Project of NCO was chosen as one of ten sites in California to host a Food Corps Member.   

Applications are due by March 31st.
To find out more information about the FoodCorps program and submit your application, please visit http://foodcorps.org/.

Service Member Benefits:

* A $15,000 living allowance
* $5,550 AmeriCorps Segal Education Award: Upon successful competition of a 1,700 hour term of service, service members will receive this monetary award which can be used to pay for education at qualified institutions of higher education, educational training, and to re-pay qualified student loans.
* Health insurance: FoodCorps will provide basic health, vision and dental coverage.
* SNAP eligibility (dependent on total income)
* Student loan forbearance (if eligible)
* Partial childcare reimbursements (if eligible)

What Service Members Will Do: 

NUTRITION EDUCATION. FoodCorps members will provide food and nutrition education in participating classrooms, using proven curricula to align nutrition education with science, math, and language standards while teaching students about the vital role that nutrition plays in their overall health and their academic success.

ENGAGEMENT. All of the focus schools have existing school gardens that are currently maintained by the GENE Garden Coordinators. With Network for a Healthy California funding for these positions scheduled to be reduced and/or redirected, FoodCorps members will play a vital role in working with school administration, parent-teacher organizations, local businesses and service clubs as sponsors, and the community at large to organize for continued maintenance of the gardens. FoodCorps members will work to maintain and expand these gardens and to develop systems to ensure that students have hands-on garden time and that garden produce is shared with students through taste testing, cafeteria “garden tables,” and/or sampling in the cafeteria.

ACCESS. FoodCorps members working with NCO will have opportunities to develop, test, and refine creative strategies to increase student access to healthy local produce. FoodCorps members will be introduced to the school staff by the Farm2Fork Coordinator, who has been working for the past two years to build relationships with food service staff and local food producers, make connections between them, and strengthen school capacity to use fresh local produce by reinforcing their infrastructure and skills.

In addition to working directly in local schools, FoodCorps members joining NCO will have the opportunity to participate in the “big picture” development of the community’s food security system, building on NCO’s current efforts to stimulate local food production and well-developed relationships with community partners.

Contact the Gardens Project if you have additional questions about this local opportunity. 

Meet our new Americorps member!

Myself, Cassie and our newest volunteer, Elizabeth, in the State St. Garden

Hi! My name is Natalie! I'm the new Americorps member here at the Gardens Project. After making the trek from the Midwest out here to the great state of California I am excited to explore life in Ukiah and be a part of the Gardens Project. I can already tell its going to be a busy year! I dove right in this past Sunday by helping out at the annual Homegrown Community Garden Tour   -the perfect orientation to some of the beautiful community gardens here in town. I got to meet many of the great people who manage and work in the gardens and I am already looking forward to helping out with the next big event: Run the Ranch on September 30th. Ukiah is beautiful and I am looking forward to hiking, biking, climbing and exploring the coast here. Hope to meet you soon!