A Food Plan for Boston

When I graduated college in 1971, having lived in cities my whole life, I moved to Vermont to explore a simpler lifestyle, closer to nature and the land. A few days after arriving there, I called to say hello to a college advisor who also had by then moved to the Green Mountain State, for similar reasons. We chatted for a minute, and then he said: “Well, have you planted your garden yet?” “Do you mean flowers?” I said. “No. You live in Vermont now. You need to plant a vegetable garden.” I shrugged my shoulders, but within the next few weeks, there was dirt under my fingernails, seeds in my pockets, and manure on the soles of my shoes.

Several years later I returned to the city. My family and I have lived in Jamaica Plain for thirty years and, with almost religious devotion, we plant a vegetable garden every year. I can’t overstate the fulfillment that comes with being outside, digging in the ground, planting seeds, cultivating, nurturing young plants, following their progress, harvesting, and ultimately enjoying, on the dinner table, the fruits of that labor. During the summer months and into the fall, we buy no vegetables from the market. All the vegetables my family eats — lettuce, beans, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, beets, chard, cucumbers, carrots, eggplant, onions, garlic, cabbage, pumpkins, winter squash, and more — are products of the soil we till.

And so I find myself almost forty years later, at the end of this year’s harvest and a few days after World Food Day, echoing the words of my college advisor – and the more recent urgings of food activists like Michael Pollan — in crying out to my fellow city-dwellers: Plant a garden!

Why? Because there’s nothing better for your family’s health than organically grown vegetables. Because by growing your own you eat the freshest possible, and reduce the “carbon footprint” left when food is shipped from halfway around the world, or even just a few counties away. Because in these trying economic times, it’s reassuring for families to know they can put their own food on the table, several months of the year – and longer, with canning and freezing — for minimal expense. (Boston Natural Areas Network [BNAN] reported on October 20 that the average Boston community garden plot produced $431 worth of food.) And because the act of gardening itself – the small but meaningful bit of stewardship of the land, the connection to nature’s life cycles, the pleasure of nurturing growing things – is simply so rewarding and renewing.

How to do it? We have about 150 community gardens in Boston – my family plants in one of them — but we need to create many, many more. Large swaths of parkland in residential areas throughout the city — Franklin Park and the Southwest Corridor Park in my area come to mind – can become shared urban farmsteads, with minimal outlay. Workplaces with some greenspace around them (or even a flat roof) can set a portion aside for growing vegetables, that employees can tend before and after work, and during lunch break. And, of course, home gardens, in the front or back yard, are always the simplest option.

Schools should be included as an indispensable part of this urban farming vision. “Food” can become a key part of each grade’s mission and curriculum, with growing vegetables at its core. Classes can start seedlings in the classroom, plant and tend them in the school’s own community garden, care for and harvest them, and cook up tasty recipes together. Parents would be strongly encouraged to participate, weekends or after-school, and during the summer — bonding with other families while gardening together. The students’ curriculum: lots of practical math problems, science galore (biology, botany, chemistry, geology, ecology, meteorology), geography, health/nutrition, the history and geo-politics of water and food, prose and poetry musings on nature: a veritable cornucopia of diverse topics to inform and enrich their hands-on experiences.

As a city boy who was introduced to the joys of gardening many years ago, and has been thankful ever since, I hope we find ways to make urban farming an integral part of civic life in Boston. Several organizations — like BNAN (including their SLUG – “Students Learning Through Urban Gardening” — Program), Earthworks (fruit tree planting throughout the city) and The Food Project (engaging inner city youth in urban farming) — are already working hard to make that happen. Let’s urge our school, public health, and municipal leaders to cultivate their ties to these and other green pioneers, giving every Boston family a chance to “grow their own.”

Michael D. Felsen
Jamaica Plain, MA. 02130

The author is an attorney who gratefully gardens at the South Street Community Garden on the Jamaica Plain campus of UMass Medical School.

So much of the comments and information from these presentations and conversations is timeless and invaluable that we turn back to them occasionally as a key resource or training tool. Now, they’re available to download right here. Check out the topics below and let us know what you think.

Each recording is about 1 1/2 hours long and includes a presentation followed by open discussion. (Files are 5mb mp3’s and sound quality varies).

Urban Agriculture

Youth Development

Retention in Youth Programs

Policy Teleconference

Non-Profit Management

On Sunday June 8th from 8am-12pm at Tomasiello Farm on Lisa Lane in Bloomfield, CT, students of the Donald F. Harris Agriscience Center at Bloomfield High School and local volunteers will be planting Eggplant, Kale, Tomatoes and Winter Squash to be raised by Farmer Desmond Samuda at his farm. The vegetables will then be harvested in the fall by the students and served as part of the school lunch program. We invite everyone to volunteer and take part in this fantastic opportunity to see first hand why Bloomfield’s school nutrition program and the district’s initiative to feature more locally grown produce as part of school meals is a model for others to follow.  

“Hats off to all of those students and teachers who have taken this innovative approach to nutrition and education.” Deb Eschmeyer, Spokesperson for National Farm to School Network

This collaboration between the Bloomfield Schools Farm to School program and Farmer Desmond is unlike anything happening in the Northeast. To form a partnership with a local West Indies Farmer in a school district with a large West Indies population is the real trick to teaching the students the importance of supporting local farms and eating nutritious foods. Stop by; You have to see it to believe it!
 
For more information or to SIGN UP contact:
Chef Timothy Cipriano
Food Service Director
Bloomfield Public Schools
1133 Blue Hills Ave
Bloomfield, CT 06002
(Office) 860-769-4209
(Cell) 860-209-5575

This victory is testament to the tenacity and discipline of the Coalition, a community-based worker organization, which has exposed a half-dozen slavery cases that helped trigger the freeing of more than 1000 workers. It has also advocated for better wages, living conditions, respect from the industry, and an end to indentured servitude. In this last year, CIW scored victories in negotiating a penny-per-pound surcharge — so workers would receive about 77 cents per 32-pound bucket — with McDonald’s and Yum! Brands (owner of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC). (The corporations also agreed to work with the Coalition to eliminate slavery from the fields.) And the corporations — not the tomato growers — agreed to pay the 40 percent salary increase.

Full story: http://www.alternet.org/story/86619/

Our annual City Farm Fest is Saturday April 26th, from 12pm – 3pm.

Do you have a garden? Do you want your plants to grow big and strong without using chemical fertilizer? What you need is compost, and we’re giving it away for FREE! We are holding our annual City Farm Fest on April 26 from 12pm to 3pm on our West Cottage lot in Dorchester. We will distribute FREE compost to neighborhood gardeners and information about healthy soil, reducing lead exposure, and tips on safe gardening in urban areas. In addition, there will be food and live music! We will also have a plant sale with vegetables like tomatoes, collards, and peppers that you can plant in your garden.

A new feature of City Farm Fest this year is our workshop called Square Foot Gardening: Tips for Maximizing Space. The workshop is from 12:30 to 1:30 and is open to anyone who wants to learn more about gardening in a limited amount of space. Additionally, we will have a tour of the Dudley Street neighborhood and its gardens at 1:45.

Please stop by for good food, good music, free compost, and a celebration of spring!

In 2006 The Food Project (TFP) began conversations with the Director of Food
and Nutrition Services (FNS) for the Boston Public Schools (BPS), Helen Mont-Ferguson, to discuss the possibility of incorporating fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables into meals served in the BPS.

These conversations illuminated a number of barriers that currently discourage procurement of locally grown fruits, vegetables and other healthy food products by FNS. However, what also emerged in these discussions was a strong interest and enthusiasm by food service staff and leadership for such a change to food service operations in the BPS. This interest and enthusiasm for increasing the availability of fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables for students in the BPS propelled The Food Project to research the feasibility of bringing fresh, local produce into the Boston Public Schools.

To learn more, check out the full report here:
http://www.thefoodproject.org/uploadedfiles/TheFoodProject_Farm2SchoolReport.pdf

Earlier today, while thinking about her new responsibility that begins on Monday, Margaret shared:
“The Food Project has always been ahead of its time, recognizing the power of youth working together to produce social good through sustainable agriculture. The challenge now is twofold: to ensure The Food Project continues to affect measurable change within our own communities while also remaining in the vanguard of what has become a national movement. I look forward to helping The Food Project achieve its ground-breaking vision both locally and nationally.”

The Board of Trustees, the Search Committee, and staff are excited by the leadership and energy she brings to the organization and appreciate your continued support during our executive transition and into our next phase of leadership.

We would like to thank Search Committee members for their hard work and commitment over the last year and in particular Josh Solomon, chair of the Search Committee. In addition, we would like to recognize Susan MacDougall for her exceptional leadership as Interim Executive Director. All of us at The Food Project look forward to having you meet Margaret in the near future.

The Cedar Tree Foundation’s grant making focuses on sustainable agriculture, environmental education and environmental health–particularly for groups that demonstrate strong elements of environmental justice and conservation. This award is especially meaningful to The Food Project as it strengthens our ability to encourage and support others to eat local.

Click the links above for applications and more information. If you’re not sure what a CSA is, or want to learn more about Community Supported Agriculture, click here.

Dear Friend:

I’ve been thinking over the last few days how best to organize my thoughts to update our most cherished stakeholders; I came up with four letters: TION.

TransiTION: Pat Gray has graduated after 16 years and is sticking her toes into the waters of endless opportunities and I can only guess who will next be blessed with her vision, commitment and passion. We all miss her and I personally am grateful she has made herself available to share advice whenever asked. I was hired two years ago to support Pat as Managing Director. We worked closely together to develop a five-year plan in which we streamlined organizational structure. Months later when Pat tapped me to be Interim Executive Director, I was honored to serve. Together, with Pat’s senior team intact, we have made great strides riding the wave of eat local trends and strategically deciding among the myriad of opportunities.

Meanwhile, Gilbert Tweed Associates continues to assist our Search Committee to find a leader who can take the organization to its next level of excellence. I am happy to share with you my thoughts about this process at any time. Please call (781-259-8621 X34).

ReflecTION: As we grow, we’ve been learning. Over the last year, the senior team has reflected on the range of programs we offer and internal operations. In true Food Project fashion, the process has been transparent and participatory. Some changes included changing the fiscal year, reorganizing TFP into four major workgroups, involving program staff in fundraising activities, tightening relations with our North Shore replication site, committing to longitudinal research, rekindling our diversity and hiring policies and practices, building infrastructure for growth of core youth programs, and reevaluating our national work. Programs, operations and staff morale are better than ever.

SituaTION: A red apple with an ‘Eat Local’ label adorned the cover of the March 12, 2007 issue of TIME magazine. “Eat local” articles are popping up everywhere–even Reader’s Digest and United Airlines’ magazine. Mainstream media has finally caught on! For sixteen years The Food Project has been at the forefront of this movement – by employing youth to grow and distribute local produce and mentoring 150 national organizations and countless individuals to do the same. Childhood obesity, urban health issues, and concerns over rising youth violence in Boston have also put The Food Project’s work in the spotlight.

EvaluaTION: Since 2000, youth participants have completed short-term outcome evaluations. This year, we conducted our first long-term evaluation with the assistance of Shirley Brice Heath, at Brown University, and Brigham Nahas Research Associates. Our goal was to contact 812 alumni and to establish an extensive alumni network and program. Interviews with our alumni are revealing lasting program impacts which include:

1) life and employment skills
2) leadership and public speaking skills
3) increased sensitivity to, and ability to work with, diverse populations
4) improved eating habits

CommunicaTION: The Food Project has a compelling story to tell. Our vision is personal and social change through sustainable agriculture. But what does that really mean? Over the last year, Greenough Communications has helped us reshape our message for greater understanding and impact – critical components in achieving our ambitious five-year goals. We are implementing their recommendations that hopefully will make a noticeable difference.

ExpectaTION: To grow our youth programs we need land. We are working closely with the City of Boston to secure additional acreage in our Roxbury neighborhood with hopes of having land transferred to us this year and fifty additional youth employed on our land next year.

InvitaTION: I remain committed to doing whatever I can to ensure the program’s success. And nothing, other than my family, has mattered so much to me. The greatest thing you can do at this time is to continue to support The Food Project. And please stay in touch so we can keep you connected in a manner most meaningful to you and your family.

Very Best,

Susan MacDougall
Interim Executive Director

We’ve just posted the registration form for our 2008 Winter Institute, which will be held February 7-9, 2008, at our sites in the Boston metro area. For more information, and to download the form, please see the Institute page on our website.

The Real Food Challenge is taking off. Our goal: re-direct $4 billion worth of college food spending towards smaller, local, organic farmers in the US and beyond. This summer, we—along with our partners, including Slow Food USA and the California Student Sustainability Coalition—formed a national Design Team. Leading up to the Sept 2008 public launch, we are defining plans, hosting two regional summits (one at Yale in November), and creating a website (late Oct). We plan to hit the ground running with at least 80 schools signed up to work towards a collective goal.

Living the change we want to see: The third class of Cadre members finished their year with a final retreat at a food sovereignty conference in Hawaii. Joining 160 youth, mostly native Hawaiians from all of the different islands, this was a more of a deep experience of cultural revival than a typical conference. We built stone walls, repaired fish ponds, planted taro (“kalo”), made a traditional pit oven, cooked pork, and hosted a fundraiser, among other things. More photos and info at: http://handsturned.tripod.com/

New Cadre class includes 3 from TFP community. TFP alums David Schwartz and Carmen Dongo join John Wang 7 other young leaders from around the country in next year’s Cadre class. There were more than 3 applicants for every spot. Decision-making was excruciating. Thanks to those who read applications and gave input. The first retreat for this group is this weekend. Almost half of the Cadre members are heavily involved in creating The Real Food Challenge. See profiles at: http://www.thefoodproject.org/blast/internal1.asp?ID=602

Reap/Sow is going to cover crop. We are suspending production this year to focus on the Real Food Challenge. The website is still up and contains a great archive of reviews, recipes, art, and other creative and fun stuff. You can always check it out at www.reapsow.org.

Closing words from one of the many chants we learned at Hawaii:
Gratitude, admiration, thanks, and love
To all who are present both seen and unseen.

The goal of The Food Project’s Build-a-Garden program is to get more people in the city of Boston to grow their own food. We’ll build you a garden, and provide the support you will need to grow food successfully.

For more information or to apply for the program, see our Build-A-Garden webpage.

The winter CSA is an opportunity for you to receive healthy and delicious, locally grown produce from The Food Project twice during the holiday season. Historic Codman Barn in Lincoln will host our distribution of vegetables, herbs, fruit, and baked goods once during the week before Thanksgiving, and again during the week before Christmas.

Please see our Winter CSA page for more information and to sign up.

You can also read more about the other urban agriculture initiatives here at The Food Project.

Thanks to BzzAgent for helping us out on the farm and then writing about the great experience they had!

Teenagers dig in at farmers market – Boston Globe

Boston group turns to farms to fight fat problem – Reuters

Gardens in the hood – Grist

Tour De Farm – Weekly Dig

Farming the Concrete Jungle – In These Times

Growing our local food connections – Gloucester Daily Times

In case you’ve never heard of Eat In, Act Out week or the Day of Action, I’ll let you in on the details. The BLAST interns started the Day of Action 7 years ago. They decided that the best way to “Act Out” about local food was to take it to the streets… and bring carrots with them. So for the last 7 years we’ve been heading to Copley Square on the first Wednesday of August to hand out carrots and talk to people about eating local. We also have taste-testing and a display of what grows in Boston.

3 years ago the day went national and became a whole week, Eat In, Act Out week. Now every year organizations around the country host their own events encouraging people from their community to go loco for local. San Diego Food Not Lawns is hosting a week of workshops, an edible bike tour, a tomato test at their city hall and a community dinner. Evergreen Community Gardens in Seattle is having a celebration of local food and art. Growing Green Youth in Buffalo is hosting a barbeque complete with skits on local food and youth-led tours. These are just a few of the many events that members of our national community are hosting. To see all the events check out this handy map with all the details.

That brings us up to this year, our first year hosting the week as Urban Education and Outreach interns (a merger between BLAST and Urban Education Internships). This year not only will we return to Copley Square but we will also be working with North Shore interns to have Lynn’s first ever Day of Action. Whether in Boston or Lynn we are all pumped to talk with members of community and spread the word about local food. Other events we are hosting include one time guerilla farmer’s markets at Boston Medical Center and the Bowdoin and Geneva neighborhood in Dorchester as well as a potluck dinner on our Urban Learning Farm.

If you can’t make it to any events, or even if you can, you can always be a part of the week by Eating In. Here at The Food Project we’re keeping logs and having a competition to see who can eat the most local food. We encourage everyone to have their own contest, between your family, your friends, your co-workers or anyone else who’s interested. In addition we encourage you to post a pledge here as a comment saying how much you can spend on local food this August. Last year, with the help of multiple organizations, farmers markets and of course lots of individuals, we recorded a total of $24,070 pledged to be spent on local food in August. It doesn’t have to be enough, all we ask for is some commitment to eating local. With your help maybe we can raise even more this year!

Even if you just buy one local apple, you’re eating in. Even if you just tell one friend, you’re acting out. So please this week, this month, this year find every opportunity to Eat In and Act Out.

And remember to check out the map for events near you.

Have great day!

Addie

YSFP sustains speaker series – from the Yale Daily News
Equal opportunity organic – from Grist

Note that our Cambridge box share pickup location is full, but we still have spaces available for our Arlington and Jamaica Plain pickups.

Not even sure what a CSA is? Check out our Community Supported Agriculture page for more information. For an idea of what owning a CSA share is all about, you can read past issues of our CSA Newsletters. Issued once a week during the growing season, they offer cooking tips, recipes, and news from the farm.

The program will provide you with:
–A raised bed garden including soil and compost
–Seeds and transplants
–Your own Grower’s Manual
–Trainings and drop-in days on our Urban Learning Farm at Shirley Place, Roxbury MA

For more details, please download this brochure (PDF).

You can also download an application:
English application (PDF)

Spanish application (PDF)

–Kate Casale, Alameda Point Collaborative

Entries will be featured in a photo gallery in an upcoming edition of reap/sow. Photographs must be submitted with a short caption that (a) identifies the photographer and location of the photo, and (b) briefly explains what the photo means with a sentence or two, a quote, or even a short poem.

We’re looking for photos that show the many aspects of this movement: the inspiration, the humor, the unexpected, the creative, the joy, the sweat, and the beauty. Photos will be judged in these categories. We welcome submissions by people of all ages, although all photos must be by, for, or about the youngest generation-those 30 and under. If you are over 30, your photo should feature youth and young adults or you should explain in your caption why your photo is one that you want young people to see. There is no limit to how many photos one person can enter.

Email photos, contact info, and caption to Rowan Dunlap at by February 20, 2007. Please include your mailing address so your prize, Wil Bullock’s Time for Change CD, can be mailed to you.