Academic Benefits of Knowing Your Food

This is an interesting article on the real benefits to test scores when urban students are exposed to agriculture and rural life (and for rural students, vice versa).

A Moo-Moo Here, and Better Test Scores Later

Up and running for the fall semester

As the everyone settles into the rhythm of a new semester, we've resumed our weekly planning meetings. A number of new faces have joined the project bringing fresh ideas to the table. Welcome all!

This semester we've increased the scope of the after-school educational program, teaching bi-weekly lessons centered around nutrition, gardening and food sustainability. After the success of last year's communal meal, both Columbia students and Grant House residents have expressed the desire to have another such feast this year. Planning for the meal has thus already begun. Donations of food for the meal will be more than welcome. If anyone is interested in donating, or has any leads on potential donors, please contact us.

As far as the construction of the actual garden goes, we are currently at a bureaucratic standstill. For insurance purposes, Columbia requires us to be "housed" by a department or organization that has the authority to legally bind the University in a contract with NYCHA. We've contacted various departments throughout the university, but remain as of yet, without a "home". We are open to any ideas as to who might be able to take us under-wing or how we might circumvent this obstacle. Despite such bureaucratic frustrations, we remain optimistic and hope to see the garden built in the coming spring.

Here's to a productive semester!

Garden and Summer Classes Update

We've been busy coordinating with various NYCHA and Columbia Community Impact officials to negotiate the legal agreement between Columbia University and the NYC Housing Authority that will allow us to proceed with the garden. Currently, the discussion hinges on questions regarding the fence. How much space can we use? How high will the fence be? Who will have access to the space? These are all important questions that students and residents have discussed and will continue to discuss as the project progresses. We hope to resolve any remaining sticking points by early fall so we will be ready for fence implementation and other garden construction before winter.

In the meantime, a group of five dedicated volunteers have been running summer classes for Grant Houses youth in the Summer Day Program. Three days a week volunteers come in and work with three groups of students, the 9s, 8/7s, and 6s (by age), discussing food and gardens. Class topics have included an introduction to the Columbia Community Garden, the different parts of plants and parts we eat, composting, and the food pyramid. See pictures below of students building worm composting bins!

Composting at Grant!

Grant Goes Green

While we await insurance approval before moving ahead with the Grant Garden (it is looking like a fall construction project at this point), Grant Houses residents are greening their homes in other ways. A recent article in the NYTimes featured Gloria Allen and Sarah Martin of the Grant Houses as they fuel a grassroots recycling initiative at Grant. Check it out!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/science/earth/04recycle.html?scp=6&sq=sarah%20martin&st=cse

We tip our hats to these women for their outstanding work and to all of Grant for making the effort to green their community. We hope to see the garden support their efforts in coming months!

Additionally, if you are interested in volunteering this summer to teach food and garden classes to youth at Grant utilizing the Columbia Community Garden's available space, please email grantcommunitygarden@gmail.com with your times and dates of availability.

Grants for Grant!

We received a generous grant of $2500 from the Citizens Committee for New York City recently! This will enable us to take advantage of the garden as a public space and classroom, using it as a tool for other initiatives beyond simply growing food--though that is not always so simple in itself. We are grateful to the Citizens Committee for providing us this grant and look forward to taking advantage of their community organzing expertise and resources to aid us in our endeavor.

http://www.citizensnyc.org/

Blogistics

This is just a test post to make sure the events calendar is staying at the top of the blog.

Cheers,
Eli

Before Grant...

If grass surrounds the Grant Houses now and soon there will be a vegetable garden, what, one might wonder, was there before? New York Public Library photo archives reveal that, in fact, there was quite a lot...

...shops...


...apartments...


...and long ago, farms.

Making Guacamole

On Friday, after reviewing the growth stages of a fruit plant (including a dramatic rendition of the process), we made guacamole! The best part? Getting to eat it afterwards, of course!

Class #2 -- The Seed!

 
 
 
 

Spectator Article

A bit of publicity for us, courtesy of the Columbia Spectator!

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/02/19/campus-food-sustainability-project-sprouts-city-initiative

Beginning of Classes!

We had our first day working with Grant Houses youth in the afterschool program on Friday. The kids were full of enthusiasm, along with the teachers. Leah, Rickie, Gracie and Andrew led a lesson on what kinds of foods grow in New York City (hint: not citrus) and a special lesson on the origins of chocolate--it's a plant!--in honor of Valentine's Day. Check out the slideshow below and you'll see a few puckered faces from tasting chocolate without sugar.

Community Greening Meeting!

Please join us to discuss community gardening and greening at the Grant Houses and in the surrounding community.

10:00am
Thursday
February 12th, 2009
George Bruce Library (downstairs)

Please contact grantcommunitygarden@gmail.com for more information.

Meeting Recap 1.27.09

I. Food education
We set Friday, Feb 13th to start our food/garden education program for youth in the Grant Houses Afterschool Program, which will tentatively run every Friday afternoon. Thanks to Gracie and Sarah for keeping in touch with Leanna about this! Everyone’s task is to research food and garden education information we can use to devise a curriculum for the semester. Think about what you would/could teach in an hour with Grant Houses youth.

II. Budget & Funding
a. Thanks to Ed for proposing a rubric for a project pitch to use to ask for funding. Nadia, Saskia, Rickie, and Ed are piecing this together, and Becky will contribute relevant information/photos. Once we have a finished product we will take it to potential donors and sponsors including area businesses, academic departments, and other campus groups.
b. Sarah is heading the charge for a fundraising dinner. She’ll contact Laura and Leslie to discuss this further, and we’ll all talk about it next Tuesday.
c. Grants: below is a list of the grants submitted, signed up for, and remaining to be completed. If you haven’t submitted one and have been working on the project since we started distributing grants, please sign up for one. I’ll send out a revised budget for anyone about to submit one within the next few days. Also, it would be great for anyone who can to research statistical (health, income, etc.) info about the neighborhood so we can include that information in our grant applications, as Saskia noted.

Captain Planet Grant (Submitted)--Tabitha and Becky
Healthy Sprouts Grant (received!)—Saskia
Filter For Good Grant (submitted, turned down)--Becky
Project Orange Thumb (not submitted-due 2/17)--?
Home Depot Garden Grant (submitted)—Julia
Columbia Sustainable Campus (submitted)—Andrew, Hannah
Diversity Initiative Grant (not submitted)—Theo
Office of Univ. Chaplain Co-sponsorship Fund (not submitted, due 2/13)—Laura
Do Something Grant (not submitted)—Rickie, Gracie
Citizens Committee for New York (not submitted, due 3/14)—Laura
G-Unity Foundation Grant (not submitted, due 3/15)--?
Jenny Jones Grant (not submitted)--?

III. Community Connections
a. Next Tuesday at 10:30am Becky is meeting with the senior council of Community Board 9 (CB9) to discuss the Grant Garden project and their proposed senior reading garden. The meeting will take place at George Bruce Library downstairs, 518 W 125th St. Everyone is welcome to join.
b. Becky is going to contact Sarah Martin (Tenants Assoc. Pres.), Rob Bennaton (NYCHA Gardens coordinator), and Ernestine Welch (CB9 Senior Committee) to propose setting up a lunch where we can all touch base and chat informally about the garden and the Grant Houses. Date/time not set, but anyone will be welcome.

IV. Meeting time
From now on we will meet Tuesdays from 8-9pm at Rickie’s apartment. The doorman will have a list of names of people to let in—bring some I.D.