Community of Gardeners

Throughout Washington, D.C., people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities are gardening side by side, growing vegetables, fruits and flowers in community gardens. Some are looking for basic sustenance, others for a way to remember their homelands, still others for a place to find a respite from their troubles. Through the voices of young people, senior citizens, immigrants, garden volunteers and educators, “A Community of Gardeners” explores the vital role of seven urban community gardens as sources of fresh, nutritious food, outdoor classrooms, places of healing, links to immigrants’ native countries, centers of social interaction, and oases of beauty and calm in inner-city neighborhoods. The film also looks back on the history of community gardens in the United States, from the potato patch farms of the late 19th century, to the victory gardens of World War II, to community gardening’s current renaissance.

-Communityofgardeners.com

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School Lunch Week in Review

It seems that throughout the country many schools recognized the federally declared National School Lunch Week of October 11th to the 15th, 2010.

Efforts stemmed from grassroots organizations to The U.S. Department of Agriculture and of course The First Lady. It’s beginning to feel like fundamentally things are starting to change and not just by radical healthcare reform.  People, especially children, are beginning to realize the change starts with education.

This week a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visited an elementary school in southwestern Minnesota on Friday to present a healthy schools challenge award. Children are being recognized for their involvement in physical and nutritional challenges as well as encouraged by leaders.  Many grassroots organizations hosted challenges of their own and encouraged the change to happen from home too. Parents were taught creative ways to pack healthier school lunches for their children and to get involved with their local school.  In Oakland, the OUSD’s Nutrition Services team served sustainably raised grass-fed beef for the entire week.

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National School Lunch Week

Many of you may know, as declared by congress on October 9, 1962 (Public Law 87-780), has designated the week beginning on the second Sunday in October each year as “National School Lunch Week.”

Barack Obama officially endorsed this week on Friday, October 8th and has called upon Americans to support administers of the National School Lunch Program in ways to encourage healthy life style choices of children of the United States of America

This is all proposed with much support from The First Lady Michelle Obama and her Let’s Move Initiative. In the Let’s Move Initiative, Chefs are pairing with schools to teach healthy and creative lunch preparation, schools are partnering up with local farms to provide locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables for school meals, and children are taking part in the HealthierUS School Challenge to encourage physical activity and well balanced diets.

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School Lunches or Fast Food?

As many of you may know September 30th, 2010 is a big day for school meal reform.  Congress has the option to increase funding for school lunches at the cost of taking money from the Food Stamp Program.  Although tomorrow could be the much awaited day for school meal reform, there is still strong opposition.

One of the issues proponents of school meal reform argue, is that the quality of meat served in the fast food industry is higher than that served in school cafeterias. Over the last few years this has been a major issue stimulating conversation from the break room to Congress.

Most schools heavily rely on the government to provide their staple meat products including beef and chicken.  Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture claims that all food provided to the schools, “meets or exceeds standards in commercial products” many can argue that statement as being simply untrue.  It has been said that fast food restaurants such as KFC and Jack In The Box and even Campbell’s Soup would not use the meat given to the schools as their product.  How can we expect our children to preform well in school when the meat given to them was denied by KFC, on it’s way to compost and ended up on their plate?

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Update: Please Vote for School Garden Grant!

Thank you all for your votes!

PlantingProgress was not one of the 10 final ideas to be selected for a $25,000 grant.  However, the word got out and people are excited about school gardens and the work being done by PlantingProgress.  We had votes from people of all demographics throughout the country and a lot of support.

If you have an ideas about how to receive a school garden grant for your school or someone’s you may know, contact us at PlantingProgress.

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School Gardens for Fall

Yesterday in Mt. Rainier, Maryland it was time to tie up the summer garden and time to start planting the fall garden.  The summer garden did incredibly well yielding a dozen tomatoes, beautiful zucchini, endless amounts of basil, cilantro, and some of the biggest peppers I have ever seen.

We decided to leave the ‘Big Daddy Pepper Plants’ for a few more weeks because they continue to produce wonderful peppers.  As we were cleaning up the garden, I asked what the children thought of the vegetables they had grown.

A young boy’s response, “They were the best tomatoes I have ever had.  I’m so excited to be helping with the fall garden.  Everyday over the summer my sister would come home talking about the garden.”

Another little girl was excited to share her experience with the peppers, “They were so sweet and yummy.  I love them!”

They were excited to hear they will be using the abundance of basil to learn how to make pesto. This can all be part of a school garden curriculum.

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