February 10th Screening of “The End of the Line” Rescheduled due to Inclement Weather

The screening of “The End of the Line,” the first major documentary feature to explore the impact of overfishing on our oceans, scheduled for February 10th, has been postponed due to the weather forecast.  The screening, the first in the “Film Food Series,” has been rescheduled for Wednesday, February 24th, at 6:30 p.m. in Whitaker Laboratory (room 303).  We apologize for any inconvenience, and hope that you will join us on the 24th!  For more details about the exciting “Food Film Series,” which is presented in part by the South Side Initiative, please read the post from February5th or follow the link under “Events” in the blogroll on the right margin.

Join us tonight, February 9th, at 7:00 for a Southside Community Gardens Meeting

A reminder that there will be a general organization meeting for the Southside Community Gardens project tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 9th), at 7:00 in room 112 of Maginnes Hall on Lehigh’s lower campus. Metered parking is available directly across from the building; directions to Maginnes Hall may be found here: www3.lehigh.edu/about/maps/maginneshall.asp.

We hope to see you there!

Upcoming Screenings for Spring Semester’s “Food Film Series”

The South Side Initiative, in conjunction with ArtsLehigh, SustainabLehigh, Lehigh’s Library and Technology Services and Lehigh Dining, is presenting a series of documentary films that is likely to be of interest to members of the Southside Community Gardens project.  The “Food Film Series” will feature free screenings of five exciting films, providing an opportunity for the Gardens group to meet and engage in discussions with other members of the Lehigh community who share our concerns for sustainability, green technology, the diverse benefits of community gardens and locally grown food, and much more.  The films and dates are as follows: The End of the Line (February 10); Fresh (March 3); The Garden (March 24); Buffet: All You Can Eat Las Vegas (April 7); and Food Inc. (April 21).  Click on the flier above to learn more about the films.  All screenings will take place at 6:30 p.m. in Lehigh University’s Whitaker Laboratory (corner of Webster St. and Packer Ave), and will include post-screening discussion led by either the filmmaker or a Lehigh professor.  We hope to see you there!  Also, don’t forget our meeting this Tuesday, Feb. 9th, at 7 p.m. on the first floor of Maginnes Hall.

Southside Community Gardens Meeting February 9th

Hi All,

There will be a general organization meeting for the Southside Community Gardens project next Tuesday evening, Feb. 9th, at 7:00 on the first floor of Maginnes Hall on Lehigh’s lower campus.

Please look for a lengthy post by the end of this week, detailing where the project stands now and what needs to happen in this crucial stage of winter 2010 and beyond.

Best,

John

Southside Community Gardens Joins Facebook!

Please join us on Facebook, where Southside Community Gardens now has an account. Just use the badge on the right margin of this page, which is linked to our account, and add us as a “friend.”  I will be happy to accept your request.  If you do not already have a Facebook account, you will need to follow the quick and easy steps to create one using your e-mail address and a password of your choice.  Along with this blog and our recently created Twitter account (also linked to the right), our Facebook page will enable us to stay connected to other members in our group, to establish relationships with similar organizations, and to keep people updated about the work we are doing on Bethlehem’s southside.  We also hope that members of our group and our growing community of friends will use these resources to contribute their comments about our ongoing projects, to share information about other items of interest, and to let each other know what they are up to.

SSI Community Gardens: Summaries of September 15 and September 29 meetings

Below I am including John’s summaries from two meetings held during earlier planning phases of the Southside Community Gardens project last fall.  As reflected in previous posts to this blog, which are listed in chronological order below, plans have either progressed according to design, changed, evolved, or been delayed due to the inevitable busy schedules that arise at the end of the semester for a university organization.  Nonetheless, John included many thoughts and ideas which we should revisit and keep in mind as we schedule the important neighborhood meetings to build support and establish organization for our project, and finally begin the exciting work of planting community gardens on the southside of Bethlehem.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments regarding this post, or any of the other posts listed below.

Thanks,

Blaine

Hi All,

I’m writing to summarize the September 15th meeting of the Southside Community Garden project.

After last September’s First Friday event at the Maze Garden, and the Green the Block cleanup and hip hop open mic on September 11th (events designed to get the word out about the gardens project), we began to gear up for a series of public meetings in neighborhoods close to the garden sites.  The idea for these meetings is 1) to reach as many people as possible about the specifics of the project: what land we have to work with, what expertise, equipment, and other resources we’ll bring to gardening this spring; and 2) to raise interest in and finally commitment to working a plot of a particular site.

Subsequent meetings in the fall focused on scheduling these meetings and strategizing ways to publicize them through different media.  A number of people emphasized the need for visual representation of the benefits of organic community gardening.  Whether it’s through a series of posters, a power point presentation, a movie showing, interpretive dance … these practicalities of creative community outreach are still being discussed.

The public neighborhood meetings themselves still need to be scheduled for early weekday evenings in early 2010.

People attending the meeting had questions about the possibility of sites being added to the Southside Community Garden project:  1) space just to the south of Wildflower Café could be gardened if the City would allow; 2) what about “Junk Park” off of Broadway in the western part of the southside (and is that it’s real name)?; and 3) Fountain Hill, perhaps the space next to the community pool, should be included in the project.

By way of update, southside community organizers have expressed an interest in creating a commercial kitchen for use by various people and groups.  Having access to such a kitchen for processing foods could be an invaluable next stage of the project.

Finally, we continued to discuss the relative benefits of a communal-allotment model and a commercial model of gardening.  I’ll close by including a succinct description by Ken Hasz of two models (which are not mutually exclusive), along with links to two very impressive community gardens projects in Oakland and Milwaukee.

Please contact me, or the blog editor, with questions and suggestions.

Sincerely,

John Pettegrew

From Ken Hasz:

1. A modified traditional allotment system:

Individual beds are made available to local residents with a preference to those with low incomes.  One way to encourage this would be to advertise the availability through the New Bethany Soup Kitchen and the New Bethany Food Bank.  To better serve this population, which will tend to be transient and inexperienced at gardening, any plots not claimed by early spring would be started by the sponsoring group.  Common vegetables, such as head lettuce and green beans, are direct seeded, and others, such as tomatoes and peppers, are planted as well, starting seedlings in these plots which are made available for adoption, or at least foster care, as new people come into the area or are attracted by the spring growth.  When someone fostering a plot moves out of the area, the plot is maintained by the sponsoring group until it can be readopted.  The sponsoring group also supplies experienced gardeners at set times each week to give advice and answer questions.  People who sign on early could plant whatever they wish; they would be helped with seeds and seedlings as needed.

Some suggestions for the sponsoring group:

- a good-sized nearby church, such as the Episcopal Cathedral

- a Lehigh University group

- a group that comes together specifically for this purpose, possibly drawn from people attending SSI meetings

2. A semi-commercial food-production and job-creation project:

This would require significant funding, possibly from a grant or city and/or Lehigh University funds.  An experienced gardener/farmer with teaching aptitude would be hired part-time.  It would be best if this person were a local resident familiar with the neighborhood.  This head farmer would then hire and supervise a small crew of high school students who would be paid a relatively small stipend.  This crew would grow vegetables for sale at the regular Farmers’ Market on Lehigh’s campus.  Much or all of the money they make at the market would then be added to their stipend.  Any extra marketing they could do, such as sales to local restaurants, would also add to their income.  The area under vegetable production at the Maze could easily be doubled or tripled, and the crew might be able to locate other small plots in the area to add to their urban farm.

This project would provide nutritious, fresh food to the neighborhood, and summer jobs for young people that would teach them valuable skills in gardening and, maybe more importantly, in marketing; it could start someone on an entrepreneurial career.

The part-time head farmer position could become full-time for the growing season if three or four similar locations were also developed.  Students in a Lehigh community gardening course could be involved getting things started in spring before high school students are available full-time.

Projects to check out:

City Slicker Farms, West Oakland, CA: www.cityslickerfarms.org

Growing Power, Milwaukee, WI: www.growingpower.org

Hi All,

I’m writing with a summary of the September 29th Southside Community Garden project meeting, and to call for help and participation as we move forward into the crucial vision and design stage of the project.

The main order of business on September 29th was to plan for neighborhood meetings close to the planned garden sites in which we’ll explain the community garden project and raise interest among residents to work a plot for their tables.  Also, leadership among groups of neighborhood gardeners will be identified at these neighborhood meetings.

We’ve discussed holding three separate meetings: one on the westside for the Ullman Park site, another on the eastside for Roberto Clemente Park, and another in central southside for the Maze Garden.  While we had hoped to hold these meetings in November, we still need to set dates for all three meetings.  Possible locations for the meetings are St. Luke’s Hospital for Ullman, Donegal Elementary School for Roberto Clemente, and Holy Infancy or the Boys and Girls Club for Maze.

Most importantly, a Vision and Design Team was formed in the fall to organize these meetings, and the composition of the individual garden sites.  Chiharu, Lou Cinquino, Lauren Fuhry, and John Pettegrew make up the team so far; WE DO NEED MORE TO JOIN US.  Please let me know if you would like to help.

Publicity for the meetings is crucial.  Silagh Whaite suggested that we work through the teachers at Donegal and other public school teachers.  The Curriculum Director of the Bethlehem Area School District may be one possibility to contact teachers about our project and the meetings.  Does anyone have other ideas as to how to initiate contact with the public schools for this project?  Other ideas for publicity discussed thus far include the SSI email list; fliers; listing of the neighborhood meetings in church bulletins; contacting senior centers, the YMCA,  public libraries, NCC, hairdressers, grocery stores; putting fliers in Spooktacular trick or treat bags; writing a press release . . .

Any other ideas?

In another important matter, Chiraru reminded us that we need to test the soil of the intended sites.  We believe that, between Lehigh and the City of Bethlehem, the expertise is “at the ready” for such tests, but, again, we’re not exactly sure how best to proceed. Can someone please help us with this crucial step?  (For an update on the status of the testing, see the summary of the October 13 meeting below.)

Matt Sanderson did a good job in assessing the promise of the Southside Community Gardens project applying for a USDA Community Foods Project grant.  While the mid-November 2009 deadline was unrealistic, we should keep the USDA’s program, and their grants between $10,000 and $300,000, in mind for the near future.  Working on a proposal to the Community Action Development Corporation of Bethlehem is another promising and more immediate source of funding.

Finally, Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley (www.sunlv.org) hosted a two-day seminar on Nov. 14 and 15 run by the American Community Garden Association on the “how tos” of organizing community gardens projects.  (For more information, see the summary of the October 13 meeting below.)

Please contact me, or the blog editor, with information, suggestions, questions, and offers to contribute.

Sincerely,

John Pettegrew

Project H Design, a guide for the work of Southside Community Gardens, turns 2 years old

On January 8, Project H Design (www.projecthdesign.org), an innovative team of designers, architects, and builders committed to engaging locally through partnerships with social service organizations, communities, and schools to improve the quality of life for the socially overlooked, turned two years old.  Project H – the “H” refers to “Product design initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health, and Happiness” — works to develop simple and effective design solutions for those without access to creative capital; their mission, including their interest in healthy food, farming, and sustainability, speaks to our hopes for the benefits gardens will bring to the communities on the southside of Bethlehem.  In fact, the organization’s projects, especially their programs integrating education, community, and food production, could provide us with ideas and examples as our community gardens project moves, in the coming weeks and months, from planning to realization — and, in the future, to expansion.  For example, reading that they work closely with schools and other educational institutions, I am reminded not only of our connection to Lehigh, but of the initial talks John has had with people in the Bethlehem Area School District about partnering with schools and students in community gardening.  There are several projects described at the Project H website that could help us formulate an initial approach for working with Bethlehem-area schools, such as Broughal Middle School.

SSI Community Gardens Meeting November 23

The Southside Community Gardens group met on Monday, November 23, at 7 p.m. in Room 101, Maginnes Hall, on the Lehigh University campus.  Working from mid-November’s American Community Gardening Association seminar, we worked on, among other things, the informational meetings for different neighborhoods in the Southside and reciprocal relationship maps in pulling together budgets for the garden projects.  Also, Terry Stout showed us the logos he has been working on for our signage and brochure and the like; and Southside showings (including at Northampton Community College) of the documentary film “The Garden” were discussed.

Majora Carter’s “Green the Ghetto” Presentation at Lafayette College on November 12

Several people involved with the Southside Community Gardens group, along with local leaders and other people active in the sustainability community in the Lehigh Valley, attended the following event in Easton, PA, on November 12th at 7:30 p.m. in Lafayette College’s Oechsle Hall: “Green the Ghetto: And How Much It Won’t Cost Us,” with Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx (www.ssbx.org).  The success of this event, for which the attendance and response was significant, speaks to the fact that there is growing interest in the Lehigh Valley in the work we are trying to do, and attests that there are like-minded groups and individuals in the area with whom we can partner as we move forward in our efforts to bring the positive effects of community gardening, greenways, and sustainable living to the southside of Bethlehem.  While the scope of the work of Sustainable South Bronx may seem beyond our immediate goals at this point in time, and especially at this early stage, SSBX, whose work is also connected to a planned greenway, is instructive for our project; it serves as a resource and guide we can look to during the initial stages of our work in Bethlehem’s Southside, and an inspiration as we consider expanding our vision in the future.

SSI Community Gardens Meeting October 26

The Southside Community Gardens group met on Monday, October 26th, at 7 p.m. to finalize plans for our important upcoming community meetings and to discuss showing the award-winning documentary “The Garden” at these informational meetings, and at local community centers, in order to generate interest in our project.