Wednesday, September 30, 2009

GroW Community Garden Volunteer Form

Hey Everyone! As promised here is the link to the volunteer form to the garden. You can use this form to submit your service hours and make suggestions for the improving the volunteer experience for others!

Thanks again for all of your help!!!! Go Green!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFgwZ3lIS1ZZMkZ0Ti1wVUlUUVFFZWc6MA

Michelle Obama's Challenge and GroW

For those of you not familiar with what has been going on at GW, a few weeks ago Michelle Obama challenged GW students to complete 100,000 hours of community service. If we complete these hours by May 2010, Mrs. Obama will be our commencement speaker (pretty cool huh?!). GroW is going to help GW reach this goal because all the time we spend watering, planting, weeding, and doing other miscellaneous garden tasks count towards these 100,000 hours. Our fantastic member J.D. Spang created a spreadsheet that will track our volunteer hours.

We are going to get the spreadsheet posted here asap-so stay tuned.

In the meantime if you have questions or want to record your hours please email us at foodjusticealliance@gmail.com

Just a quick update on the GroW Community Garden:
It seems as if the days are getting a little shorter and the mornings that much colder. But have no fear; our plants are still growing! In fact our experiential fall thyme seems to just be sprouting now: hopefully the frost will hold off for a few more weeks. Speaking of our little sprouts, the reason they are doing so fantastic is because of the dedication of our members who have been watering every day. Big shout out to our watering crew!


That's all for this Wednesday: Enjoy a nice cup of tea and a fall apple this afternoon.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

GroW Community Garden Groundbreaking




Well we did it!! GW finally has a community garden. Our groundbreaking went off perfectly and was such a great collaboration between students, administrators and community members.

About 20 students were there; Office of Sustainability; Office of Real Estate;the Landscape Design Program which designed the actual garden; Office of Community Service; School of Public Health; Mrs. Knapp; our financial supporter David; and some other interested community members. The Hatchet as well as media relations from GW covered the groundbreaking.




A few speeches were given and then it was time to get down and dirty. Our fearless volunteers helped fill the remaining beds with soil and compost and then we direct seeded some fall crops. We planted endive, lettuce, radishes, swiss chard, spinach, and turnips. We have been watering the garden every day since and hope to see some baby plants very soon.



We will be maintaining the three beds until more are built and we can move into phase 2 of planting the rest of the garden. For now, this is a great way to kick off the fall and thank you to everyone who helped make the day a success.



Look for more picture soon as our crops start to come in.


Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Welcome Back


Welcome back to a brand new, super exciting school year.

The FJA was super busy this summer as there was lots of work to do to make sure the garden has its groundbreaking (which it does!). John was in DC and helped out with the Foggy Bottom Garden Club, chose a landscape design for the garden, and tabled at orientation for freshman to get them involved in FJA. Claire worked tirelessly on our organization's constitution, and fingers crossed we will be an official student org within the next few weeks! Amanda was busy farming away but still making sure all the little nooks and crannies got taken care of.

So about that groundbreaking: YES it is actually happening: September 12, 2009 on the north side of H St. between 23 and 24 St. We are going to be planting some late fall crops such as lettuce, chard, and radishes as well as having some speakers address the huge accomplishment that is the GroW Community Garden. At 12 we are inviting people and their friends to come with a bag lunch and have a picnic in the garden.

Leading up to the 12 there is much to be done such as getting food for the event, putting the raised beds in place, laying cardboard (which we went dumpster diving for around campus!), and filling the beds with dirt.

FJA is very excited that our "baby" that we have nurtured and seen grown is finally happening.

Stay tuned for more updates about the GroW garden and other projects we are up to.

Don't forget to enjoy the last few weeks of summer with the bounties of yummy food at the farmers market; I just picked up some white peaches and they smell absolutely delicious.

peace, love, and food for all

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Real Food BBQ





Happy Earth Day!

What have you done today to be green?

Here in DC, FJA has been busy planning a menu, ordering food, applying for funding for our real food bbq in honor of earth's bounty. Thanks to the help of Sodexo, our fearless FJA members, Gina, and the Office of Sustainability our BBQ was a complete success.

The menu included organic burgers, veggie kabobs, potato salad, green salad, local apples, and organic cookies. We had food for 600 people and were a little worried about getting rid of all the food; but we ran out of food in an hour! That was incredible. I also think we got our name out there and recruited some new members. Yay for local, organic food.

Have a green day

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Garden Inspiration!


For some inspiration, here is the plan for the garden being planted at the White House- Just about 6 blocks from our garden we are planting this fall!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Farmer's Market!


The Foggy Bottom Farmer's Market is open! I am exited that it's the seasons for farmer's markets again. This one takes places by the metro on Wednesday's from 2-7. I went yesterday and there was a lot of great food to be had! I bought a bunch of kale ($3), cilantro ($3), potatoes, and apples.

With my fresh cilantro and potatoes I am currently making a potato dish. It is relatively easy and most of the items can be found local! The farmers market definitely has a bunch of great things to offer- especially samples!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Foggy Bottom Community Garden Project




Who we are:
The Food Justice Alliance is a GW student organization founded the spring semester of 2009 with two main goals: to get more local food served in our cafeteria and to create an on-campus community garden.

What we want to do:
We want to create a community garden that will allow students and the larger DC community to connect with food production through service-learning.

How We Are Doing It:
Currently: We are working with Sodexho to bring local food to our cafeteria and have succeeded in making local apples available. Through the Earth Week Committee we are planning a “Real Food” Barbeque for three hundred people utilizing local, organic foods. We are collaborating with Professor Jeanette Ankoma-Sey’s Edible Landscaping Class whose students are creating a layout, plant list, and detailing the logistics of our community garden at GW. The students are being encouraged to utilize native plants and plants found on the Mount Vernon Estate. The garden will be maintained using permaculture and organic methods. Further our garden will be ADA accessible.

Future Plans: Our current focus is on fundraising and developing a sustainable plan for our community garden. We have set a first planting goal for the Fall of 2009. After our first growing season we plan to cover our overhead costs by selling produce at the Foggy Bottom Farmers Market and donating excess crops to Miriam’s Kitchen and the Foggy Food Pantry. Volunteers for the garden maintenance will be overseen by two year-round student “Garden Manager” interns, hopefully from the biology and environmental studies departments. The managers will be responsible for drawing volunteers from the GW student body, local schools, and the Foggy Bottom community, including elderly and homeless citizens.

Who We Are We Working With:
The FJA is currently working with various GW departments including, University Grounds and Maintenance department, Landscape Design Graduate Program, GW Dining Services, Sodexho, the GW Office of Sustainability, Green GW, and GW Students for Fair Trade. Outside of GW we are creating relationships with the Foggy Bottom Garden Club, Casey Trees, Miriam’s Kitchen, Samaritan Inn, and St. Mary’s Court, Common Good City Farm, and students from American and Georgetown Universities to create a garden that will be both sustainable and maintainable.

Impact:
The FJA will build upon GW’s strong traditions of building community ties, provide service-learning opportunities for students, and creating a more sustainability future for GW. The community garden will place GW in the local food economy, allow students to interact with their food, and reinforce the idea that GW students are responsible global citizens.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Seasons!


Here is a handy guide to knowing which seasons to purchase certain vegetables. This will help to prevent the purchase of food not in season which would mean they were imported from far off places.