Wholesome Wave is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve access and affordability of fresh, healthy, locally-grown produce to food deserts and other communities historically lacking in these items, and in the process, help to fight our country’s obesity epidemic. Join us on a video tour as we visit participants and farmers who are using both the Wholesome Wave Double Value Coupon Program and their Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program.
For 20 years, The Food Project has worked at the intersection of Youth, Food, and Community. Take a peek at the faces and farms of this inspiring organization and the work that they are doing in and around Boston, MA.
Videos from and about The Food Project, a non-profit organization located in the metro Boston area that deals with sustainable agriculture and youth development.
The Word PEAS Cooperative is a program of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (New Entry). New Entry is a new farmer training program that helps beginning, immigrant and refugee farmers gain business and farm production skills and access to land, markets and other resources necessary to start viable farm businesses. For more information about New Entry, click here.
New Entry helped form the World PEAS Coop in 2005 with the goal to help beginning, immigrant and refugee farmers connect with local consumers seeking fresh produce. Most participating farmers do not have a large enough volume, means of transportation, time or English language skills to effectively access viable markets on their own. By forming a cooperative, small, beginning, immigrant and refugee farmers are able to combine their products to more efficiently and effectively connect with local consumers.
The Gardening through Refugee Organizations Project started in 2009. The Project is led by the Haitian American Public Health Initiatives, and involves seven refugee-run community based organizations. Through the GRO Project, over 600 refugees and immigrants living in Boston and Lynn have started growing their own food in over 250 backyard and community garden plots. The main objectives of the GRO Project are to use gardening as a way for refugees to:
• raise and access healthy, culturally appropriate foods
• improve relationships within families
• become more self sufficient and integrated into their communities
Refugee Organizations of the GRO Project:
• Eritrean Community Center (ECC) (857-334-3053)
• Congolese Development Center (CDC) (781-593-0100)
• Vietnamese American Civic Association (VACA) (617-288-7344)
• Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center (RIAC) (617-238-2430)
• Haitian-American Public Health Initiatives (HAPHI) 617-298-8076)
• Southern Sudanese Solidarity Organization (SSSO) (781-593-0100)
• Nubian United Benevolent International Association (NUBIA) (617-669-2642)
Community gardens are green spaces that are communally cultivated and cared for; these spaces may consist of individually worked plots, communally tended areas, sitting areas, and small-scale children’s play areas. They are the result of the shared collective effort of people working together. Community gardening is an effective community-building strategy that contributes to neighborhood renewal, preservation, and stabilization. Community Gardens provide a source of inexpensive, nutritious food and a rewarding personal experience. Enduring stewardship is needed to ensure success. Community gardens demonstrate the impact of sustained volunteer effort.
Boston Natural Areas Network helps coordinate activities related to all of the Boston area’s community and school gardens, involving over 10,000 individuals and families, many of them low-income. In partnership with non-profit organizations and government agencies that own community gardens, we work to increase communication and sharing among gardeners through annual events such as the citywide Gardeners Gathering, and the Master Urban Gardener, and Seed, Sow & Grow educational programs. ….(read more).
see the mentions everywhere — locally grown. It’s good for your health and for local economies. But would you ever imagine there are farms right in the middle of Boston?
They are popping up, and Mayor Thomas Menino is hoping urban agriculture will continue to grow.
It could be the nation’s heartland or the growing fields out west . But it isn’t.
It’s a farm in Dorchester.
“This is our original location. We’ve been growing for three seasons,” said Glynn Lloyd of City Growers of Mattapan.
A variety of fresh fruits and vegetables supply local restaurants, hospitals and schools. And they feed local families.
“A certain percentage of the crop goes out to programs that actually feed a lot of folks in the neighborhood who don’t have much access to healthy, local, fresh produce,” said Lloyd.
Boston isn’t usually considered farmland. But according to a new report that points out the potential of sustainable urban agriculture, that is changing. (read more).
Official video page of the USDA-funded Community and Regional Food System Project, a partnership of the University of Wisconsin, Growing Power, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and dozens of other community organizations and university partners.
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
This weblog explores the transition to a sustainable future on our finite planet. It provides links to current news, key documents from government sources and non-governmental organizations, as well as video documentaries about climate change, environmental ethics and environmental justice concerns.
The links are listed here to be used in whatever manner they may be helpful in public information campaigns, course preparation, teaching, letter-writing, lectures, class presentations, policy discussions, article writing, civic or Congressional hearings and citizen action campaigns, etc. For further information on this blog see: About this weblog. and How to use this weblog.
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