Community Gardens

Here is an excerpt from an article that explains how Brazil is using community gardens to subsidize food for the hungry:
Unused lots in the city were developed into community gardens to help the poor be able to afford healthy organic vegetables at a low cost.
The city of Governador Valadares is an example. There are 46 gardens and a weekly production that services 7 thousand people. The beneficiaries are social groups in situations of food insecurity, mainly pregnant women, mothers who are breastfeeding, children up to six years, students, unemployed and low-income farmers.
In Belo Horizonte there are 85 community gardens. One of them supplies 50 families with fresh fruits and vegetables free of pesticides. The foods are also used for children attending the health center.
In 2004, the Ministry of Social Development and Combating Hunger (MDS) entered into agreements with the State and 18 cities to support the development of community vegetable gardens. I couldn't tell from the translation of this article, but it looks like MDS subsidized some of the farming costs for these gardens.
The full article is here:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://www.mds.gov.br/ascom/revistas/mds/restaurantes.htm&ei=u4UDStGGLdnHtgeK2_j4Bg&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Drestaurante%2Bpopular%2Bbelo%2Bhorizonte%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GZEZ_en-GBUS286US286

Winston-Salem has several community gardens, and more seem to be popping up all the time. One is in Old Salem, where they place harvested food in boxes and set them next to the road for people to pick up. The Children's Home also has a big community garden that is run by volunteers. Their food is given to the Food Bank, where it is donated to more than 400 non-profit partner agencies that serve people at risk of hunger and others in need from Boone to Burlington. A community garden was started in the Waughtown area, but there were a few problems with it. I'll try to find out what they were and post them here. There may also be one at Maple Springs United Methodist Church on Reynolda.

Ellen Kirby is an expert on community gardens and lives here in Winston-Salem. She has started community gardens in NYC and has written a book on Community Gardens. She has agreed to be a resource for us if we need her. You can view her blogs at:
kirbyplant.blogspot.com and gardencoachingws.blogspot.com
She suggested that Knollwood start a community garden on our grounds.

Starting and maintaining a community garden is an intensive process. You can view how it's done at:
http://communitygarden.org/learn/starting-a-community-garden.php

Another alternative to community gardening is to educate and encourage individual families to build and cultivate their own square foot gardens, where you can grow lots of vegetables in a tiny space because of the richness of the soil. Here's a link and a possible helper for this type of project:
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/jun/06/this-back-40-can-fit-anywhere-proponent-hopes-to-s/

There's an organic garden grown in vacant lots in the downtown area that was an intergenerational project, involving two Boy Scout troups, the Urban League and the Senior Community Service program. They spent about $100 on the project. The N.C. Cooperative Extension Agency donated plants and rain barrels to help conserve water. Earth Touch (a part of the City's Parks and Rec. Dept.) donated recycled wood for the raised beds and offered their horticultural expertise. The area has five 6 x 8' beds and one 10' pot. Here is a link to the Journal article about this garden:
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/jul/27/how-does-your-garden-grow-urban-league-program-put/news/

Another idea would be to help a school get a garden started, preferably a school in an impoverished area. Here is a list of NC schools who have gardens:
http://www.kidsgardening.com/school/registrysearch.taf


A recent Diane Rehm radio talk show (NPR) hosted Darrin Nordahl, author of Public Produce .
The author explains how growing food in urban, public spaces can help feed the hungry, supplement the existing agribusiness model, and promote good health for all. Upon hearing this story (nearly a full year after starting this blog), I realized that this type of idea has grown quite rapidly in just the last year. Here's the link to the show:
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/10/21.php#29618

Ideas of how we can get involved:
--oversee the startup of a community garden in the Hispanic community located behind Forsyth Tech
--volunteer at the Children's Home Community Garden to get a better understanding of how it works
--work with the city to locate spaces where different groups can start a community garden around the city
--Start a community garden on our church grounds and deliver the food to the health center or to the Hispanic community near Forsyth Tech.
--Start a community garden with another church in an impoverished area--we'd help them get started and possibly help them find other organizations to help them tend the garden
--develop some sort of training and help in getting square foot gardens started in impoverished neighborhoods (we'd probably need corporate sponsors for this)
--Help a school in an impoverished area get an organic garden started so that they can use the produce for their lunches
Please post other thoughts, questions and ideas you have about community gardens.

Questions:
--Is MDS someone that would financially support community gardens for the underprivileged in this area?