Feeding the homeless

Well I met with the director of The Samaritan Women, the director of the farm and the guy who runs the farm this past Saturday.

I will be putting in a pyramid bed, a step-up bed and a bed on legs (tabletop) in their demonstration area. I can also probably be one of the teachers when they have groups touring the facility.

They bought a TON of lumber at a HUGE discount from a home improvement store and a group from my church will be helping to build the beds.

Will post pictures when we do this - which should be in Feb. or Mar.

Kim

Kim, what a great start to the New Year. Congratulations

How wonderful! I'm hoping to get SFG going in my community, although I haven't pinpointed exactly how I'll do so. Maybe a meetup group that meets at the library? I've already asked the principal at my son's elementary school if I can put in a bed for the kids, and I thinking about doing other forms of gardening as well, such as bucket and bin gardening, just for some variety.

What keeps me on track with the idea of the SFG taking off and HELPING people in my area is the vision I have to see people taking care of themselves, their families or other people less off. I hold to what I see in the future and just do something. I know that I can plan and plan and then plan some more and my plans will get changed by some outside factor I did not see. What I , here is that word again, plan to do is get some young people involved and help them with their own SFG's and at harvest time we will all get together and deliver the food to a local homeless kitchin. I hope these kids will tell their friends and so on and soforth. In the future I see our youth thinking of others and spreading that feeling to others. With the youth we will have their energy on our side. Get an idea and get out there. GOOD LUCK!!!

This is the very reason I am on here. I work for a small food pantry in NM. Last year, our board members hired me to be co-director and to teach 4th/5th graders about gardening in one of the schools here. I had no idea what I was doing and had to plan my own lessons and then do a short teaching. This was before I found out you had a program for the schools. We were going to plant a garden for them and also a huge one acre community garden. We received a grant and started the program. We never got the community garden going or the garden for the kids, but was able to get our board members to agree to small square foot gardens at 5 different homes to see how they would work. I had been trying for about 6 months to get this going, but the board moved very slow. By the time June came around we finally got the stuff and built the beds. It worked well, but planting late in the season kept the plants from producing to their fullest. Unfortunately, the gardens did not produce enough to give to our food pantry.
My goal is to get certified so I can teach the method here to our clients and maybe get beds built at their homes and provide the seeds to get it started. Our town is small and very generous, but we, plus other organizations here, have tapped it so much that I don't think they will help with the materials to do it. Any ideas? The grant we received last year came from the Dept of Health and paid my salary along with some of the materials. The hunger situation here is just like everywhere else, but we are considered one of the worst poverty states.

Melissa

Melissa:

Have you considered "scrounging" for free materials? Mel likes finding free materials to make the raised beds and grids.

Talk to one of the big contractors in your area to get scrap lumber. Or demolition companies for old bricks or cinder blocks.

I used to live in NV and in school we made adobe bricks which could also be good.

Write a good proposal letter and approach EVERY local nursery & farmers' co-op to see if they will donate the Mel's Mix ingredients, weed cloth and seeds. And remember, you can always use 100% compost. Does your county have a composting program?

Are there service organizations (Lions, Eagles, Kiwanis, etc.) that would help you earn money and build raised bed kits? My friend has found that a raised bed kit will cost about $21 to make (cedar, dowels, grid with connectors and weed cloth). Can one of these groups have its members make kits?

Is there a local TV station who will feature the project on their morning show? Or does your local newspaper have a community section?

Hope you can use some of these ideas.

Kim