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Community Garden Tours
Did you miss the
Community Garden Tours? Find driving directions,
here, for
two different routes.
On Saturday, Nov. 14,
2009, over 60 people took tours of some of Birmingham's most
exciting community gardens. The idea of the Community Garden Tour
was to inspire, educate, and empower participants to
understand and join the community food gardens movement.
Several communities in Birmingham have already identified
the challenge it is for their residents to get an adequate
amount of healthy food on their plates. Therefore, they have
started community gardens to address this lack of food in
real, hands on ways. These gardens take many different forms.
Our Community Garden Tour routes give you a chance to tour
to several of the gardens in order to see why they chose
the format that they did and how it has impacted their
community’s access to food. Tours start and end at Jones Valley Urban Farm
but if you are driving yourself, you could start at any
point along the route. Some of the gardens have contact
information. Call ahead to guarantee that someone will be
there to show you around. Otherwise, just take a look and
maybe you will run into some of the gardeners.
Thanks to Our Sponsors
for a Great Food Summit:
2009
Schedule of Events:
Thursday, November 12 (at East Lake United Methodist Church
--
Click for directions)
10:30 am
Registration and exhibits open
11:30am Lunch by the Hot and
Hot Fish Club
Welcome
Sally Allocca, PEER and East Lake United Methodist Church
Success
Stories from the Greater Birmingham Area
Edwin Marty, Jones Valley Urban Farm, and Ama Shambulia,
West End Community Garden
2:00-3:45
pm Breakout Sessions
1. Eating Alabama Barriers to eating locally in
AL
2. Working with Youth in Agriculture
3. Organic Farming with a focus on No Till
4. Health and Nutrition Policy Needs for Better Health
in Alabama
5. Food
Insecurity and Advocacy
4:00-5:15 pm Roundtable
Discussions
Community
Gardens • Collaborative Marketing • Food Policy •
5:30-7:00 pm Seed Savers Meet
and Swap plus Alabama snacks and drinks in exhibit hall
7:00 pm
Dinner by the East Lake Cafe, Suggested donation $25
Tom
Stearns, President, High Mowing Organic Seeds and the Center
for an
Agricultural
Economy
“The
Town the Food Saved: How a rural community in Northern
Vermont is rebuilding both its food system and its economy.”
This presentation will focus on the story of Hardwick, VT
which has been referred to by The NY Times as the “town that
was saved by food” and by Gourmet Magazine as “the most
important food town in America”. All of this attention has
helped to promote what has been happening in Hardwick for
decades but has recently reached a new height of
collaboration, vision and success. Join Tom Stearns,
founder of High Mowing Organic Seeds and Board President of
Hardwick based non-profit, The Center for an Agricultural
Economy, in a discussion of what it takes to profoundly
re-build our food systems on a community level.
Specific topics will include; infrastructure development,
the role of agricultural-based businesses, funding the
healthy food system, food access and education. By
collaborating together, our communities can develop the best
local solutions to the largest obstacles that we face. Come
hear about what Michael Pollan calls “Hardwick, VT is an
important national test-case of the possibilities of
relocalizing an economy, a real-world, real-time exploration
of the challenges".
Friday, November 13
7:30 a.m.
Local Foods
Continental Breakfast
Coffee from Higher Ground Roasters and a
demonstration
of reclaimed
pastries by Magic City Harvest
8:00-9:45 am
1. Biodynamics
2. Cultural and
Traditional Foods
10:00-11:45 am
1. Biodynamics
2. Improving Access to
Local Foods in Low-Income Neighborhoods
Noon – 1:30 pm
Lunch by
Culinard
Making
the Farm to School Connection
2:00-3:30 pm
1. Cooperative
Marketing
2. Program Needs
for Farmers
3. Future of Food
4. Pest
Management
5. Community Food
Assessments
3:45–4:45 pm Regional breakouts and
next steps
5:00—6:00 pm Wrap-up
6:00 p.m. Dinner on
Your Own and
Movie Night at Urban Standard--2320
2nd Ave N, Birmingham, AL (map)
Saturday, November 14 (at
Jones Valley Urban Farm --
701 25th Street North, Birmingham, AL
map)
9:00 a.m.: Bus and Bike Tours to
Greater Birmingham Community Gardens
The idea of the Community Garden Tour
is to inspire, educate, and empower participants to
understand and join the community food gardens movement.
Several communities in Birmingham have already identified
the challenge it is for their residents to get an adequate
amount of healthy food on their plates. Therefore, they have
started community gardens to address this lack of food in
real, hands on ways. These gardens take many different forms
and the Food Summit participants will have a chance to tour
to several of the gardens in order to hear why they chose
the format that they did and how it has impacted their
community’s access to food. Tour participants will meet at
Jones Valley Urban Farm at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14. They
will then visit 5 or 6 gardens around the city, wrapping up
back at Jones Valley at Noon.
Please
note: Bike tour participants must
bring own bike and
helmet!
Interested in the bike tour but don't have a bike?
Cahaba Cycles will have a few adult bikes and helmets
available for rent at Jones Valley. Rental fee: $5
Register by Nov. 5 to guarantee a seat on the bus!
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Growing
Together Community Gardens kick-off, Pre-registration
required!
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