eNEWS
December 2009 > Expanded educational opportunities for GIFT Gardeners
Gainesville Initiative for Tasty Gardens (GIFT Gardens) has installed more than 100 free raised bed vegetable gardens to low income Alachua County residents and the institutions that serve them since the project began more than a year ago. While that number is impressive, FOG understands that GIFT Gardeners need ongoing education to maximize their harvests so they can truly increase their food security. In the case of schools that have received GIFT Gardens, the teachers need education on how GIFT Gardens can extend classroom learning for their students, providing valuable hands-on education in a variety of disciplines including math, science and literacy.
FOG is partnering with the IFAS Extension Master Gardener program to assist GIFT Gardeners through the creation of neighborhood GIFT Garden networks that will provide valuable information and resource sharing among GIFT Gardeners, encouraging bountiful harvests and community-building. Similar projects around the country have been successful in supporting the growing power of the ever-increasing number or urban gardens.
GIFT Gardeners will form neighborhood networks for additional support and learning, assisted by Master Gardeners and expert gardeners who will answer gardening questions for their neighborhood group. In early Dec., the groups will be invited out to a garden in their neighborhood to meet fellow GIFT Gardeners and their Master Gardener mentor.
In addition to organizing networks of GIFT Gardeners, FOG continues to inform recipients of educational opportunities offered by other organizations, such as the recent University of Florida Ethnoecology Club onsite demonstration well-attended by GIFT Gardeners. FOG also encourages Gainesville residents to create an account on Gainesville Farm Fresh and post gardening questions in the site’s forum. The more gardeners use this valuable resource, the more knowledge we will have accessible by all community members wishing to increase their food security through gardening.
We have reports this fall season of great success among many of our GIFT Gardeners. Indeed, this is a great time to be growing food in Florida! The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and University Lutheran Church have both reported delivery of numerous bags of fresh, nutritious produce grown in their GIFT Gardens to local food banks. Continuing to support church gardens with resources and volunteers will increase their ability to feed those in need this holiday season and beyond.
To increase educational resources to its GIFT Garden school recipients, FOG is participating in the State Level School Garden Partnership, which meets in Tallahassee Dec. 8. Organized by the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Food and Nutrition Management in partnership with the Office of Healthy Schools, the mission of the partnership includes the promotion of farm field trips, seed to plate for school cafeterias, and farm to school initiatives. Some of the Partnerships’ most important objectives for 2010 include development of an online school garden clearinghouse; correlation of fruit and vegetable garden concepts to the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards; and identification and application of grant funding for the purposes of advancing the initiative in Florida. FOG looks forward to connecting with other organizations involved in school gardening through the Partnership, and to providing more educational resources and curricula to the approximately dozen Gainesville schools that have received GIFT Gardens.
For information about GIFT Gardens, visit http://foginfo.org/gift, call 352.377.6345 or email fog@foginfo.org.
RESOURCES
GIFT Gardens
IFAS Master Gardeners
IFAS Vegetable Gardening Resources
Gainesville Farm Fresh