The Food Project blogs

Upcoming: Lincoln Seedling Sale

Elena — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:58:44 +0000

Dreaming of fresh basil and green beans? Plant a garden this spring! The Food Project will be holding a seedling sale at our Lincoln farm on Memorial Day weekend. The sale will run from Saturday, May 25 through Monday, May 27 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. each day.

We'll be selling over 60 varieties of vegetables, flowers, and herbs, including 21 varieties of tomatoes. Click here to see a list of varieties that will be for sale.

Join us under the big, white tent on the farm to get gardening tips from our farmers and meet some of our amazing youth who grow food on our farms and in their own gardens.

For more information, check out our plant sale web page or email events@thefoodproject.org.

WHEN: Saturday, May 25 - Monday, May 27, 10:00 - 3:00 p.m. each day, rain or shine

WHERE: Under the big, white tent at The Food Project's Lincoln Farm, Route 126 & Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln, MA

Upcoming: Lynn Farm Fest!

Elena — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:33:49 +0000

The Food Project would like to invite you to Lynn Farm Fest 2013! Join us for a celebration of spring on the North Shore!

On Saturday, May 18, we will be holding a plant, compost, and garden supplies sale at the Munroe Street Farm in downtown Lynn. We'll also have children's activities, food, and more. Bring the whole family to enjoy this day of fun with The Food Project!

WHAT: Lynn Farm Fest

WHERE: Munroe Street Farm, 120 Munroe Street, Lynn, MA

WHEN: Saturday, May 18, 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

We will also be holding a City Farm Fest in Boston on Saturday, May 11 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Click here for more information about our spring celebration and plant sale in Boston.

Give a Teen a Job This Summer...

Elena — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:25:19 +0000

In just 11 short weeks, The Food Project's farms will be teeming with activity as we begin our twenty-second Summer Youth Program. For six and a half weeks, over 120 youth from around Greater Boston and the North Shore will grow healthy food, meet a diverse group of teens, serve food at soup kitchens and food pantries, and experience workshops on topics from money management to sustainable agriculture.

In order to make this program run successfully, we need to raise $50,000 to support youth stipends. This program is more than just a first job for our youth; in fact, it has been called "the best first job EVER." Thus, we are excited to announce the launch of the "Best First Job EVER Challenge," a double-your-dollar fundraising campain.

Thanks to $25,000 in matching funds contributed by a generous group of donors and trustees, every dollar raised through this campaign will blossom into two. Every gift makes a difference, and we hope that you will consider making a donation to support our youth this summer.

Check out our campaign at http://challenge.thefoodproject.org. Click "Join My Fundraising Team" to make your own page to share with family and friends!

Afternoons in the Garden

Elena — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:45:57 +0000

In August, The Food Project embarked on its second year as the Massachusetts host site for FoodCorps, a national nonprofit organization that works with schools to create a healthier school food environment. What follows is the fifth of a series of blogs profiling the FoodCorps members who are serving at The Food Project during the 2012-13 school year.

On a typical weekday afternoon, FoodCorps Service Member Leah Jones can be found in the lush gardens at Veterans Memorial Elementary School in Gloucester, Mass., surrounded by children. Every day, Leah and her students take another adventure into the garden to learn about growing food, cooking, and eating healthily. On one fall afternoon, they harvest kale from their garden and make it into sweet and delicious smoothies. When the weather gets colder, they use pumpkins from The Food Project’s farm in Beverly to make hearty pumpkin soup. In the springtime, they will plant and harvest an abundance of sweet and spicy lettuces, radishes, peas, and carrots to turn into delicious salads and snacks.

By the end of this school year, Leah hopes the children she works with will have a greater understanding and excitement for growing, cooking, and eating healthy foods, and that they will share their newfound knowledge and enthusiasm with their families. She would love it, she says, "if we could have a student-run farmers market at the school ... where once a week the elementary schoolers could sell their produce to the families, the teachers, and the school community, and then the revenue would go back to the school garden or other programs at the school." Sound too ambitious for elementary school students? Not for these kids. Leah's 30 students spend four afternoons each week engaged in activities about gardening, cooking, food, and fitness.

Each afternoon starts with a "power snack," a healthy snack prepared from The Open Door food pantry in Gloucester. After their snack, the children begin the "Passport to Fitness" program. They spend half of the afternoon with Leah in the garden or kitchen and the other half engaged in a fitness activity with staff from the local YMCA. The after school program is both difficult and rewarding, says Leah. "At the beginning, it was really challenging to even get a child to try a new food. Now, students are much more open and excited to try new foods, especially when they are the ones making them. I recently overheard one student boasting to another that she was getting smarter, faster, and stronger because she ate a veggie and homemade hummus wrap that day ... That made my day."

When she is not in the garden at Veterans Memorial Elementary School, Leah manages the garden at The Open Door food pantry, supports fellow FoodCorps service member Briana Iacovetta in building raised bed gardens with teenagers from The Food Project's Academic Year Program, and is a garden mentor for the Backyard Growers Program in Gloucester.

Before joining FoodCorps, Leah was an active participant in energy- and food-focused environmental movements in her hometown of Oklahoma City, Okla., and in Austin, Tex., where she studied environmental studies and German at Southwestern University. She helped lead a campaign with fellow students to make Southwestern University the first school in Texas and the fourth school in the United States to be 100% wind powered. In addition, she worked with The Sierra Club and Central Texas pecan farmers on clean energy issues, and interned at Urban Roots, a youth development organization modeled after The Food Project. Leah has been interested in social justice for as long as she can remember, and plans to continue to work in the sustainable food movement after FoodCorps.

"Food is more that just daily caloric sustenance; food is the basis of health and well-being and can transform a culture into one that has more justice, equality, sustainability, and love." For now, look for her in the garden.

Upcoming: City Farm Fest!

Elena — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:47:46 +0000

The Food Project is pleased to announce City Farm Fest, a celebration of the beginning of spring and the start of the growing season! Please join us on Saturday, May 11 at the Dudley Greenhouse in Roxbury for seedling, compost, and garden materials sales; soil testing and consultations; children's activities; and more. Enjoy fun and friends at the Dudley Greenhouse, get advice and materials for your garden, and enjoy some tasty food from one of Boston's finest food trucks. We will be accepting cash, credit, and debit for all sales and EBT for seedling sales.

The Food Project will be partnering with the Boston University Superfund Research Group (BUSRP) to offer FREE SOIL TESTING to the public during City Farm Fest. Soil sampling and soil health consultations will begin at 10:00 a.m. and continue until 3:00 p.m. Click here for instructions on how to collect and prepare a soil sample from your garden for testing.

Planning to buy seedlings for your garden? Click here to see a list of seedlings we will have available at City Farm Fest. Seedlings will be sold in singles, 4-packs, and 6-pack, and will cost $3.00 per package.

Questions? Please contact buildagarden@thefoodproject.org.

City Farm Fest Schedule

10:00 - 11:00 a.m.	Soil health and home composting workshop; Soil testing and consultation
11:00 - 3:00 p.m.	Seedling, compost, and garden materials sales; Food truck; Soil testing and consultations

CSA Fair This Wednesday

Emily — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:09:26 +0000

This Wednesday, The Food Project will be attending Harvest Co-op's CSA Fair along with seven other local farms. Come by to meet our new CSA Manager, Emily Griffith, sample a honey stick, and sign up for a 2013 farm share from The Food Project.

The Food Project offers on-farm CSA (community supported agriculture) shares at our farms in Lincoln, Lynn, and Beverly, Mass. In addition, we have box share drop-off sites in Arlington, Brookline, Cambridge, Jamaica Plain, Lincoln, Roxbury, Somerville and Wellesley. For more information, please visit our CSA web page or call us at 781-259-8621 x20.

WHAT: Harvest Co-op's CSA Fair

WHEN: Wednesday, March 27, 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: Arboretum Store, 3815 Washington Street, Jamaica Plain, MA

Farm Share Fair This Thursday

Elena — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:40:28 +0000

This Thursday, The Food Project will be attending the Farm Share Fair! Come by to meet our new CSA Manager, Emily Griffith, taste some delicious honey sticks, and sign up for a 2013 farm share from The Food Project.

The Farm Share Fair is an annual event that allows consumers to learn how to purchase fresh produce as part of a CSA, or farm share, from farms around Massachusetts. At this year's Farm Share Fair, attendees will have the opportunity to meet more than 20 farmers, learn about their programs, and even sign up for a share. The Farm Share Fair is organized by theMOVE, a local organization that brings youth and adults from Boston's urban areas to farms in the region to learn about where our food comes from.

The Food Project offers on-farm CSA (community supported agriculture) shares at our farms in Lincoln, Lynn, and Beverly, Mass. In addition, we have box share drop-off sites in Arlington, Brookline, Cambridge, Jamaica Plain, Lincoln, Roxbury, Somerville. For more information, please visit our CSA web page or call us at 781-259-8621 x20.

WHAT: Farm Share Fair

WHEN: Thursday, March 14, 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.

WHERE: Cambridge College, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA

Talking About Social Justice

Elena — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:42:30 +0000

The following blog was written by Food Project intern Eli Gurvitch. Eli is 17 years old and lives in Jamaica Plain, Mass. He participated in The Food Project's Summer Youth Program in 2010 and has been an intern since the fall of 2011.

Hi! My name is Eli Gurvitch. Not to be confused with the other Food Project intern who posted on this bog, Eli Shanks. He's the one who bakes bread and plays harmonica. I'm the one who has an online radio show and plays guitar. I'm 17 from Jamaica Plain and I started working at The Food Project in 2010.

I have learned many things at The Food Project. I've worked on farmland; led workshops on the food system, food justice and social justice; and interacted with community members at the farmers' market and different TFP events. I have also met and learned how to work with lots of great people, both youth and adults, and formed awesome friendships.

From my time at The Food Project what sticks with me the most is the way we discuss social justice, specifically issues of oppression. The language that TFP uses was very new to me and has definitely helped me understand these issues better. A good example is the definition of racism and "isms" (i.e. ageism, sexism) in general. I always thought the meaning of racism was the same as prejudice, to hate and to assume things about someone because of their race. From workshops and discussions about issues of oppression I now know that racism is "prejudice + power." That means that anyone can have prejudice, but only people with economic, social, and/or political power over someone else or a group can truly be racist by using that power to oppress the group they have a prejudice against.

Not only does learning this new language help me understand issues of oppression better, other workshops we do at TFP help as well. "The Ladder of Inference" workshop - which I helped create and present to other TFP youth - is about the subconscious process and assumptions your mind makes when assessing a situation. Delivering the workshop helped me get a better understanding of how I could unknowingly make assumptions about someone. Understanding these things and having conversations has made me more aware of how my mind works and how to talk to other people about social justice.

I have enjoyed my time at The Food Project and will definitely take all theses skills into adult life.

Shameless plug here for my radio show. It’s called “Rock ‘N’ Roll Dream with DJ Eli” (which is also the name of the show’s official Facebook page). I broadcast from ZUMIX studios in Maverick Square, East Boston and play classic rock, blues and heavy metal from the ’60s to the ’90s. You can listen live from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. EST every Thursday on ZUMIX.org. Just click the live radio button in the top right corner. It’s also on iTunes; click “radio” then look in the college/university section for ZUMIX.

Lessons from a Lengthy Commute

Elena — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:27:25 +0000

The following blog was written by Food Project intern Lucas Munson. Lucas is 17 years old and lives in Arlington, Mass. He participated in The Food Project's Summer Youth Program in 2011 and in the Academic Year Program during the following school year. Currently, Lucas is an academic year intern.

Hey, my name is Lucas Munson, and I've been with The Food Project since the summer of 2011. What I have found most fascinating about The Food Project (TFP) is how it creates such a powerful network in such a large area. The Food Project helps each youth, myself included, develop a far greater understanding of what really is Boston. Whether a youth is from Boston, the suburbs, or the North shore, they are required to travel to a different part of the metro area for work. For me, this meant venturing to the heart of Roxbury.

I never knew there were so many ways to get from Arlington to Roxbury. I started off by taking the bus to the red line, and then taking another bus from JFK Station. This was fun and new to me, as I've always taken the bus, but never inside Boston. I found it exciting to hear people speaking my native Portuguese, while others spoke Mandarin and others still discussed vegetables in Spanish. I loved listening to conversations between lovers, families, and strangers. I saw an old man play the harmonica, and I saw a family play with what must've been a new puppy. I found the red line to be an experience all in itself, as some days it would take only 20 minutes to go 8 stops, yet most days it would seem to get stuck at Charles/MGH for at least 15 extra minutes.

After about a year of making this same journey, I found a new way to get to Roxbury. I could take the 1 bus from Harvard to Dudley Station. I therefore decided to explore this new route, and embarked on the bus on a chilly autumn morning. I found the ride even more enjoyable than the red line, and certainly faster and more direct. The bus stopped at countless major locations throughout both Boston and Cambridge. From Harvard to MIT to the New England Conservatory to Dudley Station, I found the bus showed me an even greater range of Boston's diversity and culture. The people on the bus ranged from college students to musicians to nurses to anything in between. Once at Dudley Station, I would walk through Roxbury to the West Cottage farm, a walk that consisted of seeing a part of Boston I also seldom saw growing up in Arlington.

I grew to love the lengthy commute to work. It allowed me to see more of the city than I could possibly imagine from the quiet of a car. And of course the best part of the commute was the destination. Nothing beats getting off that bus and getting into the greenhouse or the farm, where all that diversity comes together.

Developing Leadership at TFP and Beyond

Elena — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:50:03 +0000

The following blog was written by Food Project intern Kenny Lopez. Kenny is 18 years old and lives in Boston, Mass. He participated in The Food Project's Summer Youth Program in 2010. He participated in the Academic Year Program in 2010-11; worked as a summer intern in 2011; and served as an assistant crew leader both for the Academic Year Program in 2011-12 and for the Summer Youth Program in 2012. Currently, Kenny is an academic year intern.

My name is Kenny Lopez. I am 18 years old and I currently live in Boston. I have been working here at The Food Project since summer of 2010.

Throughout my journey here at The Food Project, I have met some amazing people that have and are still changing my life. Before The Food Project I struggled with my confidence and even my capabilities as a person. Being here has helped me realize that as a youth I am capable of change, and now I feel confidence in myself.

Before The Food Project, I must admit that I was a very ignorant person who chose to ignore all of the problems we face pertaining to food justice and social justice. TFP has helped me to be open-minded, and actually forced me to go out of my comfort zone (in a positive way). I am now able to talk to friends and family in a way I that I was never able to before. I feel comfortable with myself and who I am because of TFP.

As president of the National Honor Society (NHS) at my high school, I have taken the skills I gained throughout TFP and applied them to my society. I started a new program with NHS called "NHS Buddy." The purpose of the program is to be a mentor to the freshmen class. Each NHS scholar is assigned a group of freshmen, creates a space where the freshmen feel welcomed, and helps them academically and socially.

The Food Project has also helped me to discover my passion for agriculture. I will be attending Hamilton College this fall, and I recently found out that they have a farm on campus. My goal by senior year is to run the farm and to spread the knowledge of healthy food. Hopefully, one day I'll be a farmer.

I also enjoy writing poetry and as an active member of the poetry club at my school, a lot of what I write is related to social justice. Here is one of my poems I will be performing at my schools next open mic night this spring!

Oppressed because of a color

They judge based on my skin, rather than from whats within
They created a system so that I can fail
Statistically expecting that I'll end up in jail
They made me cautious
They made me fear
They made me insecure
They made minorities to be inferior
Screw this system
They don’t expect me to be successful
They should be careful
They failed at creating me
& now I am a mad man loose
Because the system is a hidden truth
I'll fight for justice and equality
Til' the day I die
Now they know why

-Ken Lopez