Food Security Conversation Cafe - Vision For Vashon

Finally—here is my report on the first meeting of Vashon’s Food Security Working Group! On April 19, we had a fairly short meeting, going over some of the ideas that had been presented at the March 21 café conversation at Café Luna. Here are the ideas we discussed and name of those who would like to work on implementing them:

Garden to Gardener Matchup

(matching folks with garden space with those who don’t have space but would like to have a garden)

It may be a bit late for spring/summer gardens for this to work this year, but we could begin matching folks up in the fall, so gardens could be prepared and spring planting could get underway early next year. In Seattle, Amy Pennington manages an excellent website urbangardenshare.com (Thanks Jen Coe, for telling us about this!) which matches up gardeners and gardens beautifully. It would be worthwhile for those who wish to work on this project to contact Amy for more information. Who knows, maybe we can hitch a ride on her site.

Interested members: Maryam Steffen, Chris Graham, Wendy Wharton
[There seemed to be a little confusion at the meeting about this project. Some folks said they had space to share, but it was unclear whether they were willing to actually implement this project island-wide.]

Education at the Food Bank

Quite frequently, food bank clients don’t know what to do with some of the food that is available and therefore they pass it up. It was suggested that each week, we find out what foods will be available (since products change week to week and season to season), and set up a demonstration area near the food bank line, showing ways to prepare unusual foods, OR easy ways to prepare familiar foods.

Interested members: Maryam Steffen and Nancy Gokay

Seed/Plant Exchange

This is already going on in an informal way at the monthly “Raising Our Own Food” Garden Gatherings that take place at Mariposa Gardens. Perhaps we could scale it up at the Farmer’s Market or other venue.

Interested members: Jeannie Ernst & Cathy Fulton

Sharing the Harvest

We know of several gardens/farms which are willing to share their crops with the food bank if someone is available to do the harvesting. The food bank garden at Cathy’s Corner is one of these gardens. Another option, if we can organize work parties, is to encourage farmers to allow gleaning.

Interested members: Nancy Gokay, Chris Graham, Maryam Steffen

School Garden—Food Education

This may be already happening at the schools.

Interested members: (I think Jeannie Ernst was interested in this—but correct me if I am wrong.)

Community Food Processing/Preservation

During World War II, 5000 community canning centers were in operation in the US. Would it be possible for us to organize and work together to process the food from our gardens here on Vashon? Would it be cost effective? What public kitchens are available? Some history here:

http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/2008/08/community-canni.html

And a wealth of information at:

http://www.pickyourown.org/canneries.htm

Interested members: Jessica Lisovsky, Maryam Steffen, Gene Kuhns, Jeannie Ernst, Chris Graham, Cathy Fulton

Education

This topic had the most interest in the meeting. Folks were interested in classes/demonstrations for:
* Food Preservation
* Crock Pot Cooking
* Pressure Cooker Use
* Cooking from the garden with the seasons
* Strategies to make food preparation easy
* Hunting and processing deer
* Wildlife and wild foods
* Dry pack canning (as is done expertly by the LDS Church)
* More gardening classes
Interested members: Gene Kuhns, Barbara Wells, Nancy Gokay, Maryam Steffen, Jessica Lisovsky, Cathy Fulton

Note from Cathy Fulton: Mariposa Gardens (my emerging demonstration site) will have a presence at the Saturday Market on the fourth Friday of each month and will be demonstrating various ways to grow and process food. The Food Security Working Group can use this time and space to accomplish any of the above educational projects that are applicable to the market atmosphere of people passing by. It would also be a time when projects and classes can be publicized as well. I am open to ideas for using this space and time at the Market. So far I will be demonstrating (along with Merrilee Runyon) Frugal Container Gardening on May 23, and presenting information about processing chickens on June 28. I am hoping we can also have a seed/plant exchange going on at the same times.

Things that have been brought to my attention that we did not discuss:

Julia Lakey is seeking volunteers for the Community Care Center vegetable garden. She can also use seeds and starts. The last I heard, at this time she really needs help installing a deer fence and tilling the plot. Call her at 463-6423.

The Food Bank vegetable garden is getting underway. Contact Marian Whited at the Food Bank if you would like to help. 463-6332, marian@vashonfoodbank.org

Mark Musick was my fellow panelist at the Vision For Vasion Forum last week. He mentioned several sources of information that were posted on the Vision for Vashon Google Group, but in case you don’t subscribe, here they are:

Dmitry Orlov, Reinventing Collapse
www.newsociety.com/bookid/3991

Social Collapse Best Practices
http://fora.tv/2009/02/13/Dmitry_Orlov_Social_Collapse_Best_Practices#chapter_01

Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance
http://www.wellfedneighbor.com

People in Willits, California are initiating a local currency called “Mendo Food Futures” which is backed by a reserve of legumes and grains. Below are links to an online article and audio interview with additional information about the new currency:

Food-Backed Local Money
http://campfire.theoildrum.com/node/5158

Interview: Household and Community Food Security
http://globalpublicmedia.com/reality_report_household_and_community_food_security.new

FYI: One of the things we addressed during the Food Security small group discussion at the April 25th Vision for Vashon Forum, was communication among all the various groups doing food-related works on the Island: VIGA, Episcopal Church Wednesday meals, Interfaith Council, Food Bank, and several others. A clearinghouse for all the projects on the Island (of course, not just food-related) is called for—and maybe just a “pipe dream.” Anyone want to tackle this?

I think I included everything here—let me know if I left anything out!

Cathy Fulton
463-5652

P.S. If you would like me to send you a list of projects that I am working on here at Mariposa Gardens along with a summer calendar of events, email me: cathy@MariposaGardens.org