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Welcome to the newest issue of The Root of the Matter. Through our monthly electronic communication, Collective Roots will keep you informed about recent successes, new initiatives, upcoming events, and ways you can get involved with our work for food system change in East Palo Alto.
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| SUPPORT COLLECTIVE ROOTS |
Consider A Back-To-School Gift To Collective Roots
It’s back-to-school time—consider making a gift to support our education programs!Your financial support allows Collective Roots to continue and expand our work in environmental, nutritional, and horticultural education. You can make a secure online donation here. To contribute by mail, or for more information on matching gifts or in-kind donations, click here. If you have additional questions, please call us at 650.283.7530.
 Funding Announcements
Collective Roots recently received $1000 from the Peery Foundation, a family foundation based in Palo Alto that seeks to empower youth and reduce poverty by investing in social entrepreneurs around the world. The funding will help us develop the backdrop for our traveling nutrition road show, Roots and Fruits. We are honored to receive their funding, which was sent with a handwritten letter from the youngest members of the Peery family.
We also received a generous donation of $1835 from the Major Taylor Cycling Club, a nonprofit based at EPACS that is unfortunately closing down. We are using their gift to purchase an irrigation system for our new greenhouse. Thank you MTCC!
The Holy Trinity Episcopal Church of Menlo Park sent a donation of $1465, which they raised by selling tomatoes grown from seed by parishioners Bill and Nancy Grove. In addition to the congregation’s group donation, Collective Roots also received donations from parishioners Elizabeth Gheleta, Peter Bostock, and Moises & Karen Paese. We are so grateful for your collective generosity.
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| FARMERS' MARKET |
 As some of you may already be aware, the Farmers’ Market is a central element of our food system change work that includes multiple strategies. We are excited to bring you news about a part of this work…the Backyard Gardener Network:
Looking For A Free Garden Plot? Look No Further!
Our Backyard Gardener Network is a brand new resource for backyard gardeners, community gardeners, and others who are growing food in East Palo Alto. Collective Roots is now offering a limited number of mini-grants that will cover the cost of the certification process, so YOU can sell your home-grown produce at local farmers’ markets! Click here to get all the info you need to apply!
 Farmers’ Market Update
In recent weeks, visitors to the EPA Community Farmers’ Market have been able to buy summer staples such as organic corn, lettuce and cabbage, organic peppers (serrano and bell), potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries (from Salinas), sweet white peaches, multiple kinds of nectarines, plums, watermelons, onions, okra, collard greens, broccoli, mint, cucumbers, basil, cilantro and honey.
Adventurous shoppers can also try more unusual produce such as broccolini, watercress, purple heirloom carrots, golden beets, pluots, nopales, and chayote.
Visit http://www.epafarmersmarket.org/event to find out about upcoming activities and special market guests, or view photos from past market days here.
Click here to read market updates online and to subscribe to weekly market updates by email (sent every Thursday.) NOTE: We will never share your personal information with outside parties.
| Market Hours: |
Every Saturday, 2-5 PM |
| Market Location: |
East Palo Alto City Hall & Library,
2415 University Avenue, East Palo Alto, CA 94303 |
| Website: |
http://www.epafarmersmarket.org |
| Remember! |
EBT/food stamps, WIC and Senior FMNP checks always accepted. |
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| GARDEN WORKDAYS |
Next Garden Workday: September 26th
Roll up your sleeves and join us at the EPACS garden for our first workday of the school year: Saturday, September 26th, from 8 AM – noon. Click here to RSVP and for directions to the garden.
Global Health Corps Visits EPACS Garden
Twenty-two fellows from the Global Health Corps, along with the organization’s President Barbara Bush (daughter of the former president) joined our monthly garden workday on July 25th. Click here to read more about this new organization, and our other garden workdays last month.
 Corporate Workdays
We have been getting lots of work done in the garden lately, thanks to the helping hands of corporate volunteers. Click here to read about how employees from Intuit, from interns to executives, are contributing to our harvest!
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| PROGRAMS |
Garden-Based Learning
A scavenger hunt, cooking with a solar oven, and flower arranging were just some of the recent highlights from our garden-based learning activities. Click here to read this month’s update about our school programs.
Food System Change
We are excited to announce the development and upcoming launch of our new online colloquium project, www.foodsystemchange.org. Click here to learn more about how we envision this new community tool.
CR also has another website in the works: The Healthy Development Management Tool website is underway, and the site will be launched soon. We have been planning the platform for the site, and the HDMT team is currently working on the content. Stay tuned!
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| STAFF NEWS |
 Our staff consists of a committed team of professionals who work with college interns, volunteers from the community, youth leaders, consultants, and partners. Check this section for information about the amazing people who are responsible for our success.
Collective Roots will welcome six Americorps volunteers in September, thanks to our successful application through Health Trust. The volunteers will work part-time with us for one year. We are now moving into implementation mode, and Health Trust is currently recruiting to fill the positions. Click here to read the job description—we encourage our readers to apply!
Some of you may know that Wolfram Alderson, our Executive Director, has had a pioneering role in the development of food system change. Thirty years into this work, Wolfram has been called to stand with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other community leaders and organizers to celebrate what has now grown into a farmers' market empire in Los Angeles. "Farmers' Markets: 30 Years and Growing" will be hosted by the City of L.A. with partners on September 3rd, 2009.
Summer Celebration at Collective Roots
On August 20th, community members, friends and family gathered at the new Center for Urban Agriculture to celebrate a successful summer of youth employment, college internships and volunteering. Read about the festivities, download a cookbook, and see a slideshow of summer highlights here.
Youth Leader Makes News
A profile on the work of CR and of our Youth Health Advocate, Aaminah Khan, was the top story on the YSpaceSMC blog last month. Read the full article here.
Catch up on the Youth Justice Leaders’ activities on their blogs:
Daniel’s blog
Epiffani’s blog
Jaime’s blog
Dedicated Summer Intern Expands Her Role
We are excited to announce that Rylan Rosario, a summer intern who came to us through Health Career Connection, will stay on as a paid intern for our Healthy Development Measurement Tool project for the next year. Rylan will graduate in 2011 from San Jose State University with a BS degree in Health Science, concentrating in Administration, and with a minor in Biology. Rylan is such a pleasure to work with, and she brings a lot to the team. |
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| FEATURED PARTNER |
 City of East Palo Alto
Collective Roots has many government partners, but none more important than the City of East Palo Alto where so much of our work takes place. Wolfram Alderson briefly interviewed Ruben Abrica, East Palo Alto’s Mayor, at the most recent meeting of the East Palo Alto Community Health Roundtable. Click here to read the interview.
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| THE BOOKSHELF |
 We recently read a wonderful children’s book that has lots of appeal for grownups too—The Seedfolks, by Paul Fleischman. After a young girl plants lima bean seeds in a vacant lot, the whole neighborhood is inspired to start growing food! It is a timeless and ageless book—we recommend it for community gardeners of any age! You can buy it on Amazon here.
 Do you really know where your food comes from?
Food, Inc., a fabulous documentary in theaters now, exposes the complicated relationship between farmers, government agencies, and American corporations. We plan to use the film as an educational and training tool for our students and interns. We will also screen it at a series of community dinners in the near future. More information about the community dinners and film screenings coming soon!
The Institute of Medicine recently released a summary of their January 2009 conference on the effect of "Food Deserts" on US public health. You can download the free summary or purchase the entire article by clicking here.
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| WHAT'S GROWING |
 Heirloom tomatoes representing all of the colors of the rainbow are abundant in the garden. Beans are hanging off the vine, tomatillos are filling in their paper shells, sweet and spicy peppers are blazing, and summer squash are growing in enormous proportions. Even the melons are growing at exponential speed! We are starting to plant the Fall garden, and we already have two bright orange pumpkins. Click here for a delicious recipe for Tomato Watermelon Salad, courtesy of Epicurious.com.
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NOTE: This newsletter employs hyperlinks that act as shortcuts to related documents or web pages. Click on the green underlined words in the articles above to find out more information.
If someone forwarded you this newsletter, please click here to add your name to our mailing list.
To read past newsletters, go to http://collectiveroots.org/news/newsletters.
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