Welcome to the fourth issue of The Root of the Matter. Through our new monthly electronic communication, Collective Roots will keep you informed about recent successes, new initiatives, upcoming events, and ways you can get involved and support our work for food system change in East Palo Alto. 

Collective Roots is growing! We are excited to announce the recent hire of two new staff members.

David Kane joined Collective Roots in September 2008 as the Food System Change Coordinator. He is responsible for engaging the community and cultivating broad support for the organization’s Food System Change Initiative. A native of California, David returns to the Peninsula after working as a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow at a hospital in Boston, where he helped immigrant families obtain food stamp benefits. Read more about David’s past experience here.

Sheila Vreeburg also begins this month as our part-time Office manager/bookkeeper. Welcome Sheila!

Collective Roots is building a network of backyard gardeners and others who might believe that even the simplest acts of gardening have global significance. Please consider joining us in what promises to be a rich conversation with others who share your gardening spirit and interests. We would like to interview you, and share your gardening endeavors and thoughts with others through this newsletter and our website. For additional information, please contact David Kane at david@collectiveroots.org.

To download an application to join the Backyard Gardeners' Network, please click here.

Kindergarten-5th Grade

As of the first week in September, our K-5 programming is in full force. This fall, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grade students will participate in weekly garden lessons. Our garden lessons are largely based on the California State Science Standards while we also introduce students to the principles and practices of organic gardening.

Garden Club, our after-school program on Fridays has also begun. In Garden Club, students harvest, prepare, and enjoy an organic meal together, participate in hands-on gardening and create arts and crafts projects. This year, more students will have the opportunity to enjoy Collective Roots’ after-school programming through Earth Club, a student environmental action group beginning later this month.

We are entering our third year of Garden Smarts student service learning projects. Past projects have included researching and planting a pollinator garden, creating a five senses garden and constructing a pond habitat. This year, one participating class will research plants and animals of the East Palo Alto Baylands in preparation for planting a Baylands garden in the spring. Two other classes will be involved in creating a companion planting garden, and conducting a scientific investigation to evaluate the success of the gardening practice. Garden Smarts is a favorite of both teachers and students and we are excited for another year! --Bryden Johnston, Lead Gardening Instructor, K-5

Middle and High School

8th graders had their first ride on the bicycle blender this month, as they made nutritious smoothies in celebration of positive effort, participation and group work in the garden. Students are excited to be planning the first EPACS garden stand, where they are planning to practice their math and people skills as they sell tomatoes and peppers as well as potted mint plants. --Eron Sandler, Garden Manager and Middle/High School Educator

New School Programs and Collaborations

Starting next week, the first Phoenix Academy High School afterschool program will begin! About 20 students from our partner charter high school will be learning and working in the garden once a week. The students will be tending one area of the garden to grow fall crops, learning about organic gardening, and getting involved with the East Palo Alto farmers market. As the crops grow and produce, the high school participants will be selling their vegetables at the market.  

Collective Roots is also talking with College Track afterschool program about starting an environmental action club for 20 students. The high school students will learn about global warming and other environmental issues while working and learning in the garden and neighboring Bay Lands.

Fruitful meetings have been underway with the 49ers Academy to begin developing a school garden at their school site in East Palo Alto. Conversations have focused on beginning 6th grade garden lessons and an afterschool garden program as early as October!

Tour of EPA Charter School Garden: October 8th

The Bureau of Fish and Wildlife is bringing a tour of environmental officials and attendees from the California Biodiversity Council conference to tour the EPACS garden on October 8th. The conference is exploring barriers between kids and nature, and they are looking forward to seeing the solutions that Collective Roots has created through the garden project.

What you may not know is that thanks to generous supporters of Collective Roots, we have been buying fresh produce each week and donating it to the East Palo Alto Senior Center, the Ecumenical Hunger Program, and other local agencies serving people who are hungry, homeless, or on low/fixed incomes. Click here to read more about our efforts to feed the needy in our community, and to learn how you can support our work.

Market Info

The East Palo Alto Community Farmers' Market continues to bring local, fresh and healthy produce into our community each Sunday from 3-6pm at the St. Francis of Assisi Church (1425 Bay Road, just 2 blocks from University Drive). Do you have ideas for how we can improve the market, or do you want to get involved or volunteer? Please contact David Kane at david@collectiveroots.org.

Healthy Communities Taking Action Conference: October 3rd

In its third year, the Healthy Communities Taking Action (HCTA) conference on October 3rd will be an exciting learning and networking event for Collective Roots. The theme of this year's conference is "Green Health: a convergence of health, equity, and environmental efforts with nutrition and physical activity."

The focus of the conference will be the interconnections between health and the environment and an exploration of how those in related fields can begin to work together toward common goals. Visit http://www.collectiveroots.org/seeds_of_health for event details and to learn how to register.

21st Annual Hoes Down at Full Belly Farm: October 4th and 5th

The Hoes Down on the weekend of October 4-5th is a celebration of rural living at Full Belly Farm in the Capay Valley. The festival is “dedicated to honoring and promoting the knowledge of agricultural arts and sustainable rural living through inspiration and education.” The event will feature workshops, music, food, a children’s area, pumpkin carving, opportunities to purchase fresh produce and handmade goods, and camping and swimming in the nearby river. Garden manager and educator Eron Sandler has been involved with Full Belly Farm and the Hoes Down, and she will be there to help manage the food aspect of this event again this year! For more information: http://www.hoesdown.org.

Next month, the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance will host the third Growing Greener School Grounds Conference, a workshop-style event that will bring together over 300 teachers and community members from all over the San Francisco Bay Area to learn more about creating, using, and sustaining ecological schoolyards. Building on their two previous successful conferences, held in 2002 and 2004, the 2008 conference will give participants the opportunity to learn ecology-related curricula, construction, and gardening techniques while simultaneously improving the grounds of the schools hosting the workshops. The conference will take place Friday, October 10th (evening) and Saturday, October 11th (all day.) The October 10th event will feature a keynote address by Richard Louv, acclaimed author of Last Child in the Woods.

Visit http://www.sfgreenschools.org/conference_08.html for more information.

August 23rd was Collective Root’s first garden work day of the new school year! The day was a huge success, with seventy-five volunteers, including parents, local Bay Area volunteers and EPACS students. In the four hours, much was accomplished. Volunteers weeded and prepared all the garden beds for fall planting, weeded invasive Bermuda grass, installed hose organizers, harvested our abundant tomato plants, pruned, mulched, and got the compost pile shaped up. Volunteers of all ages participated in making the day productive and fun.

The weekend of August 30th was the Slow Food Nation Conference in San Francisco. The conference was full of food- and food system-related talks, events, and activities. CR Executive Director Wolfram Alderson attended a workshop in the Food for Thought Series called Building a New Food System: Policy and Planning.

After touring the beautiful and productive Victory Garden in front of City Hall, perusing the local vendors at the farmer’s market, and running into Holly Taylor, the founder of Collective Roots, CR Garden Manager Eron Sandler attended a panel on Edible Education. Alice Waters, founder of Slow Food Nation and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant introduced the panel, which included Van Jones, Founder and President of Oakland-based Green For All; Craig McNamara, President and Founder at Center for Land-Based Learning; and Josh Viertel, Director of the Yale Sustainable Food Project. The group discussed the importance and challenges of creating national policy to integrate edible education into all schools through healthy, fresh school lunches and food/garden-based education. Participants gave examples of these ideas in action, which helped audience members envision an educational system where students are stewards in their community, and are able to make connections between food, health and the world around them.

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.

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