Visiting a farm in New Jersey

Last weekend, 16 of us (9 of the high schoolers and 7 of the Temple students) went to visit a huge CSA farm in New Jersey. The farm is owned by “farmer Jim” who is Emily Kinsel’s uncle. Its about an hour outside of Philly, and is the largest CSA in the country!!!

In the van on the way to the farm.

We learned about the importance of starting plants off as seedlings, we learned about a number of different ways to create a lay out for a farm, learned different methods of composting, pest management, and crop rotation, and we got to witness the most natural process of food production.

Afterwords, we all came together to share our thoughts, discuss what we had learned, and talk about how we can ultimately bring that knowledge and experience back to Philadelphia and to our own farm.

Overall, it was great to get out of the city, it was inspiring to bear witness to a healthy, natural, and organic method of food production,it was an awesome learning experience, and it brought our group even closer together.

BRINGIN’ IT BACK HOME

After one week of being home, our group finally came back together for our first returning meeting. However, unlike most returning meetings, this one was geared towards action!

For the first time, after 7 months of organizing, the two major pieces to our puzzle, the two halves of our group, were finally ready to come together.  At 3:30 on a beautiful saturday afternoon, the members of the Temple student group AND the North Philly high school group had the first of what will be MANY collective meetings at the beautiful Village of Arts & Humanities.

We focussed the majority of the meeting on getting to know one another better, but eventually did shift into discussing what it was that we all wanted to do now that we are finally all back in Philadelphia together. One thing that immediately came up was that EVERYONE wanted to go back to New Orleans again over the summer. So, we have officially begun working with NY2NO and the Youth Coalition 4 Community Action (of which we are a chapter) on planning for the 2010 Food Justice Freedom Summer for Youth And Community Action.  (Here is a flyer that we’ve come up with to recruit here in Philly)

Other than that, we began to discuss our plans to create our own educational urban farm right here in North Philadelphia. Over the past 2 months, our group of Temple students have build an extremely strong relationship with the Village of Arts & Humanities. 5 of the students on this trip were from the Village, they have agreed to give our group office space in one of their buildings, and best of all, they have turned over a huge plot of vacant land on 11th st. and York to us so that we can begin getting to work right away and help transform North Philly into a true “Village” for Arts, Humanities, social justice, environmental justice, community based development, and sustainability!

After our meeting, we all headed over to our plot at 11th and York. There we took 12 samples of the soil that we are in the process of getting tested, we began to think about the overall lay out for our farm, and we even put in a few good hours of hard labor to clean the lot up.

We picked up trash, pulled up weeds, and even separated up to 200 tires from the garbage pile that had built up on the far side of the lot.   Those tires are gonna come in really handy soon.

You go Shameana!

We even got to have some fun along the way…..

Moving forward……its looking like we will at least be having weekly meetings from this point on. Next week, we will be discussing organizational structure, we’ll plan a visit to Emily’s uncles farm in NJ which is the largest CSA in the country, we will begin planning our collective trip to NYC, and begin making more lay outs for the farm.

Some of us have even started growing little seedlings in our dorm rooms to prepare for the start of the farm….

Plus, we have officially started our very own, and very sinky, compost pile!

Despite our eagerness to start the farm right away, we acknowledge that there is a lot more that we need to learn first, and we need to make sure that we lay the right kind of framework and foundation for our group before we begin working in the community. We will likely need a few more meetings to become a stronger community of practice, and we plan to have a community meeting to get input from neighbors before we start planting. BUT, we are closer than we’ve ever been.     The hardest steps have been taken.  The team has come together.   Seeds have been planted.  Relationships have been built.  Lessons have been learned.    And now we all just need to concentrate on growing together a little bit more before we begin growing anything else.

NEW ORLEANS TRIP #2

After nearly an entire year of planning, postponing, re-scheduling, and all forms of other chaos, our second group of students FINALLY made it down to New Orleans!!!!  From March 26th – April 3rd, 23 of us (the majority of whom were North Philadelphia high school students) worked, slept, ate, and breathed in unison….working towards the common goals of supporting the initiatives of Our School At Blair Grocery & residents of the Lower 9th Ward, developing relationships with young people in New Orleans and amongst ourselves, and continuing to build a movement for youth & community empowerment, justice, and education for sustainability.

On the 26th, we all met up (many of us for the first time) and hopped in the vans to head to New Orleans.  It was long, it was tiering, it was grueling, and I don’t know how prepared we all were for it, but somehow……21 hours later…..we made it!

We spent our first day just settling in and getting accustomed to Our School At Blair Grocery which would be our home for the next week.  We met the various OSBG staff members, got to know a few members of the surrounding community, got to know the 5 members of the NY2NO group who was staying at OSBG with us from NYC, but most of all…..we began to finally get to know each other.

On our first full day, we went out on the Levee Tour. Which, over time, has developed more into a much more wholistic and conceptual tour not just concerning the geography and history of New Orleans and the stories of Katrina, but more on how various systems in New Orleans stand as symbols for much larger systems, concepts, and injustices that exist all throughout this country.

We discussed the unique history of the city, concerning its geography, the levee system, slavory, music, culture, racism, trade, economics, and Katrina.  Throughout the tour, however, we continued to make connections to larger concepts of social, environmental, and food injustice, systematic oppression, systems thinking, and up-stream problem solving.

That night we had our first debrief, which gave us all an opportunity to reflect on all that we had learned. It was clear that our group digested and conceptualized great deal of information, and it was extremely powerful to partake in the conversation as everyone started making connections to, and drawing conclusions about Philadelphia, NYC, and the similarities between the struggles in each of these three cities.

Throughout the rest of the week, we all participated in a number of different working activities. We helped build OSBG’s 2nd greenhouse, we helped turn the existing compost pile as well as begin processing the new incoming compost, and we transplanted a whole bunch of seedlings into the farm across the street that the Temple group started laying the foundation for in January.

We also spent a lot of time working at a variety of different sites, particularly in Tangipahoa which has already begun to grow good since our Temple group visited in January!

We even got to spend time with the COWS!!!

Overall, weather in debriefs, or through socializing with one another, on the tour, or during our work days, we all learned so much.  Most of us learned more in this one week than at any other point in our lives.

Now, it is all of our responsibility to take what we have learned here in New Orleans, and apply that back to our own communities. We must begin to view the various problems and inequities that exist in New Orleans as examples of systemic and deeply rooted issues, so that we can use that knowledge to view our own cities from a new perspective. We must begin to view the initiatives of the residents of the Lower 9th Ward as a model of community based sustainability that we can apply back home.      Yes, the trip is now over. But our journey towards justice has just begun.

February & March Update

So much has happened in the past month and a half, it’s hard to keep track.

For one, Temple Together has now had 3 meetings. The various on campus organizations are gradually building stronger relationships with one another, we have begun discussions on how to partner with one another on each of our various projects, and most importantly……we have truly begun to shift the socio-political atmosphere on campus concerning issues of race, class, LGBT rights, and the environment. Students are really starting to discuss the connections between social & environmental justice, and you can almost feel an oncoming wave of young energy that’s starting to sweep across the campus.

In terms of our group….we’ve just been growing so fast.   We have been having at least 1 meeting per week, and have really started to iron down ideas for our organizational structure.    On February 28th, 5 of us went to NYC to partake in an awesome event.  NY2NO was scheduled to have a fundraiser that day, and it turned out that Turner was going to be back in New York (for the first time since moving down to New Orleans almost 2 years ago) at the same time.  So, we decided to send some representatives of our group there as well so that we could make this a Tri-City event!

The event went really well. Turner, along with representatives from NY2NO and our group, each got to speak about our projects, the progress we have been able to make, and what our future plans are. It was a powerful event because it really showed us that our network is truly becoming a national one!

Since then, we have continued to work on organization structure and we have worked on developing partnerships with a variety of organizations in Philadelphia.

The strongest partnership that we have built has been with the Philadelphia Village of Arts & Humanities.  VAH is an organization that has been empowering young residents of North Philadelphia, through the arts, for 25 years. They have converted countless vacant lots into beautiful art gardens and green spaces, and have empowered many young people in the area by getting them active in community based art programs.   At one of our meetings, Gabriella brought in a flyer that said “URBAN FARMERS WANTED” and we immedeately jumped at the opportunity.    A group of us then went to go meet with their organizers, and we have since developed a very strong relationship.  They own a vast number of vacant lots in the surrounding area, and have agreed to allow us to convert a plot on 11th street and York into our very own educational Urban Farm!

Some of us have even started to grow small seedlings in our rooms!

However, we will not move forward with this initiative until we have significant local support. And hopefully, that support will first come in the form of the high school students that are headed to New Orleans this afternoon.    After months of re-organizing, we have finally reached the point where our group of 18 North Philadelphia high school students are ready to role.   These students are coming from a number of different places. 5 of the students on the trip are some of the leading students at the Village of Arts & Humanities, 2 other students go to Carver High school, 2 go to Elverson High, 2 go to Simon Gratz, 1 to Bodine, and 6 other students are coming from different community youth organizations.

We will be hitting the road at 5pm today, and hopefully will arrive at Our School At Blair Grocery by 5pm tomorrow.  We will be spending the week working along side the students at OSBG, as well as a group of NY2NO high schoolers that are also spending the week in New Orleans with us.  Together, we will build homes, gardens, and friendships…..and hopefully all take back with us a sense of unity and faith that we young people are the ones who are going to change this world. Not only in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, but in NYC, and in Philadelphia, and eventually in cities throughout the united states.

Temple Together Meeting

Today we finally had our meeting with many of Temples most prominent socially & environmentally active student organizations!  Talk about a powerful meeting!  There were representatives from PCCA, NAACP Chapter, Students for Environmental Action, Students for Responsible Business, Temple Community Garden, Philly ECO Kids, The Queer Student Union, Temple Youth Voices, Habitat 4 Humanity, SUMMA, Student Peace Alliance, Temple University Community Service Association, and Project EDU.

Over the corse of our meeting, we each got a chance to introduce ourselves, discuss what our organizations are about, what our current projects are on and off campus, what we are involved in within the community and HOW we are going about that work, and what our future plans and goals are.   We then discussed ways that certain projects could potentially link up and work together.

Overall, this was a meeting about building relationships. Most of these groups have been doing awesome work, but have been somewhat fragmented from one another.  Now, we can hopefully all begin working together towards a common goal, unite the struggles for environmental and social justice, and become a powerful collective resource to our surrounding community.

Meeting # 3

Our 3rd meeting was very productive.  We have all begun to research numerous organizations, gardens, farms, etc. that already exist throughout Philadelphia so that we can have a better understanding of the progressive fabric of this city.   Through this research, we will learn about what methods for change have already been tried here, we will determine who it is that we want to work and align ourslelves with, and we will find out what/who we can use as a model for what we’re trying to do.

In addition, we will be bringing a group of 22 students to New York City for a miniature service-learning experience. This group will consist of 15 members of our highschool group, and 5 members of the Temple group.

Meeting Notes:

PCCA Meeting Notes
2/7/10

Report backs:
Greensgrow, Quibila, Temple Community Garden
***PhilaLive—looking for urban farmers—have 1 million square ft. plot
in North Philly***

Greensgrow:
-Farm market/CSA
-community-placed
-more for profit
-big greenhouses
-deliver produce around city
-10% profit goes to their non-profit organization
-in Kensington (Cumberland & Gaul)
-garden center
-charities, soup kitchens
-told us to contact PHS
-most community interest in buying nursery plants, not produce
-sell conventional produce to people who can’t afford organic produce
-compost toilet
-told us to contact PHS
-turned empty block into urban farm

**We have ideological differences with them, but we should still work
with them and use them as a basic model

Good things from our presentation:
**Tomorrow (Monday): THE meeting: leaders of each social/environmental
club on campus to talk about how we can work together**
**Meeting at 8pm, 4th floor Tuttleman
(only a few of us should go though it’s ok if you can’t make it)
-we need to find a way for us all to work together
-how can energy from all of us be used for good in community
-Alex will try to facilitate meeting so we can define our relationship
with TCG, other groups
-Deidre (?) will rep. Students for Responsible Business
-Alexis for NAACP
-Jessica for Temple Student Government
-Gary
-Tiye
-Emily H. (?)

Announcements:
New Voices: African American newspaper, Alexis will write 2 articles
about NO experience, will talk about Food Justice, her experience
**we can send her some quotes, of what we thought of trip
**we will have a meeting when we get back from NYC: for us to report
back, will be last time just us in meeting—Tuesday, Feb 16th, 5:30 pm,
Tuttleman 4th floor lounge

Next meeting:
Tuesday, Feb 16th, 5:30 pm, Tuttleman 4th floor lounge
Is everyone ok with time for next meeting??

Do for Tuesday meeting:
-Tishna will talk to Tegan, Mill Creek, research more places
-Alex/Tishna will send a list of places to research, they will give us
a place to research
-Emily H. will research City Harvest
-We should go to Philadelphia Flower Show (PNC has discount tickets
for Temple kids… idk if you have to have a PNC account though
-NYC trip: people going please come up with $75 before we leave

**We will have to fundraise for next NO trip—THINK OF THINGS TO DO**

Our First Group Presentation

We had a presentation for the Temple University Community Service Week, where there were two group presenting on service work they had completed over the winter break. The Other group was SUMMA who had also went to New Orleans within the last couple of months. So in true PCCA fashion we blew this presentation out of the water. There were about ten members that came to represent the group, and about six of us spoke about the experience as a whole and personal reflections of the trip. We divided up the program into parts. We started by giving the audience a visual levee tour. This was very important because its difficult to explain to people who have never been to New Orleans what a levee is. We had other members go on to explain the mission of Our School at Blair Grocery and how establishing that school is allowing the Lower 9th Ward to become economically and politically independent. We discuss food justice, what a community of practice is, and how to make consensus decisions as a group. We talked about urban farming and how that creates healthy food and employment for whatever community the farm is located in. And last but not least we discussed the arts and entertainments role on the trip. We even showed the cypher video and people we laughing hysterically. The presentation allowed us to have more people aroused by the mission of PCCA and inspired many to get involved in future projects. Overall the presentation was successful we dropped major knowledge and had Temple students wanting to get involved with our plans.

The most significant outcome of this presentation was that it led to the organizing of the first ever meeting between nearly every single socially and environmentally active student organization on campus! Leaders of a number of these clubs were at the presentation and were inspired by our energy.  Afterwards, we came together and discussed how powerful it would be to develop a functioning relationship between all of the various organizations on campus so that we could become one HUGE collective Community Of Practice.

Meeting #2

The meeting on Sunday the 24th was spent making important decisions about the future of PA2NO and how we wanted to run it. Group members presented many ideas about possible projects and connections that could be made with other organizations.

To start off, we had a report back for meetings several group members attended. From the Quibila Divine meeting, came the possibility of creating an after school program, tutoring, and/or teaching about urban farming. Those who attended the high school trip meeting reported plans for a high school trip to New York where they could visit Phil Shipman’s Added Value and Majora Carter’s Sustainable South Bronx. Some people from our group could possibly attend too. New connections and ideas were made in the meeting with Tegan and Phil.

Then, we got to the basics. NY2NO organizers wanted to form an umbrella organization for NY2NO, Our School at Blair Grocery and PA2NO, so we decided on Youth Coalition for Community Action. For PA2NO, we came up with Philadelphia Coalition for Community Action (PCCA), for the time being. We also began to establish our main goals and come up with a mission statement which was: to educate and empower Philadelphia neighborhoods through the concepts and practices of sustainability. Nothing was finalized because we needed to wait until the high school group went on their trip.

The remainder of the meeting was spent planning Thursday’s presentation about our experience in New Orleans. We assigned topics to each group member who could attend. Topics included; mapping the Lower 9th Ward, history of PCCA, urban farming, arts and entertainment, food justice, community of practice, Blair Grocery, what we/others could do in Philly. We also planned to have a slideshow of pictures. Our group decided to meet a half hour before the presentation so we could have more time to prepare.

Highschool Group Update

Yesterday we had our first meeting with the high schoolers since we were forced to postpone the trip.

We started the meeting off with a Poem from Jeaninne, introduced ourselves, and then 6 members of the Temple group gave a short presentation on our trip and experiences in New Orleans.

After that, we moved onto discuss our next steps…..

Two options were presented;

1) Go to New Orleans in February over presidents day week.      Those in favor of this plan explained that since the main goal of this program is to have the high school students and Tempe students work together on social and environmental justice projects here in Philly, the earlier we go the better.    The downside would be that everyone would have to miss 4 days of school.

2) Go to New Orleans over Spring break (March 27th – April 4th). Those in favor explained that this would allow the students to not miss school, and still give them an opportunity to go to New Orleans.

After a group discussion, we collectively decided to go with the second option and re schedule the trip for Spring Break.

However, we agreed that since this is so far from the original dates of the trip, we would like to start working together now.

We are now currently trying to put together a short trip to NYC for the Presidents day weekend (leaving after school on thursday February 11th, and returning to Philly on Monday February 15th) where we can do similar work and meet with some of the nations top community organizers.

Back Home; Report Back Meeting #1

After a week of being back home, the group finally came back together for the fist (of what will be many) report back meetings.  It was great for everyone to see each other again.  Although it had only been a week since we were all together in New Orleans, it felt like much longer than that.  And as our group members came back together, so did all of the feelings, thoughts, and emotions of the Trip.

At first, we all discussed what it had been like to be home after the Trip. Many of us talked about having a much heightened sense of awareness for the food we were consuming, as well as for the racial, economic, environmental, and social structures around us.   We have begun to see the world in an entirely different way.    Many of us drew comparisons between New Orleans and the horrific situation in Haiti.  And all of us expressed our deep seeded passion and desire to start making change here in Philadelphia.

This, then, led us into the next phase of our meeting.   Over this past week, we all spent some time reflecting on our experience in New Orleans and brainstorming ideas for how we could move forward as individuals and as a collective.   Out assignment was as follows:

Answer the following 3 questions:  A) What aspects of my life can I change/improve as an individual and as a member of my community?

B) What can I as an individual bring/contribute to this group? I.E. skills/talents/ideas that I have, groups/organizations that I am apart of, people that I know that could potentially be supportive, experience, etc.

C) Where do I see our group going now that we are back in Philly? What do I want to see our group do (both short term, and long term)? What goals should we have? What projects should we start? How should we function as a COP?

In the meeting, we began to make running lists (lists that we can and will add to indefinately) about each of the three topics. Bellow are the meeting notes for what we came up with so far…..

All in all, this was an extremely productive meeting, a great way to kick off the New Year.

Our next meeting will be this Sunday at 8:30pm

MEETING NOTES

Things We Want to Change in Ourselves

-Be a smart customer/consumer

-Think about the environment more

-Stop complaining..ACT!

-Eat better food and pay attention to labels

-Be mindful of waste..Recycle, compost

-Use time more wisely and don’t procrastinate

-Don’t be lazy are do things out of convenience

-Think about how things affect your body..Be healthier

-Think about what we can do and pass it on to other people

-Exercise and take care of yourself [Rest, stretch etc]

-Accountability for actions

-Encourage more awareness

-Be more vocal on issues [don't be afraid to speak up!]

-Educate people and be open to people/learning

-Be grateful for what you have

Things that Need to be Done

-Observe issues currently going on in Philly

-Put yourself out there more..Talk!

-Make an effort to stay in touch

-Take initiative to keep us together [SUPER IMPORTANT]

-Make sure what we’re doing is what the community wants

-Be more aware of people around you and what they’re doing

-Don’t be hard on yourself

-Be passionate for what you believe in

-Don’t judge–>get to know people

Ideas

Temple:

-Form a good relationship between Temple and the community

-Give people in the neighborhood more opportunities

-Advocate for Black owned businesses and get community to go there

-Find out who owns vacant lots to establish what space we have to work with

-Start farm and compost [Step by step]

-Speak with surrounding schools..Set up relationship, See what they need

-Promote at different events..Freestyle Fridays etc

-Hook up with Temple orgs

-Structure ourselves

-Create our own org [Name, Mission Statement, Objectives]

-Set up compost bins in cafeteria, dorms etc

-Use available Temple resources

Philly :

-Make Philly the 1st sustainable urban city

-Bring energy to surroundings and cultivate a sense of community

-Make our mission COMMUNITY BASED

-Use our talent, art, knowledge to educate the community [esp kids]

-Transform gardens and spaces everywhere then have residents work there

-Be a sustainable community organization

-Hold workshops and presentations

-Use 12th and Susquehanna ..Recreation playground garden [Volunteer opportunity]

-Get more people involved and give them stuff to do