Come learn about the current state of our agriculture system, food insecurity in Kingston, and organizations that are working to solve these problems. The presentation will be made in the context of ways you can be involved in helping turn Kingston into a food secure city, with a focus on solutions being proposed by a handful of active organizations in Kingston.
When: Saturday February 20th from 12-2:00pm (time for Q&A)
Where: Kingston Sustainability Center, 193 Princess St.
Admission: Free! However, due to limited space, please register by sending an email to workshop@livingcitiescompany.ca For more info click here.
Presented by: Living Cities, Loving Spoonful, Vegetables Unplugged and Urban Agriculture Kingston
Have your say: Comment on the City of Kingston’s draft Community Garden Policy
There are several aspects to this document that are really positive, including:
1. that the city is taking community gardens seriously and proposing to support their development and operations in a number of ways
2. that they propose appointing a Community Gardens Coordinator to help facilitate the development and operations of community gardens
3. that they are proposing to set aside a small fund to allocate to Community gardens for set up and improvements Some of us are concerned, however, that a number of the points outlined in the document may actually inhibit our ability to develop and run community gardens with ease in this city.
If you are interested in and supportive of the growth of community gardens in our city, please take a few minutes to review the draft policy: (http://www.cityofkingston.ca/pdf/recreation/parks/CommunityGardensPolicy_Draft.pdf ) and submit your comments to Liz Cartwright lcartwright@cityofkingston.ca by Thursday January 14th.
Check out the documentary “Mad City Chickens” on Thursday November 19th, 7pm in Ellis Auditorium, 58 University Ave. Suggested donation: $5.
Please vote today to support the contest to win $50,000 for a meals program and kitchen at the Wally Elmer Community Centre!
Please vote each day until Nov 15. It takes less than a minute to vote.
http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf1296
(if you haven’t voted before, you must register first with an email address and then click on the link above to go directly to the Wally Elmer project)
Thanks for your support!
Hear CFRC’s Alternative Frequency news story on the World Food Day Vigil: World Food Day
12:15-12:45, in front of city hall.
Loving Spoonful is part of the Kingston Food Providers Networking Group (a coalition of organizations in Kingston that feed people and work on issues of food justice)
To help increase awareness, understanding, and informed year-round action to alleviate hunger, the Food Providers’ Networking Group will be marking World Food Day on Friday, October 16th. We will stand with the Sisters of Providence at their Silent Vigil a protest against government social cuts entering its 14th year.
A ‘report card’ about rising demand for food programs in Kingston will be released by the Food Providers Networking Group. Download the reportcard.
Profile Kingston magazine featured an article about Grow a Row in their September 2009 issue. Right click
Margaret Atwood just updated her tour blog: http://marg09.wordpress.com/ and here is what she had to say about her visit to Kingston and more specifically, her discussions with Susan. Click on the link to her blog for the full posting, including pictures!
“Wayne drove us out to one of the site of the Community Harvest Working Group’s gardens, where Susan Bellyea – co-ordinator of Loving Spoonful (http://www.opirgkingston.org/lovingspoonful) (‘delivering fresh surplus food to people in need”) — walked us around the public allotments and communal vegetable gardens. Community Harvest runs local food markets, teaches organic gardening and cooking, and runs a gleaning program whereby families in need can go into fields after harvest and pick up any extras.
Ron Mann and his film crew trailed us and the wind blow my pink sunhat around as Susan explained how the programs work, and how families use the gardens and surrounding area for play and outdoor recreation. Then she told us of the disturbing plan by the Federal Government to close all the current Canadian prison farms for no good reason – they have not said how they will use the land they will have grabbed by doing so, or how they will replace the food currently provided by the farms, but rumour has it they want to build vastly expensive battery-hen big-box crime incubators of the kinds that have been so thoroughly demonstrated to produce nothing but more and better criminals — and of the opposition of the National Farmers’ Union to this scheme. For full information, go to their site at http://tinyurl.com/yc24jsu. This is an issue that cuts deep in Kingston, home of Canada’s famous old Penitentiary – which is, not incidentally, the main setting for my novel, Alias Grace.”
If I had a million dollars… We all know what it is like to dream of having a million dollars (or more). That’s the dream that fuels the sale of lottery tickets and trips to the casino. But what if you had a hundred dollars? One hundred dollars a month more than you now receive?
For many that would mean next to nothing. For others, it would mean paying off that student debt, credit card or mortgage just a little bit faster. What if you were living on social assistance? What would $100 a month mean to you then?
**********
To read the rest of Susan Belyea’s editorial in the Whig Standard from August 28, 2009, please click here. Note that older editorials are also available on our media page.
