Groundbreaking

Tomorrow I will be congregating with a representative from the Town of Merrillville, the food procurement manager from the NWI Food Bank, some students from Avicenna Academy and possibly some board members from the school to officially witness the groundbreaking of our garden.  A photographer from the NWI Times will be present.  I'm looking forward to finally seeing some forward movement!  Pictures to come! :)

What's in a name?

Derek Frazier of the Food Bank of NWI and I sat down to discuss the name for our community garden.  Throughout the original stages of planning, we just called it "the community garden".  We decided it was time to name the garden and while mulling over our options, he shared the Food Bank's mission statement/motto: Fighting Hunger, Feeding Hope.

And, there you have it...

The Garden of Hope

Collaborating

We've made a lot of progress since the last blog update.  Specifically, our collaborative efforts have grown.  We are now working with not only the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana and GrowNWI, we are also working with the town of Merrillville.  We've put a lot of work into finding funding sources and I'm hoping we'll get some more financial support soon.

In the meanwhile, our plans for the garden have changed a little bit.  We've moved the location of our garden slightly.  It's still on the same 10 acre plot, but it's closer to Colorado Street than was originally planned.  In addition, we've added plans for an outdoor classroom and an outdoor science laboratory.  My goal is to use this garden not only to grow food for the NWI community (dispensed via the Food Bank), but to educate people about nutrition, agriculture and nature, as a whole.

Some exciting things are happening!

Community Response

Our efforts have started to pay off!  Since the release of the grant proposal, we have received funding commitments of $1500.00!!! 

We should hear back by the end of February from some of the places where we sent the grant proposal.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Second Graders & Transplants

     Some of the crops that were selected for growth in our garden need to be grown prior to planting in our garden and transplanted.
Sweet peppers, brussels sprouts, eggplant, and onions will need to be grown and sprouted prior to planting in our community garden.  The second grade class has volunteered to grow our transplants!  They have experience in gardening as they've already been working on growing sweet peppers and broccoli for observation!

Putting the COMMUNITY into our garden

     On September 27th, I wrote a blog post addressing the issue of true education, which introduced a plan to create a community garden here on Avicenna Academy's campus.  The goal was initially very simple: create a garden to help our students learn valuable lessons while simultaneously giving back to the community where we live and learn.  Since then, we have been working hard to make our dream a reality.  The students have mobilized and our once nebulous plan has been fashioned into something much more solid.  Our students have tested the soil for worms, a variety of nutrients, percolation, pH and particle size.  They have selected plants to act as pest deterrents, chosen vegetable crops based on need (Food Bank of NWI) and desire (student council's Farmer's Market) and designed several layouts that will be considered, to provide a footprint for our many crop plots.  These plans have incorporated the use of rain barrels, elevated beds (whose soil pH will be manipulated contingent upon crop) and have included an area to be used for seating and flowering (non-edible) plants.

     In addition to making plans for the garden itself, we have reached out and created partnerships within the community.  The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, Grow NWI and the County Line Orchard are all on board with helping us make our dream a reality.  We are still looking for many volunteers and donations to help us on our way.  If you are interested in assisting us in any way, please contact:

Amanda Arceo

ms.arceo.avicenna (at) gmail (dot) com

219.736.7100 (office)

808.292.7030 (mobile)