CGN blog: Norman Johnston Secondary Alternate Program
This is the fifth piece in an ongoing CGN’s blog. This blog will be filled with snapshots of the network, garden activities, garden profiles, coordinator profiles & more!
This post is about Norman Johnston Secondary Alternate Program, where indoor and outdoor gardens and even a greenhouse are used to teach students more than just gardening techniques. The post is written by Nancy Moir at her blog Grown In My BackYard.
Norman JohnstonCGN blog: Growing Up Organic
This is the fourth piece in an ongoing CGN’s blog. This blog will be filled with snapshots of the network, garden activities, garden profiles, coordinator profiles & more!
This post is about Growing Up Organic, a garden and farm-based educational program for children and youth. The post is written by Nancy Moir at her blog Grown In My BackYard.
Parents and teachers, are you looking for a unique way to engage school-aged children in learning, teach them food skills and nutrition, and connect them with the environment? Growing Up Organic (GUO) may have a solution for you!
GUO is a garden- and farm-based educational program for children and youth provided by the Ottawa, St. Lawrence, and Outaouais Chapter of Canadian Organic Growers. Since its inception in 2007, GUO has enabled many schools across the region to build their own school garden programs. These gardens do more than produce delicious, healthy food; educators use them to foster experiential learning to meet their teaching goals. They enliven the curriculum for students who feel disengaged or who could benefit from hands-on experience to help with their comprehension.
Implementing a school garden does not add to a teacher’s workload; rather it reduces it by providing a simplified, vivid, real-world model that can be used to teach almost any subject. This program requires that students draw plans, calculate many different types of variables, engage in physical activity, and much more. Students of all ages and backgrounds have expressed delight at working within a school garden and their schoolwork reflects this newfound excitement. Through this, they acquire a solid understanding of the life cycles of plants, and an appreciation of the environment.
So, how does it work? GUI hosts gardening workshops in the spring and fall that are free to OCBSB educators, and available to other schools for a fee. In these workshops, GUO provides educators with an overview of the garden-based activities that they can facilitate in their schools. Their website offers a thorough overview of the preparation that should be undertaken before a garden is built. As well, each garden requires a support team of interested parents, teachers, and other community members. GUO provides the information needed to fundraise, build, and maintain a school garden, and most importantly, to use as a tool within the curriculum.
GUO is more than just a repository of information. Behind the website are the friendly faces of its facilitators and volunteer advisory committee (teachers, master gardeners, and stakeholders), who shape the program and provide support. For more information, visit their website.
COG ECO FARM DAY 2018: Feb 24-25, Cornwall, ON
The Canadian Organic Growers are hosting ECO FARM DAY 2018 on Feb 24-25 in Cornwall, ON. This year’s theme is ADAPTATION.
Feb 24: Keynote address, 40 exhibitor trade show, organic lunch and a dozen workshops relating to plants, livestock, and soils.
Also a reception dinner and screening of the new documentary Modified, by Aube Giroux, in partnership with Transition Cornwall+ and All Things Food.
Feb 25: ALSO JOIN COG for one of two full day, intensive and participatory workshops:
? Polyculture Livestock: Managing and optimizing health with multiple livestock species in a single pasturing system, with veterinarian Dr Hubert and Suzanne Karreman, of Reverence Farms and Café.
? The Permaculture Market Garden: Apply Permaculture principles without jeopardizing production, with Zach Loeks, author and farmer at Kula Permaculture Farm.
Check www.ecofarmday.ca and www.facebook.com/cogosochapter and
www.twitter.com/ecofarmday for details and updates
Become a Just Food Board Member!
Just Food seeks volunteers to serve on its Board of Directors!
Just Food seeks dedicated food systems volunteers to serve on our Board of Directors (terms are typically 3 years in duration, and can be renewed once to a 6-year maximum).
We welcome people from diverse backgrounds, and in this call, we are looking for one to three new Board members with some combination of the following:
- Fundraising experience
- Knowledge and expertise regarding food access among low-income communities
- Advocacy experience related to food and/or agricultural policy
Just Food is led by a volunteer Board of Directors (“the Board”). We are a working Board with the mandate to determine Just Food’s mission and policies, provide strategic direction and oversight of its activities, and ensure organizational accountability, to support our staff – who manage and perform the operations of the organization. Please read the Just Food Policies and Procedures for detailed information on the role and responsibilities of Directors, and the Just Food Constitution and our Vision, Mission and Mandate for more information on Just Food and how it is governed.
All Board members must have:
- Commitment to Just Food’s goals and values;
- Ability to commit a minimum of 6 hours per month to Just Food (more for Executive Committee members); and,
- Knowledge of local context (important).
Ideally, the new Board members will also have:
- Experience in community-based non-profit organizational management;
- Food system issues knowledge/analysis (desirable);
- Background in one or another of Just Food areas of work; and,
- Experience with Just Food (e.g., as a member, volunteer, and/or in another capacity).
Interested? Please send us a paragraph (maximum 350 words) introducing yourself and your experience, and telling us why you think you could make a positive contribution as one of Just Food’s Board of Directors, along with a current CV, to: mlbender@alumni.sfu.ca by February 7, 2018. Interviews will occur shortly thereafter.
In your submission, be sure to create the subject line: Just Food Board of Directors – Expression of Interest. All interested parties will be contacted. The selected candidates would be presented as a recommended slate to Just Food members for election at the upcoming Annual General Meeting this March 7, 2018.
We look forward to hearing from you!
CGN Blog: Senior Organic Gardeners
This is the third piece in an ongoing CGN blog. This blog will be filled with snapshots of the network, garden activities, garden profiles, coordinator profiles & more!
This post is about the fantastic Canadian Organic Growers program Senior Organic Gardeners. The post is written by Nancy Moir at her blog Grown In My BackYard.
SOG Article for Just FoodCGN Blog: Woodpark Common Ground Garden
This is the second piece in an ongoing CGN’s blog. This blog will be filled with snapshots of the network, garden activities, garden profiles, coordinator profiles & more!
This post is about the Woodpark Common Ground Garden, located on NCC Urban Lands close to the Lincoln Fields’ Station in Wood Park. The post is written by Nancy Moir at her blog Grown In My BackYard.
common ground final (1)
