The World Summit on Food Security

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is hosting the World Summit on Food Security November 16-18 in Rome, Italy.

Heads of state and government ministers from around the world have come together to discuss how the scourge of global chronic hunger can be eliminated. Even though we have the capacity and knowledge to produce more than enough food for everyone in the world, roughly one billion people - that’s one of every six people on the planet - suffer from chronic hunger. Amongst those that suffer the most from food insecurity are children. For example, one baby dies every six seconds due to hunger and nearly six million children die every year as a result of hunger.

FAO has created a special website for the event which provides background, agendas, reports and live streaming of the event. You can access it here.

In conjunction with the World Food Summit FAO launched a “1 Billion Hungry” petition. Watch FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf’s call for all to join and sign the petition through this website.

This is an ideal time to focus on issues of hunger in your classroom. In addition to the resources coming out of the World Food Summit, FAO has abundant relevant information provided in the FAO hunger portal. You’ll find important facts, figures and accessible graphs on the issue of global hunger and malnutrition. A particularly interesting tool is the interactive hunger map that shows the prevalence of hunger in different parts of the world and offers country-specific data on hunger.

In addition to these resources, FAO recently released the 2009 State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) report. The SOFI report raises awareness about global hunger issues, discusses underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition and monitors progress towards hunger reduction targets established at the 1996 World Food Summit and the Millennium Summit.The 2009 report examines the impact of the economic crisis on world hunger. As a result of the global economic crisis, developing countries are facing declines in remittances, export earnings, foreign direct investment and foreign aid, leading to a loss of employment, income and access to food. In combination with the persistent effects of the global food crisis, the global economic crisis has led to a sharp increase in the number of hungry and malnourished people around the world.

You can download a free copy of the SOFI report here. Please contact amy.mcmillen@fao.org if you’d like to receive the report in hard copy.

We hope that you’ll be able to take advantage of these free resources to help your students and communities understand the complexity of hunger issues, but also to emphasize the importance of their work and participation in the solutions promoted by The Growing Connection.

Jill Wrigley, The Growing Connection's New Coordinator in Baltimore

We are proud to announce that Jill Wrigley has joined our team as The Growing Connection’s new Coordinator for Baltimore, Maryland. Jill received a scholarship from the Open Society Institute (OSI) to develop a garden project that will benefit communities in Baltimore and we’re delighted that she has chosen to work with TGC to achieve this goal.

As TGC coordinator Jill will set up the TGC demonstration garden at Great Kids Farm, Baltimore City Public Schools’ (BCPS) new organic production and teaching farm. Among other things, Jill intends to use the TGC demonstration garden as a teaching platform, as a tool to recruit Baltimore City schools to join TGC and to coordinate the training of teachers and staff of already participating schools.

Jill will also be working with the TGC garden at The Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School by teaching a class to engage students in a deeper understanding of where our food comes from, why it is important to our health and how food can connect all people around the world. Jill hopes the school’s TGC program can be used as a model for other Baltimore schools.

Jill’s ultimate goal is to help to revitalize the Baltimore City School’s food culture with an emphasis on local foods in school lunches and a return to on-site cooking in school cafeterias.

Check out this great video from The Point, a TGC site in South Bronx, New York!

Pinchbeck Elementary School, New TGC Partner School!

We are extremely happy when parents choose to get involved in The Growing Connection because their efforts are usually pivotal to the program’s success. For instance, Colonial Trail Elementary School’s effort to incorporate TGC into their 4th grade curriculum was spearheaded by Martie Byrum, a parent of a Colonial Trail Elementary School student. Ms. Byrum also ensured the program's financial sustainability by organizing fundraisers and getting local businesses involved in the project.

Now, as a result of the Colonial Trail’s success with TGC, it is being used as a model for other schools in Virginia. In fact, the Henrico County Public Schools board was so impressed with Colonial Trail’s success that they decided to fund Pinchbeck Elementary School's TGC program in full this year!

We are obviously very happy that Pinchbeck Elementary has joined The Growing Connection. The EarthBox vegetable garden will be cultivated by Pinchbeck Elementary's fourth graders. The students’ activities in the garden will complement what they are learning in science, math and social studies. Pinchbeck’s fourth grade teachers have already developed lesson plans that use the garden to teach their students about soil, seeds, planting, climate, sun patterns and the seasons. The students are also looking forward to sharing their experiences with students from different regions and countries.

Five Year Anniversary CUCBA Partnership

On September 30, 2009 The Growing Connection celebrated its five-year anniversary working with schools and communities in Mexico in collaboration with the University of Guadalajara’s Center for Life Science, Agriculture and Livestock (CUCBA). TGC currently has EarthBox vegetable garden sites throughout Jalisco, Chiapas and Mexico City.

CUCBA has become The Growing Connection’s main center for research on low-cost alternative substrates for the EarthBox and complementary technologies that enhance production. For example, much research has been done on using cocopeat (ground up coconut husks), volcanic rock, Jal (a porous stone native to Jalisco) and worm castings through worm composting in the EarthBox. They have also conducted crop rotation trials to examine how to preserve the maximum amount of nutrients in the EarthBox.

In addition to research, agronomists and community development specialists work closely with communities to provide on-going horticultural training and assistance to ensure that their EarthBox vegetable gardens are a success. One of these is the indigenous community of the Huichol in the mountains of the Western Sierra Madre in the northern part of the State of Jalisco. The Huichol people do not have the tradition of growing fresh leafy greens, but through TGC large vegetable gardens were planted using EarthBoxes. Within months of incorporating the leafy greens into their traditional dishes many skin ailments were eliminated from their communities.

CUCBA has also played an essential role in providing training to TGC partners in other Spanish-speaking countries, including the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Nicaragua. Due to the success of our partnership with CUCBA, we are now collaborating with dynamic companies such as Cisco and AMD in Mexico to integrate internet access with TGC’s horticultural activities.

We are very happy with what we have accomplished working with CUCBA and hope that we can achieve much more in the future. We would particularly like to thank Jose Sanchez and Blanca Alicia Bojorquez for their tireless commitment to TGC and the students throughout Mexico.

Great Kids, Food and Ideas to Grow in Baltimore, MD

The Growing Connection presented a workshop entitled "The Growing Connection: Cultivating Food and Empowering and Connecting Youth Globally" at Great Kids Farm on Saturday, July 18. This educational farm is owned and operated by Baltimore City Public Schools in Maryland.

"A Day of Free Urban Agriculture & Food Based Workshops" was divided into 3 sessions of hands-on workshops, each session lasting 75 to 90 minutes in length. Workshop topics ranged from choosing a garden to fit your space, building a garden from soil test to harvest, canning and other kitchen tips, introduction to chickens, connecting youth with nature, building an outdoor earthen oven, and more.

            

The TGC demo garden at River Farm, the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society (AHS) in Alexandria, Virginia has moved to Great Kids Farm, including 20 plus EarthBoxes. Hooray!

Healthy Living In The City

Will you be in Chicago, IL this Friday, July 17? If yes, you're invited to the 3rd annual Garden Walk at the Dorothy Bradley Atkins Medicinal Plant Garden at UIC from 11 am to 4 pm. It's all free and this years Garden Walk theme is "Healthy Living in the City." 

The first 200 attendees will receive free plants! Live music will be provided by BMR4 and attendees can go on guided garden tours, receive urban gardening tips, listen to lectures by Botanical Center researchers, and partake in drawings for green gear like the EarthBox. The Garden Walk is presented by the College of Pharmacy with the help of many generous sponsors including The Growing Connection. 

Many of the plants in the Medicinal Garden have been or are currently under investigation by the UIC/NIH Botanical Centers for diseases ranging from cancer to tuberculosis. Experts will be on hand to explain the medicinal uses of the garden’s many plant varieties, over 200 species of medicinal plants can be found there.

Need directions? 

The UIC Dorothy Bradley Atkins Medicinal Plant Garden is located in the Illinois Medical District at the corner of Polk & Wood Streets. The garden is also just steps away from the Pink Line's Polk Street Stop. Call (312) 836-7000, TTY (312) 836-4949 for information on RTA, CTA, and PACE. Bike racks are available for commuters at the Garden.