Phew! We have just completed our first week of GreenLeaf’s summer internship, and it feels good to have made it this far! We spent the past week double-digging beds, shoveling compost, planting seeds and seedlings, and watering. The garden has gone from empty lot to a 15-bed farm all thanks to the hard work and dedication of GreenLeaf interns and staff. Tomatoes, peas, bush beans and basil seedlings have all gone into the ground, and a great variety of seeds have also been sown into Greenleaf earth. We should have a great harvest for our first year!

Besides all of the physical labor of love going on at Mini Eden, lots of great discussion, decision-making, and games have happened this past week. We discussed the week’s theme of courage every morning, and reflected upon how much courage it took to break ground on a brand-new farm and keep working throughout the hot and sometimes difficult workdays. GreenLeaf made some tough decisions about community goals, how to sell or give away future produce, and how to navigate a system for new applicants to the summer internship program. The group was also introduced to a new aspect of the program called Straight Talk, which allows every GreenLeaf member to receive and give constructive feedback about their participation at GreenLeaf. On a lighter note, some great team-building and get-to-know-you games helped us all become a stronger and more cohesive group. We passed hula-hoops, shared our “glums and glows” from the day, and compared our musical tastes with a new boom box. The week finished off with a much-deserved break: a trip to the park and swimming pool for some Frisbee and fun!


The week has been an incredible experience. I learn something new and interesting about GreenLeaf interns and staff every day, and it’s easy to see that every young person at GreenLeaf provides an essential contribution to the organization. We have worked together very well for a very successful first week, and I cannot wait to see the things we will accomplish together this summer.

we've got LAND!

Hey folks!

Sorry about the *ahem* blog silence over the past month or so. GreenLeaf has been BUSY. So busy that we haven't been blogging about our business.

The biggest news is this: We have land! We'll be growing loads o' food at 38th and Williams in Denver's Cole neighborhood. The youth have decided to name the land Mini Eden/Many Eatin'. That's right, folks: we're punny at GreenLeaf!
Here it is, a "before" shot. Please note the ENORMOUS weeds. Lots of 'em!

And here's the land after a long day's hard work, clearing those nasty weeds, lots of trash, and compost.

It's a gorgeous spot and we've spent the past few weeks getting it ready to plant. We're almost there, but we need your help. We're doing a volunteer day this Saturday, June 5th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and would love to have you there with us. Can you make it for some plantin' and diggin'?

Thanks!!

Leah

Sustainable Infrastructure and Diversity of Ideas

Sustainable Infrastructure - a tenuous term open to interpretation, struggling for meaning yet necessary by definition. Articles and conversations revolving around sustainable infrastructure are often centered around walkable communities, bike lanes, the colored past and bright future for electric cars, renewable energy, increased efficiency and locally grown food. The individuals who work with Greenleaf could be overheard talking about these topics with some regularity. However, these articles and conversations miss a key component for truly sustainable infrastructure, our knowledge infrastructure. I define knowledge infrastructure as the knowledge that we can easily access - the knowledge capital of our friends, family and community, our access to quality primary, secondary and post secondary education, and our ability to read and interpret information from outside sources including newspapers, books, the internet, etc.

Which is why I was excited to see an article in the NY Times Education section that highlighted the wealth of information made available, without cost, by some of the finest thinkers and institutions we have in the US. In order for us to create sustainable infrastructure and healthy communities we must continue to find solutions to the problems which we face. We must increase our diversity of ideas in order to find solutions unique to our problems, we must continue to learn and we must have the hard conversations. As individuals and as a country we need to invest in our Knowledge Infrastructure.

At Greenleaf we are concerned with food systems and healthy communities. If you are too check out this course from YALE, offered on mp3 in 60 minute sessions completely free. The Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food.

STUDENT INSIGHTS

Each Tuesday at Greenleaf is an adventure. Each individual - students, volunteers, guest experts and staff - brings their unique experiences, interests, personalities, emotions and excitement. The whole would not be meaningful without the sum of its parts.

What has made Greenleaf special to me is the investment in students and the reciprocal output from each student. The conversations delve deeply into food systems, farming techniques, cash crops and ancient seeds. Each student challenging the beliefs they brought with them our first day, in turn, altering their vision of what they hope our urban farm will look like. These visions include selling vegetables to local markets and growing foods we may have never eaten before, but they also include art and poetry.

Today Greenleaf student intern, Markesha Dews, penned and shared a poem formed through her unique experiences and inspired by the work she plans to participate in through Greenleaf.

LOVING THE EARTH

DIRT IS THE SYSTEM
THAT WE USE,ENRICHING THE
EARTH WITH WHAT WE DO

GROWING AND SPREADING
LOVE ALONG THE WAY GIVING
LIGHT TO THOSE WHO NEED
A BRIGHTER DAY

IN HOPES THAT WE
BETTER THIS EARTH
BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT
MOTHER NATURE IS WORTH !

Tuesdays at Greenleaf - STUDENT INSIGHTS

Each Greenleaf meeting begins with a quote which is discussed by students. Tuesday was no different and the quote that we discussed is written below.

All people are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

An undeniably powerful quote which the Denver Venture School students digested with ease. I am continually impressed with the insight of these students and the new and wonderful ideas that they bring to the table. There is nothing more exciting then seeing the youth of today and the leaders of tomorrow exceed my wildest expectations. -- Back to the quote.

The students unpacked the quote and quickly related it to the food system. One student related our indirect impacts on each other to that of the predator - prey relationship seen within nature; how removing an animal or plant can wreak havoc on an ecosystem and the need to find a new homeostatic balance. Another student followed up by talking about how the the potential perils of the monoculture/industrial agriculture system (albeit unknowingly) have a magnified impact on our population because the scale is so big. I believe the recent Salmonella and E. Coli outbreaks and Irish Potato famine were mentioned. More discussion followed.

In the end we decided that we all need to work to fulfill our full potential while having a positive impact on the earth as students, neighbors and businesses. For some that might mean working harder in class and for others that may mean working to change farming practices so that our necessity to feed the worlds population does not have a negative impact on laborers, our land and our health.

What America's Most Obese Metro Areas Have in Common

Today an article authored by Elizabeth Mendes discussed the results of a recent poll administered by Gallup and Healthways. The Gallup and Healthways survey, administered in 2008, looked at 187 large metroplitian areas and their rates of obesity. After conducting the survey they whittled down the information to look at the ten metropolitan areas with the highest obesity rates and looked for commonalities within the data. What is driving obesity in these areas?

The findings are not surprising - "Gallup and Healthways measure healthy behaviors in the United States by combining four metrics measuring Americans' eating, exercise, and smoking habits into the Healthy Behaviors Index. ...all of the 10 most obese metro areas fall within the bottom two-thirds of all areas surveyed for frequent exercise. In terms of eating habits, of the 10 most obese places, seven are in the bottom two-thirds among all metro areas for reporting eating healthy "yesterday" and for fruit and vegetable consumption."

However they are kind enough to unpack the data, if only slightly, for us. "Eight of the 10 most obese areas rank in the bottom two-thirds of all places measured in terms of easy access to fruits and vegetables and nine rank in the bottom two-thirds for having a safe place to exercise. Seven of the 10 most obese metro areas are among the bottom 25 places where residents say that there have been times in the past 12 months when they did not have enough money to buy food for themselves or their family."

The article leads to the logical conclusion that obese people (each of these 10 cities has obesity rates greater than 33%) do not eat the prescribed (USDA) amount of fruits and vegetables, do not make healthy eating choices, and they are excercising at far lower rates than the average American. However, according to the survey, they have less access to healthy food, a real or percieved inability to access safe places for excercise, and often lack the money to purchase healthy food on a regular basis.

Hard to access healthy foods + Lack of money to purchase food for basic nutrition + Lack of access to safe excercise locations = Less excercise + Poor Nutrition = OBESITY

I can say with confidence that these problems are not unique to our ten most obese metropolian areas, rather, these figures could be found by surveying many of the low income neighborhoods within healthier cities. Obesity and lack of access to healthy foods have huge costs and will need many solutions. I'm excited to work with GREENLEAF students at the Denver Venture School to discuss these issues, the impacts in their communities and to brainstorm, advocate, and participate with students to create solutions. It is time to tap our youths knowledge and insight as we move forward in addressing these problems.

Dirt in Denver!

Hey folks!

Looks like DIRT the movie is coming to DENVER!! On Sunday, March 7th at 3 and 6:30 p.m. at the Bug Theatre. Tix are $10 and the fund$ go to support the awesome work at the Growhaus in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood in Denver.



...aaaaand I'll be talkin' about GreenLeaf on the panel after the 6:30 p.m. showing, hopefully with a GreenLeaf intern. Come out and support the Growhaus, watch this fabulous film, and hear about GreenLeaf in action. Good times for all ages.



See you there?

Leah

Don't treat your soil like dirt!

Check out this trailer for a new film, "Dirt! The Movie"



This film "takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth's most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation."

I can't wait to see it!

Leah

Help GreenLeaf?

UPDATE as of 1/28/2010: We've heard from the wonderful folks at DUG that the seedling program is well underway but has had some funding cuts this year. The priority of the program is to serve low-income families: so please do participate if you are income eligible and get some free seeds and seedlings for your own garden!

But to make sure there are enough veggies to go around please hold off on participating on GreenLeaf's behalf. DUG has very generously offered to donate any seeds and seedlings left over from the program to us. And of course, we are always happy to accept monetary donations, or donations of seeds, seedlings, or tools of your own. Please contact me at GreenLeafDenver@gmail.com if you would like to make a donation.

Thank you all so much!

Leah

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Friend!

Even as it's snowing and frigid outside, spring is in the air and on my mind. "Why!?" you may ask?

Because Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) is giving away free seeds and seedlings! As you may know, I've been working for the past year to start an organization called GreenLeaf, to grow healthy food on urban land with Denver youth. We will be planting our first farm this summer, with the assistance of talented youth interns from Denver Venture School. So, we're looking for all the free seeds and seedlings we can get!

I'm writing with a last minute request for you, if you live in the Denver area: Check out DUG's free seeds and seedlings program, and sign up. Get as many seeds and seedlings as you need for your garden this summer, and donate the rest to GreenLeaf!

But you'll need to act fast---the deadline is Monday, February 1st! You can sign up at your local rec center, or call DUG at 303-292-9900 to find the location nearest to you. It's easy: all you have to do is list your name and address, and pick what you want to grow! We're looking for any veggies and herbs, especially tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, broccoli, cabbage, and squashes.

Will you visit your local rec center to sign up for free seedlings for your garden and for GreenLeaf? Email me and let me know!

It's free for you, and free for us, and think of all the delicious food we'll grow!

Thank you!

Growing together,

Leah

Announcing GreenLeaf's 2010 Spring Internship Program

GreenLeaf is proud to announce our 2010 Spring Internship Program!

We are recruiting 8 students from the Denver Venture School to participate in this exciting and brand-new program. Interns will:

• Attend and participate in weekly meetings, including some Saturday workshops.

• Participate in developing GreenLeaf as a new non-profit organization.
• Plan GreenLeaf's farming season for 2010 including crop planning and marketing.
• Develop GreenLeaf's 2010 summer program including curriculum, games, and activities.
• Interns will earn a $tipend for full participation. There is also a chance that interns may transition to paid employment with GreenLeaf for summer 2010 or after.

The Denver Venture School (DVS) is a new, innovative charter school engaging students in a project-based curriculum focusing on entrepreneurship and business. GreenLeaf's Spring 2010 internship program is open ONLY to DVS students: since we are a startup, we are particularly excited to have the opportunity to engage the talent, knowledge, and skills of DVS students to build our organization collaboratively.

DVS students will have a unique and powerful influence on how GreenLeaf starts and develops, with real responsibility and decision-making power. Students can get involved in GreenLeaf from the beginning and will have significant influence on how we do what we do.

We are encouraging students to apply if they:

• Like to garden or do work outside
• Are interested in starting and developing an organization
• Want a fun and challenging intern experience
• Can commit to participating fully and doing their best
• Are interested in food, social justice, or sustainability

We’ll be spending some time inside but more and more time outside as the weather gets warmer. Together we will try new things, learn new things and do some hard things: it’s guaranteed to be an adventure. We will play a lot of games and everything we do will be participatory and hands-on.

Students who are interested in applying should know:

• This is a job: we will be colleagues
• You will have real responsibilities and support to fulfill them
• We value and expect collaboration, communication, and accountability

These are the major learning goals we will achieve as part of the internship:

· Nonprofit basics

o What is a nonprofit organization?

o Why is GreenLeaf a nonprofit, and how does it operate?

o What are the different roles within a nonprofit?

· The Business of Farming

o The Food System

o Ecology

o Farm Planning

§ Crop Planning

§ Budgeting

§ Seed starting and planting

· Planning for GreenLeaf's Summer Program 2010

o Logistics

o Content

These are the foundational ideas that GreenLeaf and the internship program are based on:

o Positioning young people to assume leadership in the organization and expand their understanding of quality of life issues affecting them, through:

§ Supporting and challenging youth to do their best and be their best selves

§ Sharing ownership of the learning process with youth

§ Creating a safe and engaging group environment to foster collaboration, exploration, risk-taking, problem solving, and self-management

§ Giving students real responsibilities that impact individual and group achievement

o Situating learning in its natural context. We recognize that learning occurs "at the intersection of community, shared practice, identity, and meaning."[1]

o Enabling youth to act in intentional and strategic ways to ensure current and ongoing quality of life for themselves and their community

o Creating and nurturing vital community networking and partnerships that support the organization and its participants in the long term

o Intentionally building in a process for ongoing planning and evaluation

Thanks to The Food Project for the lovely picture!

---

[1] Morrell, E. (2005). Becoming Critical Researchers: Literacy and empowerment for urban youth. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.

You Are What You Eat

BY: Sylvia DeLay

You are what you eat. So the saying goes reminding us that our food choices can make or break our health. But is this really the whole story?

Studies like this and this clearly demonstrate that the choices we make every day have a huge impact on our health. Will it be Whole Foods and a jog tonight or a whole lot of fatty food and some video games?

But what many of these studies do not touch upon is the context in which we make choices. As much as we like to believe we have complete control of our lives, our choices aren’t dictated simply by personal desires. We are affected by a whole host of factors such as our individual resources (education, income and wealth), neighborhood resources (housing, access to healthy food, and transportation options), opportunity structures (job availability and school systems) and systems of power (how our entire culture is structured).

Where we grow up, the level of education we have access to, the amount of money we earn—all have effects on our health. Furthermore, race and ethnicity –independent of socioeconomic status—have a significant effect on health.

The infant mortality rate in Colorado’s Black population is 16.9 percent versus 4.9 percent in the White population. The rate of childhood obesity among Colorado’s Latino population is more than twice that of the White population.

So although it will definitely improve our health if we each put down our greasy food and get off our collective bum, it’s also critical to fight for social and policy changes that offer more people the choice to be healthy.

To Know for Real

What is learning? Where does it happen, and how? Who is a learner, and who a teacher?

Who decides what must be learned? Who should?

Sometimes I think that as a society we've skipped over these questions and jumped right to certain conclusions--however untested or disproven they may be. Witness the failures of our school system to accommodate the learning styles and needs of diverse student bodies, struggling to prepare even the privileged students for a college system entirely divorced from the lived realities of the vast majority of people in this country, let alone to live as critically and flexibly thinking members of a democratic society. We ask students to regurgitate facts and perform skills on command--regardless of whether they have to do with that young person's life or not. We stifle students' natural inquisitiveness and personal passions in the quest for improved standardized test results. But what if our failure to engage students as full and capable human beings is what defeats their performance?

I've been reading "To Know for Real" by Ann Giles Benson and Frank Adams. It's about Royce Pitkin, one of the founders of Goddard College, where I am currently a student.

Goddard has a fascinating history as one of the first and few institutions in the US committed to enacting a living model of progressive education. In short, progressive education puts the student in charge of her own education: "since the material of education is living, you can't escape building any kind of educational program around the lives of persons…you do not educate other persons; persons educate themselves."

Imagine, for a moment, that "the purpose of schools, and the function of a teacher, is to create the conditions of learning, the kind of learning that enables one to increase one's own abilities." Does it change how you think about my initial questions?

What is learning? Where does it happen, and how? Who is a learner, and who a teacher?

Who decides what must be learned? Who should?

Royce Pitkin proposes "an 'assignment' in living," asking that we "organize our lives so as to hold firm convictions and yet tolerate dissent; to behave with becoming humility toward others; to recognize the probability of imperfection in all plans for a new social order; and to put our time and energy into work calculated to make better our community, our society, our world."

What do YOU think?

And finally, because to me Goddard College is one of the most beautiful places on earth, I'll leave you with a photo taken by Ann Driscoll, program director for the Master's Degree in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities. It's the Manor House on Goddard's campus; a beautiful building that has housed the untold brilliance of thousands of students throughout the college's history.

Here's your moment of Zen: