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

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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!

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[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:

a call to ACTION

Truth and Rights.org never ceases to produce interesting and evocative pieces. Below is a link to a food related post by Amanda Misiak at Truth and Rights. While her article fails to mention food deserts and the lack of access to healthy foods in some urban areas, that Greenleaf hopes to combat, it is still a great read and a great reminder that we are all culpable in our current food system. It serves as a reminder, for those of us who have access to healthy food on a regular basis, to vote with your dollar. Each purchase of fast food, processed food, subsidized food, GMO food is a sign of support and more than likely a dollar that will not stay in Colorado's economy.

Below is an excerpt from her witty, well crafted article meant to entice you to click on the link below and read the whole thing.

"We already know that the mass consumption of sugar in the form of soda, candy, and simple carbohydrates is bad, bad, bad. Let’s save the erudite explanation. This is no arcane secret. Sugar, when not monitored, whether it be sugar in its natural form, or sugar cooked up in a laboratory and sneaked into our food in the form of high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, sucralose or aspartame, catches up to the human body in the form of diabetes, osteoporosis, and huge asses. Thank you, Big Gulp for giving us, in one seemingly innocuous container, more sugar than we should be consuming in several days. Yet, herein lies the rub: the 7-11 convenience store chain does not station gun-pointing sales associates next to the fountain pop machine, demanding that you fill up the 24 oz. cup; you do that all by your lonesome."

http://truthandrights.org/volume/features/the-chicken-or-the-egg/

Please feel free to post a comment in favor of or against the post in the hopes of creating a meaningful dialogue.

Negative Health Impacts From Inaccessibility to Healthy Food

I just heard about a presentation that has the potential be ground breaking, or at the least, address important issues that are often ignored - food deserts and health disparities, Let's hope that they make the connection to how access to healthy food impacts not only health, but also education, safety of neighborhoods and more.

Please join the Colorado Health Foundation for breakfast and an informative presentation and discussion about how the inaccessibility of healthy, fresh and affordable food negatively impacts health.

Allison Karpyn, PhD, of the Pennsylvania-based Food Trust will release the results of a new study that finds many Colorado communities that have poor access to supermarkets also have high incidences of diet-related diseases. Richard J. Jackson, MD, MPH, professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health and author of Urban Sprawl and Public Health, will discuss how where we live plays an important role in how healthy we are.

I'm intrigued to see what kind of policy or funding recommendations are encouraged at the talk. We must wait to see. Below is a link with more information and steps to sign up. ITS FREE.

http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=192051

Food Fight the movie

I recently had the pleasure of watching yet another food documentary.  Food Fight educates and makes you salivate.  The movie begins by describing the change in food consumption and creation over the past century.  It then moves on to interview long time slow food, local food and organic food activists, revolutionaries and cooks - Michael Pollan, Wolfgang Puck, Dan Barber and Alice Waters.  Their (or maybe the producers) thesis:  most of what is sold in groceries stores today is processed foods and homogenous, tasteless fruits and vegetables cultivated with the sole purpose of shipping them to far off locations that end up making us sick and fat.

The blame is placed primarily on Earl Butz, Secretarys of Agriculture under Richard Nixon.  Earl Butz was given the responsibility of providing the American people with a cheap, reliable source of food.  He succeeded.  Pushing small scale farmers out and replacing them with large, subsidized monoculture farms which grow the food industries new vilian, CORN.  While the attack on corn falls far short of that shown in one of the other new food documentaries - KING CORN it is still vilified for its presence in everything we eat.  

As far as I'm concerned the movie begins to shine when recent MacArthur Award Winner Will Allen is brought into the movie.  Will Allen is a central character in the local food movement, however, Will Allen is not concerned with supplying high end restaurants with locally produced foods for seasonal menus.  Will Allen is concerned with providing low income people with: access to healthy food, the knowledge of how to cook with it and the education about how to combat national epidemics of diabetes and obesity.   Will Allen represented a high point in the movie for me.  A man who understands that healthy food doesn't have to be a luxury and participates in making that a reality.

The movie continues to skim the surface of what Will Allen's non profit GROWING POWER provides to communities when Alice Waters talks about the value of farm to school programs and farming at school programs.  Alice points to the value added when students get their hands dirty gardening at school, cooking, eating and reaping the rewards of eating what you grow.  Students look interested, excited about learning, engaged and healthy.  

Food Fight is a great primer for those who are not as familiar with the origins of the local food movement and I hope it serves as a gateway for people to learn more about how we can provide healthy food for everyone in our neighborhoods. It has certainly motivated me as Greenleaf moves forward with plans for our work in Denver communities

Turnips and raspberries and purple cauliflower, oh my!

"Courage is doing something even if you are afraid to do it. Hope is believing that you can." --Alexis and John, GreenLeaf and CityWILD Summer '09 participants

Last week we officially concluded the GreenLeaf 2009 Summer Pilot program with a feast cooked…er…heated…er…warmed up in our first attempt at making solar ovens. The young people came up with brilliant designs for the ovens, but because we were lacking any plexiglass to cover them, we weren't able to achieve the all-important greenhouse effect and the ovens didn’t get too hot. Good try, though, and the Colorado Peach Cobbler was still yummy!

GreenLeaf's Summer 2009 Pilot Program was six volunteer days at a local farm in Aurora, working with young people ages 12-15 who live from neighborhoods in North East Denver like Globeville, Swansea, and Curtis Park.

It was a collaborative effort with CityWILD, who brought youth participants out to the DeLaney Community Farm in Aurora where GreenLeaf had planned and prepped the day's activities, including games, farm work, a quote and theme of the day. We could not have done this without Nicole and Jason from

CityWILD, whose energy, enthusiasm, and silliness are delightful. Thanks, CityWILD!

DeLaney Community Farm is a project of Denver Urban Gardens (DUG), and the farm staff, Deb, Faatma, Meg, Chad, and Heather, taught the young people all about what it takes to run a working farm. They are all amazing and wonderful people, who generously hosted our program and gave their time, attention, knowledge and precious veggies to make it fun and delicious. Thanks DUG! And Meg--special thanks for the bee dance.

We learned a ton from the six days in June, July, and August we spent on the farm. Here are some of my personal highlights:

• Without exception, everyone conquered the veggie challenge: to at least try every vegetable offered, many of which we harvested ourselves. The Hakurei turnips, carrots, onions, raspberries, and purple cauliflower were particular hits. We also made a different salad each day we were at the farm--a couple of our youth volunteers would decide what was ripe and yummy, harvest it and feed it to the crew!

• It was amazing to be with the youth as they experienced the farm and learn about it together. For many it was their first time on a farm, and every aspect was fascinating. Others already knew a lot and shared their knowledge with the rest of us. We got to see tomato and squash plants grow from being tiny to huge , got to see the Delaney bees make progress building their hive, did some planting, harvesting, and mulching, and lots and lots of weeding. We've got lots of great photos of the young people, but are holding off posting them till we've got signed releases.

• We saw lots of wildlife: deer, snakes, rabbits, bees, and lots and lots of bugs. The snake that hangs out in the greenhouse was definitely everyone's favorite. Not to mention the butterflies on Faatma's hands!

• We played lots of games. My absolute favorite was the "Meet My Weed" competition, in which each young person saved the biggest weed they'd pulled that day. They came up with a name for their weed, and presented a short skit about why their weed was the best. We had weeds named Barack Obama and Michael Jackson among other things, and one crafty participant wisely named his weeds after the judges. It was hilarious, and a great opportunity to let the young folks show off their brilliance and creativity.

• The youth participants did amazing drawings to help us come up with a t-shirt design for GreenLeaf. Each drawing was amazing in its own way, and we are working to bring elements of all of them together for our final design. Here's Sarah's "Food Nerd" themed drawing.

It's been a wonderful summer, and we are looking forward to GreenLeaf's growth--stay tuned for more. And, don't forget to subscribe to the blog.

Happy Harvests,

Leah