Bluegrass Food Security Summit

Posted by on March 01, 2010

Bluegrass Food Security Summit
“Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities”

Friday March 19, 8-5pm Food Security Workshops in 4 tracks
Crestwood Christian Church
182 Bellefonte Dr.  Lexington, KY

Friday, March 19, 8am-5pm

1) Food Security: Regional Approach and Food Policy Council,
http://sustainlex.org/BluegrassFSStrack1.html

2) Food Security: Youth Engagement;
http://sustainlex.org/BluegrassFSSTrack2.html

3) Food Security: School Gardens-” A Garden At Every School in Kentucky”
see below

4) Food Security:  Faith Community and Food
http://sustainlex.org/BluegrassFSStrack4.html

Track #3 Gardening with Class: Teacher PD Workshop-Integrating  School Gardens, Agricultural Literacy and Green Schools

“Good Food For All Kids: A Garden At Every School in Kentucky”

Gardening with Class workshop is designed with K-12 teachers in mind and  will provide:

1) an over view of the KY Green and Healthy Schools curriculum
2) update reports from the field on school garden efforts in Kentucky
3) discussion of challenges to instituting school gardens
4) opportunity for hands-on project to build a worm composting bin
5) best practices for linking school gardens to core curriculum
6) review of  importance of school gardens and food security

Rationale:  Good Food For all Kids: A Garden at Every School in Kentucky!
The diet of Kentucky’s youth needs to improve. Hunger, bad nutrition and obesity among children are leading causes of health risks and often contribute to poor classroom performance. By planting a garden at every school in Kentucky, we will ensure that every child has the opportunity to benefit from eating more fresh healthy foods. A well-planned edible schoolyard can supply a significant portion of a school’s daily food needs. By cultivating a garden together, children learn vital skills in team work, problem solving, creative planning, and sustainable living. Garden-based classes are a great way to complement classroom education in many subjects including biology, botany, ecology, mathematics, nutrition, art, and writing. Most important, gardening is fun for kids! School gardens can dramatically enliven the learning process by giving students the ability to connect in a very experiential and hands-on way with the incredible living world unfolding all around them. For all of these reasons and many more, let’s support the vision for a garden growing at every school in Kentucky!

Best Practices in School Gardens
School teachers, staff, students, volunteers and administrators across Kentucky are interested in establishing and sustaining instructional gardens. In April and June of  2009 two Gardening with Class: School Garden Workshops were held in Lexington that attracted 200+  teachers, parents and staff excited about establishing a school garden on their campus. Out of this workshop 40+ gardens were developed. Also in 2009 we organized the Kentucky School Gardens Network and the Bluegrass School and Community Garden Network to support, advocate for and facilitate school gardens efforts in  Kentucky.

During this workshop we will highlight the unique contributions of a variety of school garden programs to provide a landscape of ideas you can adapt to your school setting. Each school garden story will provide a glimpse into the ways garden programs can be structured and the myriad rich opportunities they offer. From them, we will see how instructional gardens support:

* Kentucky Core Content Standard
* Environmental Education
* Cultural awareness and social interaction
* Language arts, science, history, math, music
* Service Learning
* Culinary Arts
* Community Partnerships
* …and more

Purpose of the Workshop

Who should attend?
This workshop is designed as a professional development activity for K-12  teachers. School staff, parents, volunteers and administrators will also find the workshop a valuable experience for supporting your school garden initiative. We invite everyone who wants to make a difference and work to create A Garden at Every School in Kentucky! Professional development certificates will be available at the workshop conclusion.

Meals
Included in the cost of the registration are two—dinner on Thursday and lunch on Friday. The meals will also include as much locally produced food as possible. Feel free to bring your own bowl/plate and utensils for dinner/lunch.

Sponsors Kentucky Green and Healthy Schools Initiative, UK Tracy Farmer Center, Sustainable Communities Network, Kentucky School Garden Network, Bluegrass School and Community Garden Network, Terrapin Hill Farms, Central KY Council for Peace and Justice, Bluegrass Partnership for a Green Community

Questions/Information:  call (859)312-7024 or email embryjim@gmail.com

Fees & Registration
The registration fee for the Friday March 19 Gardening with Class:School Garden Workshop is $45. The Thursday March 18 Recognition Dinner fee is $20. But no one will be turned away for lack of funds. There are scholarship opportunities to cover the registration fee. You can apply by  completing the registration page and writing in “requesting a scholarship”.

To register click here
http://sustainlex.org/BluegrassFSS%20school%20gardenregis.html

Location
The Bluegrass Food Security Summit will take place in Lexington, Kentucky at the Crestwood Christian Church at 1182 Bellefonte Drive located off of Albany Rd,  between Tates Creek and Nicholasville Rds. , across the street from Glendover Elementary School.

Workshops Tracks click each track for details:

For Food Summit statement of purpose click here
http://sustainlex.org/BluegrassFSSpurpose.html

For Food Summit agenda click here
http://sustainlex.org/BluegrassFSSagenda.html

To Food Summit registration click here
http://sustainlex.org/BluegrassFSSregis.html

Fees & Registration
The registration fee for the Friday March 19 Workshop is $45. But no one will be turned away for lack of funds. There are scholarship opportunities to cover the registration fee. You can apply by completing the registration page and writing in “requesting a scholarship”.