A publication of the Baltimore Food & Faith Project supported by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
The Good Food Digest
Calendar
Winter 2013
Note from the Director
Happy New Year (albeit a little late)!
We here at Baltimore Food & Faith
are excited about 2013. We are
thrilled with our new newsletter. It is
now much easier to read, while keeping all of the information that you
told us was important to you. We also
will be funding new faith community
gardens again, and we are launching
our brand new Good Food Challenge,
a contest for faith communities to
see how sustainable and just they can
make their food policies. In February,
February 8
we will release Growing Faith with
Food, our two-week summer camp
curriculum for kids ages 5 to 11 that
will help teach them about healthy
eating, gardening, and caring for
God’s creation. We piloted the curriculum last summer with great success,
and we are looking forward to sharing it with more kids this summer.
Things are on the move around here
and around our fair city. We wish you
all a very healthy, happy year as we
continue to move along together!
Creation Care Friday Night
Film Screening
Episcopal Cathedral of the
Incarnation, Baltimore
http://www.
incarnationbaltimore.
org/?p=103779
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
This month’s featured film,
“Renewal”, focuses on today’s religious-environmental movement
and how our faith empowers us to
care for God’s creation.
February 9
Greening University
Announcing The Good Food Challenge:
A Chance to Win up to $3,000 for Improving
the Food Sustainability Practices in Your
Congregation!
The Center for a Livable Future is
pleased to launch the Good Food
Challenge, a contest that will reward
faith communities in the Baltimore
area who are adopting food policies
and procedures that encourage a
more sustainable and just food system. The three top entries will win
prizes of up to $3,000!
The Good Food Challenge seeks to
inspire congregations to use The
Good Food Toolkit, which helps faith
communities of all traditions assess
their food policies and practices in
terms of sustainability and justice. A
planning guide and resources are also
included to assist congregations in
Johns Hopkins University,
Homewood Campus
www.cphabaltimore.org/ayicgreening-university/
9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Expert gardeners will teach
classes about soil, cooking,
beekeeping, gardening with kids,
community gardens, storm water
management and more. $1 to $3
donation requested. Registration
required.
February 12
Foodopoly: The Battle Over
the Future of Food and
Farming in America
making changes that better promote
“good food” – food that is sustainably
produced, humanely raised, equitable, healthy, and accessible to all.
By examining how they use, donate,
and teach about food, and deciding
to make even small changes via an
action plan, faith communities have
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health
http://bit.ly/UuSfmt
Noon to 1:30 p.m.
Lecture and book signing by
Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch.
an enormous opportunity to support a
better food system. Working through
the Good Food Toolkit is an excellent
way for congregations to learn more
about various food-related issues and
implement projects that promote
environmental stewardship and foster
justice within the food system. By
doing so, these congregations are becoming positive role models for other
faith communities in the Baltimore
area.
All congregations that successfully
complete the Good Food Challenge
will receive a 2013 Good Food Sanctuary certificate suitable for framing.
Entering will also put your congregation in the running for one of three
cash prizes (1st place – $3,000; 2nd
– $2,000; 3rd – $1,000) to put toward
implementing the project(s) identified in your completed action plan.
While only three congregations can
win the monetary awards, every congregation that completes the Toolkit
will benefit from the community
engagement surrounding food sustainability and justice – well worth the
effort! Just read last fall’s Good Food
Digest (Project Spotlight on page 2)
to hear about the impact the Toolkit
made on one area congregation.
Calendar (Continued)
February 15-17
Beit Midrash 2013: Sacred,
Sustainable Rhythms of the
Jewish Calendar
At Pearlstone Center
Reisterstown, MD
http://conta.cc/12qRw7P
An inspirational Shabbaton filled
with learning, celebration, and
groundbreaking Jewish thought.
Join Jewish farmers, rabbis,
educators, scholars, and consumers from around the country to
learn about the Jewish Calendar
and other Jewish environmental
topics.
March 20-21
Here’s how to enter:
1. Download and carefully read through the complete application form
http://tinyurl/goodfoodtoolkit
Two Days of Beyond-Organic
Small-Farm Enterprise
Training
2. Download The Good Food Toolkit for free at http://tinyurl.com/goodfoodtoolkit and begin working through the process outlined in the instructions.
Online event, hosted as a Benefit
by Carrie Murray Nature Center
3. Submit copies of your completed evaluation, planning guide, and action
plan from the Good Food Toolkit, along with your completed application form.
http://bit.ly/YRDzPj
4. Enter before midnight on Friday, June 28, 2013!
If you have any questions about the entry process or need help completing the Good Food Toolkit, please email us at [email protected] or
call (410) 502‑7578.
Workshops led by Joel Salatin
of Polyface Farms. Presented
in livestream format by Verge
Permaculture. Each day is a
self-contained workshop based on
one of Salatin’s books: Day 1 – “So
You Want to Be a Farmer?” Day
2 – “Pastured Poultry Profits.” $30
for both days. Some scholarships
available.
Food & Faith by the Numbers
With all of the statistics being thrown around due to last Sunday’s Super Bowl game (Go Ravens!), we thought it might
be fun to crunch some of our own numbers to see just how much good our faith community partners are doing.
We decided to take a look at the gardens that have been created via our Garden Grants Program, and the time that
our volunteer Ambassadors have given to help us spread the “good food” word. We knew that these folks were amazing, but we were overwhelmed by just how dedicated and inspired they are. Check out this play-by-play!
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Number of faith community gardens in the Baltimore Food & Faith family: 36
Number of volunteer hours given to the gardens in their first years alone: 6,674
Value of that volunteer time: $146,269
Number of pounds of produce grown in the first year: Around 5,000
Number of hours of volunteer time given by our Ambassadors* in the first year of that program: 487
Value of that volunteer time: $10,612
Incredible, huh? We send out a very big and warm THANK YOU to all of these folks. There is no way that we could be
moving forward without you!
*Volunteers who table at events, help host events, garden, do speaking engagements, etc.
Project Spotlight:
Weinberg Senior Village Garden
Weinberg Senior Village Garden received a grant from Baltimore Food
& Faith to help start its remarkable
garden last summer. You can watch
a video they made of the project
on YouTube (http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=R1OBgEs24_E). But, be
warned! It’s so lovely, you’re likely
to tear up. Josh Brenner, one of the
volunteers who was instrumental in
creating this garden, was kind enough
to share with us the story of their
garden.
It takes a village to raise a Garden
and Weinberg Village is a great example of that.
Weinberg Village is a campus of
affordable senior housing facilities in
Owings Mills, MD. Staff members provide a wide range of services for almost 500 older adults, assisting them
to remain independent for as long as
possible. Residents of the community expressed interest in creating a
garden where both residents and staff
could enjoy the outdoors, each other,
and fresh produce. Based on those
requests, a community garden was
planted in 2012. The outcome has
been phenomenal.
The garden project was a joint effort
with help coming from Baltimore
Food & Faith, Home Depot, Brickman
Landscaping, Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc. (CHAI; this is the
housing and community development
agency of THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish
Federation of Baltimore), Pearlstone
Feast Your Mind:
Spirituality of Soil
Lenten Resource
For our Christian friends, Ash
Wednesday falls on Feb. 13, so
it is past time to plan for Lent!
We have recently stumbled upon
a new downloadable five-week
Lenten program for group or individual use, and thought you might
like to know about it.
Center, and more than 100 volunteers. The garden is one of just a few
in the United States that complies
with the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA). It offers gardeners the
choice of growing plants at ground
level, above ground, from a seated
position, or from a wheelchair in one
of 42 plots.
The resident gardeners come from
diverse racial, religious, and cultural
backgrounds. Many of the most passionate gardeners are from the former Soviet Union. Their ages represent three decades, from 64 to 94 and
older. The garden has brought them
all together around a mutual goal.
The impact of the garden has been
tremendous. It has been a hub of
activity and a site of serenity. It has
provided spiritual, physical, and
social benefits. New friendships are
being formed. People work to solve
problems together, share recipes,
and, of course, enjoy the bounty of
fresh vegetables. These are just a few
of our successes. We can’t wait to see
what 2013 (our second growing year)
will bring!
Spirituality of Soil: A Lenten
Journey from Cosmic Dust to
Easter Garden (http://ecospiritualityresources.files.wordpress.
com/2012/05/lent2013-soil.pdf)
allows participants to deepen
their appreciation of Mother Earth
and the gift of soil. Reflections on
the role of Earth in the Gospels
and in our evolution story highlight the importance of mitigating
the current threats to Earth.
Each week contains a closing
activity and suggestions for Earthcare action. Users can adapt this
material in any way that will
deepen participants’ consciousness of the sacred interconnection of all life and our part in
co-creating a sustainable future.