Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:The main beneficiaries of this project are Boise's low-income refugee population, along with other low-income consumers who may access some of our services. Boise is home to a large refugee resettlement effort, resettling over 700 individuals per year from more than 20 countries. Refugees differ from other immigrants in that they did not leave their home country by choice. Rather, they were forced to leave due to political unrest, persecution, or fear of death. Refugee arrivals in Idaho vary greatly in their personal histories, many spent years in refugee camps without any modern amenities, little access to education, and minimal employment history. After arriving, most refugee adults gain low-wage jobs, live near or below the poverty level, and utilize assistance programs such as foods stamps and subsidized housing options. Many currently arriving refugees come from agricultural backgrounds in their home countries, having worked as farmers of subsistence or commercial crops, or having cultivated traditional kitchen gardens near their homes or in refugee camps. Participation in community gardens and agricultural training programs is a natural fit for them in their new community. Refugees face numerous cultural, linguistic, and economic barriers to entering the local farm economy as growers or consumers. The Idaho Refugee Community Food Project is focused on breaking down these barriers and supporting refugees as participants in the local food economy. Refugees can enroll in this project in one of two ways. They can sign up for a small communtiy garden plot at one of 10 neighborhood sites, where they grow food for family consumption. We have more than 200 families participating in this initiative at 10 sites, many managed by churches and other project partners. The second group of participants are our farmer entrepreneurs. Many of them are farmers from Africa, with many Somali Bantu participants. These participants are allocated a plot on an incubator farm and sell their produce at local farmers' markets. They recieve extensive training and marketing support from our staff. In the past year we have expanded our target audience to also include the teen and young adult children of our farmer participants. Changes/Problems:Challenges wtih this project included tracking volunteer hours to meet the 1:1 match requirement, and communicating with project partners, most of whom are community garden coordinators. We found that many volunteers just want to work in the garden and do not want to track hours on paper, attend meetings, answer emails, or do other non-gardening tasks. They are still serving refugee gardeners successfully by providing land and water, and ensuring that everything is running smoothly at their sites. This challenge did not result in any major changes in approach or scope of work. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?8 individuals participated in a series of 6 winter classes that covered topics including soil health, composting irrigation, crop planning, plant variety selection, food safety, marketing through farmer's markets and CSA, record keeping and how to apply for a small business loan. 30 individuals participated in field based trainings including greenhouse production of plant starts, use of tillers and other tools, planting, and irrigation management. 8 families received weekly field visits from our staff to assist with CSA harvest and post-harvest handling, and to address problems as they arise. Global Gardens staff also attended the annual Idaho Conference on Refugees. Katie Painter traveled to Washington DC to attend the CFP project directors meeting. Katie is also a part of a national initiative to develop improved curriculum and training tools for refugee farmers, hosted by ISED and funded by the USDA's Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. She attended two in-person meetings and several webinars, which included training from an adult education expert on how to develop curriculum and facilitate training for adults of various literacy levels. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Community outreach efforts have included informing the public of our programs and recruiting CSA members at numerous community events, including the Idaho Conference on Refugees, St. Luke's Fit One Expo, local farmers' markets and other events. We also distributed door hangers to promote our CSA. Two of our communtiy partners, the Jordan Street Garden and the Avahath Beth Israel Garden, held end-of-season harvest events that included both refugee participants and other neighbors and community members. We work to recruit refugee participants through word of mouth and through our network of refugee service providers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our project ends with this reporting period.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1. Community garden sites served around 280 refugee families this year, and 8 refugee families were small farm owners on lots leased from our program. We successfully opened one new community garden site at the Red Rock Christian Church. We finalized a land lease with the City of Boise for a four-acre property that is available for long-term agricultural use. We collaborated with the Cooking Matters program at the Idaho Food Bank to offer a cooking class for 20 refugee teens. The class was hosted at the Ahavath Beth Israel Synagogue in Boise. Teens were able to decide on some items that they wanted to learn to cook, some incorporating products that they grow in the garden. The course also included information on shopping and budgeting, and a trip to the grocery store. Goal 2. 8 individuals participated in a series of 6 winter classes that covered topics including soil health, composting irrigation, crop planning, plant variety selection, food safety, marketing through farmer's markets and CSA, record keeping and how to apply for a small business loan. 30 individuals participated in field based trainings including greenhouse production of plant starts, use of tillers and other tools, planting, and irrigation management. 8 families received weekly field visits from our staff to assist with CSA harvest and post-harvest handling, and to address problems as they arise. Goal 3. Refugee farmers managed 10 booths at two different farmers markets. Global Gardens' farmers hosted 4 weekly CSA pickups at different locations in Boise. Three of these were independently managed by our more advanced farmers. Through the course of this project we have successfully partnered with St. Luke's Healthy Systems to market our CSA shares through their employee wellness program and offer on-site pickup. We have initiated plans to bring similar programs to two other area employers beginning in 2017. Goal 4. Eleven different partner organizations, including religious congregations and neighborhood groups, helped to manage refugee community gardens this year.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
www.globalgardensboise.org
|
Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:The main beneficiaries of this project are Boise's low-income refugee population, along with other low-income consumers who may access some of our services. Boise is home to a large refugee resettlement effort, resettling over 700 individuals per year from more than 20 countries. Refugees differ from other immigrants in that they did not leave their home country by choice. Rather, they were forced to leave due to political unrest, persecution, or fear of death. Refugee arrivals in Idaho vary greatly in their personal histories, many spent years in refugee camps without any modern amenities, little access to education, and minimal employment history. After arriving, most refugee adults gain low-wage jobs, live near or below the poverty level, and utilize assistance programs such as foods stamps and subsidized housing options. Many currently arriving refugees come from agricultural backgrounds in their home countries, having worked as farmers of subsistence or commercial crops, or having cultivated traditional kitchen gardens near their homes or in refugee camps. Participation in community gardens and agricultural training programs is a natural fit for them in their new community. Refugees face numerous cultural, linguistic, and economic barriers to entering the local farm economy as growers or consumers. The Idaho Refugee Community Food Project is focused on breaking down these barriers and supporting refugees as participants in the local food economy. Refugees can enroll in this project in one of two ways. They can sign up for a small communtiy garden plot at one of 10 neighborhood sites, where they grow food for family consumption. We have more than 200 families participating in this initiative at 10 sites, many managed by churches and other project partners. The second group of participants are our farmer entrepreneurs. Many of them are farmers from Africa, with many Somali Bantu participants. These participants are allocated a plot on an incubator farm and sell their produce at local farmers' markets. They recieve extensive training and marketing support from our staff. In the past year we have expanded our target audience to also include the teen and young adult children of our farmer participants. Changes/Problems:Our biggest challege wastracking the match required for this grant. Much of our match is in volunteer hours, and it's very difficult to get volunteers to keep up with timesheets and tracking. Several of the original matching donors made other plans for a variety of reasons, so match had to be raised elsewhere. A good deal of staff time is spent tracking match rather than doing direct program work. We also offered fewer cooking classes and partner meetings than originally proposed in our grant, two cooking class seriesinstead of 3, and annual rather than quarterly meetings. Reasons for this were lack of staff time and/or these events being more labor-intensive than imagined, transportation difficulties for the cooking classes, and lack of participant interest and scheduling difficulties for both the classes and the partner meetings. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?20 individuals participated in a series of 6 winter classes that covered topics including soi health, irrigation, crop planning, food safety, marketing through farmer's markets and CSA, record keeping and how to apply for a small business loan. The class took a field trip to the Boise Watershed Museum, an irrigation supply store, and the Luck Peak Dam to better understand how our water system works. 40 individuals participated in Cooking Matters classes offered through the Idaho Food Bank. 30 individuals participated in field based trainings including greenhouse production of plant starts, use of tillers and other tools, planting, and irrigation management. 12 families received weekly field visits from our staff to assist with CSA harvest and post-harvest handling, and to address problems as they arise. 5 refugee farmers and 3 Global Gardens staff attended the annual Grower's Own conference, organized locally by the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides. Global Gardens staff also attended the annual Idaho Conference on Refugees. Lauren Greig and Katie Painter traveled to Washington DC to attend three annualCFP project directors meetings. Katie is also a part of a national initiative to develop improved curriculum and training tools for refugee farmers, hosted by ISED and funded by the USDA's Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. She attended two in-person meetings and several webinars, which included training from an adult education expert on how to develop curriculum and facilitate training for adults of various literacy levels. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Community outreach efforts have included informing the public of our programs and recruiting CSA members at numerous community events, including the Idaho Conference on Refugees, St. Luke's Fit One Expo, local farmers' markets and other events. We also distributed door hangers to promote our CSA. Two of our communtiy partners, the Jordan Street Garden and the Avahath Beth Israel Garden, held end-of-season harvest events that included both refugee participants and other neighbors and community members. We work to recruit refugee participants through word of mouth and through our network of refugee service providers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1. Community garden sites served around 280 refugee families each year (some returning and some new families each year, we didn't track retention since this involves many partners), and 12refugee families were small farm owners on lots leased from our program. We successfully opened one new community garden site at the Red Rock Christian Church. We finalized a land lease with the City of Boise for a four-acre property that is available for long-term agricultural use. We collaborated with the Cooking Matters program at the Idaho Food Bank to offer two cooking classes over the course of the grant, one for 20 refugee adults and another for 20 refugee teens. The classes was hosted at theAhavath Beth Israel Synagogue in Boise. Participantswere able to decide on some items that they wanted to learn to cook, some incorporating products that they grow in the garden. The course also included information on shopping and budgeting, and a trip to the grocery store. Goal 2. 20individuals participated in our annualwinter class series over the course of this three year grant. Classescovered topics including soil health, composting irrigation, crop planning, plant variety selection, food safety, marketing through farmer's markets and CSA, record keeping and how to apply for a small business loan. 30 individuals participated in field based trainings including greenhouse production of plant starts, use of tillers and other tools, planting, and irrigation management. 12families received weekly field visits from our staff to assist with CSA harvest and post-harvest handling, and to address problems as they arise. Goal 3. Refugee farmers managed 17booths at two different farmers markets. Global Gardens' farmers hosted 4 weekly CSA pickups at different locations in Boise. Three of these were independently managed by our more advanced farmers. Through the course of this project we have successfully partnered with St. Luke's Healthy Systems to market our CSA shares through their employee wellness program and offer on-site pickup. We have initiated plans to bring similar programs to two other area employers beginning in 2017. Goal 4. Eleven different partner organizations, including religious congregations and neighborhood groups, helped to manage refugee community gardens over the course of this grant.
Publications
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Eaton, Susan E, 2016. Integration Nation, Immigrants, Refugees and America at its Best. Susan visited us in Boise to research one chapter of her book. http://thenewpress.com/books/integration-nation
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Esbach, Adam, 2015. Putting Down Roots, popular press article published in the Idaho Press Tribune. http://www.idahopress.com/members/putting-down-roots/article_bb5c6a04-2842-11e5-a04c-b374daec71e9.html
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
globalgardensboise.org
|
Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The main beneficiaries of this project are Boise's low-income refugee population, along with other low-income consumers who may access some of our services. Boise is home to a large refugee resettlement effort, resettling over 700 individuals per year from more than 20 countries. Refugees differ from other immigrants in that they did not leave their home country by choice. Rather, they were forced to leave due to political unrest, persecution, or fear of death. Refugee arrivals in Idaho vary greatly in their personal histories, many spent years in refugee camps without any modern amenities, little access to education, and minimal employment history. After arriving, most refugee adults gain low-wage jobs, live near or below the poverty level, and utilize assistance programs such as foods stamps and subsidized housing options. Many currently arriving refugees come from agricultural backgrounds in their home countries, having worked as farmers of subsistence or commercial crops, or having cultivated traditional kitchen gardens near their homes or in refugee camps. Participation in community gardens and agricultural training programs is a natural fit for them in their new community. Refugees face numerous cultural, linguistic, and economic barriers to entering the local farm economy as growers or consumers. The Idaho Refugee Community Food Project is focused on breaking down these barriers and supporting refugees as participants in the local food economy. Many of our project participants are farmers from Africa, with many Somali Bantu participants. These participants are allocated a plot on an incubator farm and sell their produce at local farmers' markets. In the past year we have expanded our target audience to also include the teen and young adult children of our farmer participants. Many of our farmers have relatively low English and financial literacy and rely on their American-educated children to assist them at farmers' markets with serving customers, managing money, and record keeping. Through our evaluation process, we realized that the teens had recieved almost no training, and so often were ill-equipped to answer customers' questions adequately. We presented a one-day farmers' market workshop for the teens, focused on providing good customer service, answering questions, and creating an attractive booth display. Additional future workshops will be offered for teens. Changes/Problems:Our biggest challenge continues to be tracking the match required for this grant. Much of our match is in volunteer hours, and it's very difficult to get volunteers to keep up with timesheets and tracking. A good deal of staff time is spent tracking match rather than doing direct program work. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?19 individuals participated in a series of 6 winter classes that covered topics including soi health, irrigation, crop planning, food safety, marketing through farmer's markets and CSA, record keeping and how to apply for a small business loan. 30 individuals participated in field based trainings including greenhouse production of plant starts, use of tillers and other tools, planting, and irrigation management. 12 families received weekly field visits from our staff to assist with CSA harvest and post-harvest handling, and to address problems as they arise. 5 refugee farmers and 2Global Gardens staff attended the annual Grower's Own conference, organized locally by the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides. This year's theme was cover cropping, and participants had the chance to network with other growers about selected topics. Global Gardens staff also attended the annual Idaho Conference on Refugees. Katie Paintertraveled to Washington DC to attend the CFP project directors meeting. Katie Painter, Lauren Greig, and 3 Americorps VISTA volunteers attended Welcoming America's Welcoming Institute 2-daytraining on creating a welcoming communtiy for refugees. Katie is also a part of a national initiative to develop improved curriculum and training tools for refugee farmers, hosted by ISED and funded by the USDA's Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. She attended two in-personmeetings and several webinars,which included training from an adult education expert on how to develop curriculum and facilitate training for adults of various literacy levels. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Community outreach efforts have included informing the public of our programs and recruiting CSA members at numerous community events, including the Idaho Conference on Refugees, St. Luke's Fit One Expo, local farmers' markets and other events. We alsodistributed door hangers to promote our CSA. Two of our communtiy partners, the Jordan Street Garden and the Avahath Beth Israel Garden, held end-of-season harvest events that included both refugee participants and other neighbors and community members. We work to recruit refugee participants through word of mouth and through our network of refugee service providers. We were also the subject of a book chapter, in the bookIntegration Nation, Immigrants, Refugees, and America at Its Best,by Susan Eaton. We were featured in an article in the Idaho Press Tribune, a local paper. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we will hold our winter farm class series using some new curriculum developed through the ISED initiative. We will continue to support farmer through the growing season. We will be fundraising for the development of our new farm incubator property and beginning the development work of installing irrigation, washing and storage areas and refridgeration. We will hold another Cooking Matters class in January for our teen participants.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1. Community garden sites served around 280 refugee families this year, and 8refugee families were small farm owners on lots leased from our program. We leased fewer small farm sites this year due to one property owner discontinuing our lease. We began development of one new community garden site at the Red Rock Christian Church, but development was not completed due to a problem accessing irrigation water. We also researched possible new farm sites to replace the land that was lost, and are currently negotiating a lease with the City of Boise for a four-acre property that is available for long-term agricultural use. We collaborated with the Cooking Matters program at the Idaho Food Bank to offer a cooking class for 20 refugee women. The class was hosted at the Ahavath Beth Israel Synagogue in Boise. Women were able to decide on some items that they wanted to learn to cook, some incorporating products that they grow in the garden. The course also included information on shopping and budgeting, and a trip to the grocery store. Goal 2. 19individuals participated in a series of 6 winter classes that covered topics including soi health, irrigation, crop planning, food safety, marketing through farmer's markets and CSA, record keeping and how to apply for a small business loan. 30 individuals participated in field based trainings including greenhouse production of plant starts, use of tillers and other tools, planting, and irrigation management. 8families received weekly field visits from our staff to assist with CSA harvest and post-harvest handling, and to address problems as they arise. This year we added a workshop for the teen and young adult children of our farmers. Eighteen youth participated. We were finding that many growers relied on their American-educated children to help them sell produce at farmers markets, assisting with customer service, handling money, and record keeping. Since their children hadn't recieved any education through our program, sometimes they didn't know how to answer customers questions correctly. A role-playing activity during our workshop was a fun way to practice answering customer questions. We plan to offer more teen workshops in the future. Goal 3. Refugee farmers managed 11booths at two different farmers markets. Global Gardens' farmers hosted 5weekly CSA pickups at different locations in Boise. Fourof these were independently managed by our more advanced farmers. In 2014 we began a weekly farm stand at St. Luke's Hospital, providing CSA shares and produce sales to St. Luke's staff and the surrounding neighborhood, and this year were invited to start a similar program at their other location in Meridian, ID. Goal 4. Eleven different partner organizations, including religious congregations and neighborhood groups, helped to manage refugee community gardens this year. Two meetings were held to bring these volunteers together for training and collaboration, and we keep in touch with volunteers regularly by email. Partner organizations planned several events including end-of-season garden celebrations.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
globalgardensboise.org
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2106
Citation:
Integration Nation, Immigrants, Refugees and America at its Best, by Susan E. Eaton. Available January 2016. Susan visited us in Boise to research one chapter of her book. http://thenewpress.com/books/integration-nation
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Putting Down Roots by Adam Eschebach, popular press article published in the Idaho Press Tribune. http://www.idahopress.com/members/putting-down-roots/article_bb5c6a04-2842-11e5-a04c-b374daec71e9.html
|
Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The main beneficiaries of this project are Boise's low-income refugee population, along with other low-income consumers who may access some of our services. Boise is home to a large refugee resettlement effort, resettling over 700 individuals per year from more than 20 countries. Refugees differ from other immigrants in that they did not leave their home country by choice. Rather, they were forced to leave due to political unrest, persecution, or fear of death. Refugee arrivals in Idaho vary greatly in their personal histories, many spent years in refugee camps without any modern amenities, little access to education, and minimal employment history. After arriving, most refugee adults gain low-wage jobs, live near or below the poverty level, and utilize assistance programs such as foods stamps and subsidized housing options. Many currently arriving refugees come from agricultural backgrounds in their home countries, having worked as farmers of subsistence or commercial crops, or having cultivated traditional kitchen gardens near their homes or in refugee camps. Participation in community gardens and agricultural training programs is a natural fit for them in their new community. Refugees face numerous cultural, linguistic, and economic barriers to entering the local farm economy as growers or consumers. The Idaho Refugee Community Food Project is focused on breaking down these barriers and supporting refugees as participants in the local food economy. Changes/Problems: We were not able to offer a Cooking Matters class this year with the Idaho Food Bank as originally planned. A class was scheduled and participants recruited from a group of our Karen Burmese gardeners, but when the time for the class arrived, the participants backed out, stating that they'd rather spend the time working in their gardens, and maybe do a class during the winter months. We are working to reschedule for January 2014. We also have not had as many meetings with our community partners as we would have liked, two meetings rather than the four that were our goal. Many volunteers are busy and meetings were not as well attended as we would have liked. In addition to these meetings, we established an e-newsletter for those who are unable to attend due to scheduling, and to disseminate information to our partners in between meeting times. We have also had some difficulty adequately documenting the matching contributions for our grants. We know that partners are in the field doing a lot of work, but ensuring consistent record keeping and signed time sheets from volunteers has taken much more of our staff time than we expected. We hope that partners now understand our routine and need to keep these records, so that this process might be less time-consuming for the second and third years of the grant. Fortunately, we have been able to complete the documentation of matching funds for this year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? 20 individuals participated in a series of 6 winter classes that covered topics including soi health, irrigation, crop planning, food safety, marketing through farmer's markets and CSA, record keeping and how to apply for a small business loan. The class took a field trip to the Boise Watershed Museum, an irrigation supply store, and the Luck Peak Dam to better understand how our water system works. 30 individuals participated in field based trainings including greenhouse production of plant starts, use of tillers and other tools, planting, and irrigation management. 12 families received weekly field visits from our staff to assist with CSA harvest and post-harvest handling, and to address problems as they arise. 5 refugee farmers and 3 Global Gardens staff attended the annual Grower's Own conference, organized locally by the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides. This year's theme was farming to support pollinators, and participants had the chance to network with other growers about selected topics. Global Gardens staff also attended the annual Idaho Conference on Refugees. Lauren Greig traveled to Washington DC to attend the CFP project directors meeting. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Community outreach efforts have included informing the public of our programs and recruiting CSA members at numerous community events, including the Idaho Conference on Refugees, the Idaho Green Fest, St. Luke's Fit One Expo, local farmers' markets and other events. We also purchased radio advertising and distributed door hangers to promote our CSA. The project director was recently invited to be a keynote speaker at the Idaho Organization of Resource Council's annual meeting, where she had the opportunity to share some successes and challenges of the year with an audience of about 50. Two of our communtiy partners, the Jordan Street Garden and the Avahath Beth Israel Garden, held end-of-season harvest events that included both refugee participants and other neighbors and community members. We work to recruit refugee participants through word of mouth and through our network of refugee service providers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, we plan to continue to work to support refugee farmers and gardeners, as we have done this year and as outlined in our project initiation. This year we were not able to hold a "Cooking Matters" class in cooperation with the Idaho Food Bank due to lack of interest on the part of participants, so we hope to accomplish that in the coming year, possibly with a different group of participants.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1. Community garden sites served around 280 refugee families this year, and 12 refugee families were small farm owners on lots leased from our program. One new refugee community garden was established on land owned by the City of Boise. The two acre lot accommodated 30 community garden plots and one small farmer. Goal 2. 20 individuals participated in a series of 6 winter classes that covered topics including soi health, irrigation, crop planning, food safety, marketing through farmer's markets and CSA, record keeping and how to apply for a small business loan. The class took a field trip to the Boise Watershed Museum, an irrigation supply store, and the Luck Peak Dam to better understand how our water system works. 30 individuals participated in field based trainings including greenhouse production of plant starts, use of tillers and other tools, planting, and irrigation management. 12 families received weekly field visits from our staff to assist with CSA harvest and post-harvest handling, and to address problems as they arise. Goal 3. Refugee farmers managed 17 booths at two different farmers markets. Global Gardens' farmers hosted 4 weekly CSA pickups at different locations in Boise. Three of these were independently managed by our more advanced farmers. We began a weekly farm stand at St. Luke's Hospital, providing CSA shares and produce sales to St. Luke's staff and the surrounding neighborhood. Goal 4. Eleven different partner organizations, including religious congregations and neighborhood groups, helped to manage refugee community gardens this year. Two meetings were held to bring these volunteers together for training and collaboration. One was a general meeting on best practices and challenges, the other included a presentation from the Idaho Food Bank about its Cooking Matters classes.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
We are working on our new program website, which can be found at globalgardensboise.org
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