Chautauqua County Gleaning Project

Did you know that here in NYS Food Stamps can be used to purchase seeds and seedlings for gardens? When visiting a business that sells seeds and seedlings, tell them how important it is to accept food stamps, so folks with lower incomes can enjoy the benefits of growing their own vegetables more easily. Check out this link http://www.snapgardens.org/ and the video below to be inspired! Thank you to Gleaning Project intern Kathleen for surveying local businesses that sell seeds and seedlings–unfortunately, most had no interest in accepting SNAP/ Food Stamps.  Mancuso’s Greenhouse expressed some interest in learning how, so if you stop in there be sure to encourage them!

SNAP Gardens

This spring, the Gleaning Project is excited to continue its seed distribution efforts.

A plethora of packets!

Thanks to seed packet donations by Heirloom Seed Company, High Mowing Seed Company, America the Beautiful Seed Program and a greenhouse in Ripley, numerous varieties are being distributed to community members through 13 participating community agencies and pantries. With plenty of care, these seeds will flourish in home and agency gardens, producing food for many families.

The Gleaning Project is partnering with 21st Century to provide garden and nature education for the School 5 After School program. Thanks to Molly Stock and Cody Maggi for their partnership in planning and implementing the program. Students have enjoyed a range of hands-on activities, such as building mini-worm bins for their kitchens and making “turtle sprout” Chia pets.

Thanks to our fabulous 2011 interns! Amanda Rogers, Cody Maggi, and Hannah Farley came on for the fall semester and are continuing in the spring. They kept the momentum going after Julie and Aaron’s fine summer work. They took on a wide range of tasks, including article writing; harvesting; preparing materials to encourage SNAP (food stamp) recipients to use their stamps to buy veggie seeds and seedlings; sorting seeds; preparing and serving healthy food samples in the Friendly Kitchen; planting garlic; etc. With their help, the Gleaning Project was able to glean 18,661 pounds of food and recover 65,516 pounds of food during 2011.

We couldn’t have done it without them!

Interns of 2011

Everyone involved with the Gleaning Project would like to wish Josh Curry-Bascome well as he heads to Ghana with the Peace Corps.

During his time as Coordinator of the Gleaning Project, Josh did an incredible amount for the program. Just a portion of his involvement includes starting youth gardens at Dunkirk Schools 3 and 7, BOCES, and the Boys and girls club, and also iniating a seed distribution to local agencies, compost pick-ups from local businesses to make soil for the new gardens, and garden-based workshops to help educate the community.

His passion and energy will be greatly missed. We wish him well!

The position of the Gleaning Project Coordinator has been taken over by Sarah Sorci. If there are any questions, please contact her at Sarah.sorci@gmail.com.

Summer is prime time for garden and environmental education, but with school out, it can be tough rounding up a group of kids. This summer, the Boys and Girls Club is partnering with the Gleaning Project to offer garden-related sessions during their summer program.  Molly Stock, a masters student in education at SUNY Fredonia, has taken the lead in planning and implementing a lesson every few weeks. Topics for the summer include: Gardening Basics, Soil and Compost, Water Ecology, Diseases and Pests, Food Day, Pollination, and Propagation & Seed Saving.

After a rainy start to the season, the community and gleaning gardens we support are looking lush thanks to the hard work of many individuals. There are several brand new gardens being worked this year, including sites at the Boys and Girls Club, BOCES, and a private home in Cassadaga.  Thanks to our donor greenhouses and seed companies, we received more seedling and seed donations than these gardens required, which allowed us to distribute the excess to pantries and individual CCRM clients. We’ve enjoyed experimenting with a few new donated crops, like celery.

On Friday, June 17th, Mr. Desmond and Ms. Graves’ first grade classes from Dunkirk School 3 visited Gong Garden Community Supported Agriculture Farm. Owner/farmer Sarom Heng and her husband Pete Calanni showed the group around the farm.  Students saw and learned about the greenhouse, farm stand, blueberry bushes, herb and perennial flower gardens, grape vines, hand-built yurt, and the three vegetable gardens that feed the farm’s shareholders. Students enjoyed smelling and tasting a variety of herbs, and they learned how the Gong Garden crew keeps their gardens healthy using organic methods. Children also enjoyed singing a garden song written for them by Gong Garden interns.

Pete shows off a lovely bunch of greens at the farm stand

Sarom and students

Students check out the squash plants

Students tour the yurt, where interns live during the summer

School 7 students digging holes for their windowsill veggie starts

BOCES students planted a variety of veggies

Treasures abound in the school 7 garden

We have successfully come full circle with the school gardens, as the kids have this month planted the flower/vegetable plants they started in April.  This has worked to tie together the various lessons from the last few months– gardening basics, seed starting, and soil and compost.  Kids were then given the chance to tell us what they had learned, show off their plant which they had nurtured, and plant and do general running around the garden site.  It was much fun, and we hope the kids got the most out of it.  We now prepare for summer plans and game planning for next season.  Without a doubt, we feel that garden based education, because of the wide range of topics and subjects it touches, should be integrated into every school curriculum in some form or another.

On Sunday, May 29th, eight community members planted  garden plots in the Cornerstone garden space behind CCRM. Each individual or family will tend their plot over the course of the season. Community garden models like this allow participants the benefits of managing and eating from their personal plot, while enjoying shared resources like tools, rain barrels, compost and aged manure, etc. We look forward to seeing these spaces develop over the course of the season.

Preparing Cornerstone community garden plots

Family prepares the soil in their plot