This fall, Congress will decide whether to update the Child Nutrition Act, a federal law that governs the National School Lunch Program.  This act comes up for reauthorization every four to five years and it determines what 30 million children eat at school every day.  For many children, school lunch is their only meal of the day.  Right now, these children are forced to choose between going hungry and being unhealthy.

On Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2009, tens of thousands of people in communities across the nation will sit down to share a meal with their neighbors. This National Eat-In will send a clear message to legislators: our country is coming together for a future where no child is denied his or her right to good health, and where every child enjoys real food in school.

Join Slow Food Central New York for a public potluck picnic! Share a meal and show support for getting real food in schools.

Elmwood Park pavilion, Syracuse
11:30am – 2:30pm

Bring a blanket, chair, your own plate and utensils, beverage, and a homemade dish to share.

Directions:
Elmwood Park is in the southwestern portion of Syracuse.  The park entrance is just west of the junction of South Avenue (Rt 175), Valley Drive (Rt 80), and Glenwood Avenue.  MAP

• From South Avenue or Valley Drive, go west on Glenwood and watch for the park entrance on your left.
• From the northwest:  Take Geddes Street to Glenwood Avenue.  Turn left on Glenwood, drive past Roberts Elementary, and continue east to the park entrance on your right, across the street from Craddock Street.
• From the east: Take either Colvin Street or Brighton Avenue to South Avenue.  Turn left and drive towards Glenwood Avenue.

The picnic pavilion is in the center of the park.  The park road leads to a small parking lot above the pavilion.  Alternatively, leave your car in the lot next to the old mill, near the park entrance.  Follow Furnace Brook upstream to the picnic pavilion, a 5-10 minute walk.

Please read information on potluck food safety.

Colorful brochure on potluck food safety.

More details:

In a time of escalating diabetes and obesity epidemics, our schools serve children precisely the fast food and junk food that endangers their health.

This year, Congress can give schools the resources to improve school lunch by increasing school lunch reimbursements by $1/child/day in this year’s Child Nutrition Act. The current reimbursement rate for a free lunch is $2.57, which must also pay for labor and equipment.  Schools are left with only $1.00 to spend on food.  It’s time to make a down payment on health care reform by raising the reimbursement rate to $3.57.

Tell US Congress you support reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act.

Community Gardening Resource Drive and Clean Up
April 25

Resource Drive: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Bring donations to Lipe Art Park, W Fayette St., near S Geddes St.
Rain Location: The Gear Factory, corner of W Fayette and S Geddes

All new and gently used gardening tools are greatly appreciated.
Donations should be clean and in good working order.
Monetary donations are also welcome!
Make checks payable to Syracuse Grows.

Needed:

Tools and equipment…
Shovels, pitch forks, hoes, trowels, metal and plasic rakes, pruners, scissors, loppers, hedge clippers, wheelbarrows, rototillers, push mowers, hammers, nails, screws, nuts, bolts, handsaws, and children’s gardening tools.

Planting and Gardening Materials…
Vegetable and flower seed, starter plants and cover crop seed, tomato cages and dowels, compost, soil, pre-bagged commercial fertilizer (manure), pesticide-free mulch, plant pots, tubs, containers, garden bed liner, garden gloves, watering cans, compost bins, food grade barrels for rain barrels, soaker hoses and spray nozzles, twine, wire, and string.

Building Materials…
Plywood and lumber: untreated lumber of various widths and at least 4 ft. in length

Structural Materials…
Tool sheds, greenhouses, shade houses, arbors, trellises, bricks and cinder blocks, chipping, pebbles and stones, wood chips and wooden pallets, picnic tables, chairs, benches, char-coal barbeque grills, and fencing material: wood posts, medium gauge wiring, hardware cloth, mesh fencing.

Garden Clean Up: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Volunteer at any of 11 gardens. See map below.

Volunteer:

Garden…
Pull weeds, till soil, apply compost and fertilizers, trim hedges and trees, plant trees, hedges and starter plants

Build…
Build raised beds and fencing, paint signs and picnic tables

Neighborhood cleanup…
Work with OCRRA to clean litter on streets surrounding the gardens

Meet your neighborhood community gardeners…

For more information, or to arrange early donation drop-off or pick-up, please contact:
(315) 443-4890 or syracusegrows@gmail.com
Lipe Art Park is on W Fayette St, near S Geddes St. See map HERE.

Participating Community Gardens

1. Northside Community Garden I
207 Isabella Street * Beth Killian * 415-9594
2. Northside Community Garden II
1004 Townsend Street * Beth Killian * 415-9594
3. Eastside PEACE, Inc. Community Garden
202 S. Beech Street * Lori Covington * 470-3325
4. Westcott Neighborhood Community Garden
127 Harvard Place * Sasha Salayda * 447-8593
5. Lipe Art Park Community Garden
W. Fayette and S Geddes Streets * Jeanie Gleisner * 677-9147
6. Avery House Residential Garden
420 S Avery Avenue * Ron Reid * 487-3314
7. Midland Ave Community Garden
341 Midland Avenue * Aggie Lane * 478-4571
8. McLennan Ave Community Garden
258 McLennan Avenue * Tony Williams * 472-3221
9. Cannon Street Community Center Community Garden
515 Cannon Street * Denise Moore * 491-1382
10. Cannon Street Community Garden
620 Cannon Street * Carolyn Stanley * 478-8525
11. West Newell Street Community Garden
612 W Newell Street * Mable Wilson * 471-7063

Come learn about your neighborhood’s community gardens and help them prepare for spring planting. Community gardens will host spring clean up and open house events from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 25.

RSVP

Please call or email to let us know which garden you’d like to volunteer at:
443-4890 or syracusegrows@gmail.com

Bring a dish to pass.  Any food that you love to make will be welcome. SFCNY will provide cards so every dish can be identified. Please bring your own utensils and plates!

We are inviting our area Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms to the potluck as well. CSAs provide weekly deliveries of fresh, locally-grown fruits & veggies throughout the growing season. They are also a great way of supporting upstate organic farmers and you may even save some cash in the process….! So bring your checkbook. Now is the season to think about joining a CSA so bring questions for them as well.

All are welcome!

• SFCNY Announcements: This is the default list that everyone should be on. It is for the Chapter Board to send out announcements to the community. If you want to know what’s going on with Slow Food in the area, sign up for this low-activity list.
• SFCNY Discussion: Using this group is like sitting in a large meeting room. Everyone can hear you – you’re never responding to just one person. Every email you send in will be received by every member of the group, whether you initiate a topic or hit “reply” in response to a message. Please be aware of this. If you want to reply privately to someone, you will have to CHANGE the email address in your “To” box before you hit that “send” button.
• SFCNY _____ Committee: We now have five committees (more on this in the meeting #3 minutes), each with its own unique group discussion list. Committee chairs will email more information about his/her specific committee in the coming week.

  o Slow Food in Schools

  o Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT)

  o Food Justice and Advocacy

  o Public Relations

  o Events and Fundraising

• SFCNY Chapter Board. This list contains the Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and the five Committee Chairs. It is a way for the local leadership to all be on the same page.

To sign up for one or more of these lists, please email Lonnie at “lonnie dot chu / at / gmail dot com.” She has taken charge of managing the lists and for that I am so grateful. Also, if you have a gmail account, you should be able to sign up for the groups on your own by following the links above (except for Chapter Board – you need to be on the board for that one).

Article: As many of you know by now, we’ve had an article in the Post Standard yesterday. Not just any story, but a front page story with me and my husband on the front cover! (Okay, yes, we’re on the bottom half of the cover, but it’s still the COVER!) Though I may be biased, I think it’s a great story. I was even able to hook up the reporter with Joan Gussow, whom I deeply admire, and I think Joan added some really great comments. Thank you also to the great people who stopped by this blog and posted some comments!

Meeting: We also had our second meeting last night! I will be posting the mission, and write up of the Syracuse region to this blog for everyone to review and comment. I’ll also work on getting the minutes posted here.

Joing Slow Food: If you’re just now checking us out, please consider joining Slow Food USA. I did a post a while ago about why it’s important to join. Joining is easiest through the Slow Food USA website, just tell them you’d like to be a part of the Central New York Convivium (we haven’t officially been set up with them yet, so they might temporarily assign you to a different convivium).