September Recording

Hello Gardeners!

Here is the recording of September’s awesome panel on Using and Reviving School/Youth Gardens during the pandemic. Panel speakers included LaVeta Nutter, VDOE Specialist for Agricultural Education, Jordan Johnson, City Schoolyard Garden Program Director, and Aisha Salazar and Kirsten Conrad, Virginia Cooperative Extension Agents

Click here for the recording.

See you in October!

July 2020 Recording

Hello gardeners!

I hope your gardens are continuing to be bountiful! Here is the link to July’s webinar, a discussion with Natalie Pax of Project GROWS, a farming and gardening education non-profit serving the Shenandoah Valley. Here is the link to the recording.

Please join us on August 25th at 9:00AM EST for our next webinar, featuring Melissa Chase of Virginia Cooperative Extension who will be covering tips on how to preserve your harvest.

Join the Listserv to stay in touch! Join here.

June 2020 Recording

Hello Gardeners! Here is the link to the recording of this month’s conversation with Dr. James Wilson, Apiculturist for Virginia Cooperative Extension talking about bees and pollinators for community gardens. I certainly learned a lot!

Hope to see you next month, July 28th at 9:00AM EST for our conversation with Project GROWS, a educational non-profit with an amazing teaching garden and lots of impactful food access work. See you then!

May 2020 Recording

Hello gardeners!

I hope all this rain hasn’t messed up too many of your plans. This month we had presenters representing 2 great programs working to increase food security during COVID-19 with container gardening and mail gardening programs.

Presenters:

Kristin McCartney, West Virginia SNAP-Ed

Jennifer Palmer, Live Healthy Rockbridge and Rebecca Wilder, FCS SNAP-Ed Agent

Click here for recording of presentations

Save the date for June 23rd at 9 AM EST, when we will have James Wilson from Virginia Cooperative Extension come talk about bees in community gardens.

April 2020 Webinar Recording

Hello Gardeners!

We had a great turn out for our April 2020 webinar, a big thank you to our presenters Kathleen Reed and Mike Andruczyk.

Click here for the link to the recording

I also posted the slides here in the google drive.

And finally, here is the link to the COVID-19 resources we discussed.

Thanks again! It was great to see all of you. See you at our next webinar on May 26, 9:00AM EST to discuss “Garden to Go” container garden programs. Join the list serve to stay in touch!

Meredith

Welcome to 2020!

Hello gardeners! Welcome back. We are very happy to get back to work providing you with resources and networking opportunities. Gardening is more important than ever and we are here to provide you with what you need to help feed our communities.

As a reminder our monthly webinars are the fourth Tuesday of every month, April through November, at 9:00AM. They are recorded and will be posted here.

Our first webinar will be April 28th at 9:00AM. Presenters include Kathleen Reed, Extension State Master Gardener Coordinator who will be speaking on COVID-19 safety protocols, and Michael Andruczyk, Extension Agent who will be sharing a resource guide he created for maintaining garden records.

Join the webinar via Zoom:
https://virginiatech.zoom.us/
j/97559535657

Don’t forget our resource library, where we have a new COVID-19 resource folder. Finally, I also want to point you to VCE’s exciting new vegetable gardening page, which pulls together all of their expertise in one place!

See you soon!


Building a Community thorugh Gardening – ROA Community Garden Association

https://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/Building-a-community-through-gardening–509406521.html

Article from WDBJ7 (Roanoke-CBS) on the Roanoke Community Garden Association

Anna Copplestone, director of the ROA Community Garden Association, joined us in May for our community conversation disussing the 4 community gardens across the city and the connection with Carilion Health.

Click here to access the May Community Conversation (webinar).  

 

 

Nutrition and Food Security – Governor’s Childern Cabinet

For our June Communtiy Conversation, we spoke with Heidi Hertz, the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry for the Office of Governor Ralph S. Northam.  She spoke to us about the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet, Virginia Blueprint to End Hunger, Urban Agricutlure, and FeedVA programs across the Commonwealth of VA.

Click here to access the full Powerpoint Presentation from the conversation 

Click here to access the full video and audio (PPT included)

Governor’s Children’s Cabinet

  • Governor Northam issued Executive Order No. 11 reestablishing the Children’s Cabinet June 21, 2018.
  • Priorities are early childhood development and school readiness, nutrition and food security, systems of care and safety for school-aged youth.
  • Children’s Cabinet will work to develop goals, identify strategies, and measure impact and outcomes.

Blueprint to End Hunger

Outline action steps and policy recommendations for achieving childhood food security.

  • Shared vision for food access equity in Virginia, quantifiable goals, scope of the problem, and policy recommendations to bringing together solutions and strategies in healthcare, agriculture, and education.
  • The report would align priorities and provide a roadmap for action, implementation, and evaluation over the next 3 years.

Urban Agriculture – Creating an Urban Agriculture Census

–Research urban agriculture nationwide and in Virginia

–Compile a directory of urban agriculture locations and organizations

–Review datasets pertaining to school and community gardening and overlap/gaps

–Conduct a scan of how other states support urban agriculture (legislation, funding, etc)

FeedVA 

  • Created by the Council on Bridging the Nutritional Divide
  • Virginia Food Access Network (VFAN) launched May 2017
  • Goals:

–Provide data clearinghouse

–Connect food system

–Share best practices/resources