In the past, the city used to collect leaves from residents, compost them, and then host a “Free Compost Giveback” twice a year. Over the years, the program shrank until it was no more. In an effort to gather support for Fall Leaf Collection and Compost Givebacks, Beth Mathes, of East New York Farms will be coming to distribution today to set up a call station as part of a “Compost to Council Shout-Out” call our City Council rep, Mathieu Eugene to reinstate the pickup of leaves in our communities and compost them. Read the rest of this entry »

The PLG Food Coop has started a Meetup Group! Join here. Made up of CSA and non-CSA members, the PLG Food Coop is hoping to address some food issues in PLG and neighboring communities.

The first planning meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 7 p.m. Location TBA.

We will be discussing:

• Food Coop mission/vision
• Steps for planning a food coop in PLG. (A food coop is a cooperative grocery store that offers healthy foods with a focus on sustainable products at reasonable prices. Some coop models require members to work monthly shifts and aren’t open to outsiders, while others allow anyone to shop there and have no work requirements.)
• Food advocacy in our neighborhoods: Such as assisting local businesses (like Western Beef, Associated, and the various bodegas) in improving their selections; enticing businesses from Manhattan and other parts of Brooklyn to open branches here.
• Planning for a community-wide food issues meeting

We need community support and action to make a food coop on this side of the park a reality. Join Us!

For more information, please email contact@plgfoodcoop.com.

I was sent this interesting article from the New York Times about an organic farm upstate that works with recovering addicts. These patients live at a nearby rehab center and work as farmhands on the 2-acre farm that was donated to them by two local country clubs. They sell the produce back to the country clubs and at their thrift store. An interesting model for sustainable agriculture in more ways than one!

Brooklyn Rescue Mission (BRM), located in Bed-Stuy is one of the few food justice organizations in Brooklyn committed to community health, food and economic challenges in daily life. In addition to East New York Farms and Added Value, the BRM farm is one of the few community urban food agriculture projects in the city.

In addition to running a food pantry and a farmer’s market, BRM runs a farm in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant. In 2005, BRM created partnerships with the New York City environmental and food justice organizations to break ground on an abandoned lot behind the Mission in order to grow fruits and vegetables for pantry recipients. The site, once a neighborhood garbage dump, was transformed into an urban oasis that has served several hundred people since its creation. The farm has become a community gathering space and a classroom to teach neighborhood youth about food growing and community service.

Now, due to real estate development pressures, the farm is under threat of eviction. No longer a vacant lot and a dumping ground, it has become desirable to others. It is in danger of being sold by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to developers to repay a debt incurred by Neighborhood Partnership Housing Development/Direct Building Management.

Sign the petition and help save the farm!

So, most of you know that we donate our leftover shares and vegetables to Food Not Bombs. Ever wonder what happens after that? Well, board member and founder of the CSA Diana Liss and board member Karen Oh went to volunteer at Food Not Bombs to help them cook our leftovers and other donations and then serve them to the public at a local park.

Food Not Bombs is housed at 123 Community Space, a shared community space in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Currently located at 123 Tompkins Avenue, 123 Community Space has just been through a nasty eviction battle and will probably move in September. The space hosts four grassroots groups: A New World In Our Hearts, Freegan Bike Workshop, Misled Youth Network, and NYC Anarchist Black Cross and hosts a variety of community programs from free/low cost screenprinting workshops to bicycle repair to political prisoner letterwriting. Read the rest of this entry »

The Time for Lunch Campaign is a project of Slow Food USA, an educational non-profit with the goal of creating a world in which everyone can enjoy food that is good, clean and fair.

This year, they are asking parents, teachers and every responsible citizen to speak up and tell our nation’s leaders that change can’t wait: It’s time to provide our children with REAL FOOD at school. Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday, July 21st is FoodprintNYC Call-In Day to your City Council representative!

So far 11 City Council members have signed on as co-sponsors. Make sure your representative shows their support!

Tomorrow, take action to support FoodprintNYC!

Calling your representative is fast, easy, and effective. You can call on your way to the subway, while walking your dog or on your way home from the office. Every call that you make in support of or against a policy issue gets recorded.

Click here for more information

Read the rest of this entry »

The outreach night was a big success! Board members Darren and Pavani and members Maya and Barbara set up and tabled the event. They had fliers and put out the leftover vegetables and took donations to sample Woodbridge Farms bounty. Cabbages, peaches, herbs, potatoes, even some garlic made it out to the general public which was a huge draw for people. Seeing, touching, and smelling the food really made a difference and for people who were in a hurry but took a brochure were also given a free peach for the road. For people who expressed some more interest a ‘generous sample bag’ was offered for a $5 donation. All proceeds will support the outreach materials and low income shares. Almost 200 brochures were given out and about $60 was collected.

We here at Prospect-Lefferts Gardens CSA have produced a brochure about eating fresh (hopefully local and organic) food. The brochure also includes resources for access to good food and health in the PLG/Flatbush area.

Click here to download the brochure (pdf).

Some of you might have already seen the article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine this weekend about Will Allen, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but I thought I would share it anyway. Mr. Allen has managed to create a local food system to feed 10,000 plus people–in mostly underserved and low-income populations. It is an inspiring article and points out the value of connecting people to their food in very direct ways, making it affordable and sustainable, and creating community through food and agriculture. Plus, he is able to keep enough food waste out of landfills to make 100,000 pounds of compost every 4 months!

While not to the same scale, Brooklyn has a couple of local ag projects that do similar work—Added Value in Red Hook and East New York Farms in East New York. Read the rest of this entry »