The Women’s Environmental Institute has been given the honor and opportunity to become a Growing Power Regional Outreach Training Center working in collaboration with Growing Power, Inc. (Milwaukee). Growing Power is a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe, and affordable food for people in all communities. Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach, and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market, and distribute food in a sustainable manner.
As a Regional Outreach Training Center (ROTC), WEI will be developing a five year strategic plan to support the development and sustainability of Community Food Systems both in Minnesota’s urban inner city communities and in our economically challenged rural communities. As a Regional Outreach Training Center, WEI shares with Growing Power a commitment to inspire and assist local communities and families in building sustainable food systems that are equitable and ecologically sound, creating a just world, one food-secure community at a time.
Defining components of the current planning under consideration and discussion include:
(1) To develop a demonstration urban farming and Community Food System in collaboration with Little Earth of United Tribes (LEOUT) in Minneapolis as a model for future ROTC work with other communities. The LEOUT project is already underway with a year-long (2009-2010) compost program to replace and replenish the nearby soil to be used by the Little Earth farmers, farm interns and community volunteers. This project will include hands-on training and technical assistance in sustainable agricultural techniques for Little Earth participants and collaborations with traditional native planting and harvesting techniques in the long-range planning for a Community Food Center for urban-grown cultural heritage food. The aim of the urban farming system is to provide high quality, safe, healthy, affordable urban grown food for Little Earth and neighboring communities. A Community Food Center is a key component of this project. These Centers provide hands-on training modules that demonstrate environmentally sound food production practices that reduce negative environmental impacts in high density, environmentally challenged, food deficit urban areas.
(2) To develop WEI’s farm campus into a high-functioning demonstration organically-certified farm and educational center for organic and sustainable farming and farm and food related education in the context of social, environmental and agricultural justice and eco-agricultural principles
(3) To develop in collaboration with Growing Power a WEI technical team to provide expertise in urban farming, community farming design and implementation, and alternative organic farming technologies.
(4) To host and develop various community outreach projects, gatherings, conferences, lectures and focus groups to bring Growing Power’s mission to Minnesota in collaboration with the mission and objectives of the Women’s Environmental Institute.
As a Regional Outreach Training Center (ROTC), WEI will develop collaborations with other local farms and food-producers and regional outreach projects to advance the mission of Growing Power and WEI in Minnesota. A top priority is to develop networks and relationships of solidarity and collaboration with other groups and agencies which will help bring effective local food systems change to Minnesota. In this collaborative work, WEI will bring a consciousness of how social justice, environmental justice, agricultural justice and community-based food security are interconnected and prioritized in WEI/ Growing Power projects.
WEI is proposing the following specific ROTC commitments in our the coming year as part of our future five-year strategic plan for Community Food Justice programming:
(1) to work with LEOUT and the Little Earth Food Justice group to help create a five-year plan for the urban farming and community food system, including the farm-to-school project, currently underway and to assist in seeking funds for the components of this project
(2) to host the first annual Growing Power, “From the Ground Up” type workshop for the region with a focus on the LEOUT project which brings the mission and expertise of Growing Power to Minnesota
(3) to host the first annual organic farming and food systems conference in our rural area to build local community food systems as an expansion of WEI’s already existing North Circle Project and the initiatives already underway in East Central Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
(4) to create a curriculum that expands WEI’s already existing Organic Farm School, to be supplemented with hands-on workshops, student farm and food internships, community outreach education, farmer thinking circles, children’s and secondary education workshops, and an array of adult-education classes and workshops on organic farming, food security, cultural heritage farming, community food systems, the history and theory of farming, environmental health, nutrition and food literacy, the future of food, and agricultural and environmental justice; included in the 5 year plan is accreditation status for post-secondary education.
(5) to create Green Jobs sustainability for individuals involved in WEI’s Community Food Systems projects and for the WEI employees in the ROTC administrative and technical team
(6) to continue building the WEI farm campus as a demonstration farm for organically certified farming with season-specific farm education workshops and community gatherings and education on the farm campus
(7) to build on the WEI farm campus demonstration models of a large compost-heated all-season hoop house, a passive solar green house, underground cellar storage, a solar chicken coop, an all-season aquaponic system and other techniques for extending the season and providing models for organic alternative farming practices and options
(8) to provide in collaboration with Growing Power expertise and the WEI technical team community food systems project planning and site plan assessments and community planning for developing farming infrastructure (compost/vermicompost systems, hoop greenhouse construction, aquaponics, food distribution program design, logistical development-transportation of produce, access to community kitchens for value-added products, and business planning)
(9) to provide through WEI’s technical team expertise in designing and custom building green houses/hoop houses, etc. for families who want to expand their growing potential within a limited space, such as backyard or basement
(10) to sponsor and raise funds for group trips to Growing Power, Milwaukee, for youth and community advocates interested in weekend training sessions or Growing Power conferences and for the ROTC staff and technical team intensive training sessions
(11) to integrate WEI’s already existing EcoAware Program and environmental justice workshops into community food systems projects
(12) to produce occasional publications, articles, how-to work plans, and position papers relevant to the work of the Regional Outreach Training Center and to provide speaking engagements and community forums to further the mission of Growing Power in collaboration with WEI in Minnesota
