All DC Food For All posts from June, 2010.
The Sowing Seeds Here an Now Urban Farming Summit is one week from today in Beltsville, Maryland. The summit will attract folks from all over the Chesapeake area to engage in discussions about health, our land, our food and our communities. If you can’t make it up to Beltsville or if you just want more [...]
Posted in AccessHello Everyone! Many of you may have been by the Marion Street Intergenerational Garden sometime this season and seen the progression from two empty plots to what it is now – the beginning of a community green space with beans, greens, peppers, herbs, tomatoes, and more growing slowly but surely. This weekend we will continue [...]
Posted in AccessThe Columbia Heights Community Marketplace, Ward 8 Farmers Market, and Mt. Rainier Farmers Market all kick off their seasons this Saturday, June 5. Two of these markets are setting up their tents for the first time. All three offer both local food and a community focus. The brand new Columbia Heights Community Marketplace will light [...]
In the LeDroit Park area of Washington D.C. stands St.George’s Episcopal Church. It is a quiet, cloudy, humid, Saturday May morning in D.C. The smell of bacon paves a path from the Church’s front door down to its basement and into the kitchen. Here, smiling African-American men and women are cooking up lots and lots of scrambled—with American-cheese added—eggs (yes, all cracked by hand!), pancakes, baked turkey bacon, and hot coffee. The boom-box blares gospel music in the background, as this enthusiastic group of volunteers from all over the greater D.C. area concentrates on their task at hand.
Near the kitchen, in another room, many people, mostly middle-aged and older African-American men, sit around neatly set tables. Some are “regulars,” everyone present is African-American, and a few families have wandered in. Many are chatting, sipping coffee, or staring at the walls adorned with brightly colored, paper, African-American dancers; and waiting to be served a hot, freshly-cooked, breakfast.
Welcome to Kwanzaa (Swahili for first harvest) Kitchen, an outreach program of St.George’s Episcopal Church. It began in 1992, as the Breakfast Program. Modeled after the Black Panthers’ free breakfast programs for children in California, Kwanzaa Kitchen was started and continues, under Janis Evans (the St George’s Outreach Chair, and program coordinator for Kwanzaa Kitchen), to serve breakfast, every other Saturday morning, to the needy and the homeless.
[Cross-posted from bikeloc, where Robert and Aaron are documenting their cross-country journey, capturing stories of The Local Food movement through potlucks.]
It’s typical to find us after a hard day of riding in a new town, pretty damn hungry and without a space to sleep.
Being out on the road with life packed away in a small trailer has freed me from the mental congestion created by technology, clarifying what’s fundamental to my sanity, health, and general well-being. The folks that house us for a night may not understand the greatness of the gift they give when they open their doors to us – good food, a warm (or cool) place to relax, and some fresh conversation. They’re making a social investment in us.
Our longest ride to date, over 90 miles and through nasty thunderstorms, led us into Indiana where we stayed for two days with friends of Matt Kendig, a guy we met on Couch Surfing, and an ambitious young gardener who’s found his green thumb with the help of a few books, Square Foot Gardening, and Cricket Bread.
Kendig and his friends are part of a tightly-woven church community whose members have created a strong emotional support network for one another; they’ve found that they are more productive when they work together rather than compete, give rather than take, and share rather than consume alone. Aaron and I got to participate in one of their group activities when we helped plant the 509 Community Garden, which Kendig talks about in the video above.
And the emergent thread, or perhaps the common ground that connects them is a deep understanding of the importance of collaboration and cooperation, and the value they place on their relationships with their communities, customers, and the earth.
Like Kendig, a handful of other successful farmers and gardeners we’ve met between Vermont and Indiana subscribe to this idea of social investment and community support.
Posted in Access
