This summer, a youth program called DC is Building Green Bridges has been busily gardening, learning about nutrition, and discussing food security issues east of the Anacostia River. Our students are engaged, intelligent, and working hard!
They have created a pilot ‘community needs’ survey to determine the viability of a farmers market at THEARC on Mississippi Avenue—and they’ve just conducted their first surveys at senior centers in wards 7 and 8. They have written their own blog posts and have created a social networking page for the program. Below is the their first blog post, written in the hopes to gain exposure to the program and their project. Enjoy!
Hello world, allow us to introduce ourselves: we are DC is Building Green Bridges. Building Green Bridges is a program based in Washington D.C. consisting of youth who are interested in making a better community by educating and informing the people about eating healthy, making better health choices, and ultimately, changing the way people view our city as a whole by growing our own food in the city.
Here are the goals we are hoping to achieve:
- To assess whether or not a new farmers market in Ward 8 would be beneficial to our community around THEARC, located near the Parkland Villages on Mississippi Avenue in Southeast.
- To educate the community on eating healthy and making better food choices.
- To get youth involved in positive activities in their community.
- To reconstruct and maintain community gardens in schools and recreation centers for younger children
Currently we are working on establishing a garden at THEARC. We are planting a flower garden with junipers, flowers, butterfly bushes and hollies. We are also helping to set up a garden at the Ferebee-Hope Elementary School, which will encourage the younger students to take advantage of the garden and plant on their own. In addition, we are visiting different gardens around the city such as The Peoples Garden, Common Goods City Farm, The U.S. Botanic Gardens, Lederer Youth Garden, and the Marion Street Garden.
Before we can implement any course of action for a farmers market, we must complete a needs assessment to help us better understand what the community would best profit from. Will a farmers market be viable? Do people want one? Our assessment won’t be very long; it’s just a few questions designed, revised, and tailored to provide us with the most information about the needs of Ward 8 residents, while at the same time not hampering your schedule with a lengthy interview.
Currently, we are brainstorming ideas for alternatives to the on street survey, one of which may be filling out the survey online. Having an online option may appeal to people who do not have time to fill out a survey in the street. Another alternative we are considering would be for people to mail a completed survey to us. This may appeal to those without an Internet connection.
If a farmers market was opened at THEARC, it would provide fresh fruits and vegetables grown in the community, for the community. Fresh produce that will be sold at THEARC would be better than the produce found in most supermarkets, because the produce in supermarkets is shipped from countries around the world, and are pumped full of chemical pesticides that are harmful to the people that eat them.
Our goal is to help the community. But in order to do that, we need the assistance of the community. Please take the time to check out our program, so that you can help make YOUR community better.
Way to go, DC is Building Green Bridges! It looks like you are doing a fantastic job and setting examples for children, youth and adults in D.C. I can’t wait to buy some tasty DC-grown veggies once The ARC gets set up.