1. Start a community garden.
Gather a group of friends or like-minded enthusiasts of local food with the goal of creating a community garden. Together your group can begin the planning and eventual execution of a community garden. First select a series of potential sites. Consider petitioning your local government for space. Next, develop your application, rules and regulations and bylaws – those documents that will protect and govern your garden. Will you require adherence to sustainable growing practices? Read more from the American Community Gardening Association.
2. Offer to coordinate a CSA.
Consider working with a local grower to start a CSA. CSAs, short for community supported agriculture, provide solid support to growers by connecting them directly with their customer base. Customers pay growers in advance for a share of the harvest which helps farmers to cover initial costs associated with planting that they incur prior to harvest. Customers, in exchange, receive a box of fresh fruit and vegetables each week. Consider gathering a group of friends and approaching a local grower about starting a CSA. Once you’ve coordinated with a local grower, advertise for other participants by sending printing flyers or sending a press release to local media. Read more about starting and running CSAs.
3. Volunteer at your farmers market.
Offer to volunteer at your local farmers market by distributing flyers, posting weekly signs, manning the information booth, assisting vendors with set-up and break-down or even conducting special events and children’s activities. A successful farmers market requires a lot of work and community support, so volunteering provides an excellent way to interface directly with both growers and the community. Find a farmers market near you.
4. Investigate farm-to-school programs.
Over thirty million children eat school lunch every single day they’re in school, yet school lunch programs fail to adequately nourish these children when they need nourishment the most. Moreover, school lunch programs often rely on substandard meat which puts the immediate health of children at risk. Of course, many schools don’t even have full commercial kitchens anymore making the actual cooking and preparation of food nearly impossible. Not-for-profit groups like Farm to School are championing the cause.(…)
Read the rest of 10 Ways to Grow Your Foodshed (484 words)
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