LONG BEACH GROWS™ (www.longbeachgrows.org) is Long Beach's original urban agriculture resource hub for >4 years, since 2010.
LONG BEACH GROWS' mission is to promote green, healthy, environmentally sustainable urban agriculture in Long Beach, California, & other activities that educate, enhance, & grow our communities by ensuring & safeguarding local food security.
Our vision is a city that feeds itself.
Showing posts with label Building Healthy Communities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Building Healthy Communities. Show all posts
Long Beach Grows (aka LBGROWS) is a grassroots organization that advocates for a just and equitable food system that includes food security through urban agriculture. The group is building a network of urban farm co-op sites where people can grow food together while building community. LBGROWS has recently partnered with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach on Atherton Street to use some of their land for their first site. Food grown will be shared among the gardeners and with the homeless and other underprivileged Long Beach residents.
Unity Farm, as it is called, is not your typical community garden. The operative terms are community and co-operation. In a typical community garden, individual garden plots are rented to and tended by individuals on a seasonal basis. Some community gardeners make better use of their alloted land than others. Some community gardeners never even meet the person gardening right next to them. Where is the community in that?
Long Beach Grows’ community farm co-ops promise to be different. Members will work together in teams on land that they all grow together. There will be scheduled work days, scheduled harvest days when crops ready to be picked are divvied up amongst co-op members and the underprivileged of the community, and other scheduled gatherings, celebrations, and fundraisers.
The Farm Coordinator, Steve Passmore, who helped start the farm, says
“We will strive to keep the division of labor as equal and fair as possible, while trying to accommodate the special strengths, interests, and assets that individual members have to offer.”
All members are asked to pledge to uphold and abide by the mission and vision of Long Beach Grows.
Organization mission. LBGROWS’ mission is to promote green, healthy, sustainable urban agriculture in Long Beach, CA & other activities that educate, enhance & grow our communities by ensuring & safeguarding local food security.
Organization vision/goals. LBGROWS is the first organization of its kind in Long Beach, with a mission to advocate for change & to educate the public on issues of local food security & urban agriculture. The current food system in Long Beach, particularly as it pertains to local food & real food, really caters to the wealthy of our residents. LBGROWS plans to change this. The ultimate goal of LBGROWS is to grow a network of urban farm co-operatives for food production in the heart of urban Long Beach, with at least one community kitchen and urban farm site per city district, where people can grow & harvest real food together while building community & relieving hunger.
The goal is for everyone to work in harmony together as peacefully, joyfully, and stress-free as possible, for the benefit of all.
There will be a modest fee to join Long Beach Grows to farm at The Unity Farm. People will be contacted to join in the order they have signed up on the LBGROWS co-op wait-list. To join, add your name here. Volunteers are also welcome.
More farm co-op sites are in the works. The group is actively seeking other underutilized properties in Long Beach that LBGROWS could transform into productive community farm co-op sites to help relieve hunger in our community.
Youth unloading mulch to prepare a vegetable bed
at Unity Farm.
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Long Beach Grows™ is a grassroots organization that promotes food security through urban agriculture. The current food system in Long Beach, particularly as it pertains to local food and real food, really caters to the wealthy of our residents. Long Beach Grows plans to change this.
We are in the midst of one of the worst recessions ever. A recent report prepared by LAANE for the Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community indicates that one in five Long Beach residents are living in economic hardship and over 50% of our children are living in poverty. HealthyCity.org, an authoritative source of demographic data, indicates that 62.3% - 66.19% of LA county residents cannot afford enough food to eat. The remaining 33.81% - 37.7% remain hungry.
Long Beach Grows recently established the LBGROWS™ Real Food Security Coalition to advocate for a just and equitable food system in Long Beach, and to empower the low income Long Beach communities to establish their own food security, independence and freedom from hunger. The Coalition will work to identify Long Beach’s populations at greatest risk of food insecurity, the reasons for this, the strengths and weaknesses in our food system, and long term solutions to create a future of food security for all. While the main focus of the Coalition is community organizing, outreach may influence positive change on regional, state and national policy and will include reporting and documenting on food issues.
The Coalition will attempt to connect all sectors of the community and local food system. All Long Beach residents are encouraged to join. Low-income residents who need access to better food are especially welcome. So whoever you are, whether you are rich or poor, an adult or youth, an individual with only personal interests or a community organizer leading a group with a mission, your input and help is wanted. Local growers, environmentalists, non-profit food distributors, grocers, restauranteurs, dieticians, artisanal food crafters, city employees, big consumers such as Long Beach Unified School District or Long Beach Memorial, all are invited.
The Coalition will assemble at least once a month and is currently scheduled to meet the first Thursday of each month from 6 - 8 PM at the Catalyst space at 430 East 1st Street in the arts district of downtown Long Beach. Mark your calendars. As the Coalition grows, so will the venue.
Spread the word. Join the Coalition today. Enjoy this? Please share the link and comment below, even if only to say "Hi!"
The beautiful Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden on the Long Beach CSU campus was the perfect setting for the third in a series of Student Sustainability Task Force (SSTF) green mixers designed to foster dialogue and collaboration to unite the campus and local community on issues of environmental sustainability that affect us all.
Held April 13, this prelude to Earth Week 2011 featured guest speakers spotlighting green efforts on and off campus and representing the city, the university, and other community groups. Jeanette Schelin, Director of the EBM Japanese Garden, and Tracy Gorden, Program Assistant at the Garden, presided over the event and introduced the speakers.
Whole Foods sustains local & ethical healthy food choices!
Adrienne Peters, the marketing supervisor at the Long Beach Whole Foods Market that sponsored this event, spoke about Whole Foods’ green mission and commitment to local healthy food and environmental sustainability. She introduced Whole Foods’ Health Starts Here program to help people make healthier food choices, and the store’s participation in Global Animal Partnership (GAP) which she described as “beyond organic.” GAP is a 5-Step animal welfare rating standard used to rate and certify meat producers based on their animal welfare practices.
Donnie Bessom, the SSTF Project Coordinator, asked Ms. Peters to consider bringing Whole Foods to campus because as he said,
“right now food on campus is pretty bad.”
The snacks Whole Foods shared at the event were pretty good,
Green Long Beach! shines a spotlight on the green community!
Tiffany Chen, recent CSULB alumna, current sustainability assistant in the city’s Office of Sustainability, and co-Catalyst of Green Long Beach!, highlighted the evolution of the Green Long Beach! festival. First held in 2009, the festival attracted >1,000 attendees and 100 participants. The theme of this year’s festival is Ignite Change! and is expected to draw > 5,000 attendees and 400 participants. It will take place Saturday June 11, 2011 from 10 AM - 8 PM at The Promenade between Broadway and 3rd Streets.
City of Long Beach sees a greener future!
Larry Rich, who has worked for the city in various positions for 20 years, became one of the city’s sustainability commissioners in 2008 the year the Office of Sustainability was formed to develop and implement green initiatives throughout Long Beach. He describes himself as the most sustainable of the sustainability commissioners, since he is the only one of three remaining. His office currently oversees 10 part time interns (8 who are paid) and 17 youth workers from the Workforce Development Bureau’s green jobs program.
In what Larry describes as a soft sell (of green awareness) some of the interns act as one-on-one field supervisors of the youth workers, working on projects such as planting native drought tolerant plants at city installations, and delivering mulch to vacant city lots as part of Project Mulch-A-Lot and to residential applicants as part of a new Mulch Delivery Program. In collaboration with West Coast Arborists, the Office of Sustainability diverts ~6,000 tons of green waste per year from the waste stream.
Larry explained that the city’s solid waste reduction program does not include green bins (such as are offered in neighboring San Pedro) because Long Beach has the largest of the only three California Southeast Resource Recovery Facilities (SERRF) where solid waste is burned for energy. This is considered diversion, not incineration.
CSULB facilities are green behind the scenes!
Jon Root, the campus manager of integrated waste management and waste services, spoke about the university’s recycling efforts that mostly go unseen. The mulching mowers used on 60 acres of campus turf divert ~400 tons a year of grass from the waste stream, The tree trimmings from the 7,200 trees on campus are saved and re-used in the landscape. The university’s recycling efforts include not only paper and plastic recycling (see these images from last year’s CSULB Earth Week fair) but also a scrap metal program and an Associated Students Recycling Center that is operated by student employees.
Long Beach Grows plans for local food security! Grow Beach!
Long Beach Grows promotes food security through urban agriculture. Donna Marykwas, the Executive Director of Long Beach Grows, spoke about her plans and vision for a Long Beach with at least one community farm co-operative per city wide district, where people can grow and harvest real food together while building community. Donna has gardened at various community gardens throughout the country since 1985, first at Cornell in upstate NY, then in Cambridge, MA, Lincoln, MA, and Long Beach, CA. Describing the major differences between typical community gardens versus community farm co-ops, she envisions truly cooperative sites where people share in the work, share the rewards of their efforts, and share the bounty with the community. There are over 100 families on a waiting list to grow food with Long Beach Grows. Donna expressed serious interest in growing food security through urban agriculture on the CSULB campus, preferably at the site where there once was a community garden in the past. She thinks that growing food for the present on the Native American Indian ancestors of the past is a way to honor, respect and preserve their connection to the land.
CSULB faculty designs green phones!
Department of Design Professor Wesley Woelfel spoke about design methods to divert cell phones from the e-waste stream, citing statistics that with 1.2 billion cell phones sold globally per year, only 10% of obsolete cell phones are e-cycled. This is the motivation for his life cycle analysis of ways to design sustainable cell phones. Some ideas that he and his students have come up with are to encourage the design of new phones that are modular, easier to repair, upgradable, and did I hear him say biodegradable? We’ll see.
Industrial designer dreams green transportation!
Max Beach, a founding partner of Impact Design Associates in Culver City, teaches part time at CSULB. He wowed the audience with a futuristic animated video that brought to life his dream of an alternative transportation system based on inductively charged solar-powered CSULB streetcars.
Go green!
Connect with the green community at the next mixer to be held Wednesday, May 4th, 4:30- 6:30 PM, also at the Japanese Garden.
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Two full grown Nigerian dwarf goats and one 8 year old girl.
April 6, 2011
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
FAX: 202-456-2461
Dear First Lady Michelle Obama:
It has been over a year since I first wrote to you about how you can help people throughout our great nation advance their local food security efforts. My original letter can be viewed here. I am writing to you once again in light of the upcoming Earth Week celebration (April 16 - April 22) to ask for your action.
I am a mother, a wife, an educator, a scientist, a community gardener, and a practitioner of nourishing traditions that include urban agriculture as part of my back to the basics philosophy of feeding and nurturing my family. I am trying to teach my daughter about healthy food choices, local and sustainable food security, and self-sufficiency while respecting the animals and the earth that provide for us. I no longer allow my daughter to eat the food provided at school because it is overloaded with fat and carbohydrates and contains minimal fresh fruits and vegetables. Yet she begs me to allow her to eat the school "food" because she sees her friends eating it and this is what the Long Beach Unified School District offers; what kind of nutritional message is this teaching our children? In addition, it is amazing to see how many children have no idea where their food comes from. Every school (not just a handful, and particularly in the city) should have an organic vegetable garden that is incorporated into the K-12 curriculum to teach our children about real food, nutrition, healthy lifestyle choices, sustainable agriculture, and even science. Moreover every urban center should develop a demonstration urban farm to serve as a positive example that educates the children and adults of our community while providing them with another source of local real food and life skill training opportunities. I believe this is our only hope for a sustainable future.
I applaud you for setting a positive example by planting a food garden at the White House. I am writing to ask that you please take the next step in educating the public about the benefits and suitability of urban agriculture by adding egg-laying poultry but especially miniature dairy goats to your White House urban yard. Other great cities allow this type of urban agriculture, including San Francisco, Seattle, Portland OR, Pasadena, Oakland, and even NYC (which allows poultry and recently honey bees). Small scale urban agriculture is beneficial in so many ways, not the least of which is in allowing us to reconnect with the earth that provides us sustenance.
I wish to legalize miniature goats in the city of Long Beach, CA. Two or three female Nigerian dwarf goats can provide a year round supply of milk to a family, perhaps with enough to spare to make yogurt and cheese. Goat milk is more nutritious and less allergenic than cow milk, more people in the word drink goat milk versus cow milk, and since goats were domesticated about 10,000 years ago (about the same time as dogs) many cultures throughout the world including immigrants to the US are quite familiar with raising goats. Not only could goats provide a renewable source of food to nourish a family, they could also provide a renewable source of fiber and fertilizer. They can be put to use to clear brush, to mow pesticide-free lawns, and to compost kitchen waste. On top of all these “uses,” they make great pets; they are friendly, quiet, relatively docile animals that are great fun, providing hours of wholesome education and entertainment for the family and neighborhood children. Contrary to popular belief, they do not stink (except for in-tact males), they do not attract flies and vermin, and they do not pose a significant health threat to the public, certainly compared to dogs that can transmit rabies or compared to cats that can transmit toxoplasmosis, to name just a few.
To celebrate this year’s Earth Week, I urge you to add 3 or more miniature goats to your White House urban yard, breed them, and make the birthday a public event and celebration for a sustainable future. Once the mothers give birth, they will provide milk (and public education) long after the babies are weaned.
For more information about urban agriculture and its many benefits to your personal well-being and to the well-being of our local and global communities, please visit my website at www.longbeachgrows.org. In addition, I urge you to show your support by signing my online petition in favor of urban agriculture in Long Beach, California (www.longbeachgrows.org/LongBeachGrows/Please_sign_my_petition.html). It would mean a great deal to me.
Yours sincerely,
Donna L. Marykwas, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director
LONG BEACH GROWS
Growing a more sustainable future
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Long Beach City Council meets this evening beginning at 5:00 PM. Council Chambers are located in City Hall building at 333 West Ocean Boulevard. The 16th agenda item out of 27 total is a
“Recommendation to request City Manager to conduct community meetings to discuss ways that residents can become involved in making Long Beach a more livable, mobile and desirable place to live.”
Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, our 2nd district council representative, is co-sponsoring this request for Creating Livable Communities, along with Councilman Robert Garcia of the 1st district, Gary DeLong of the 3rd district, and James Johnson of the 7th district. The idea, though, is that residents from ALL Long Beach Communities, not just those represented by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 7th districts, be given the opportunity to become
“more involved in the planning of local projects that enhance community character and reflect a broader group of citizens’ input” to create “more mobile, sustainable and livable communities.”
Tell your City Council representative to mandate this type of community dialogue, including not just a few community meetings but regular meetings on a continuing basis. If you don’t know who your City Council representative is, you can find out here. It is highly recommended that as many interested residents attend.
As an individual citizen of Long Beach, and as the founder and executive director of Long Beach Grows, I agvocate for and work towards a greener, healthier, more sustainable Long Beach that supports local food security through urban agriculture.
Urban agriculture is about building healthy communities in Long Beach. As is the case in San Francisco, the city of Long Beach should embrace urban agriculture into our culture’s mainstream approach towards food security.
A walkable and bicycle-friendly city is only livable if the people who walk and bicycle as their primary form of transportation have equal access to nutritious, affordable, real food. Urban agriculture within the city (not just peripheral to the city) and within all zoning districts will allow this to happen.
In addition to waiting to be heard at one of the community meetings, please voice your opinions here. What does a happier, healthier, more sustainable and livable Long Beach mean to you?
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The Feinstein Foundation $1 Million Challenge is on!
