The InterActivist
No replastering; the structure is rotten. -- Grafitto
Community Food Initiatives
Lovingly known as the "Garden Lady" throughout Athens, Liz Shaw, Community Gardens Manager, has transformed the food security movement. With overflowing compassion and a wealth of ideas in improving the community and the world at large, Shaw has changed the way countless Athens residents view their connection to the food system and their own personal nutrition. She has planted the seeds of self-sufficiency throughout Athens, Ohio, and is expanding her mission as quickly as the Earth allows!
I recently sat down with Liz to discuss the growth of Community Food Initiatives and the importance of a healthy, local food system in terms of self-sufficiency. Further, we addressed the role of civic engagement and cooperation!
IA: What is the organization's mission or goals?
Liz Shaw: Our organization is concerned with food security in Southeast Ohio. Our goal is to teach people how to grow their own food, prepare and preserve it, and to even sell the surplus if possible so that that people are more financially stable. To accomplish this we teach gardening, seed saving, cooking and food preservation through workshops; offer folks plots in community gardens and help them with backyard gardens; provide programs for youth through 4-H clubs and services to low income children at public housing complexes; and collect food for distribution to the hungry through our Donation Station at the Athens Farmers Market and the Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign where home gardeners can bring us extra garden produce.
IA: Under the Edible Schoolyard project, how many schools are you involved with?
LS: I personally work with about 50 children through the programs at Hope Drive Apartments and the CFI 4-H Club in Trimble, which is called the Hot Chili Pepper club, and has over a dozen kids. We are also establishing an edible school yard for REACH, the educational program for emotionally challenged children. There are some edible schoolyards at other schools in Athens, Trimble, and in Nelsonville that are managed by other staff members and volunteers.
IA: Since taking over the management of Athens Community Gardens, how much have you expanded the gardens?
LS: We are changing the name of the community gardens to CFI Community Gardens because they have gone way beyond Athens! This year we are going on our second year at Glouster and Stewart. There are new gardens going in at Chauncey, Nelsonvile, The Plains, and Chesterhill in Morgan County. We are hoping to get a new garden in Athens City on the east side, but are still in the process of locating a suitable site. Our Westside Community Garden is our "flagship" garden. Last year I started with 60 gardeners and had 120 by early June! This year I'm already at 130 and it will fill up to the max, I predict, around the end of June after we add about 35 new 8 x 16 plots. So you can see-- we really need to get a garden on the east side of town!
IA: Can any community member own a plot in the community gardens?
LS: Anyone can garden with us in a community garden as long as they agree to some ground rules and sign a waiver of damages. We take people of all gardening abilities and do everything we can to help them be as successful as possible.
IA: Are most of the plot owners community members or students? Do you have a wide range of ages gardening?
LS: Gardeners come in all shapes and sizes! We have a lot of undergraduate, graduate, and international students; local Appalachian natives; OU administrators; retirees; young families; business owners; non-profit organizations and clubs; even a university class! Many of these categories overlap, of course.
IA: What workshops does CFI offer?
LS: The 2009 list is amazing this year! Everything from Gardening 101 to cooking with winter squash to herb gardening to making jerky! Our gardening workshops are held at the Westside Community Gardens and our Foodways Thursdays workshops are held at ACENet. The workshop I'm most looking forward to is one about edible container gardening that I'm teaching. I figure if you can't plant a garden, you can at least grow a dadgum tomato in a recycled container on your balcony or backsteps.
IA: How did you get on The Daily Show?
LS: I was very upset with the comments by Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani about community organizers. I posted about it online and the producers of the Daily Show read it and contacted me. At first I said no, but my son and husband, both huge Daily Show fans, talked me into it. I agreed only after the show guaranteed they would not mention CFI. I did not want CFI to be "implicated" by my own personal political views. So, I still want to emphasize that I was on the Daily Show as a community organizer, something I've been since I was a teenager, and not as someone representing CFI.
IA: Would you call yourself a social entrepreneur?
LS: I do now. I had never heard of the term until a few months ago, and it gave me great relief, almost like knowing the name of an illness you have had for years, but was never properly diagnosed. It explains a lot about me, both to myself and to my family who has had to put up with me all these years. I'm dead serious about that, too.
IA: How did you win the Healthy Sprouts Award?
LS: The award is given out each year by the National Gardening Association to 5 children's gardening programs that combine gardening with food security issues. We won it this year out of a field of 360! I think we were selected because our kids' gardening programs at Hope Drive Apartments demonstrate the ultimate relationship between gardening and food security. Many of the children at Hope Drive are food insecure, and they usually came to the programs hungry. Hopefully they didn't leave that way.
IA: Could you explain the purpose of YEAH?
LS: Young Entrepreneurs at Hope! is the name...YEAH! for short. The YEAH! Program helps Hope Drive Apartments youth to grow food for selling at the Athens Farmers Market, and that puts a little jingle in their pockets! They also get much more out of it. We require them to apply to the program through an essay and interview. They must also attend some business seminars. Participants are paid based on the amount of work they do, and they earn citizenship points that are redeemed for prizes at the end of the season. We set very high standards for them. When they set up their stand at the farmer's market they are expected to interact with the public in a professional manner. I saw many of them grow in confidence and self esteem through this experience. And we had a lot of fun, something that many of them don't get enough of either. I took them to an OU football game and they are still talking about it! I'm hoping I can get some OU clubs to adopt this program to provide for some basic needs of these kids as part of their "benefits" for participating in YEAH!, but I'm getting ahead of myself...as usual. There's still some tweaking that needs to be done first.
IA: Why is the food nutrition component of CFI so important?
LS: Simple...good food makes healthy people who can take better care of themselves and their families. It usually tastes pretty good, too!
IA: Have you grown up gardening? What is your history with gardening?
LS: I grew up in Western North Carolina in a small town near Asheville, and my parents did organic gardening before it was "green." We raised most of our own food on a few acres just outside of town. I think the word for it today is "hobby farm" and it was what we did for fun...except when my mom declared it the day to can beans; it could sure cut into pool time at the recreation park. We also raised chickens, a pig now and then, and had a milk cow for many years. And my dad had a really nice vineyard and small fruit orchard. All of this was a stone's throw from town. I also learned from my parents how to give away food. They provided bushels of food to neighbors and folks who were having a hard time. I think that is the most important thing I learned from gardening with them, how to share with people who don't have enough to eat.
IA: What are CFIs future goals or plans?
LS: Sometimes I think it is to put a garden in every patch of ground between here and Columbus! But, seriously, I think it is to continue doing what we do, but do it better and better. We are learning more about establishing new community gardens in small villages and rural communities, working with schools to put in edible school yards, increasing the impact of our Donation Station, and finding more financial support to keep it all going.
IA: How do you plan to pursue active studentship?
LS: I am very dedicated to involving more and more university students through volunteer opportunities, educational offerings, and one-to-one mentoring in community gardens. I see it as a way for CFI to impact the whole country, heck, even the world! If students leave OU with experience gleaned from CFI that is useful in their corner of the globe, we are doing our job. And if they help us out a little while they are here in Southeast Ohio, they are doing theirs. I figure a student is here for 4 or 5 years, they might as well make the most of it and leave the area a better place than they found it. I would want to do that if I was in their community for that long. But then I'm a social entrepreneur, I guess!
IA: How can we become more involved with CFI?
LS: Call me! 740-593-5971 or e-mail me lizcfi@frognet.net. Better yet, take me out to lunch
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