[Communications] [Test] Water Access for All Gardens • Community Garden Profiles • Covid-19 Safety

Thu Aug 27 17:02:27 CDT 2020

News & Updates • Community Garden Profiles • Water Access for All Gardens • Covid-19 Safety

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News for Community Gardeners
Here are two possible quotes:
"Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
- John Lewis

"What we do echoes through the generations."
- Barack Obama, 2020

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Pictured here are young adults working with West Side gardens through the Garfield Park Community Council last summer.
Celebrating and Supporting One Another
As spring turned to summer, our support for Black lives and for the community gardening community grew and continues to grow with each day. As surely as we tend our gardens, we tend to our neighborhoods and each other, and we reaffirm that growing is an important part of creating resilient and healthy communities in Chicago.

In this issue, we have garden stories, news and updates, distribution notes, and awards to tell you about. But first, we want to share a moment we had in dialogue with founding CCGA member Angela Taylor, a committed community activist and garden leader in Garfield Park, to share some thoughts on the importance of staying focused and dedicated to our work in our communities as an antidote to the sadness and unrest that has swept through our city.

How does community gardening support Black lives? How do community gardens contribute to dismantling racism in our city?
Here at the Fulton Street Flower and Vegetable Garden, we see the color green. To be afforded the opportunity to work with young people, and watch them learn about gardening and the role farming played in our culture, and then realize the importance of growing not just food, but growing a sense of community as well is amazing to witness. All of this seems to bring about a better appreciation for life.

>From your work with young people, what can you suggest that will bring us to a more creative and conscious dialogue about Black and Brown lives?
If we could sometimes stop talking and just listen, we could learn a lot about what the needs of others are, and become open to learning new ways of getting things done.

What are some practices for creating more loving, resilient relationships among each other in our communities as we work for and support racial justice?
This is a tough one, but here you go... In everything we do, we should first consider how we would want to be treated, cared for, and responded to.

In what way do you see gardens as a place for healing and empowerment?
Community gardens are considered a healing space. Early in the morning, before the community wakes up, taking a walk in this quiet space sets the tone for the day: Being one with the earth, becoming inspired in our day, and to clear our mind to be able focus on what is in front of us.
Illustration by Sunshine Cahill or @sunshine.saqimax (via IG).
Has your garden been affected by the 2020 Chicago Water Hydrant Policy? We want to hear from you - there is help!
THIS NEEDS TO BE UPDATED with most current info
During the last few months CCGA has heard from community gardeners that the new rules the Department of Water Management has now set for water access at fire hydrants is crippling for them. Acquiring, installing, and certifying a Reduced Pressure Zone (RPZ) unit for any community garden can be cost prohibitive.

CCGA contacted Sean Ruane, the executive director of AUA, and we heard back that within 24-hours AUA was ready to circulate a sign-on letter to garner more public support for this issue. The communications team was asked if CCGA would like to be listed as a signatory at the bottom of the letter. Without time enough to solicit wider response from all of our subscribers, the chairs and working groups were asked to comment, and we were able to change the wording of the letter to be more inclusive of community gardeners, but not the push of the petition.

There is much more to this issue, and we want to hear from more of our community gardeners. We've developed a simple survey and would greatly appreciate your participation! The goal of the survey is to gain a clearer picture of how community gardeners in Chicago access water and to determine where support is needed.

** Take the CCGA Water Access Survey (https://forms.gle/uroWr5SGR3Hjjwm4A)
The need for advocacy for community gardens with the City of Chicago is evident, and CCGA seeks to develop a position and proposal to present to the City for what our community gardeners need as a long-term solution. The increase from previous years in the new policy is not as much a hardship as the cost of the RPZ and the cost of the inspections. We look forward to working collaboratively to find a solution.

For those who need assistance now, AUA has compiled resources and funding to help farmers/gardeners navigate the updated policy on their website, and we encourage you to reach out to us if you have any questions at communication at chicagocommunitygardens.org.

** AUA Water Access Resources & Growers Guide (https://auachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/AUA-Updated-Chicago-Growers-Guide-.pdf)
Show off your garden:
Enter the CEGA 60-second video challenge!

The Chicago Excellence in Gardening Awards (CEGA) will be honoring gardens for a fourth year—though with a twist, thanks to COVID-19. The timing of the pandemic has made it impossible to ramp up the gardening competition in time to take advantage of the summer growing season. Instead, CEGA is presenting its first-ever 60-Second Garden Video Challenge.

Here’s how it works. Gardeners create one-minute videos of their gardens and upload them to the CEGA website. The CEGA Team reviews them for social standards considerations, and posts the videos on the ** CEGA YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs7W3pRPsioXIK3S-1XOyvw/videos)
. Viewers then use the “thumbs up” to vote for their favorite videos.
The competition is FREE and open to anyone who has a garden or who belongs to a garden, whether it’s a community garden, church or school garden, or even a business garden. Videos can be straightforward, clever, artistic, funny—whatever the gardener chooses. And, for this special contest, entrants need not be from Chicago. We’re looking for 60 second videos of gardens from anywhere in the world.

Videos that receive the most votes will be posted on the CEGA website and on its social media pages. Those gardeners will receive a certificate, but more prizes are in the works. Stay tuned. Videos will be accepted now through September 30, with winners being announced monthly.

** Find out more and enter your garden video! (https://chicagogardeningawards.org/)
Resources for Covid-19 Safety in Community Gardens
Content to come: Guidelines and signage
** Covid-19 Resources for Gardeners (http://)
STORIES FROM CHICAGO'S COMMUNITY GARDENS
El Paseo Community Garden is granted a Creative Placemaking Award
El Paseo Community Garden enhances the quality of life for Pilsen residents through community building, stewardship, conservation, placemaking, partnerships, programming, and community gardening. The converted brownfield site provides opportunities to socialize with each other, plant and grow food, play, or simply be outside and enjoy the wildlife and fresh air the native plants provide. The garden and adjacent land it stewards provides over 34,000 square feet of public green space for the neighborhood and as a backyard for neighbors in the adjacent senior living and affordable housing apartments. The garden sits along a path with a monarch butterfly prairie on one side and raised beds on the other. Gardening is offered through private allotment beds or collective beds. Collective beds eliminate waiting lists for allotment beds and allow anyone to get involved. Free food beds are included on the perimeter of the collective beds for visitors.

The leadership team at El Paseo Community Garden was able to apply for the MacArthur Foundation Creative Placemaking Award and by the end of 2019, they were notified they were finalists. On May 6^th they were recognized via a virtual ceremony and awarded $15,000 along with it. The Acevedos credit their founders Sallie and Ron Gordon and their land trust, Neighborspace, for trusting them to carry on their vision. Gratitude is also expressed to all the organizations who have provided support through sponsorship, partnerships, and various donations. The success of our garden is possible by the countless volunteers that help maintain the space and provide programming. Congratulations, El Paseo!

** Continue reading about El Paseo Community Garden (http://)
North Lawndale 'Slumbusters' Garden Workdays are a Success
Since the 1980’s a diverse patchwork of green spaces has appeared on North Lawndale’s map. These pocket gardens are sites of community activism, neighborhood beautification and youth education. In 1986, Gerald and Lorean Earles founded “Slum Busters” to transform vacant lots into flower and vegetable gardens. Their efforts have inspired the creation of more than 40 gardens and the North Lawndale Greening Committee. -”Learning from North Lawndale”, Chicago Architecture Tour, 2006

Volunteers with the North Lawndale Greening Committee, inspired by the work of Lorean and Gerald Earles, started a garden restoration of the Slum Busters Garden on Saturday, June 20th. According to volunteer, Kimberly George, “The garden was literally buried in overgrown weeds.  I started to reconsider this project, but then I remembered a story about Lorean Earles, discouraged in the evening, would still be out the next morning pulling a few weeds.”

In the middle of a pandemic, social unrest and a financial depression, restoring a garden may not be the best idea. But, the reality is, this is the perfect time. Fresh produce and beautiful flowers are needed more than ever. The outpouring of individuals from all over the city wanting to contribute time is inspiring. Garden leaders like Dr. Shemuel Israel and Mamie Gray are following the example of Gerald and Lorean Earles, who once said “No one wants to do anything, so why don’t we?”
Dr. Israel, Mamie Gray and Kimberly George will be out with volunteers this summer to restore and clean up gardens in North Lawndale. Hundreds more individuals will be  volunteering throughout the city.  To offer support please complete a volunteer sign up using the button below and join the Chicago Community Garden Association for follow updates from Slum Busters to be be shared throughout the growing season.

** Volunteer for North Lawndale workdays (https://forms.gle/DpQbx61Dow9Ad2S17)
New planters at the Bezazian Library made possible with plants from CCGA
The North Uptown Neighborhood Association shared photos of the planters at the Bezazian Library which were updated with plants from recent Resources Team plant distributions. They said the city used to plant the boxes, but since the city's budget crisis, this stopped and they picked up the need for plants. They raised some funds through successful book sales, but with the difficulties this difficult year, they were not sure they could do it. They were so happy for the CCGA plant distributions, which made it possible for them to fill the boxes with many pollinator-friendly plants!
The Hart Peace Community Garden embarking on renovations to increase accessibilty

You might recognize Pat and Robert Hart as two of the most dedicated volunteers of CCGA. These days, they've been focused on a new project at their community garden in Austin. The Hart Peace Community Garden at 645 N. Latrobe Ave was started on three abandoned lots they bought from the city. The garden will soon incorporate several ADA-accessible planter stations, paved walkways and a sun shelter to make it easier for seniors and people with disabilities to grow produce and flowers. They are collaborating with Human Scale, a design nonprofit founded by University of Illinois at Chicago students. “I want to make it accessible to as many people as I can. And make it so more vets can come garden,” said Robert Hart, a veteran himself.

Pat and Robert envision using the pergola as a space to teach and give cooking demonstrations and let folks share recipes. As a nurse, Pat recognizes the food value in a lot of vegetables that aren't favored so much by her community. She wants to introduce veggies like eggplant and how to cook with it. Pat shared, “The garden is still in the process of development. It's an all-volunteer effort and there have been people working on weekends; they've been moving, digging and learning how to use Robert's tools. The garden is for seniors, vets, and folks in the neighborhood; there's a school around the corner, so the garden will be there for them too."
** Read more about the Hart Peace Community Garden (https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/08/06/west-side-community-garden-getting-renovations-so-seniors-people-with-disabilities-can-use-it/)
Maxwell Street Community Garden's public art and accessible raised beds win praise
Maxwell Street Community Garden is in its second season at their new location on the NE corner of Racine and 13th Street diagonal to Fosco Park. They are at maximum capacity this year with a growing waitlist for next season after expanding the number of plots "farmed for the community" from two to six this season to provide more green tomatoes and fresh produce to their neighbors in the adjacent properties, in addition to an herb garden shared with members, neighbors, and Friends of the Garden.

In early March, the garden received a $5,000 grant from Chicago Housing Consulting Services (CHCS) towards transforming three concrete barriers in the garden into public art. Pilsen artist Anne Farley Gaines designed three mosaic murals, and progress is well underway on the first one in the Welcome Garden by the 13th Street gate. Students living nearby, having participated in other art programs led by Gaines for After School Matters and Jane Addams Center, are creating mosaics both at the garden and in kits at home on pre-cut masonry. Maxwell Street Community Garden is the first public art project funded by CHCS.

This was more than reason enough for Maxwell Street Community Garden to receive high praise from Lisa Roberson, Executive Administrator at Chicago Housing Authority, who came to tour their garden in June while she was in the neighborhood. She was awestruck and giddy with delight with what Maxwell Garden had created in the middle of the city. They have built ADA accessible tall raised beds that are a shining example for what all CHA Gardens should aspire to become.

** Read more about Maxwell Street Garden's murals & raised beds (http://chicagocommunitygardens.org/2020/08/27/maxwell-street-community-garden/)
If you have a garden story to share, ** send us a message (mailto:communications at chicagocommunitygardens.org?subject=Recipe!)
!
The CCGA Resources Committee has distributed over xxxx plants to gardeners this summer!
Pictured above are a variety of perennial plants distributed to gardeners last month.

COVID-19 has made us all wonder how we’d manage many new challenges during this pandemic, and for many community gardens, the CCGA Resources distributions and plant sales have been the sole source of affordable, viable seedlings and healthy plants this year. The Resources Committee organized - and managed to make seem effortless - seven contactless distributions throughout April, May, June and July. When everything that we once knew had changed so dramatically, this brought a sense of well-being to gardeners with the possibility of bountiful bouquets and delicious harvests.

The dedication of the CCGA Resources Committee and generosity of our partner growers continues to provide gardeners with opportunities for planting, nurturing and harvesting, and to see things growing and thriving in our gardens again amidst the challenges we are all facing. We know too well that well-being depends on a range of social, economic and environmental factors, as is emphasized by the health disparities seen in different areas of our city. CCGA supports access to green space, and recognizes that growing in that space is vital for health and well-being.

** Read More about the work of the CCGA Resources Committee (http://chicagocommunitygardens.org/2020/08/27/resources-update/)
Upcoming Events

Include more events
Garfield park Community Council Playstreets Virtual Events
** https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/3Gp-H8D_r24GhEpW3vq9pA (https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/3Gp-H8D_r24GhEpW3vq9pA)

Garfield Park Conservatory Gardens - book a visit
** https://garfieldconservatory.org/outdoormembervisits/ (https://garfieldconservatory.org/outdoormembervisits/)

Next CCGA virtual meeting
** Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoCommunityGardenersAssociation/)
** Website (https://chicagocommunitygardens.org/)
** Email (mailto:info at chicagocommunitygardens.org)
Have ideas, suggestions or news you would like to share with fellow community gardeners in the next CCGA email? Please send those items to ** communications at chicagocommunitygardens.org. (mailto:communications at chicagocommunitygardens.org)

For questions about CCGA and how to get involved, email ** membership at chicagocommunitygardens.org (mailto:membership at chicagocommunitygardens.org)
or visit ** chicagocommunitygardens.org/ccga-organization (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=00179W6ckE8nHc3_ea7VKAt_U7Qet-JCzLSSeOPh9N6gLUWNELIG_623Uq6CaEg83lQ1WW0jnA6WuALEV1KYm5MScGNmqRYtYgAgBDTodIy-SyCKM58AQz6GunGMbJ4-ek7UqfS8SQG6_xSbq9jDG3ygw1D1zHRazackxCKDCvakZu8s8cYVx8sGl2f1mgl-HYIDcDzXQnxkrapObZi2PTbGA==&c=Q_d2K6wsNreybPhq6TiCSg0zyf5NMPf7aMT2L5QmEGvWL4M9ouukwQ==&ch=86ZxnO5wcbz_NBbECE7jjonhPQ3EptToF6SB0B4xUiWBxWw2KdMzXQ==)

Need resources for your community garden? Have resources to offer? Email ** resources at chicagocommunitygardens.org (mailto:resources at chicagocommunitygardens.org)
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