[Communications] Fwd: Community Gardens

[Lorraine Kells]

I am forwarding the email I received from Michael Steward in follow-up to a
couple of phone calls to the Illinois Department of Human Services,
Division of Family & Community Services, Office of Adult Services & Basic
Support after Communications received their email of July 29 in which Dan
Blair stated they were looking for a Technical Advisor that could assist
and advise the churches in this pilot program and wondered if the Chicago
Community Gardeners Association could help with this initiative to
ameliorate injustice and food insecurity that has affected Black and Brown
neighborhoods.  Eight to ten faith based organizations have been selected.
We don't have their names..

My initial phone calls were to sort through the details and not intended to
keep anyone out of the loop.  Perhaps we should have more email discussion
about this and definitely bring it to the Zoom meeting early next week for
an additional motion to discuss and adopt.  We could then put together a
cover letter/email stating our role and especially recommending that all
work be done by and for the gardeners in the proposed green spaces.

As you see from the email below, I told Michael we'd participate and may be
advisors in the plural as some gardens may need more help than others.

We would:

   1. Provide a basic manual with steps to starting a community garden for
   those churches who elect to do that.  The same manual will also be useful
   for churches which want to expand their existing community
   gardens, especially those adding ADA compliant beds.  Julie is working on
   revising an existing, excellent and very thorough manual to update
   information and tailor it to this pilot.
   2. Provide information about soil and estimates for cost if possible.
   JW has such a list and will be sending it out.
   3. Provide resources for soil testing (waiting for response from UI's
   Andrew Margenot)
   4. Provide COVID safe gardening guidelines
   5. Provide a basic materials list and some cost estimates.  We already
   have good information but it's not in coherent form, so maybe Amy can make
   it look better.

The money will go out to selected faith based organizations in Sept and
must be spent by Dec 30.  These churches must present a proposal of how
they will spend their money, which is where our advice is needed now, so I
did tell Michael we'd try to get information to him next week.

Happy to hear from anyone.
Lorraine

Please note in the
 ---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Steward, Michael <Michael.Steward at illinois.gov>
Date: Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 12:59 PM
Subject: Community Gardens
To: lxkells at gmail.com <lxkells at gmail.com>
Cc: Blair, Dan <Dan.Blair at illinois.gov>, Sanchez-Jones, Eva <
Eva.Sanchez-Jones at illinois.gov>


Good afternoon Lorraine,

It was great speaking with you today about our pilot community gardens
project. Thank you for Chicago Community Gardeners Association agreeing to
serve as the technical advisor for this project. We look forward to working
with you. *Attached you'll find our scope of work for the project.*

Per our conversation, I look forward to getting the manual and a cost
breakdown for starting a garden.

Thanks for all your help, Lorraine.

Kind Regards,


*Michael F. Steward*

Associate Director

Illinois Department of Human Services

Division of Family & Community Services

Office of Adult Services & Basic Support

(312) 793-5519-office

(312) 919-9475-cell


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