Name the "New Community Garden!"

For Immediate Release                                                                                  Contact: Courtney Miller

April 2, 2013                                                                                                   (616)527-5341

Name the Community Garden Contest

Ionia- The Ionia County Health Department in partnership with the Ionia County 4-H are starting a community garden located at 3853 Sparrow Dr in Ionia. The community gardens mission is to be an educational and community-motivated garden that will serve to provide hands-on learning for community youth and adults while providing extra support to our local food pantries.

The garden organizers need your help in naming the garden! We invite kids from Ionia County to enter the name the community garden contest. The winner will be revealed at the Spring Planting event, TBD and receive a $25 prize being donated by the Ionia County 4-H Advisory Council. The guidelines to enter the contest are that you must be between the ages of 5 and 18 and the garden name should be simple, but creative.  

Please submit all garden name entries no later than April 19, 2013 either via email to dthalison@ioniacounty.org or mail to the Ionia County Health Department, 175 E. Adams Street, Ionia, Michigan 48846. Good Luck!

CFN Updates

REMINDER:  Meetings taking place April 8th at the Mid-Michigan District Health Dept

12:30 pm - Working lunch planning meeting for the Educational Committee (bring your own lunch!)
1:30 pm - Community Food Network Meeting
3:30 pm - Garden Planning Meeting for anyone starting a new garden, wanting more information about local community gardens, or wanting to talk with other gardeners about 2013 plans.

An Agenda for the CFN Meeting can be found in Google Docs

Also if you are starting a new garden or planning on continuing a community garden this year and hope to receive supplies from the Community Food Network you must register your garden.  2013 Garden Survey  If possible, please do this before the meeting.  If you need help, you will be able to complete this at the meeting.

Also, here are a couple more links for recent articles and blogs posted by the Ionia Sentinel Standard about the Community Food Network and our partners!

Ionia County Peace Community Blog - Peace Talk:  Garden NEWS

Seed starting day grows community gardeners - published April 5th

And don't forget to register your Garden CleanUP project for Global Youth Service Day!

And check out these pictures from the Belding Community Garden last year!

Thanks Andrea!

Bread for the World!

Resources for Kids and Teens

The resources on this page will help you learn about hunger in the United States and what we can do to end it. Together, we can change the world!

Stories About Hunger: Rosie's Banana

Like a lot of kids her age, Colorado ten-year-old Rosie Casey sometimes loses focus during class. Her teacher, Leslie Nichols, who is used to students occasionally daydreaming during lessons, taught Rosie an exercise to help her concentrate. Nichols told Rosie to write the word “focus” on a little sticker and look at it every time she felt her mind start to drift. Still, Rosie struggled to pay attention... read the whole story at http://www.bread.org/help/community/kids/kids-and-teens.html?signed=yes&JServSessionIdr004=nq1jl8q0c2.app304b  

In 2005, 1.4 billion people in developing countries lived in extreme poverty, living on less than $1.25 a day.

Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes.

In the United States, 14.5 percent of households struggle to put food on the table.

More than one in four American children are at risk of hunger. More than one in five children live in households that struggle to put food on the table.

This website is filled with great resources for Community Food Network partners!  You can also "Like" them on Facebook!

Seed Starting at Lyons District Library

The Lyons District Library is holding special children's activities all throughout Spring Break!  

On Friday, April 5th the Dugan Family will be at the Library to teach kids about starting seeds!

10:30am  Story Time, Seed Starting Project and Snack

The seeds will remain at the library until the ground warms up so youth can check back on their progress while returning books.  Once the ground warms up, seeds will be transplanted to the Dugan Garden a few blocks away from the Library.  When the harvest is ready, the Library will again host a Salsa Party so kids can taste the yummy produce that was grown from the seeds!  Remaining produce that is harvested from these plants will be donated to the Muir Christian Food Pantry.

What a great way to celebrate SPRING and serve your community!

Here are the pictures from this event and a link the Sentinel Standard Article

Lyons area children learn about the benefits of planting, growing and eating fresh foods from the garden by starting plants from their own seeds. When the plants are big enough, they will be planted in the community garden at The Higbee Acre Farm. The program, part of spring break activities at the Lyons Township District Library, took place Friday.

Peanut Butter and Jam Slam!

Join the Ionia Kids Club in supporting Ionia County Food Pantries!

DoSomething.org is helping to raise support on the local level through service groups holding PB&J Slams! For each 10 jars collected, youth are able to enter for a chance to receive a $4,000 scholarship.

GenerationOn.org is also raising support on a local level through service groups with the "What will you bring to the table?" promotion. 

Ionia Kids Club Members have decided to combine resources and work on both of these like minded projects together! They will be collecting PB&J from April 11th to May 16th then passing on the donations to local food pantries. Then they will be making table cloths that will be distributed to local Community Gardens through the Community Food Network to give volunteers a clean place to enjoy eating fresh produce.

Here is how YOU can help!

Donate jars of Peanut Butter and/or Jam during our Thursday after meetings. Drop your donation off April 11th- May 16th during our regular hours of Ionia Kids Club.

Where: First Christian Church
130 E Washington St.
When: Thursday Afternoons
Time: 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm

Voots $700 mini-grant!

Voots® Veggie-Fruit Tarts and Kidsgardening.org, a resource of the National Gardening Association, present the 2013 Voots® "Get Kids Growing" Garden Grants! 20 schools will receive:  $700 in gardening supplies $50 for soil and plants Applications close April 1st, 2013. Visit Kidsgardening.org for more details. Applications due by Monday, April 1st, 2013!

Spring Time!

So spring is officially here. As much as it still looks like winter, its time to really get ready to start your gardens! It's an exciting prospect that soon the snow will all be gone and we will be able to get out and really enjoy the outdoors. I'm looking forward to fresh local fruits and vegetables. If you are planning your own garden you may be wondering what you want to plant, I'm currently loving the themed gardens I've been hearing about. Gardens based on what you want to make with the produce, like salsa gardens, salad gardens, or soup gardens. I also love gardens that are planned to produce the most produce with the least space, using plants that can be harvested multiple times like tomatos or green beans.


If you need help planning your garden there are lots of wonderful resources online and in your community. You can ask your local master gardener for tips and suggestions or you can go to some of these helpful websites:
http://www.happydancingturtle.org/index.php/growing-green-othermenu-195/95/1379-planning.html?gclid=CMSHw86ljrYCFQs4nAodzXAAzA

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-essentials-of-how-to-plan-a-garden.html

http://www.almanac.com/vegetable-garden-planning-for-beginners

It may seem like a long way off, but if you begin planting this spring soon enough you will be enjoying all the wonderful results of your hard work!



Don't forget!

If you are planning a Community Garden this year in Montcalm or Ionia Counties, please register your garden by taking this short survey:  2013 Garden Survey 

Learn more about the local Community Gardens and Food Pantries at the Community Food Network Website!  Or attend our Garden Planning Meeting on April 8th at the Mid-Michigan District Health Dept  (Stanton) from 3:30-5pm!