Journal 8

Loretta Alexander
March 21, 2008
HUM 3500
Freeda Burnstad

Journal 8

How does your organization address economic and political issues? The economic issues are the inability of many people to afford fresh produce, or the lack of resources to get access to land. We try to overcome both of those by providing access and training. The skills that you learn in producing food are transferable to many professions and provide good job training skills.
On the political level, a large part of organizing a community/school garden is involving the families and community members in the process of development and management of the garden. With this sense of ownership and working together with your community, people become more involved in the community life of their neighborhood, school, and local government. As a result, they are more often involved in the political decisions that affect their communities.

Journal 7

Loretta Alexander
March 16, 2008
HUM 3500
Freeda Burnstad

Journal 7

I was thinking about the SL question did this exercise with Doug give me any insights or tools that I could use with Mendocino Community Gardens Project. The exercise that we did with Doug got me thinking how inspiring and refreshing it was. It reminded me of some of the things that my grandfather and I used to do. This tool I can use when I'm working with my children on the project talking to them about how nature is part of us. We should not abuse nature, we should cherish it. Talking about how it doesn't take that much to grow your own vegetables. You don't have to have a lot of land. If people can grow flowers in a bed, or pots why can't they grow vegetables? Even if they live in apartments they can replace flowers would vegetables. The other thing that I liked about Doug's exercise was also listening to the other person, and watching their expressions. Really trying to put your feet in their shoes, and acknowledge that their feelings are real.

Journal 6

Loretta Alexander
March 9, 2008
HUM 3500
Freeda Burnsta

Journal 6

Does Mendocino Community Gardens Project work with communities of faith? No, not yet, but that is something we are considering, and our purpose is to establish gardens anywhere we can.

In your opinion is there room for development in these areas? Yes, there is room for development in this area, and we are looking at it in the future. Communities with faith would be a good source, and a place to start because they provide other services to the community. This would be another way to get community gardens in neighborhoods, and help shape our future by giving the community a sense of power and ownership.

Journal 5

Loretta Alexander
February 26, 2008
HUM 3500
Freeda Burnstad

Journal 5

The long term goal of the Community Gardens Project is to establish a regional network of sustainable, community-based gardens that provide access to land, garden and nutrition education, and a nutritious food supply for as many of our community as possible.
How can this shape our future? The Community Gardens Project is trying to establish model gardens that can be replicated through the support network in a variety of different ways. For example; community school, and pre-school gardens with children and their families have their own plots at the schools. Community gardens in neighborhoods at low income housing units, senior and cross-generational gardens, and plowshares gardens.
The hope of The Community Gardens Project is that this will help shape our future by providing the current and future generations with access, knowledge, control, and a sense of community power over the most important aspects of their lives – their food and environment.

Journal 4

Loretta Alexander
February 18, 2008
HUM 3500
Freeda Brunstad

Journal 4

Whose fault is it, our environmental issues, especially in regards to community gardens? In the U.S. and industrial/urban countries, we have moved into a very commodity oriented economy and culture where everything is dependent on earning money and therefore spend money. Miles says if you combine this with the inequalities of income and wealth in our country, you have a large portion of the population at the bottom that has very little land with little or no useable outdoor space. Combined this with a poor education system for those with the least, and poverty level wages that make it very difficult to find the time or place to think about growing your own food, or having the ability to grow it.
The Community Gardens Project does address these issues, by really creating a subsidized food production system that can’t survive in the Markey economy by itself – there are not sufficient profits in producing food for yourself. However, a piece of the project is to begin developing business opportunities for the gardeners that want to continue and expand. The Community Gardens Project main goal is to create access to the land, education, and materials that would normally not have that access due to the nature of our economic system – by seeking grants, government subsidized education, community contributions, and volunteers.