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.