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In this issue:
- Calling all hands! Help us plant out the FRESH Farm on May 23rd
- FRESH Annual Plant Sale on May 30th from 9am-1pm
- FRESH Summer Crew Program: REGISTER NOW!
- An update about our NLC School Garden Network
- Announcing the "School Your Food" Youth Convening, at the FRESH Farm, in June
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Calling all hands to the FRESH Farm |
| | Sunny days, warm weather, growing seedlings, it's that time of year again. Time to plant out the FRESH Farm. And we need your help!
Bring the whole family to dig in and fill the fields with greens, tomato plants, eggplant starts, cabbages and more.
Volunteers of all ages work together to grow food at the FRESH Farm. The food is sold or given to support people around New London County through schools, the FRESH Mobile Market and through the emergency food system.
Connect with land, work with folks from the community and be an active part of food system change! In other words, GET FRESH!
May 23rd, 9am-1pm at the FRESH Farm at the Waterford Country School in Quaker Hill. |
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Join us on May 23rd at the FRESH Farm from 9am - 1pm.
Help us plant out the fields to grow nutritious, delicious and affordable food for our community.
Click below to sign up or just meet us at the farm!
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| | | Annual FRESH Plant Sale is right around the corner!
Find a large and unique variety of tomato, pepper, cucumber, squash, herb & other plants at our late May plant sale. Get all the plants you need to complete your perfect edible garden. Plus for every plant you buy, FRESH will donate a plant to a school garden in New London County!
SNAP benefits accepted for all edible plants. Out of benefits for the month, come reserve your plants & pay in June. |
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Your donation to FRESH supports sustainable agriculture, youth development, and a fairer food system for all! Make checks out to FRESH/TSNE, Box 285, New London, CT, 06320 or donate using Paypal/credit cards at our website. Thank you for all your support! |
| | | FRESH Summer Crew Program: Register Now! |
| | FRESH is hiring up to 24 teens from all over New London County to be part of one of two 3-week summer crew programs this summer.
Session One: June 30th - July 18th Session Two: July 28th- August 15th
Crew work hard and play hard, and earn a stipend for the work they do. They grow healthy food at our farm and community garden, learn about how that food gets to the community and then cook that delicious food with local chefs. With new friends from around New London County, young people learn about the current food system and dream big about what it could be.
Crew workshops focus on team-building, leadership and health, making real connections to issues of social justice in the food system. |
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| | Interested in joining the summer crew? High school students (entering 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grades in the fall) are eligible to learn practical agriculture and professional skills, and earn a stipend, as part of our youth crew. Each crew session is 60 hours with work on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays. |
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Mini grants support nine school garden projects in New London County |
| A total of nine schools with edible garden projects in New London County received $500 mini grant, through a partnership of Farm FRESH New London County Schools and the ACHIEVE New London County Coalition. The grant program supports schools in New London County, by offering seed money from which to launch or expand their own school garden program. USDA Farm to School and CT Dept. of Public Health Prevention grants provided the funds for this great work.
The overall goal is that all schools create a vibrant and sustainable school garden program that helps improve nutrition and connects children more closely to the foods they eat, especially children with limited nutrition-
related resources.
Representatives from all 9 projects, along with other school garden supporters participate in the New London County School Garden Network. FRESH is a founding partner of the group and continues to support the network with education, plants and other shared resources. |
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Congratulations to the 9 schools selected to receive an Outdoor Edible Garden Mini-Grant
Bacon Academy in Colchester, CT
Great Neck Elementary School in Waterford, CT
Integrated Day Charter School, in Norwich, CT
Jennings Elementary School, in New London, CT
Kelly Middle School, in Norwich, CT
Mary Morrisson Elementary School in Groton, CT
Robert Fitch High School, in
Groton, CT
Stonington High School in Stonington, CT
Voluntown Elementary School in Voluntown, CT
To keep up with all things Farm to School in New London County, like our Facebook page! |
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| | | | | | "School Your Food" Youth Convening: Continue the Conversation June 6th, 2pm - 5pm FRESH Community Garden |
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On Saturday April, 11th youth participating in the FRESH Spring bring week of service traveled to Hartford to attend the School Your Food Convening put on by the Connecticut Food Justice Youth Corps (FJYC.) The convening was planned by high school students and the goal was to create a statewide movement to address concerns of the students over the quality and nutritional value of food served in school cafeterias. The conference started with a panel with a panel discussion that featured people from all levels of the school lunch supply chain from two high school students to the Vice President of distribution for Sodexo, a supplier of much of the food served in schools. The panel also featured several policy makers. Afterward conference goers broke up into smaller groups to discuss future action steps.
On Saturday, June 6th, the FJYC will have a follow up conference in New London at the FRESH Community Gardens on the corner of Williams and Mercer St. We will discuss actions steps to ensure young people have a say in their school food.
Studies show the link between nutrition and performance in school and for far too many students this is one of if not the only meal they eat in a day. It is extremely important that we push back against the low quality and quantity of food being served in schools and stand against proposed budget cuts to the school lunch program. We would be remiss if after a day of talking about high quality food we did not fire up the pizza over for dinner. All are invited. |
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