Month: March 2018

For all of March, I have been left overwhelmed and anxious for the year to be over. With constant deadlines, I was relieved to enjoy Spring Break at home. While there, I was able to enjoy the company of my family and my dogs. It gave me a moment to reconnect with nature as my dogs and I walked two hours daily at different Metroparks.

My baby girl even dug up an entire deer skeleton on one walk. I was very proud.

As I reconnected with the environment, I took the opportunity to also work on my action plans I had set for myself.

I was proud that each of my plants had sprouted, marking the beginning of my goal to produce a garden. However, I was not expecting for each seed to pop up. I now have far more plants than my garden can carry. Hopefully, I can pawn my new babies on my family.

I also contacted my representatives to talk about food deserts and the idea of gardens in urban areas. Such conversations proved difficult as there was often a lack of interest in these ideas. However, I am optimistic to continue an open conversation as time goes on.

In my free time, I worked on my STEP plan to bring agriculture to inner city schools. I am extremely excited to begin this process. However, I know the end goal is a long way away.

Due to the strides I have been taking, I have felt confident in my action plan and will continue to follow the list I had set for myself.

While things have been fine as of late, I know that there will be hardships and I am determined to confront these with integrity and strength to further promote healthy food options in urban environments.

It is finally time for the month of action and no one is more excited than me. I have been waiting months to begin growing my vegetable garden.

It ‘s going to be a party.

Below is my proposed list for the month of action.

1. Grow fresh fruits and vegetables; donate excess to urban city food banks
2. Work/Volunteer on urban farms in the community
3. Run a fundraiser and donate profits to urban community gardens
4. Educate others on the benefits of urban gardening for a community 
5. Reach out to government officials to express concern of food deserts and lack of education in urban city neighborhoods
6. Bring gardening techniques into urban school systems
7. Buy produce from urban farms/farmer markets
8. Get involved in increasing education to inner city schools through government officials 
9. Speak with teachers in food deserts to offer sustainable ideas for their students
10. Ask city officials how they plan to create human capital within their communities.

All bold ideas are attempts to understand and work on the root problems which effect poor communities.

During the month of action, I plan to do numbers  1, 4, 5, 6, and 10. While it is still early in the growing season, I am excited to begin growing my plants which will be able to feed not only my family but others as well.

I am also excited for the challenges yet to come. I know contacting government officials will be stressful and may result in answers I do not want to hear. But, I hope through open communication I will be able to express the need to bring education, work experience, and gardens into their cities and towns.  I also know bringing gardening techniques into schools will be tough. So I will be using the month of action to create my game plan on how I will use STEP to pursue this goal.

I hope to learn a lot during this month of action. For one, I am excited to learn how to communicate with my government officials. I am also hopeful to learn how to design an educational routine for children that allows them to learn sustainable life techniques which they can take home. Finally, I hope to learn how to completely follow through with all my ideas no matter how tedious they may be.

I am extremely excited to begin the month of action and I cannot wait to share the results.