Chautauqua County Gleaning Project

STEL (Southern Tier Environments for Living) is hosting two gardens. These pictures are from STEL’s 715 Central Avenue location. Gleaning Project staff will be educating volunteers from STEL’s residential unit at this address in how to care for this garden space. Pictured are volunteers Josh and Maria, who worked very hard to get this space planted. We will also be adding mulch to this space, as needed. Another example of a successful NEW partnership for 2009.

Some pictures of the Community Garden space at Porter Ave. Since these pictures have been taken the volunteers have been working hard weeding and adding mulch. Mulch was again provided by SUNY Fredonia, our staff members Willy and Josh have hauled several loads of mulch from the campus. Thank you again to the community supporters like SUNY Fredonia!!

Here are some great pictures of the Community Garden at Chadakoin Park in Jamestown.  The first picture is another composting site, this is another collaboration site with Cornell Cooperative Extension and will also be a demonstration site (see Harvest Chapel post for another compost site design).

You get a sense of the transformation in the pictures that follow as you can see the space being tilled and planted and transformed into another fantastic Community Garden.  Many thanks to the hard working staff and volunteers who worked so hard on a VERY hot June day to finish the planting of the garden.

Also a big thank you to the City of Jamestown who brought us several loads of mulch for this garden space…the teamwork on this garden site is just fantastic!!!

The Community Garden at Harvest Chapel in Fredonia, NY is looking great.  In the first two pictures posted here you can see the rain barrels placed at the sides of the garden.  The volunteers from Harvest Chapel also dug up a large cistern, which they have placed under the gutters of a small barn on the property to catch water.  I’ll post a picture of that system soon.  These guys are very resourceful!!

In the second picture, you see more of the garden space.  Where it starts to slope up the hill on the left they have planted some plants that vine, so they have room to run.
Also, you can see the merigolds planted along the edge of the garden for deer control.  Volunteer leader Orlin Haynes reports that there have been deer tracks, but they have stopped at the flowers and not ventured into the garden.

This last picture is of the composting site that we are developing at this space in collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension.  This site was built out of cement blocks we recovered from SUNY Fredonia after the students moved out.  The volunteers have already added some nice piles of starter to this compost site.  Cornell will be using this as a demonstration site for composting in upcoming classes. Also, we have been given access to a mulch pile on the SUNY Fredonia campus, and the volunteers have added several loads of mulch to the walkways of this garden space.

This announcement was published a few weeks ago in several local news publications…as you can see the number of gardens have grown since it was written.  I think it is important for readers to have an understanding that we will have increased capacity to distribute AND process gleaned and gardened fruits and vegetables once this facility is opened.  Members of the community will be able to access this facility for their own preservation purposes.  We are encouraging “Social Entrepreneurialism”, enabling those who are financially challenged access to a facility that is USDA certified and also offers education as needed.  The goal is this fall, we just need one of the several grants we have written to come through!!

Here is the article:

Chautauqua County Rural Ministry, in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension, is introducing a Food Preservation Program. Rural Ministry has received a donation of commercial kitchen equipment, and will be converting a portion of its warehouse on Central Avenue in Dunkirk into a small foods processing facility using this equipment.

The Food Preservation Program will be supported by the Chautauqua County Gleaning Project and Community Gardens Project, which have collected and distributed more than 650,000 pounds of food since 1999.

This year, the Community Gardens project is planning 12 gardens, in seven different communities of Chautauqua County. Rural Ministry is working with a number of community organizations throughout the county to make this the most successful year yet for these programs.

Interest is continuing to grow in these projects, and with the potential of another record year for the gleaning and gardening projects the need for a method to preserve some of the fruits and vegetables harvested by these projects is growing. Once this program is in operation, the Gleaning Project will especially be looking for donations of fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, grapes, berries, cherries and peaches.

Planning for this project was begun several years ago, and with the continued success of these supporting projects Rural Ministry is moving forward with these plans.

Certified master preservation trainers from Cornell Cooperative Extension will offer classes on canning, freezing, and other food preservation methods at the new facility. These classes will be open to anyone residing in Chautauqua County. Anyone with an interest in learning proper food preservation techniques are encouraged to attend.

Additionally, Rural Ministry plans to preserve and store produce collected during the harvest to be distributed throughout the year. With the increase in visitors to the Rural Ministry Friendly Kitchen and Emergency Food Pantry, as well as to their partner sites throughout the county, the demand for nutritious fruits and vegetables is higher than ever.

Rural Ministry has received support from numerous elected officials for this project, including Congressman Brian Higgins, state Sen. Cathy Young and state Assemblyman William Parment.

Rural Ministry is a certified food recovery and repackaging processor by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Throughout the year Rural Ministry will be submitting numerous grant proposals and seeking additional funding to make this program a success. Donations of canning supplies and related equipment will also be sought.

Chautauqua County Rural Ministry is a grassroots advocacy agency with a distinguished history of meeting the needs of the homeless, working poor and disenfranchised in Chautauqua County. Organized in the 1950s by a group of enlightened individuals concerned with the welfare of the very poor and migrant workers in our area, the group worked to establish better housing and labor standards for families and their children.

Originally called the Southwestern Area Migrant Committee of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties in 1967, the name was changed to the Chautauqua County Rural Ministry in 1973 to reflect a more central focus.

Chautauqua County Rural Ministry operates the Friendly Kitchen, a soup kitchen that serves an average of 2,700 meals per month. Meals are served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday and from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Rural Ministry also operates an Emergency Food Pantry, which is open to those in need from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. The Emergency Food Pantry distributes an average of 7,000 meals per month.

Rural Ministry offers a number of other services to the community including Emergency Homeless Shelters, the Coburn Block Apartments, the Emergency Furniture Distribution program, Garment Gallery thrift store, discount prescription program, and nutrition and cooking classes in collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Anyone with an interest in donating or participating in any Rural Ministry program is encouraged to call the Rural Ministry office at 366-1787. Information will also be available on the Gleaning Project web site, www.gleanchautauqua.org. Chautauqua County Rural Ministry is a United Way agency.

Community Gardens Project update, June 16, 2009:

The Community Gardens project has grown dramatically for 2009, and is off to a fantastic start. We currently have gardens in various stages in NINE different communities throughout Chautauqua County. This is an update on where we are with these spaces, who some of our partners are, and what the needs will be throughout the season for each space. The update will be divided by community; some communities are home to multiple gardens.

The spirit of community gardening is simple; a volunteer organization hosts the garden on their space. The Greenhouse Gleaning initiative, part of the Glean Chautauqua project, collects unsold plants from greenhouses throughout the county. Working with volunteer organizations at these garden sites, the Community Gardens project plants and maintains the donated vegetables. As produce becomes ripe, those in the community who have a need are welcome to the produce. We especially encourage anyone who may take advantage of these gardens to come out and learn the skills of gardening from our staff and volunteers (who include Master Gardeners certified by Cornell Cooperative Extension). Any leftover produce is collected by the Glean Chautauqua program and distributed through our partner food pantries and soup kitchen throughout the county.

Here is an update on the gardens:

Fredonia –

Porter Street Community Garden – a true community effort. This garden is planted, and looks fantastic. We are working on some rain barrels, which will be placed at this space in the next few days to provide irrigation for the garden. There will be a continued need for weeding and maintenance from volunteers at this space.

Harvest Chapel – this space is hosted by Harvest Chapel, and is maintained by a group of volunteers from the church. There will be limited need for outside assistance as this is a hard working group and the garden looks fantastic!!!

Christ Community Church – This site still needs to be tilled and planted, and needs a composting site set up. This site will be maintained by the Fredonia Gardens volunteers, same as Porter St.

Dunkirk –

Lakshore Community Garden – this garden is located behind the Rural Ministry offices, and is maintained by our staff, as well as community volunteers, including the Boy Scouts and Boys and Girls Club. At present this site is about half planted; this needs to be finished this week.

STEL Apartments – STEL is hosting two gardens, one on Central Avenue and another on Park Avenue. The Central Avenue site is planted and looks great!! Park Ave. needs to be tilled and planted. These gardens will be maintained by STEL residents and Rural Ministry staff and volunteers. We will be offering gardening classes to those residents interested in learning more about gardening.

Portland – Portland Congregational Church is hosting a garden and composting site. This space will be maintained by volunteers from the Church and community. The garden is planted and looks great!!

Westfield – The Westfield Community Garden is in the process of being planted. This site will be maintained by Rural Ministry staff, volunteers, and members of the community. Additionally, we will be planting a field of potatoes at this site…this is an experiment for the Gardening Project.

Cassadaga – Cassadaga Job Corps is hosting a garden. Staff and students at CJC will maintain this space. Currently we are seeking donations of pumpkin seeds and plants for this space (per the request of CJC). The space is tilled and ready to plant!!!

Forestville – The Neighbor to Neighbor Food Pantry is coordinating this garden. Plants have been provided to staff of this pantry, and maintenance of this space will be managed by staff and volunteers at the pantry.

Ellington – Ellington Day Hab is hosting a garden space, and similar to STEL this space will be maintained by staff and volunteers at this facility. Plants have been provided by through the Gardening Project.

Jamestown – Chadakoin Park Community Garden – this garden is located in Chadakoin Park and is a partnership with the City of Jamestown Department of Youth Services. Half of this garden has been planted with seeds, however it is estimated we could put up to 35 flats of plants in this space. Additional plants will be delivered to this space Thursday or Friday of this week.

Town of Ellery - Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Camp will be hosting a garden site this summer. A focus for the camp this year is addressing world hunger, and we are excited that they have chosen to collaborate with our project. This site will be tilled next week, and planted in the week following. We will be focusing on plants that don’t take very long to mature, perhaps lettuce.

Anyone wishing to participate in any of the volunteer groups is welcome to contact ed.sunday@gleanchautauqua.org.

At the Gleaning Project, we are excited about and busy preparing for the upcoming season.  To all our current and future volunteers and supporters interested in helping us to alleviate hunger and malnutrition in our community, below are a few items to keep in mind!  Hope to see you all out at a garden meeting soon!

Fredonia Community Garden Meeting:

Jamestown Community Garden Meeting:

On Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 7:30 PM,

we will have our first community garden meeting of the season

at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 410 North Main Street, Jamestown, NY.

To stay informed or get more information about our community gardens, email us.

On Saturday, September 27, a group of SUNY Fredonia students from the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity gave of their time and got active in the Chautauqua County Gleaning Project. In two hours, they gleaned 271 pounds of grapes growing wild and untended in a field in Dunkirk owned by Mr. and Mrs. Neft and Aida De Jesus. Ms. De Jesus was just excited that the grapes were going to such a great cause. Over the next two days, the gleaned grapes, which otherwise would have just rotted on the vines, will be distributed to food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters throughout the county. There are still many more acres of grapes to glean. “The harvest truly is plenteous,” states volunteer gleaner Carlos Maldonado, “but we need the help of more volunteers to take advantage of all this nutritious food that is just going to waste.” To get active and help your community, call 716.366.1787 ext. 14 or email get.active@gleanchautauqua.org.

Tomorrow, the Gleaning Project crew will be convening for some heavy weeding at one of its community garden sites in Westfield, NY. The garden is by far one of the most productive pieces of land the project has at its disposal this season, which is why it is vital to get the weeds out before they damage the plants. We definitely need all the help we can get! Come on out and fight hunger! Email jason.petsch@gleanchautauqua.org for details and directions!

Tonight, we will meet at the Chadakoin Park Community Garden in Jamestown, NY at 7 PM to harvest and weed as well as discuss plans for the future of the garden! Everyone is welcome! Please join us! For more information, email jason.petsch@gleanchautauqua.org.