Is anyone else feeling busy? Are we *checks notes* already approaching the half-way point of 2021? After two months of non-stop action, we're catching our breath and catching you up on what we've been doing.

April and May were marked by many Cultivate events. We spread our thanks to our volunteers and partners at the virtual ROOT! celebration, spread information about the ways we work with the City to build a healthy and just food system at our ZOOM roundtable, and spread plants across the town through another successful annual seedling giveaway and sale.  

SPRING SEEDLING PROJECT                                             

Clockwise from top left: Jordan, Sarah, and Shannon; former CSG youth engagement coordinator Emily and Leon; youth in the City of Promise garden; a community member getting plants for her home garden at the Seedling Project

Another Spring Seedling Project, another success! This year’s project was our largest yet, with youth interns, Cultivate staff and Buford PE students all pulling together to grow and distribute over 10,000 vegetable, herb and flower seedlings. Plants went all over Charlottesville to school and partner gardens, families at neighborhood pop-up giveaways, and to all the wonderful folks who came out to support us and the Youth Intern team at the larger sale. Here’s what one inter, Hallie, had to say of her experience growing this spring: 

I thought the spring seedling project was really great because you got to pick all the seeds that would then provide for the community. The spring seedling giveaway was really fun because a lot of the community came out and received seedlings. It was great to see everyone that received seedlings happy!

Clockwise from top left: Cultivate board member Margie; Cultivate interns; Yolonda; Cultivate staff and interns help community members pick out plants

 CITY SCHOOLYARD GARDEN                                            

Back to School (in the Spring) by Jordan Johnson

City Schoolyard Garden is in full swing of springtime student engagement. With the return to in-person learning, the Garden Coordinator team thought quickly of ways to re-engage in schools bringing more students back into the gardens—while continuing to engage students in our regular after school clubs at Hearthwood, Westhaven, and Friendship Court. 

In March, the City Schoolyard Garden team decided to dedicate two days a week towards school-time garden engagement while rotating through gardens weekly. One thing that we have noticed since schools have opened back up is teachers’ growing commitment to engaging in as much outdoor time as possible. From teachers hosting classes in the greenbrier amphitheater, to eating lunch in the gardens, teachers are getting outside as much as they can. The garden time is no different—filling up quickly with lots of teacher interest. 

In the elementary schools this year, teachers have signed up for slots and given the choice to participate in a lesson, garden tasks, or free-explore time. Teachers from kindergarten to fourth grade have been signing up across the board and (so far) the weather has been holding up for nice, sunny visits out to the garden.

With our limited time in each garden, we are also working to prepare teachers to spend time exploring and engaging in the garden—even when we aren’t there. Over the last couple weeks of school we look forward to encouraging teachers and students to enjoy the peace, healing and nourishment that the school gardens brings to us. 

 URBAN AGRICULTURE COLLECTIVE                               

A Choice for Change by Richard Morris

Big changes are afoot at UAC. With one month to go before the 2021 Market Day season, the team at UAC is working hard to get the season’s early crops ready for harvest. Hundreds of collards, kale, onions, and potatoes are in the Market Day pipeline. 

It’s going to be a busy season. Along with the typical challenges of running an urban farm,  we’re wrestling with shrinking acreage, the loss of the farm shop, and the still undetermined impact of housing redevelopment on our Market Day locations. 

Change is always happening, both above and below our level of sensory perception. We can see the leaves turn over the course of the season and feel the air begin to cool at the approach of fall. Conversely, the magic of seed germination in our gardens and the cellular replication taking place within our own bodies, often goes unnoticed.  

Change is often disruptive, and it can be challenging, so it is choice that makes change manageable. The power to choose where we live, what we eat, and if we are inclined toward growing our own food, it is the power to grow. 

The Power To Grow is one of Cultivate Charlottesville’s six policy platform planks that directly connects to the work of UAC. It advances the idea that affordable housing and urban agriculture can, and should, coexist. It calls for a long-term commitment to preserving centrally located land, in the city, for urban agriculture. 

If the people are successful, Charlottesville could become a proof of concept of what a city of the future looks like. A city where every resident has a safe, comfortable home, access to the food that is nutritionally and culturally relevant, and the power to grow, if they choose.

Clockwise from top left: plants in the 6th Street garden; Jenifer planting; worms make for great soil; sweet potato slips

 FOOD JUSTICE NETWORK                                                 

Coming Together Around the Food Equity Initiative by the FJN Team

We would like to thank everyone who joined us for our spring roundtable, all those who participated in the May social media storm to spread the word about our food equity partnership with City Council, and organizations and individuals who signed on to show City Council their support of the six Food Equity Initiative planks:

• Food Equity and Justice
• The Power to Grow
• The Right to Good Food
• Inspire Youth Choice
• Build Community Wealth
• Restore Earth and Climate

During A Seat at the Table: Sharing Your Perspective on the Food Equity Initiative Policy Platform, Castanea Fellow and former Cultivate Charlottesville Food Justice Network Program Director Shantell Bingham, Virginia State Delegate Sally Hudson, and Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker shared how and why the history of race in Charlottesville has affected the food system in our town. Through breakout sessions led by community advocates, community members had space to discuss each area of the Policy Platform.  

Building on the feedback shared through the roundtable and other community experiences that have been gathered over the years, FJN ignited a social media storm to continue the conversation around the Food Equity Initiative planks. The team presented the mid-year Food Equity Initiative report to City Council with more than 250 signatures of supporters who believe in taking Charlottesville from a foodie city to a food-E(quity) home for ALL of its residents.

FJN will continue to work within the network and with public, private, and nonprofit organizations to implement the recommendations of the Food Equity Initiative. If you would like more information, please visit the TAKE ACTION page on our website. If you would like us to present the Food Equity Initiative Policy Platform to your organization, please reach out to Jeanette at jeanette@cultivatecharlottesville.org.

For more information or to join Food Justice Network full team meetings, contact Gabby Levet at gabby@cultivatecharlottesville.org

Clockwise from top left: community members participate in the roundtable; FJN Facilitator Selena Cozart; Tami Wright; Sally Hudson; Nikuyah Walker; Shantell Bingham; Jeanette Abi-Nader

 CULTIVATE SOCIAL JUSTICE BOOK CLUB                    

Here are a few of the titles we are reading and watching:

High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, Jessica B. Harris and the Netflix special High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America

Food Apartheid: Racialized Access to Healthy Affordable Food, Indra Shekhar Singh, Nina Sevilla, Natural Resources Defense Council 

‘Inhabitants’ Digs Deep Into Indigenous Solutions to Climate Change, Gosia Wozniacka, Civil Eats and the documentary Inhabitants 

Clockwise from top left 2021 Golden Trowel honorees (and granddaughter): Lisa Draine; Karen Waters-Wicks' granddaughter; Mr. Alex-Zan; Stephanie Randolph; Sarah McLean

CULTIVATE IN THE NEWS                                                 

Land is Liberation: Reflections on Session 4 of HEAL’s School of Political Leadership

Cultivate Charlottesville works to increase food equity through Spring Seeding Project

From all of us at Cultivate Charlottesville—a hearty thank you to the many new supporters that have pitched in to keep our work going to build food equity during COVID-19 and beyond.

At Cultivate Charlottesville we believe that working together to grow gardens, share food and power, and advocate for just systems cultivates a healthy community for all.