Rooting DC!

Hello all! I'm Rachel the new Farm Educator Intern at Arcadia and this is my first ever blog post. Hopefully it will be first of many! Thanks as always for reading! 

Team Arcadia took part in this year's super exciting and successful Rooting DC event two weekends ago at Coolidge High School. Sponsored by members of the Field to Fork Network (Arcadia included), the fifth annual urban gardening forum featured workshops by local initiatives and professionals, roundtable discussions, cooking demonstrations, and a bustling information fair where organizations could showcase their work. 

Throughout the day, members of the Arcadia team took turns working the info booth and chatting with other players in the local urban gardening movement. While away from the table, we attended workshops taught by other local organizations. Fellow intern Stephanie and I attended Healing with Herbs, a cooking demo by Tambra Raye Stevenson from the UDC Center for Nutrition, Diet and Health, Canning for Beginners by Bradley Kennedy, and a panel called How to Build a Successful School Garden and Use it! Thanks to everyone involved for sharing your wisdom and enthusiasm!

Farmer Mo led a workshop about soil basics called Getting Dirty, and Andrea took part in the ‘15 minute field Trips’- Garden Activities Round Robin. Both received tremendous feedback from attendees who later visited the Arcadia table - way to go! Last but not least was a preview appearance from our Mobile Market! The big green school bus received lots of attention and looked terrifically shiny and majestic in the afternoon sun.

Perhaps the best part of Rooting DC was the amount of energy and excitement generated between organizations and interested citizens. People of all ages and backgrounds connected over similar interests; found volunteer opportunities and new networks; and traded ideas, knowledge and SEEDS! It was exciting to be involved! We're so proud to be a part of this strong movement of farmers, activists and gardeners committed to a sustainable food system in D.C.

Open positions at Arcadia!

Looking for a way to improve your local food system?

We're looking for dynamic, enthusiastic folks for paid and volunteer positions. Check out the individual job descriptions for more details about how to apply.

• Volunteer Mobile Market Educator
  
• Volunteer Field Trip Assistant
  
• Arcadia Farm Camp Team Leader
  
• Arcadia Farm Camp Counselor
  

We're excited to welcome a few new members to the Arcadia team!

Snack-time and Social Media Week!

Arcadia was a part of Social Media Week DC. Cat & Andrea from Arcadia’s DC Farm to School Network were part of an event dubbed “Snack-time: Collaboratively improving kids’ nutrition and having some fun along the way.” The event congregated various community leaders in diverse fields such as kids’ nutrition, social media, and technology to work together to get kids more active and healthy.

Andrea was on a panel with Montgomery County Food & Nutrition Services Director Marla Caplon and Kid Power Veggie Time Coordinator Katherine Harvey. They discussed the challenges facing school food service operations when it comes to serving healthy foods to kids, and how social media and hands-on educational experiences could help overcome these challenges.

The most exciting part was that students participated in a variety of healthy eating and exercise stations. Arcadia led a “Thank Your Farmer” card-making activity. After a brief discussion about farming and food, kids were excited and proud to write notes to the farmers who do so much for us. 

Take a look at some of the best:




Apparently one student thought a farmer could use some love as well...



In an increasingly fast-paced world with an ever-changing food system, there are huge opportunities for social media to bring us together and help forge new connections. But we can’t forget the value of sharing experiences, having conversations, and getting our hands dirty!

The Bees are ready for spring too...

Check out the latest from Jeff at DC Honeybees! We are excited to move two of our hives to the new front field to aid in pollination. We are even more excited to tap the hives this spring and start the honey flowing. We'll be sure to keep you updated about Arcadia honey!

Save the Date for Arcadia Farm Camp!

We're glad to announce the dates of Arcadia Farm Camp's pilot sessions! Over the past few weeks, we've been moving forward with planning a truly awesome summer camp program. We had help from some fantastic parents at our focus groups in January, and we'll use their feedback as we develop camp policies and procedures.

We're hosting two one-week sessions: July 16-20, 2012 and July 23-27, 2012. We're planning to open registration in late February or early March. For more details, head over to our website. If you still have questions, don't hesitate to email liz@arcadiafood.org for more information. You can also sign up for future summer camp updates here.

We're excited to welcome your child to Arcadia Farm Camp this summer.

Arcadia will be at Rooting DC, you should too!

Every winter, urban gardeners, local food fanatics and community food security enthusiasts from the farthest reaches of the District of Columbia gather together at Coolidge High School for Rooting DC!  It's a day-long free conference filled with hands-on workshops and inspiration about all sorts of urban food and farming topics.  This year, the event is taking place Saturday, February 18th.  If that's not enough to get you excited about spring, I don't know what is.

Here's Mo presenting at Rooting DC last year.

Arcadia will have a big presence at Rooting DC this year.  Our very own farmer Mo Moodie will be talking about soil science at noon - find out how macro and micro nutrients impact the health of your plants, how to test your soil, and how to improve soil quality.  Andrea Northup, who runs Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network will speak during two workshop sessions - one on how the D.C. school food system works at 10:45am, and one demonstrating 15-minute educational activities in the garden at 3:30pm.  Check out the full agenda here.  And don't miss our Arcadia table on display in the community tabling area!

Spread the word, and we look forward to seeing you at the fun, free, and fabulous Rooting DC!  Learn more and register at www.rootingdc.org.

What I learned at the Food Project's Winter Institute

I was lucky enough to spend two days last week at the Food Project's Winter Institute with a group of insightful, inspiring food activists from around the country. The Institute showcases the Food Project's work empowering teens to make change through sustainable agriculture.

Since Arcadia is a young organization, I'm grateful I had the opportunity to learn from folks who've been working for food justice for 20 years. I learned a whole lot, but here are some of the most memorable parts:

• Bridging divides has amazing transformative power. The Food Project brings youth of totally different backgrounds together to work on farms in both urban and rural areas. Arcadia's work connecting small farmers with city dwellers and young people to the source of their food has similar potential.
  
• From Eron at Collective Roots in East Palo Alto, CA to Ryan and Kayla at Farm Fresh Rhode Island, the Institute brought together a group of really down-to-earth folks working on similar issues. Although it seemed that we're all often overwhelmed with the injustice we see around us, we are each really passionate about working with young people to help create a more sustainable and fair food system.
  
• The Food Project teens are awesome! I was so impressed by their knowledge of the food system, their emotional intelligence and their communication skills. A solid portion of the 2.5 day institute was actually led by the teens themselves, including a stellar set of workshops about food systems.
  
• Fun is super important! At the Institute, we learned some of the great games that the Food Project staff uses with their youth teams and I can't wait to play some of them out at Arcadia Farm this year.
  

If you haven't already, make your way over to the Food Project's toolbox - it's chock full of (free!) useful materials for folks who are working on sustainable agriculture issues and youth empowerment.