The 2006 Season has begun on the Red Hook Community Farm!

Our Youth Leadership Institute is in full swing, spinach is growing in the greenhouse, and we’ve been out on the farm building compost piles and preparing for a busy Spring.

Over the next few weeks, we invite you to…

• Join us at local conferences about food and urban gardening (see below)
• Participate in Two Days of Growing Power!, hands-on vermicompost and urban farming workshops at the farm on Sunday, March 19th or Monday, March 20th!
• Learn about Added Value and the Red Hook Community Farm, and lend a hand at our first Farm Volunteer Day on Saturday, April 1st!

We also have education internships and ongoing volunteer opportunities available! (See below for more information)

EVENTS CALENDAR

Keeping it Fresh! City Gardeners Grow Food
The 25th Annual Making Brooklyn Bloom conference
Saturday, March 11th, 10am – 4pm
At Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
Gardening workshops, information booths, keynote address by David Jacke: "Eat the City: Cultivating Agriculture in Brooklyn Today."
For more information: http://www.bbg.org/vis2/2006/mbb/index.html

Dig Deep, Grow Strong
GreenThumb GrowTogether
Saturday, March 18th
Hostos Community College
Huge gathering of NYC area community gardeners. Information tables, workshops, hands-on activities.
Highlights include:
* Keynote address by Will Allen of Growing Power
* Added Value Senior Youth Leaders Denia Cuello and Tevon McNair presenting a workshop on Building Youth and Adult Partnerships!
* Added Value director Ian Marvy presenting on the 2007 Farm Bill and how we as urban farmers can make a difference
For more information call GreenThumb at 212-788-8070

Two days of GROWING POWER!! at the Red Hook Community Farm
Sunday, March 19th (11am-4pm) AND Monday, March 20th (9am-4pm)

Will Allen (Farmer, activist, Ford Fellow & former Pro Basketball player) will be presenting workshops on Urban Agriculture, Vermicomposting, and Holistic Waste Management. To learn more about Will Allen and Growing Power, visit: www.growingpower.org

Sunday and Monday:
Vermicomposting from A to Z. Build a working worm composting system at the Red Hook Community Farm. Learn how to raise earthworms as livestock. Leave with a working Vermicomposting system for your own home/garden project and instructions on upkeep.

Monday Only:
Learn how to integrate vermicomposting into a season extension, bio-intensive, greenhouse bed.

Workshops are open to everyone! Farmers (urban and rural), gardeners, program staff, community members, and those who want to join Added Value’s newly forming Compost Brigade to work in a collaborative environment towards a more diverse, more integrated sustainable food system.

Download Flier Here

One-day registration $15, 2-day registration $25, Take-Home Worm System $15
To register, contact Shanti Nagel at 718-855-5531, or [email protected]


“First Saturday” Volunteer Day at Red Hook Community Farm
Saturday April 1st, 10am – 4pm
Stop by the farm for our first community farm day of the season—we’ll be seeding, building beds, composting, and getting the farm prepared for a bountiful 2006!
…and join us for community volunteer days every first Saturday throughout the Spring!


Baum Forum on School Food: Innovation and Opportunity and Wellness.
Saturday, April 1st, 9:30 AM - 6:00 PM
Cosponsored by the Department of Continuing Education and Public Programs at The
Graduate Center (CUNY)
Highlights include Ian Marvy, speaking on a panel moderated by Anna Lappe of the Small Planet Fund (www.smallplanetfund.org)
More information, and forum schedule, available at http://www.baumforum.org/

Community Food Assessment 101, forum by the Public Health Association of NYC
At Lehman College, Bronx
The purpose of this forum is to advance the knowledge and understanding of participatory Community Food Assessments as a public health tool to the NYC public health, nutrition and related communities as well as community leadership across the 5 boroughs. This presentation will coincide with American Public Health Week.

For more information about Added Value’s March calendar, contact Caroline at [email protected]


INTERNSHIP & VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Opportunities for ongoing, regular volunteers…
if you have an area of specialty or an area of interest that you would like to put to work at Added Value, we are looking for:

* Weekday, early season help on the Farm! If you have free time during the week, and would like to help get the season started. (Contact Shanti, [email protected])

* Tech Support! If you are skilled with computers and technology, we need a hand getting our systems up to date, and setting up a batch of newly donated computers. (Contact Phil, [email protected])

* Digital Horizons production support! Photographers and techies, help facilitate teens shooting and saving photographs, writing and posting blog entries and web photo galleries. (Contact Phil, [email protected])

* Digital Horizons writing coaches! Writers and educators, work one-on-one with teens as they write and edit articles for publication in Digital Horizons newsletters. (Contact Phil, [email protected])

* Weekday Farm docents! Get familiar with the farm, and help host weekday one-time service-learning visits from school and youth groups. (Contact Caroline, [email protected])

Internship Opportunity: Farm Education Intern
Support ongoing farm-based educational programming for local elementary schools, on a weekly basis. Open to adults and students, click here for complete job description.