April at Added Value

Spring has arrived in Red Hook, and we're harvesting spinach out on the Farm. Join us this Saturday, April 1st to kickoff the 2006 season with our first "first Saturday" community volunteer day! Check out our Added Value April Calendar below for more information & events.

Over the past month, we've been getting ready for Spring. We hosted Will Allen from Growing Power (Milwaukee, WI) for an incredible weekend of compost and urban farming workshops. For these workshops we were joined by two wonderful, diverse groups of folks who braved the very cold March days... bringing energy, warmth, and their unrivaled enthusiasm for worms! The same weekend, Senior Youth Leaders Tevon McNair and Denia Cuello presented an outstanding two-part workshop on Building Strong Youth-Adult Partnerships at the Green Thumb GrowTogether community gardening conference. We've been learning, sharing skills, and preparing for a new season.
See PHOTOS of our adventures:
GreenThumb
Will's workshops

As the season gets growing, we have a variety of volunteer opportunities both on and off the farm... and are seeking a summer intern, as well. Check them out below!

Added Value April Calendar

Saturday April 1st * 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
“First Saturday” Volunteer Day at the Red Hook Community Farm
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!

Saturday April 1st * 9:30 am- 6:00 pm
Baum Forum on School Food: Innovation and Opportunity and Wellness
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/

Tuesday April 4th * 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Community Food Assessments: A Tool for a Healthy Future
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 visit: http://www.phanyc.org/events/

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

Added Value Volunteer & Internship 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: Added Value Summer Program Intern
We are seeking an intern to join Added Value staff and Senior Youth Leaders in facilitating our Summer Youth Program, in which Brooklyn teens are employed to grow food from seed to sale, and are introduced to urban agriculture and the intersections of food, health, and social justice. The Internship is an 8-week commitment, from June 28th through August 23rd, 2006. We will gladly help students receive school credit for this position. For more information, please contact Caroline at [email protected].