10-2SG Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm
Grant Round:
2010 September
Grant Program:
Small Grants
Grant Type:
Other Grants
Grant amount requested:
1,420.00
Grant amount awarded:
$1,000.00
Attachments
Please provide a brief description of the project for which you seek funding.
The Fairfield Woods Library, as a branch of the Fairfield Library System, along with Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm, proposes implementing a model program to become a center for the acquisition, purveyance, and distribution of all types of plant seeds. We will establish our library as a place for people of all ages to research and actively study seed to plant cultivation and develop a historic perspective regarding the role of farming and gardening as a significant influence to our growth as a nation. This will be accomplished through teaching and learning, cataloguing, researching, collecting, and seed lending and exchanging. This program will be called Seed-to-Seed library. Fairfield Woods Library, for the past several years, has been offering sustainable living programs that we've titled "Live Today, For Tomorrow." The response from our patrons has been beyond our expectations. We were delighted to find that a program titled "Know Your Soil" would bring in over 45 people and that a Master Gardener talking about "Fall yard Clean-up" would be to a full house. Not only have we engaged our community with sustainable living topics we have found a very talented group of professionals who want to share their expertise. Our Seed-to-Seed library will begin in the spring with an initial seed "swap". The library will create an organizatonal system for filing and locating seeds in the collection and will designate a space for it that is open to the general public. Through the library's Facebook account as well as the Organic Teaching Farm's Facebook account, we will be able to keep a journal of our ongoing programs, workshops, and success stories. Throughout the spring months the library, using volunteers or "how-to" videos will offer orientations on using the system. We will create brochures explaining how the Seed-to-Seed Library is organized and how to save seeds. As part of our Seed-to-Seed library, we hope to produce "How to" videos on gardening and living organically as well as offering flip cameras "for checkout" so that people can record their own gardening success, which will be featured on the library's website. All of our volunteers will participate in at least one workshop so that they will have the knowledge and tools available to help patrons who respond to the program.
Project Summary
Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm received a grant in 2010 for project materials (seed cabinet, seeds) and presenter fees to allow the launch of a seed exchange project. Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm is a group of residents working to launch a community farm that will both provide a location to grow food as well as an opportunity to share skills and build community. The Fairfield Library has joined this effort by offering space for meetings and workshops and the next step is to launch a seed-exchange coupled with workshop and support for residents to grow their own produce.
Primary Issue Area:
Food
Please break-down/categorize the program expenses:
| Proposed Item | Estimated $ Amount | Would grant funds be used for this item? |
|---|---|---|
| Seed Cabinet | $300.00 | Yes |
| Paper | $250.00 | |
| Heirloom Seeds | $200.00 | Yes |
| Program Presenters | $400.00 | Yes |
| Garden Supplies | $150.00 | Yes |
| Binders | $30.00 | |
| Webmaster | $200.00 | Yes |
| 15 Volunteer T-shirts | $220.00 | Yes |
Whom does your group need to make this project happen?
Please explain how your group will engage members from your community in this project.
The library, a neighborhood gathering place, will offer both formal and informal workshops, learning opportunities and outreach to all of our citizens. As a neighborhood library we are within walking distance of an elementary school, middle school, church, synogogue, and shopping area. By working with local grassroots groups we will be able to offer teachable moments here at the library and through collaborations with our neighbors. A workshop on square foot gardening could be offered at a schools parking lot with a visit to the library afterwards, to choose their seeds. Fairfield Woods Middle School, the middle school next door to the library, already has planted a vegetable garden, in their courtyard. Volunteers had been going there throughout the summer to water it and maintain it until school began again. Working with the library, these same volunteers will have the opportunity to instruct the students in seed saving and storing these seeds at our Seed-to-Seed library until the new growing season begins. We presently have a small square foot garden, outside of our children's department. A local boy scout troop donated the wood, soil, and vegetable seeds for it. The library offered a program, for children, on planting the garden, and throughout the summer season children had the opportunity to "pick" some vegetables to bring home to share. Planting, growing, and harvesting food will continue to be a part of our children's programming. The library will also have a space dedicated to the Seed-toSeed library. We will acquire the necessary furniture, which will store the seeds, as well as books and magazines for the public to check out. Orientations will occur several times a week so that our library uers/gardeners can understand how to select the seeds to use and replace with seeds they have grown. We will also have "how-to" videos that people will be able to view while in the library.
If your group receives a NEGEF Grow grant, how do you plan to pay for remaining expenses?
| $ Amount | Source |
|---|---|
| $1,420.00 | NEGEF grants |
Please list these materials or services
| $ Amount | Item |
|---|---|
| $1,280.00 | Fairfield Public Library |
| $960.00 | Volunteers (64hr*$15/hr) |
| $100.00 | Fairfield Organic Farm |
Please describe what changes will occur in your community and its environment when your group's project is successful.
Our primary focus in undertaking the Seed-to-Seed Library is to provide our local citizens with a means to interact with a variety of information formats and become adept at backyard gardening and sustainable living. As our community of gardeners becomes more greenway friendly, knowledgeable of organic methodology, and possessing an understanding of seed to plant and back to seed cycles, users will move beyond the typical garden-shop variety of gardening and enter the world of back-to-nature, farm-like collectives. Through basic principles, knowledge development, and real application of skills, highly visible and tangible results will occur. This empowers our citizenry, as primary producers and consumers of locally grown produce, to serve as messengers and teachers, and through grass-roots gardening science, aid in the reduction of our Town's collective carbon footprint. As a community place, our library possesses the capacity to serve as a common ground for the collaborative sharing of ideas and discovery.
Please list how many people in your community your group expects to actively engage in this project.
14
What relevant skills does the group need (but does not currently have access to) to help move the initiative forward?
We are confident that we will be able to lay the ground work for our Seed-to-Seed Library to become a successful endeavor.
What relevant skills do current members of the group have to help move the initiative forward?
As part of our core group of volunteers we have Master gardeners, organic farmers, chefs, and people interested in our local footprint. We will be able to offer gardening classes, nutrition and cooking with your garden harvest . Public librarians will review gardening books that would be helpful to have and order for our collection. Librarians are a wonderful resource helping people connect with the library's databases, which could include searches on gardens, insects, soil, organic foods and recycling.