March Break Children’s Program

March Break Garden Program

 

Greenest City Calendar 2009 (now with sample pictures!)

Back by popular demand: the fabulous Greenest City Calendar!

Due to the tremendous popularity of our first calendar last winter, we will be publishing a new one for 2009.

Featuring gorgeous pictures of HOPE garden, people young and older, field trips and potlucks from this year, and beautiful images of plants too. The design is uncluttered and colourful.

This is the gift that gives several times:

All funds will go towards making HOPE garden programs more inclusive next year.

AND…

In Greenest City fashion, the calendar is of highest eco-standards: printed on enviro-stock paper with vegetable-based ink and a “waterless” printing process.

We will have the calendars ready by mid November, but please pre-order now! The calendars are $ 15 each.

Enjoy the beauty of the gardens and community, every page, every day! This calendar will be the perfect gift to your friends and family for this year’s holiday season.

Thank you!

P.S. If you haven’t seen last year’s calendar, view it here!

This year’s promises to be even more beautiful.

 

Putting the Garden to Bed… this Sunday 12 noon – 5pm

It’s that time of the year again. The air is crisp, the elections are over, hockey season is well underway, and in a quiet pocket in the neighbourhood of Parkdale, a community garden is being put to bed before the onset of winter.

What: HOPE Garden Cleanup

When: Sunday, Oct 26. 12 noon – 5 pm

Where: HOPE Garden, 220 Cowan Ave.

So please join us if you are in the area. We’ll share our favourite memories from the garden, meet old friends, and also hot delectable soup.

It’s for the comfort of fall. It’s falling leaves, soft cardigans, and getting ready to prepare for another stronger and more beautiful season of gardening next spring.

 

Food, Earth & Culture Festival! – Sunday, Sept. 28

What: Food, Earth & Culture Festival
When: Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008. 12 noon – 5 pm
Where: HOPE Garden, Masaryk Park, 220 Cowan Ave. [map]

Featuring acclaimed children’s musician Chris McKhool, and a host of other talents. And best of all – everything is FREE!

There will be:
Food! Sample free food from our delectable Local Food Café… and enjoy an afternoon corn roast and local apples. Local Food Café opens from 12:00-1:30.
Music! Featuring accomplished performer Chris McKhool, who at 1pm will delight with his children’s music for the green-at-heart; also featuring African drummers, Tibetan folk music, storytelling and harpist, and more.
Eco-activities! Arts and crafts, free bike check-ups and garden scavenger adventures.
Fall Fun Fair! 3-legged races, bobbing for apples, hay-bale toss and more! With prizes for the fastest, strongest & silliest!
Press Conference! Join Greenest City, Organic Gardening Magazine and local dignitaries to officially open our NEW rainwater harvesting system at 12:30 pm.

For more information contact: Gelek 416-922-7626.

And don’t miss out on the satisfaction of volunteering to make it a great day! Please let us know if you could help with one of these important teams:

1) Food preparation [9:30 am – 11:30 am]: 2 hours of chopping help.
2) Set-up team [9 am – 12 noon]: this team is important.
3) Dish Washing Station [11:45 – 2:00 pm]: help keep the dishwashing station stocked and moving well.
4) Corn Roast [1:30 – 4 pm]: be a fire keeper, husker and all-around corn-y king.
5) Food Servers [11:45 am – 1:30 pm]: have the pleasure of serving local organic food to guests.
6) Clean-up [4:30pm – 6:30pm]: the all-star “many hands make light work” team.
7) Runners [12- 2pm and 2-4pm]: fetch things that we need during the day.

Volunteer letters and hours will be provided. Just email us and say what team you would like to be a part of.

So come on over and have yourself a good time with the folks from Parkdale & HOPE Community garden.

[Our thanks to the city of Toronto and Parkdale BIA for their support in making this event possible.]

 

Organic Apple Picking Trip [Sat, Sept 20]: Space Available, Register NOW!

 

Job Opening – Project Manager, Full-time (one-year contract)

Position: Project Manager, From the Ground UP
(full-time, 1-year contract, with possibility of extension)
Organization: Greenest City, www.greenestcity.net
Application deadline: September 15, 2008, Start date: September 24, 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada

Greenest City’s project, From the Ground UP, is an initiative centred around urban food production and education with marginalized communities in Parkdale, and employs youth as garden animators and environmental leaders. This position will lead the ongoing refinement of and securing of funds for the project, and oversee all aspects of project implementation for 2009. Reports to Greenest City’s Director of Projects.
For more information on the project, see the website and HOPE Garden blog (http://hopecommunitygarden.wordpress.com).

Responsibilities:
• Project implementation
• Secure funds for From the Ground UP project
• Recruit, hire and supervise staff
• Involve and empower volunteers
• Facilitate community capacity-building with the steering committee of the HOPE Community Garden (element of From the Ground UP project)
• Ensure community outreach is undertaken to attract community members to the above programming
• Develop and maintain relationships with core program partners
• Establish and monitor program budgets
• Fulfill donor and funder reporting requirements
• Refinement and evaluation of existing projects (ongoing)
• Development and implementation of new programming
• Help develop organizational policies and systems
• Update website and other communications materials
• Participate in the strategic planning for the organization as required
• Participate in Board of Director’s Meetings as required

You are/have:
• At least 3 years of previous project management experience, with the ability to drive projects from conception through to completion
• Experience in the design of local food and environment projects
• At least 2 examples of well-written grant proposals that you took the lead on, with other fundraising experience considered a strong asset
• Highly motivated, resourceful and passionate – demonstrated commitment to issues of environmental, social and economic justice
• Demonstrated ability to work within a diverse community (people of different ages, abilities and cultural backgrounds)
• A positive and kind way with community volunteers and partners
• Self-starter that can work with minimal supervision when needed
• Excellent facilitation and community development skills
• Previous experience managing staff
• Superior written communication skills
• Ability to speak a language relevant to the South Parkdale neighbourhood
considered a strong asset

Salary: approximately $40,000
Hours: 35 hours/wk
Start date: September 24/08

Please submit your cover letter and résumé by September 15th at 5:00 p.m. to:
shannon[at]greenestcity[dot]ca

We will not accept late résumés.

Greenest City is committed to Employment Equity and encourages applicants from equity seeking groups. We regret that only those applicants being considered will be contacted.

 

Seedsaving Workshop – Tuesday, Sept 2

 

Upcoming Workshop: Native Plants & Perennials – Aug 12

If you were ever interested in the native flora of Ontario, please come and attend our workshop on “Native Plants & Perennials“.

The workshop will be led by Bennet Deakin, and will cover all the important aspects of designing an ecological garden brimming with locally thriving flowers and vegetables.

When: Tuesday, August 12.

Starting at 6 pm till 8 pm.

Please contact us: garden[at]greenestcity.ca or call us at 647-438-0038 for any questions.

 

Rejuvenating Space

One of the goals and driving forces behind what we do in Greenest City is rejuvenating the local space around us and adding to it a dollop of vitality that engages the community.

Through our work with HOPE Garden in Masaryk Park, our first major initiative in Parkdale, and the subsequent murals and activities, our hopes were to help in infusing a variety of colours into the personality of the neighbourhood; and not just art for the sake of beauty, but more like beauty in the art of meaningful transformation.

Of course, this metamorphosis is multifaceted, and has layers upon layers of culture, background and significance to put into context. You have to be present to fully appreciate the full-extent of how a neighbourhood comes to be.

But if you can’t, for now at least, you’ll have to make do with pictures. And although they’ll never do justice to the depth of the transformation, or compare to smiling and talking with a community member, it does provide an aspect of Parkdale that is organic and oozing with colours.

 

Strawberry Picking – A Note of Gratitude

Coming to work at Greenest City everyday is a privilege, a realization which sometimes tends to get shuffled around the numerous organizing and planning that we do in the office. It’s a fact for any organization that initiates community-wide programs: you have budgets to deal with, logistics to keep up with, databases to record, so on and on…

But there are those times, of course, when we step back and just soak in the lightness of the work we do.

It’s hard to describe it, but it is there, somewhere — it makes you crack a wide smile and feel fortunate about where you are. It is the when, what and how all coming together in an open and radiating set of palms side by side.

It’s hard to say, so we’ll let a letter from a member of our community garden convey the fullness of our appreciation:

Hi everyone,

Thanks a lot for organizing and taking my family to the strawberry farm. Everyone really enjoyed it.

First of all, after a rainy and a tenderly night, the weather was nice (cloudy and sunny). Another beautiful thing was going out of the city where green hills, blue and wide sky, beautiful fields and farmhouses were our view out of the bus windows…everyone could easily go to the field and pick the strawberries (even Sarah who is two and a half years old). We all enjoyed tasting and picking the fresh and sweet strawberries. Little Sarah enjoyed riding on the tractor.

I myself enjoyed picking and tasting the strawberries on the field; it reminded me of my childhood where my father was planting some rows of strawberry in his fruit garden.

The other important thing that I cannot help mentioning is Carolyn’s treatment to the group. She was very kind and helpful; and she showed it by smiling, dealing, talking and taking pictures of everyone in the group.

More than picking strawberries, we learned a lot from the trip and enjoyed it. Thanks a lot, once more, Greenest City.

The email was sent after a strawberry farm trip we did on Saturday, June 28. The writer is a mother of three and an immigrant from Afghanistan. Her family has a plot in the HOPE Community garden.

We’d like to thank our wonderful members for allowing us this opportunity to create memories like these.

Lots more to come this summer.