MEDIA ALERT: Plant the Pavement! Urban Ag Community Workshop May 3-4

Building just and sustainable models of food production for a healthy and hunger-free community

WHAT: Plant the Pavement!  A two-day weekend workshop taught by MacArthur Genius Will Allen and other educators from Growing Power and Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. Sessions include mushroom production, year-round production of microgreens, compost/vermiculture, aquaponics, and hoop house construction. 

WHEN: May 3 & 4, 2014. Sessions run 8:30am-5:30pm both Saturday and Sunday [A workshop for students and educators at Longview School will take place on Friday, May 2.]

WHERE: Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Urban Farm at the Hoke Street Training Center, 500 Hoke St. in Southeast Raleigh. 

WHO: Open to anyone who is interested in learning more about the sustainable production of healthy food, whether on a home, business, or a community scale. No previous experience with agriculture is necessary. 

WHY:  The knowledge of how to grow food is an important step toward developing a locally-owned Community Food System that builds self-sufficiency and community power. The more we understand about growing and preparing food, the healthier we are, and the more control we have over our food sources—making healthy food accessible for all.   

INTERVIEWS & PHOTO OPS

Interviews with Will Allen are available on-site prior to workshop on Thursday May 1st, as well as during the workshop May 3rd and 4th. Contact Cindy Sink , 919-413-1470 or Cindy@FoodShuttle.org.

“A typical farmer will tell you how many acres he has. I think of productivity per square foot. We earn $5 per square foot in our hoop houses. How many farmers do you think can say that?” - Will Allen, November 10th, 2012, Raleigh, NC

“People are tired of buying and eating food made 6,000 miles away and shipped across the country. Farming is changing and a new revolution of doing more with less is on its way. Will Allen has worked very hard to figure out his way of doing things — and has created his own food ecosystem — one we can learn from, and perhaps replicate here." -Neesha Mirchandani, marketing consultant and Plant the Pavement participant.

About Inter-Faith Food Shuttle   www.FoodShuttle.org

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is a hunger-relief organization employing multiple strategies to end hunger including nutrition education, workforce development, and agricultural training. In late 2011, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and Longview School partnered to become the newest Regional Outreach Training Center (ROTC) for Growing Power, an internationally recognized urban agriculture organization started by MacArthur Genius Award winner Will Allen.  In 2012, IFFS held its first annual Plant the Pavement! workshop series. Read more about last year's event here.

Pavement: Planted!

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle has officially kicked off our “Plant The Pavement!” workshop series, with both youth and community events running November 8 and 9th at Longview School and our new Hoke Street Training Center in Raleigh Nov. 10-11^th. Along with Longview School, we are a Regional Outreach Training Center (ROTC) for Growing Power. As an ROTC, we a host series of urban agriculture workshops for youth, established farmers, and community members, bringing Growing Power’s innovative model of food production and community empowerment to North Carolina.

On Thursday and Friday at Longview School, students from schools across the region came to learn about intensive agriculture techniques in a very hands-on way from experts including Will Allen, the Growing Power staff, and Inter-Faith Food Shuttle staff members.

Participants learned about aquaponics systems to grow vegetables and fish simultaneously, how to build a hoop house for season extension growing year-round, how to grow high-profit micro-greens, and how to compost. They also had some powerful and insightful discussions in break-out sessions on food justice.

Check out this inspiring photo project from the workshop days at Longview, created by Tes Thraves, Youth and Community-Based Food Systems Coordinator of the NC Center for Environmental Farming Systems:

At Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s new Hoke Street Training Center, community members came from all over for a two-day workshop on these topics. Participants asked questions, dug into the material and the soil, met other people as passionate as they (and we) are about creating a better food system, and walked away with greater knowledge and more skills to change it!

Thanks to all who came to support and participate in our first Plant the Pavement workshops! Look for more to come!