Exploring Alternatives: Can we live, learn and earn in our communities?

One of the questions we started looking at in exploring alternatives is whether we can live, learn and earn in our communities.

During our networking event at the Grandview Gardens I asked some questions about live, learn and earn as part of continuing to explore what sustainable community through kai might mean.

• What would it look like if I lived in a sustainable community? How would I eat? What would I eat?
• What would it look like if I was learning in a sustainable community? Who would be the teacher? What would I be learning?
• What would it look like if I earned in a sustainable community? What would I get paid for? How would I get paid? What would be valued?

As one participant sagely commented to me afterwards "As you asked those questions Faye all I could think about was national standards and whether knowing a students level on the national standard could possibly be part of living in a sustainable community". Gradually though over the hour or two that we spent in and around the garden I think a few more possibilities for sustainable communities emerged.

We did talk about what is valued in a sustainable community and got onto timebanks and how an hour in the garden might enable an hour of computer training, or dress making or reading tutoring, or whatever speciality skill you might be able to offer. Hamilton's timebank is up and running see http://hamilton.timebanks.org/.

Grandview Gardens end of term 1

Thanks Tim for sharing your experiences with 'allotment' gardening and how that is working at the Grandview Gardens. We looked at the gardens as an idea for our work in exploring alternatives. In allotment gardens you get your 'a-lotted' patch and garden away! 

It makes a lot of sense when trying to manage lots of people's busy calendars for there to be a communal space where individuals, families or small groups of friends can converge and be gardening at times and places that suit them. Having the communal space though allows people to interact and share ideas and learn from what they see each other doing.

 The communal 'shed'! Notices and expectations for being part of the Grandview Garden community are posted on the outside.

Some of the allotments - simple pegs and twine provide the 'fuzzy borders' for each allotment. Further up the hill on the left is the 'shed' and to the right the shade house. Both have rainwater tanks connected to them. 


The allotment spaces makes good use of the north facing slope that is gradually being converted into productive fruit and vegetable patches where previously willows and mostly a relative of mustard thrived.

Tim encouraged us to think about whether allotment gardens might work in our school grounds as possibilities for our communities to garden in a shared but individual way and make good use of space that might be on the fringes or edges of our schools. 

Finding inspiration

We are lucky to have some great examples of different food growing techiques around us in the Waikato inlcuding the Hamilton Gardens Productive Garden collection. I recently visited these gardens and have shared some photos from Te Parapara.

After the "Ted talk" about weeds I have also been reminded of building knowledge so that we can safely forage for food, on a trip to Pukemokemoke Bush with a group of students. And on the drive home I saw people collecting weeds from the side of the road. A different type of foraging is occuring beneath chestnut trees around the towns. Chestnuts are delicious and worth the odd spike in the thumb when removing the prickly outer layer.

Gathering stories and exploring alternatives

Sustainable Communities Through Kai Project – Gathering Stories

As proposed at our network gathering at the end of 2012 I am planning to visit some schools within the project between Wednesday 10^th April and Friday 12^th April.

Purpose:

1. To meet with some of the participating schools;


2. To learn more about the current situation and how you are "taking the next steps" with the Sustainable Communities through kai project.


3. To trial gathering ‘stories’ about the project to date.

If you would like a visit and could host us within the proposed timetable please contact either Robyn or myself.

We are hoping that everyone will be able to come to the Waikato Enviroschools networking event on Thursday afternoon at the Grandview community gardens. We will be looking at exploring alternatives which hopefully is the phase that you are moving into.

Exploring Alternatives

I always think that exploring alternatives and possibilities is great fun. You get to leave behind all the stereotypes and shackles of conventional thinking and live out the creativity of the green hat. You also get to oh and ah over what other groups are doing and become more analytical in your own practice and consider what holds us back?

At our first hui at the Hamilton Gardens we alighted upon the phrase live, learn and earn in our own community. This came from the Stephen Ritz and  Green Bronx Machine TEDx talk.

As you move towards exploring alternatives in the project perhaps you can keep this question to the fore:

What are the possibilities through our project to enable people to live, learn and earn in our community?

What might that look like?

Pick a scenario below and discuss with students or with colleagues:

How would people in these situations be living, learning and earning in their communities?

If you were part of this food community how would it influence how you eat and what you eat?

Sustainable Communities Through Kai

As part of a sustainable community - scenarios from exploring alternatives

·        Individual gardens that target some part of the food supply to share with others e.g. onions to share with someone else’s tomatoes, olives for walnuts, mandarins for feijoas etc. Extension of the swap table idea, but being strategic and planning with a group of people to meet a range of needs.

·        Sharing in a commercial kitchen to preserve harvest excess – someone donates time, someone the ingredients, someone the clean up, someone a monetary contribution for ingredients that can’t be grown. Then a big shared harvest festival meal to celebrate and take home the goodies!

·        Putting aside some part of the weekly food bill to contribute to someone’s wages to do the ‘gardening’ either in individual homes in a street or in a community space.

·        Community garden network where individuals contribute some part of the work flow to enable a regular food supply, excess might be sold to the local market to enable a paid Coordinator.

·        A cooperative orchard, nut grove, olive grove where participants pay into the development some up-keep and the distribution of money obtained from sales enables families to purchase food from the market.

·        A big potato patch in a shared space where the harvest is shared between participants and for older members of the community who aren’t able to do heavy gardening, or young families who are pressed for time.

·        Inform others - be part of establishing an internet network of where to find the good food locally see an example on http://www.localharvest.org/ and work with people in your community to create a community food map that enables people to access good food.

·        Allow plants to grow that would naturally grow rather than cultivating space. What could be easier and cheaper than harvesting what nature provides? Learn from our elders how these plants were once part of our diet and how we can cook and eat them. See this link to a talk about what we perceive as weeds are actually great sources of food! http://tedxmanhattan.org/2013-talks/ scroll down until you find Tama Matsuoka Wong she is a delightful food forager who speaks really well about connecting many Enviroschools concepts to the way that she lives with her family.

Add your own scenarios that you and your students are working on that we can learn from too.

Teaching & Learning Programme

Some thoughts for your teaching and learning programme as you get into the kai project

In previous research into how to support students to be action competent the following ideas were important – and they are prioritised

1.       From the outset and throughout teaching and learning keep the overall focus of taking action or doing something to make a difference as an outcome that is referred to regularly (i.e. at least 2-3 times a week).

2.       Experiences in and about the environment are crucial to enable students to understand concepts, ideas and develop new knowledge – only if though they are processed using a range of reflection strategies and foci including:

a.       What did we learn (knowledge, understandings and how to learn)?

b.      How did we respond (what’s going on with the heart or emotions?)

c.       How will it help us to take action?

3.       Experiences are vital in unlocking what are quite often abstract concepts and outcomes via a progression of ideas from concrete or tangible things in the environment. For example food miles is a pretty big idea. If students have experienced growing, harvesting, cooking and eating some part of a meal it gives them a greater understanding of the effort, energy and requirements to have an on-going source of food.

To sum up – at this early stage of exploration of our kaupapa with students content rich experiences in the environment that are processed through critical reflection (in the classroom and in the environment) are highly valuable in supporting students to become action competent.

Comments, questions welcome!!

Sustainable Community Through Kai Enthusiasts

Kia ora Sustainable Community Through Kai Enthusiasts

I guess as always the year has started with a hiss and roar for you all – hope that some of the joys of summer persist. I have spent countless hours in the garden, it’s all such a mixed bag. Lynda Hallinan one of the editors of the NZ Gardener magazine always has a top and flop crop for the month – well I can relate to that. Top crop – strawberries yet again, I know the Waikato does good strawberries but I seem to just keep on getting big beautiful tasty strawberries, what a dilemma! Flop crop – carrots! I can’t believe it my goal is to try and produce enough staples (spuds, onions, carrots) for us year round and this year I planted some fancy heritage carrots and they have been a disaster. My advice – stick to good old Manchester Table for a reliable and great producing carrot! Please feel free to comment on your top and flop crops!

Thank you so much once again for picking up the whero of this project and being so open to having your ideas and thinking challenged by us. Both your Enviroschools Facilitator and I are available to support you in whatever what we can. However, I would say my strengths are in connecting (dreaming up) key learning experiences for the contexts you are working with, with the wider view of supporting students to take action. Your facilitators – well hopefully you know their strengths by now but there is nothing like throwing a challenge their way also as part of this kaupapa.

Seriously, please do not hesitate to contact any of us in the project for support. Below is an updated timeline as a reminder of where we are at and where we need to get to in this project. Please add comments to the blog and we will continue to add content here and then email you to advise there is new stuff.

Ka kite Faye

Timeline	Project action		Where are we up to?
Sept 2012	Invitation to participate sent out to schools to read, discuss and pass on to teachers		COMPLETED Sent out
By Fri 28 Sept	Schools Register interest to be part of the project.		Great response from schools
Oct 15th-19th Week 1 term 4	Follow-up with schools and further information provided. Selection process and successful participants notified		11 Fantastic Schools YAY
2 Nov 2012	1-day hui to further explore the project, share and clarify thinking and set a planning process for teaching in learning in 2013 in place		COMPLETED Great day at the Botanic Gardens in Hamilton, thanks for your participation
Dec 2012	An afternoon sharing time with all project participants – what is the plan for 2013?		COMPLETED Fantastic afternoon, hosted by one of our research schools with the most amazing afternoon tea, ka rawe!
2013 Term 1 and 2	Undertake kai projects. Enviroschools facilitator working with classes using the Pūnaha Akoako /Action Learning Cycle and keeping a record of what happens		TO DO This is where we are at! Please be making the teaching and learning happen – with an action and learning project to have been undertaken by the end of term 2! Ka pai!
Term 2	One day hui to share experiences. Research data gathering surveys		TO DO This might be a visit from Faye and your facilitator during term 1 with a networking hui either at the end of term 2 of early in term 3 (depending on funding)
Term 3	Data collected		TO DO
Term 4	Final evaluation, sharing and celebration of learning and considering the findings		TO DO

Waikato Teacher Retreat at Solscape, Raglan

Some of the principals and teachers from our research group took the opportunity to learn alongside other Waikato Enviroschools people for 2 days looking at aspects of permaculture and ways to empower students through interactive workshops.

Participants of our recent Summer Retreat at Solscape explore the site gardens. These gardens were where much of our food for the 2 days was sourced from.

Phil from Solscape explained how every aspect of their operation considered the environment and how people interacted with it. They are still experimenting (including with mud bricks) and observing.

Liz and Rick's farm run on Permaculture principles  provided an excellent working example to hear about and learn from. Real food for thought.

People were intrigued to see different aspects of the system and later considered how their new knowledge might influence how they use spaces within their school and wider community.