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GardenShare's Bimonthly Newsletter  |  June 2015
Volume 15 No. 3
North County Food Day Youth Summit Coming This Fall!
On Thursday, October 22, the the North Country Food Day Youth Summit returns to SUNY Potsdam. 


This day of information and inspiration about our food system and how to make it better is designed for high school students with their teachers and school food service personnel. In addition to learning, each school team will go home with an action plan to engage their whole school community in these issues. 
Local Food, Local Places

This past Tuesday and Wednesday the Village of Canton Trustees hosted the Local Food, Local Places conference. Canton was one of 26 towns chosen from an applicant pool of over 300 towns nationwide. The purpose of this conference was to bring together individuals who are passionate about the local food system in Canton and the North Country. Around 50 people participated ranging from local farmers, to representatives from the universities, organizations including North Country Grown Cooperative and Cornell Cooperative Extension, along with several government officials including Mayor Ashley and representatives from Senator Patty Ritchie's office and Assemblywoman Addie Russell's office. 

Consultants hired from Renaissance Planning Group led the workshop by asking what we loved about Canton and the local food system and where we saw room for improvement. A few voiced concerns included the lack of a food hub and processing plant and the lack of young farmers in the area. The last few hours of the workshop where spent brainstorming different action plans and discussing the appropriate time frame, costs, and feasibility. The Local Food, Local Places workshop is going to be followed by three conference calls which will take place over the summer to finalize the action plans. 
Annual Fundraising Dinner Results

GardenShare's annual fundraising dinner in early June was a great success with a record-setting 80 people in attendance and over $5,600 raised to support GardenShare's programs this summer.

Feedback from those who attended was positive...

"Please pass along to the GardenShare corps our appreciation for the unique and delicious dinner at Jake's. Each course was imaginative, nutritious and bountiful! A contender for one of the best meals we've ever eaten, and arguably the best meal we've eaten in northern NY!"
-- Kathy and Leo Curro

If you missed it this year, you won't want to miss next year!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this event possible - planning committee volunteers, sponsors, auction donors, and all of you who purchased tickets or sent in a donation. Special thanks to Jake's on the Water, for their commitment to local food and their support of this event.

Dinner Presenting Sponsors


          

Dinner Partnership Sponsors


                 


       

Dinner Friend Sponsor


Local Food Guide Available

GardenShare's 11th annual Local Food Guide has hit the streets, and it is a beaut! More than 50 local producers, processors and purveyors are included.
There's even a handy product index to help you find who sells what you're looking for.  If you haven't come across one yet, and would like one mailed to you, just email, and we'll send one right out.

There is also a handy online version as well, linked here.  

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Farmers Markets are Open!

The Farmers Markets in the area are now open for the season! Buying from farmers markets is a great way to have a healthy lifestyle while supporting the local farms. 

No Cash? No Problem! All markets now accept SNAP and Debit Cards (and sometimes credit cards) which can be exchanged for wooden tokens. Most farmers also accept FMNP, SFMNP, and WIC Vegetable and Fruit checks as well. Stop by your local market manager tent for more information! 

For a complete list of St. Lawrence County farmers' markets, their locations, dates, and hours, as well as information about what kinds of currency they accept, see GardenShare's Local Food Guide.
 

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Dairy Princess Parade!  

Congratulations to the great volunteers who put together GardenShare's float in the parade, and especially to the brave volunteers who marched in the fruit and vegetable costumes!  GardenShare won second place in the non-commercial division.  Hope you saw it and hope you had a chance to visit the GardenShare booth in the park! 

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Welcome to our Summer  Interns!


We are happy to  introduce our two new interns for this summer! 

Liz  Hills (on right) is with us full-time until the first week of August through the new SLU PIC (Public Interest Corps) program.  Liz is from Ohio, but her family has North Country roots and she often spent her summers with family in Ogdensburg.  She is an Environmental Studies-Sociology major.

Anna Kowanko (on left) is the   Environmental Studies department summer intern and will generally spend her mornings working in the garden on the property and her afternoons with GardenShare until the end of July.  Anna is from Upper Jay and is a North Country Augsbury Scholar at SLU. She also a combined Environmental Studies-Sociology major.

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