Announcing the 2016 Growing Community Award
2016 Growing Community Award
GardenShare is pleased to announce Local Living Venture as the recipient of the 2016 Growing Community Award.  Each year, GardenShare recognizes an individual or organization whose efforts strengthen the food system and/or increase food security in northern New York State.  Past recipients have included farmers, food service staff, a food bank, community groups, and others.  The award will be presented at a reception at TAUNY in Canton on January 28, 2017.
 
Local Living Venture is a non-profit responsible for spreading knowledge throughout the community regarding affordable and sustainable solutions that local people can implement in their daily lives. They are especially concerned with local food, clean energy, northern forest, green building, simple living and homesteading skills. Through hands-on, learning workshops LLV implements healthy and low-cost living styles for community members as well as strengthening local community ties.

Read more here and plan to join us.



GardenShare Growing Community Social
Saturday, January 28, 2017
2:00 PM
TAUNY, 53 Main Street, Canton
Volunteer Opportunities!

GardenShare received a Volunteer Generation Grant from the State of New York.  The grant is a partnership project with the Canton and Potsdam Farmers Markets, Campus Kitchens, Church and Community Program, and the Free Will Dinner at the Canton United Methodist Church and has a goal of bringing more volunteers into anti-hunger work.

The two dinners rely heavily on college students to support their efforts.  So, one of the challenges these programs have is the lack of volunteers when the college students are on break.

With the upcoming end-of-semester holiday break, we're looking for people who are willing to come in and help serve once or even more often.  Children are welcome, as long as they are accompanied by an adult.  Here are the details and the links to sign up.

Campus Kitchens - meal is served on Monday evenings at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Canton.  V olunteers are needed for a variety of shifts  1:00 to 8:00   on December 19 and 26 and January 2 and 9 .   If you can help, a sign-up sheet can be found here.  Questions can be directed to Ashlee Downing at  315-229-5135 .

Free Will Dinner - meal is served on Wednesday evenings at the United Methodist Church in Canton and volunteers are needed from 4:00 to 6:00 to serve drinks, bus tables, and interact with guests.  Maximum number for any one day is six volunteers.  Volunteers are needed December 7, 14 and 21 and also January 4, 11, 18, and 25.  If you can help any of these days, please go here to sign up.  
New faces at GardenShare

Rhonda Rodriguez recently joined GardenShare as our part-time Volunteer Coordinator.  In  this rol e, she will be working to recruit volunteers and promoting farmers markets across the County, and also recruiting volunteers for other anti-hunger work in the Canton area.  Read more about Rhonda here .

Brianna Blackburn joined GardenShare through the Americorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program.  She will be at GardenShare full-time for one year and will be working on farmers market promotion, volunteer development, and public education around hunger issues. Read more about Brianna here.

We are also pleased to welcome Philip Paige to the GardenShare Board of Directors effective next month.  Philip is a Madrid native and was recently appointed to the position of Assistant St. Lawrence County Administrator.  He'll be serving on GardenShare's finance committee.

While their time is nearly up as the semester draws to a close, we also wanted to highlight our student interns this fall:

Julia Callahan will be graduating from SLU in December and worked at the Canton Farmers Market during her internship.

 

John Thomas Caulfield, a SLU senior, has been working on analyzing data from this year's farmers market season.

 

Camille Duquet, a SLU senior, helped us update the Hunger 101 program by adding a farmers market component to it.

 

Jamie Oriol, a SLU senior, has been working on developing food systems education materials geared to middle and high school students.

 

Are you interested in internship, committee, or other volunteer opportunities?  Please get in touch.
News in brief

Save the date - Cabin Fever Trivia Night will be held on Saturday, March 4, at the Potsdam Elks Club and will raise money to support GardenShare.  Get your team of four together and start brushing up on your North Country trivia!  Would you like to help with the planning committee for this event?  Work is just starting, so let us know!

GardenShare Executive Director Gloria McAdam was recently named to the New York State Council on Hunger and Food Policy, and attended the Council's first meeting earlier this fall.

A big thank you to our friends at Nature's Storehouse for their successful pre-Thanksgiving fundraiser!  Customers at the store donated a total of $503 to support GardenShare's work.

While we urge you to shop locally this holiday season, if you do need to shop online, remember that by using Amazon Smile, you can designate a portion of your purchase to GardenShare. 

Working with our partners, GardenShare will be helping to organize a food drive and packing event    in honor of Martin Luther King Day. Watch for more details and s ave the date - January 18, 2017 - for a gospel concert at SLU to culminate the effort.

Help GardenShare make note of our 20th anniversary of service to the community by  making a donation here.
GardenShare | 315-261-8054 | www.gardenshare.org
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