MC School Garden Debate Continues in Washington Post
For those of you who missed it, Jane Black wrote on the school garden controversy in Montgomery County in her March 17 "All We Can Eat" column. You can read it here.
This week, on Tuesday March 23, a great letter to the editor appeared in response:
"Getting Schooled on Gardening"
Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast gets an "F" in Gardening 101. An item in the March 17 Food section "All We Can Eat" quoted him as saying that one reason he opposes school gardens is that the prime harvest takes place during the summer, when school is out.
Please tell Mr. Weast that there are plenty of "cool weather" crops that are harvested in the spring and fall - leafy greens, salad greens, herbs, carrots and radishes, to name a few. And for him to state that gardening is extremely labor-intensive is a joke considering our record levels of child obesity. - Pamela Oerth Kolesnik, Alexandria
Ah yes, another person making sense on the issue of school gardens! When will this sanity catch up with Superintendent Weast? Stay tuned as we turn up the pressure in the weeks to come.
Oh, and how popular are school veggie gardens everywhere else in the country? Click here to see the new "Yes to Carrots Garden Challenge," just one of hundreds of similar initiatives. In this one, one lucky school will win a brand new garden - wouldn't it be nice if schools in Montgomery County could apply?
Mishnah Garden Opens at Adat Shalom in Bethesda
One of the members of MVG's new Congregational Community Garden Network, Adat Shalom Temple in Bethesda, officially opened its new Mishnah Garden on the first day of spring this past Saturday.
It was a joyous event on a truly beautiful day, attended by dozens of congregation members. (Pictured from left to right are Garden Co-Coordinator Alissa Stern, Rabbi Fred Sherlinder Dobb, yours truly, and Garden Co-Coordinator Fred Pinkney.) This past Saturday also happened to be Global Hunger Shabbat, all the more appropriate since the produce grown in the Mishnah Garden will be contributed to Manna Food Pantry. (Kim Damion of Manna also spoke at the event.)
And after the speaking was done, the planting commenced! Raised beds were in
place, and the children of the congregation proceeded to plant sugar snap peas and onions. A plethora of vegetables and herbs are planned to follow, as well as a canning day and a possible joint project with Groundworks USA to start gardens along the Anacostia River. There is not end to the possibilities once you start growing food!
To read Fred Pinkney's post on the Mishnah Garden opening, click here. To join the Congregational Community Garden Network, email us at info@montgomeryvictorygardens.org
Piney Branch Young Activist Club Confronts MCPS Board of Ed
For those of you who weren't able to make it to this past Tuesday's presentation, "Resolving the Food Fight," you missed one of the most wonderful examples of youth activism this author has seen in many years.
At issue is the continued use of polystyrene lunch trays in our county's public schools. To be clear, polystyrene is a non neurotoxin, and might have other possible adverse effects as well. And not only do our school children eat their lunch off these toxic trays, but the trays are then disposed after one use and incinerated up county - at the rate of 55,000 a day - putting God know's what into our air. The Young Activists at Piney Branch have done all the work to bring a dishwasher and reusable trays into their school, including raising over $10,000 to pay for the project, but the County School Board of Education continues to inexplicably (and shamefully) block this project.
For a great short news report video on the meeting and the ongoing battle, click here.
While this is not a local food issue per se, it is clearly related to what our kids eat 
and how. And like the school garden issue, it calls into serious question the leadership of the county school system, and their commitment to the health, welfare and empowerment of our kids.
At the end of the meeting, one Piney Branch student read a letter in which he called for a boycott of the school lunches, both because of the trays and because they do not serve any vegetarian option. As they noted at the end of the news report, these kids are not about to give up anytime soon! Go Young Activist Club!
For more information on the Young Activist Club, click here.
Vegetable Seed Starting - A How to Video
March and April are great months to be starting seeds indoors. While not strictly necessary for a productive garden, starting seeds indoors allows you to grow a 
wider variety of vegetables than you will find as seedlings in local stores and farmers markets, and you can start them earlier so as to have an earlier harvest and/or a longer one. And finally, there is nothing like watching the miracle of life burst out in your own home.
Just in time, resident veggie gardening expert Charlie Nardozzi at the National Gardening Association has put together this excellent how-to video on starting vegetable seeds indoors - check it out here.
Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" Starts on ABC Tonight!
If you have managed to miss the promotional blitz so far, Jamie Oliver is a high energy British chef, star of the TV series "The Naked Chef," and credited with helping to transform the British school lunch system.
Now he's bringing his high voltage presentation and drive to America with his show "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," airing tonight on ABC at 8pm. In the first episode, Jamie brings his revolution to Huntington, West Virginia, recently named the unhealthiest city in America.
Jamie is not everyone's cup of tea, both because of the made-for-TV, kinda reality show quality of the program, and for the fact that he (so far, at least) is giving no credit to the millions of people in this country who started this new food revolution long before he gothere.
That being said, it's great that network TV is airing a series about just how crappy our national diet is, and aiming it at an audience that might not already be at the farmer's market. So if you're around the TV tonight, check out "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" on ABC at 8pm.
And for a quick video trailer for "Food Revolution," click here.
Sen. Leahy Introduces "Farm to School" in Senate - Let's Get Senators Cardin and Mikulski on Board!
Last week Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the "Growing Farm to School Programs Act of 2010" (S. 3123), legislation which provides $50 million in mandatory funding for a competitive grants program for Farm to School as part of the Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization. It's a small enough start to bring fresh, local farm food to our schools, but it's an important one - and gaining additional co-sponsors for this bill is critical to ensuring that it is included in the Child Nutrition Act when the Senate Agriculture Committee votes on it in a few days, and when the full Senate takes the Child Nutrition Act up for consideration.
For a fact sheet on Sen. Leahy's bill, click here.
Please call Senator Cardin and Mikulski's offices on Monday (put it on your calendar now!) and urge them to co-sponsor this important piece of legislation. It's easy - simply call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, provide your their name and you will be directly connected to their office. Once connected ask to speak to the aide that works on child nutrition and give them the following message:
"I am a constituent of ________ and I am calling to urge him/her to co-sponsor Senator Leahy's "Growing Farm to School Programs Act" (S. 3123) which will provide $50 million in mandatory funding for the Farm to School Programs as part of the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization. This is critical for getting healthy food back in our schools. Thank you."
And let us know what they say - we need to be able to bring our Senators on board!
Bill McKibben on "Eating Our Way to a Sustainable Future"
Did you know that there are more prisoners than farmers in the United States?
A hundred years ago about 50% of the population worked on farms - now it's less than 1%. While this is considered "progress" by some, it has led to a disastrous system where we are destroying the land (and water, and air) with industrial agriculture, and destroying ourselves with the terrible diet this form of agriculture produces.
This will change, because industrial agriculture is unsustainable - meaning, literally,
that it cannot be sustained. Fortunately, it is changing already, as hundreds of new farmers markets and CSA's and millions of new gardeners (and hundreds of MVG supporters!) are proving every day. Local food lies at the center of a sustainable way of living. In this short video (hey, why not another video!), famed environmental author Bill McKibben speaks about the importance of local economies and his own experience eating food solely from the Champlain Valley in Vermont. Eating local not only fights climate change but also reconnects people to their communities and their land.
Click here to watch "Eating Our Way to a Sustainable Future"
That's it for this week, friends! Don't forget to send us your feedback, as well as ideas for stories or local food events we can promote, by emailing us at info@montgomeryvictorygardens.org.
Yours for sustainable local eating in 2010,Gordon Clark,
Project Director
Montgomery Victory Gardens 
