>> From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. [ Silence ] >> Thank you for coming. My name's Jennifer Harbster. I'm a Reference and Research Specialist here at the Library of Congress with the Science, Technology and Business Division. I'd like to welcome you to today's program, How Community Gardens can save America. It is my great pleasure to introduce today's speaker, LaManda Joy. LaManda is no stranger to the Library of Congress. In 2010, she visited the Library of Science and Business Reading Room to conduct research on World War 2 Victory Gardens. She then returned in 2011 and presented her research in the program Chicago Victory Gardens Today, Yesterday and Today. And if you're interested you can watch those recordings on the Library's website or the YouTube channel. So, LaManda wants to inspire everyone she meets to grow their own food. She is an author, a national speaker, award winning master gardener and considered the best urban farmer in Chicago. Inspired by the mass of World War 2 Victory Garden Movement, she founded Chicago's Peterson Garden Project in 2010. She has served on the board of the American Community Gardening Association. She speaks at national conferences, garden shows, festivals, libraries and has appeared on PBS and other media outlets. And she was also featured in the documentary "Food Patriots." She collaborated on a 2013 book called "Fearless Food Gardening" in Chicagoland, a month by month guide for beginners. And she recently published with Timber Press, "Start a Community Food Garden, The Essential Handbook." And copies of the handbook are available for purchase outside the room. And afterwards, LaManda can sign copies. Like I said, we are so happy to have LaManda return to the Library to discuss her new book, but also to share a message that she believes to be critical for the American cities, suburbs, rural areas. And that message is how community gardens can save America. The Peterson Garden Project was an experiment to see if people wanted to get together in a community and learn to grow food. And this project has developed into so much more. It's an award winning education and community gardening program that teaches thousands of people in Chicago how to grow their own food. The Peterson Garden Project also operates a community cooking school to teach people how to cook the food they've grown. And her rallying cry is "we can grow it." It recognizes the influence of the past, while invigorating the American can do spirit, to create a positive future. And so, without further a do, please join me in welcoming back to the Library of Congress, LaManda Joy. [ Applause ] >> Well, thank you Jennifer for that great introduction. So, it's exciting to be here again. This time was a little different. I have to confess that once I learned that I was part of this lecture series, I found out that the lecture before me was on chemical weapons and the lecture after me was on Ebola. So, I felt like I was sort of in a calamity sandwich, you know. So, I had to have some gravitas for my presentation. So, therefore, I went full patriotic. And then I thought better, that's not really-- not that I'm not patriotic, but that's not really my style. So, I'm going to tone it down a notch and just be about how community gardens can save America. So, I would like to talk about a brief history of urban agriculture in the U.S. You know, urban agriculture is a hot term right now, but really it's something that has been around for a very long time. You know, starting with pre War World 2, before we had transportation lines and refrigeration, most agriculture for cities was around or in cities. And then we moved to the early 1900's, where city planners because of the industrial revolution, city planners were building community gardens and gardening spaces in parks, so urban kids would know where their food comes from. Sounds familiar, right? It's something that we're still working with today. And then we had the World War 1 Garden Movement, which was inspiration for the World War 2 Garden Movement. And we had depression gardens, where people were taught how to grow food to alleviate hunger. And then of course, we had the very successful World War 2 Victory Garden Movement. After World War 2, the Victory Gardens didn't go away, they became Freedom Gardens because the world was starving basically. And there's this fear of communism, essentially. So, these Freedom Gardens sometimes had slogans like "Food Fights the Red Menace." Right? Yay food. And then as the troops, the you know, our troops run 50 battle fields across the world. As they start coming back and the American, you know, boom started happening, they were called Thrift Gardens because inflation was happening and people, you know, had to combat that. So, the Victory Gardens just didn't die out. They just had new names. And then in the 1960's and 70's, we had the Back-to-the-Land Movement, where people were upset about commercialism and how the American dream was changing and protesting Vietnam. And in the 80's, 80's and 90's, we had this sort of Slum Busting Movement, where you know, the cities had made sort of disenfranchise as everybody moved to the suburbs. And people were using community gardens to make their cities a better place. And then we have today. And today is a combination of a lot of those things. A lot of the things that we've seen in the past are present in the current urban Ag movement. So, I said urban Ag, but what I really want to clarify is what I'm talking about today. A lot of things get lumped together in this urban Ag idea. So, you have community gardens, school gardens and urban farms. So, starting with urban farms, I'm going to just give you my definition of how all these things are exactly the same, but different. Urban farms generally are a few people providing for many. There's usually a job training component or a job creation component. There's a financial model. We're growing something, we're selling to somebody. It's great. It's part of the local food system. It's a very important thing. School gardens generally are built from a curriculum perspective. They're meant for the kids to learn something, biology, where food comes from etcetera. They're not necessarily involving the community, although they do involve communities of parents and school community. And then we have community gardens. Now, community gardens are an environment where people are together. There's generally no economic benefit to it. People are either using it for their own use or they're growing it for other people. But there's no financial incentive. If I had a dollar for every time someone asks me where we sold our produce from our community garden then I could retire because these terms are very confusion for people. But I want just to be clear that what I'm talking primarily today is community gardens. Before I get too far down the path, I would like to tell you why you should listen to me on this topic. First off, I have Greatest Generation parents. This is my parents. They moved to Oregon after World War 2, in 1946. That garden you see behind them was my great grandfather's garden. Just a few years earlier, it was a Victory Garden, but the war was over, so now it was just a big garden. My dad, there, learned to garden from my great grandfather. And he in turn taught me. And so, for those of you-- do we have any gardeners in the room? You want to raise your hands? Yay, my people, yay! So, for those of you that are gardeners, you know that it's sort of like an incurable disease. Once you get it, you know it's something that you have forever. So, I grew up in Oregon. I moved to Chicago in 1994 and I wanted to garden. And there weren't really a lot of places to garden. So, after many years, in details that I won't have time to explain today, my husband and I after many summers in a condo with no gardening space. My husband woke up one February morning and said should we go buy a house? No. Should we go buy a yard? I'm like, yes, we should go buy a yard. So, we joked that we bought a yard with a house attached to it. And this is what it looked like. Which too many people would be like, oh, you bought a nasty old yard, how nice. But what it became for us was our Yarden, our yard garden. It's a really a miracle to find a lot in Chicago that's not shaded by hundred year old trees or has an apartment looking into it. So, it's kind of a rare thing in the city proper. So, the next year this is what it became. So, this is all organic. It's raised beds. We have espalier fruit trees. We grow all open pollinated varieties. It really became, you know, my gardening happy place. And so, that alleviated that problem that we were having every spring of nowhere to garden. And so, now that I had established this, I was like, I want to reach out to other gardeners because I know they're here. In Oregon everybody knew how to garden, right? So, I wanted to reach out. So, I started a blog. This was in 2008, called the Yarden. And I was very surprised by what I found. I found that there wasn't a huge gardening community in Chicago, at least not for growing food. There was a large landscape gardening community. And not only was there not that community, but people were really desperate to learn how to grow food. So, I thought, hmm, interesting. I've been given this gift from my parents, something that I love, maybe I have an opportunity to share that. La, la, la, little did I know. So, I also had moved to this new neighborhood, as I had mentioned. And I was getting to know things. And I joke that during the course of getting our yard with a house attached to it and putting in our new garden, I had developed that medical condition called lot lust. Where I see empty lots and I lust to put gardens there. So, this particular empty lot on the corner of Peterson and Campbell had attracted my eye. And I drove by it many times, thinking, wow, it would be really great to put a garden there. It would be really great to put a garden there. Well, one day I was at our local butcher shop Muller Meats and this photo was on the wall. I was waiting for my chicken. And I'm like, what is that photo? And they said well, that's the Victory Garden during World War 2. It was all up and down Peterson Avenue. I went, oh, interesting. So, you'll notice the V there and there's a flag. So, this was 2010, 2010, which began my long journey into exploring the World War 2 Victory Garden Movement. But I was not unfamiliar with the Victory Garden in World War 2 times because I had Greatest Generation parents. So, my parents met in 1941. My mom said it was love at first sight. Something else big happened in the U.S. in 1941, we entered World War 2 with bombing of Pearl Harbor. So, my parents were that Greatest Generation story. They dated through the conflict. They did all the things that everybody was doing to support the nation. And then my dad got drafted. And that was a little concerning, but luckily the war was winding to a halt and he was going to be in the Occupied Forces. They didn't know that at the time. But they had talked about being together. They had, you know, had this romance throughout the course of the conflict. But my dad was a little bit of a shy guy. And he never really formally asked my mother to marry him. So, she was not shy. She went ahead and planned their wedding and sent him an invitation to his own wedding. And he said I guess I better buy a suit, showed up. We did lose him in 2013, but they had been married 68 years. So, I really had this great upbringing, this whole World War 2 story. It wasn't just the love affair, there were also actual combat stories. My dad, that's him in the middle, he was a paratrooper in the Occupied Forces. That means he jumped out of airplanes. He did it because he got $50 extra a week that he would send home to my mother. On the far side you see my uncle Arnold, who was in the Calvary in the Pacific Theater. And on the other side my uncle Gene who was a bomber, who was responsible or participated in some of the major D-Day, Normandy Beach, important efforts of the war. They all came back in 1 piece, which was wonderful. But it wasn't just the men in the family, the women were also involved. Here on the far side you see my aunt Alice. She was a WAVE, very involved in the war effort. And that's my lovely mother in the middle, who on her 16th birthday, she jumped on a trolley in Los Angeles and went to Weber Showcase, which before the war had created jewelry cases and during the war, created bomber doors. So, my mom created bomber doors. So, my mom was actually Rosie the Riveter during World War 2. So, you can see, I grew up with that World War 2 ethos. You know, if you don't like something change it. We're all in this together. Pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. And so, when I saw this lot, I had my lot lust. I realized that people wanted to grow food. I had a little epiphany. And I thought, you know what, I think this would be a really great opportunity to take this gift that I'd been given, the skill that I'd been given. You know, I had come from an executive, corporate executive background with a lot of project management. I'm like, I want to use these skills to work with people and see if we can sort of recreate this Victory Garden thing on this property. So, that's when the Peterson Garden Project was born. We launched the project on April 27, 2010 and within 5 days we had 50 community members that were interested. And I thought, you know, if 20 people wanted to do this, this would be a really fun thing. And it ended up being the largest organic food garden in the city. So, we knew that we were on to something. That was sort of the view from above. And you know, since I had been coming from an education background, thinking that hey, it would be really great to teach people. We did some very specific things to make sure that we could get people started in the garden. One was we had small plots. Many of these people had lived in cities their entire lives, apartment buildings, had no outdoor space. And they were scared. They were just terrified about the concept of growing food, but they wanted to do it. So, we wanted these small plots, so it wouldn't be intimidating for people. We had a uniform teaching method, just to get people started, very simple teaching method. We used all sorts of methods to get the word out. We used Facebook, news letters, live classes, whatever we could do to provide education for people. And we wanted people to learn organically. So, those are some of the benchmarks that we used in that first garden that have continued on through our program. Well, as I said, we realized that we were on to something. And so, we would joke that it's not a garden, it's a revolution. So, we decided that we would become a 501c3. And our mission was to recruit, educate and inspire a new generation dedicated to making urban food production the norm, not the exception. So, we gardened on our original spot for 2 years. We knew that that was a short term piece of land. Land on the north side of Chicago is very expensive. That particular piece of property was $900,000. So, we knew that we would never be able to afford it. And when that land was going away, it was 2012, we thought okay, what can we do? We know something's happening here. We've had this great success. We've had all this attention from the media. So many people want to participate. So, we thought that we would change our tactic a little bit and focus on long term gardeners, versus long term gardens. And so, what that means is we-- my lot lust is contagious and so it spread to many of my team members and gardeners. And we had been eyeballing different pieces of property on the north side of Chicago, within close proximity to that original garden. And so, we worked with the city and private individuals, institutions, you name it. And we created what we call Pop-up Victory Gardens. So, we took those empty spaces and we turned them into these very large scale learning labs. You'll notice that the methods are all the same, the garden beds are all the same. We did that on purpose, so we could think about scale. How could we scale this and be sort of a model for the rest of the city? So, this is where we've ended up now, going on to our 6th season. And this has changed so much since 2011 when I spoke here the first time because we only had the 1 garden and all of this was in the future. But we have 8 large gardens on the north side of Chicago. We have almost 4,000 gardeners. Many of whom we have taught, most of whom we have taught, I would say. Last year we had 1,000 volunteers provide 3.5 full time employees worth of time. So, it's very much a community project. We could never do it without it being 1 big happy family. We have a donation program where we donate-- we have these plots we call grow to give. Five percent of each garden is dedicated to that. And our gardeners, our volunteers come and they help, they grow food and they donate it to a food pantry related to the community where the gardens at. That's also very exciting. We have a full blown educational program that lasts year round. We have live classes, all sorts of stuff. I'm not going to get into that too much. You can certainly grab some material about PGP on the way out. We have a learning center and because we have nothing better to do, we decided to start a community cooking school last year. Because what happens is when people get interested in growing food, they get interested in cooking more. And if you're a gardener, which some of you are, you realize that if you buy for a recipe, you buy your 12 things, you cook them, fine, there's my good meal. If you're cooking from a garden, you walk outside and go wow, holy cats, what am I going to do with all that? So, it's a little bit different cooking methodology than what we generally are taught. So, we started the cooking school last year and it's been very successful. So, that's just a little bit of a-- a little book ended version of Peterson Garden Project and how I got into this world. But meanwhile, in the rest of the country, there's so much going on with the community garden movement. I joined the American Community Gardening Association Board in 2011. And that gave me a great opportunity to collaborate with a lot of different people in a lot of different cities, both through the conferences and meetings and trainings etcetera. So, I've seen a lot of stuff that's going on around the country. We also had the pleasure in 2014 last year, to do the 35th anniversary conference for the American Community Gardening Association in Chicago. It was founded in Chicago 35 years ago, 36 years ago and it was really exciting to be able to show off what we're doing in our city to the rest of the world. What I've learned through this experience, through my own experience with Peterson Garden Project and through this exposure through the American Community Gardening Association, is that there's a lot happening in these gardens that doesn't really get talked about. And I like this quote by the famous permacultural journalist Geoff Lawton that "All the world's problems can be solved in a garden." And I believe that to be absolutely true. So, there's a lot of community action happening in gardens. There's social justice and empowerment happening in gardens. There's therapy happening in gardens, food creation and donation to help alleviate hunger. There's a lot of immigrant and refugee work happening in gardens because it's a great way for people to plug into meeting people and understanding having something in common. There's a lot of beautification happening in community gardens. I'm talking about food gardens today, but there's certainly still a huge movement of beautification community gardens. And then neighborhood improvement, it's giving people an opportunity to get together. So, when you think about community gardens, the big word is garden, right? But really what is happening is this. Community is happening and the garden is sort of secondary. The food production becomes a very small piece of it, maybe 10%. And there's 90% that you can't really quantify or you know put on a piece of paper or identify. So, those are very exciting things that are happening right now in the Community Garden Movement. But there's also some disturbing things that are happening. Community gardens are great. It's an exciting thing. People feel the power of this potential. And so, I'm starting to see or had been starting to see some of these things. PR Gardens, where some corporation would fly in to some community, put in a beautiful garden, no one in that community wanted that garden so the next year it's gone. But they got some great photo ops. Got a lot of tweets about the good garden they were putting in the neighborhood. EYP, no insult intended to any young people in the room, but the Ernst and Young People Garden, a lot of people going to school, they like this idea. They put in a garden and then they graduate and they go somewhere else. So, these gardens don't have the stability of if a community would put it in. the New Puppy Syndrome Garden, you know, community gardens are a marathon, not a sprint, right? And so, a lot of people are excited about this concept. And you know, in Chicago when it comes spring, all you want to do is be outside. So, people are very excited about building gardens, but they don't realize about the maintenance that goes on and what it takes from a community perspective to make that happen. And then those people need help gardens, where some problem is happening somewhere else outside of your neighborhood, your community. Oh, let's go help those people. Those people may or may not want to be helped. You know, you may not be part of that community, so those gardens don't necessarily happen the way good natured people intend them to happen. So, this is what it looks like for these sort of disturbing trends. It's all about the garden, it's not so much about the community. So, that motivated me in 2013 to start working on this book, "Start a Community Food Garden, the Essential Handbook." When I started the Peterson Garden Project, I would have loved to have a book like this because I made a lot of mistakes. And I didn't want other people to make a lot of mistakes. And so, I thought to myself, well, why on earth has no one ever written a book like this? And then once I started to write it, I realized why no one has ever written a book like this because it's such a big subject. And you can't really address all the reasons why people start community gardens because they're all various and important and unique to each community. But you can think about the pieces of a community garden, the organization that's required, the community building, the legal structure, all of those things. So, that's really what this manual is about, in the hopes that when other people want to use community gardening as a method to make change in their communities, they would have somewhere to start. So, here's my community garden slash U.S.A. salvation equation; need, plus land, plus people. So, let's talk about need. So, as I said, every community is different. You may have a combination of these needs. You may have a singular need. For the gardens that I mentioned, social justice and empowerment, the problem might be economic or racial inequality. Therapy or socialization, you might have veterans or elderly or other distressed groups where a garden might be beneficial. Food donation gardens help hunger issues. Immigrant or refugee integration, that helps solve cultural misunderstanding. Beautification, that allows people to get involved in civic ecology, like all of us working to make our garden environment healthier and better. And then neighborhood improvement, disconnection and disinterest. I'm so sad when I see that nobody goes to vote, but everybody will stand in line overnight to get a discount at Walmart the day after Thanksgiving. You know, maybe we should do voting then so we could get everybody in line? You know, it's disturbing to me. So, these are some of the needs that I'm seeing, that maybe you've seen in your communities. And I think that they're very-- they are the problems that we have in our country now, the things that need to be solved. The next piece of this equation is land. So, land is very expensive of course and land can be difficult. In these 4 cities, there's more statistics about that. I just wanted to show these to you. In Philadelphia there's 40,000 city owned empty lots. New York City, 9,000 empty lots. Cleveland 20,000 empty lots. And in Chicago we don't have it by lots, but it's 40,000 empty acres. This is just city owned property. This doesn't include land owned by institutions or by individuals. This is just land that's owned by the city. And so cities have been responding. What they've been doing is if you have been paying attention to the news, San Francisco has started doing tax breaks for people that have empty lots that they're turning into gardens, which is an exciting move. Los Angeles previously didn't allow gardening on the "hell strip," now they're allowing that. And Chicago has the big lots program. So, that means if you live on a street where there's an empty lot, in a specific area, not everywhere. If there's an empty lot, you can buy that lot for $1 if you promise to turn it into a community focus garden or something else. This is kind of unheard of. These 3 things have all happened in the last year. So, cities are really responding to people's desire for community gardens and working together. And then the final piece to this equation is people. I believe that the fact that we all need to eat, is the thing that can bring us all together. There's a lot of reasons why we don't want to get along with people. A lot of reasons why we make us and them and separation, but food and our cultural traditions around food is a reason for all of us to have a cause to relate to. I think that that's really key. So, that's the main pieces of this equation, our Community Garden U.S.A. Salvation Equation, need, land and people. And it may sound a little Pollyanna to think that we could just take these resources and you know make such a huge social change. There is 1 more component and that's education. You can't have this happen without education. And this is a little bit of my pet peeve about all the community gardens that I witness. You can build a-- you can. People build gardens, but they don't educate people on how to grow the food. And it gets frustrating for people and there's dropout rate etcetera. But I believe that education is so important. And food education leads to consequences. And I've seen this in our own gardens over the last 6 years. First you start teaching people about growing food and then they have food awareness. They're like, oh, this food tastes different than the food in the grocery story. Oh, I can grow a variety that I haven't seen in the grocery store. Oh, I have so much more, I can share with people or seasonality. I'd like to grow strawberries in November. That's not going to happen. That's a seasonality issue. And then it starts conversations about nutrition and health. You know, how much better your own food is. And then it moves to home cooking, as I mentioned. We've seen that pattern with Peterson Garden Project, how people start growing the food and then they have more interest in home cooking. We've also seen it work backwards where people are interested in home cooking with our cooking school and then they want to learn how to grow food. So, it's not a linear process in some instances. It also leads the support of local food systems because people become aware of what is available and what they can get if they work through their local providers. And what it also does is it provides leadership. So, I say that because people that we've taught to garden in 2010 and 2011 are now leading gardens themselves. They're teaching people or they're not gardening with us at all because they're going to a park and starting a community garden. They're going to their children's school and starting a school garden. They're moving somewhere, they're making property choices based on being able to garden and they're teaching all the people in their condo or they want to start something in their neighborhood. So, this concept of teaching people this life long skill, really has ramifications. So, what I'm advocating here today at the Library of Congress, is that we have a national effort to teach everyone food gardening. So, if you're skeptical, if you think I'm Pollyanna, I want to tell you that it's been done before. What? Yes, it has. So, I want to talk a little bit about Chicago during World War 2. I mentioned that previously and I want to get into it a little bit. So, Chicago and this is part of my first lecture, so you can watch that if you'd like. Chicago led the nation in the World War 2 Victory Garden Movement for a lot of reasons. Not because everybody was gardeners because everybody wasn't a gardener. Ninety percent of those gardeners in World War 2, had never gardened before. So, the city really had to do a concerted effort to teach people. And they did it in very simple ways. They had little pamphlets that they would hand out. Many cities across the country, which I found out through my research at the Library of Congress and other places, had these. They're not about ornamental, edibles. They're not fancy. They're about the basics of growing in your growing conditions, the nutritional value, crop-- not crop rotation, but season extension. How do get as much food as possible out of your small space. They also provided plans. So, this is a plan for a family of 5 with that size plot. There are all sorts of plans available with very basic instructions to keep people, get people started and keep them moving. The newspapers provided information like specialty stories to keep people excited about their growing efforts. And then there are also weekly columns. So, it's interesting, these sort of weekly columns and also radio, which was here. We had a show in Chicago called "Know your Onions" on the radio everyday. What would happen is because of the structure of the Victory Garden Movement, problems would arise in the gardens. They would tell their block captains. Those would filter up to the people running things. And they would very quickly get up to the newspapers and the radio. So, you're getting solutions to these problems real time. We don't think of things like now, you know, because we have social media and we think everything happens so fast now. But it was a very fast and snappy system that allowed people to get their questions answered. They also had demonstration gardens at 3 of the city parks, where you could go and see how to do the instruction that they were providing. And there were live educational opportunities. So, there were lectures, garden club lectures, which were not considered sanction lectures by the way and mass movies showing meetings or slideshows. So, they made all of that available and the city of Chicago really rocked it during the Victory Garden Movement. In 1942, we put in 500 community gardens. In 1943, there were 1,500 community gardens, 14,000 school children started gardening. And the largest Victory Garden in the country was in Chicago, which is now a site of 1 of our gardens, which this little site is very exciting for a geek like me. So, these are some of the basics of what they did to teach a city. And they did it very successfully. So, there's that verse from the good book, "Nothing new under the sun," right? Well, we kind of stole that idea from the Victory Garden Movement and we translated it into teaching methods today. And so, when I said early on that we use all sorts of ways for people to learn how to garden, we sort of took these ideas and filtered them down into ways that we can communicate with people in a modern way. In 2013, we wrote "Fearless Food Gardening in Chicagoland." This is a direct inspiration from these pamphlets that were written during World War 2. Actually, I was at the New York Public Library doing some research before this book happened. And I found this pamphlet, 1 of these pamplets I'm talking about, sort of shoved in between, you know, corn in Argentina and something else. It was a miracle that I found it. And as I was reading it, I felt like I was connecting with that person 7 years ago that had been trying to do exactly what I had been trying to do. We actually borrowed some of those ideas, some of the charts they used, some of the ways that they talked about it and we made this book, which we've been using in Chicago to teach people. You know recognizing that we live in a different age, we also created a series of videos called "The Garden Minute." As I said, it's hard to reach a lot of people, you know, in a specific way. So, everybody has their mobile phone, so we figured we'll just make that information available. If they're in the garden and they have a problem, they can just look on their phone and get the instruction they need. These were set up so if you were my neighbor you'd come over and say, hey, LaManda, I'm having a problem with x, y, z. And I wouldn't be like, well, on today's show we're going to be talking about blah. I'd be like, oh, that's this, do this, go. Okay, thank you, on. That's what these videos are. They're very quick. They're from everything from how to pick a bean to how to plant a seed, is this a weed, what have you. They're on YouTube. You're welcome to use them for your groups. They're applicable to any gardening zone. But we found them to be very useful. And as I said, nothing new under the sun. Actually, the USDA released this document in 1943, "How to do a Victory Garden Campaign in your City." Part of this was because of the success of the World War 2 Victory Garden Movement in 1942 in Chicago, which I get very excited about, but I won't go into now. But I was inspired by that to create this book "Start a Community Food Garden the Essential Handbook." So, this is what I have to say about how community gardens can save America. We have a historical precedence. We know that people have come together in the past to grow food to solve problems. And we know that we can revive that model. We've done in a very small way in Chicago. We know that there's need. There's need all over the country in all sorts of different ways that's unique to each community and they're all important. And they're all important in selling it to our lives, our day to day, the problems that we see walking down the street. The problems that we see when we talk with our neighbors. The problems that we see when we can't talk with our neighbors. There's land out there, either city owned land, privately owned land, institutional land. And at this point I would just like to say there was a study done in 2013 about community gardens around the country. And the fastest growing segment for community gardens is actually rural areas, right? There's lots of land, but that's all about community. People want to be together and learn together. And then people, people in need. So, that's a lot. That's a lot to take in. that's a lot-- a big proposal that we teach the country how to grow their own food. And maybe that's a little shocking or disarming for you. But here's some things you can do. Do you have land? You can offer it to an organization. You can engage your municipalities to discuss their land and what they do with it. I don't think that these movements in Los Angeles and Chicago and Seattle just happened because some government official walked in and said hey, it would be cool if we blah. It's because of pressure and dialogue and need coming from the community. You can ask your park department about a food growing campaign or an educational program or whatever group you have that is the over arching educational system that reaches out related to these things. It could be master gardeners. It could be the park. It could be whomever. You can grow food yourself, many of you do. You can share it with others and start that food thinking happening. Wow, your tomato tastes so much better than the 1 I got in the store. What's going on? Turn those light bulbs on with people. You can teach. If you know how to grow food, you can teach. I didn't think that I could be a teacher, but I turned out to be able to be a teacher. I joke that in 2010 my new year's resolution was to teach 10 people how to grow their own food. And then I say be careful what you wish for. It's absolutely possible to take a little bit of time and pass those skills on to someone else. You can donate to community garden organizations. These are not highly funded organizations. They're very passion driven. Many of them are not for profits. Many of them are completely volunteer. Small donations make a huge difference. So, you can think about that maybe adding that to your charitable giving. And ask how your talents can help. You may not be able to garden, but maybe you're an attorney or maybe you have some time to stuff envelopes or maybe you have a house where people could meet. Every little bit helps, right? All of these little pieces of the community that come together are better. And then you can certainly read my book. If you buy it, please share it with someone else. Tell them to pass it on. It's in a lot of libraries. It's a lot of good information that I hope will help. So, in drawing to my conclusion now, you know, for those that have come before us and those who come after us, we inherit the world and we leave an inheritance. My small, but precious inheritance, was Greatest Generation parents who knew what they were talking about when they said things like if you don't like something, change it. Less talk, more do, honey and we're all in this together. But if my dear parents are enough to motivate you, I would like to bring up JFK who said "One person can make a difference and everyone should try." So, today in our nation's capitol, I'm saying that you all were all just ordinary people. Ordinary people together can do extraordinary things. It's happened before and now it's our turn. Together we can make the newest chapter in our countries urban agricultural saga, a lasting and meaningful one, something we can look back on with pride as inheritance we leave for the next generation. We solve our problems and we solve them with what we have on hand, land, education and caring for our community. And why, because we're all American, we're all eaters and we're all in this together. So, that is how community gardens, community gardeners can save America. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Does anyone have a question? >> I just have a comment. You're a fabulous, fabulous speaker. And I'm so sorry that we didn't go through the congressional land zones because I know Congress is interested in it. And I thought [inaudible] of Portland because he's very interested in community gardens. But when our early ancestors, when they-- people were doing the [inaudible] Congress was meeting and they all got at each others throats. Thomas Jefferson told took them over to [inaudible] garden. And because he thought walking through the garden would sort of temper them down and being outdoors. And that's a really true story. >> And he was right. Absolutely, thank you for comments. Yes? [ Inaudible Question ] >> Have you reached out to Mrs. Obama because I know that [inaudible] she was really into this and she would be excited to hear your stories. >> The question is, have we reached out to Mrs. Obama about this story? We tried. Yeah, she's a busy lady. But you know, her book "American Home Grown," actually quoted some work in Chicago with one of our partners that we work with Neighbor Space. So, she is really aware of what's happening in Chicago. It would be great is she were here of course, I'd love that. And if any body knows her, you know, tell her to give me a call. Any other questions? Yes, sir? >> I have a couple of different ones. One is interesting, you never mentioned USDA in the modern realm, which I thought was interesting. And in some states had much better event extension units than others. But the reality is you're incredibly and unusual person. I know this because I'm not just [inaudible] In my experience in D.C. the gardens are internally focused. People are interested in developing a broader approach to civil society and developing the intricate structural approach in system. And I never heard the phrase [inaudible] technology before. And I've been reading and writing about this for 15 years. So, not to say it's unique necessarily, but it is because most people don't take this kind of approach. And that's I guess why it has more legs because the point you make about the Greatest Generation [inaudible]. And now, most of the government and I think the government is the people, is [inaudible] and it's defunded. It's not given the resources to actually do incredible things, be it Victory Gardens or the kind of construction projects [inaudible] which actually produce a lot of the wealth that post war economic success. Success was based on. So, anyway, now, I'm rambling. But the point is what made you or what-- why did you care about more than just doing what's for you and 17 other people. And you know, what was it about this whole project? I mean, it is quite unique. >> The question is why did I feel led to do a project like this? >> Well, just, yeah. >> Well, you know, part of it's personal. Like, just thinking about how, you know, I was a corporate executive. I traveled 80% of the time and my husband and I didn't have any kids. You know and at some point you realize you got to give back or you're going to be a jerk, right? So, I just sort of reviewed my life and I thought, you know, I was raised better than just to be focused on myself. You know, I was raised with parents that were very community oriented, very much felt like we were responsible for each other. And so, that was part of it. The other part is I'm a history geek. And there's a quote, "The only thing we learned from history is we learn nothing from history." And that's always made me really mad. So, it's sort of been my personal mission, my own personal mission to prove that wrong, you know. We have a great model here. And we have some of the needs, different needs, but we're in the same situation. And also loving history as I do, I realize that people are the same, you know, they were the same during World War 2, they're same during the Back to the Land Movement. We're all just on a continuum of humanity, right? And if we could solve problems then, we can solve problems now. And I get really tired of people thinking that the world is a terrible place. You know, like, we watch the news and everything's horrible. I don't think the world is a terrible place. And I don't think that because I'm part of a community garden. I see how people are wonderful with each other and want to make a difference and they need a place to do it. And community gardens are a great place to do it. So, I don't know if that answers your question or not, but we can talk more later, too. Yes? >> Twenty two years ago I co-founded a local community garden, which is still thriving, 9 year waiting list. >> Oh, congratulations. >> And I'm interested in some questions about your experience. That wonderful waffle like grid that you showed for the original Peterson Garden? >> Uh-huh. >> Who designed and paid for that and built it for you? And the other what was the benefit of going 501c3? >> Okay, well, this might also answer this gentlemen's question, too. That garden was completely built by the community. The city donated wood chips. A non for profit loaned us the property. People-- we had a membership fee of $45, which helped build the garden. And it was built by the gardeners. So, nobody built it for us. There was not garden entity involved. Nobody dropped a bunch of money on it. We built it together. It was 154 plots. We had about 400 people gardening in that garden. And it's the ABC development, you know, like, don't think about what you don't have, think about what you have. Sort of like the little rascals, like, my dad's got a barn, my mom can sew the curtain. You know, like, you just get together and put this vision out to people and people are smart and they like that. So, nobody did that for us. And the organization has been self funded, you know, throughout that. And that was the logic for becoming a 501c3 because we knew that this was an idea that had legs. And we wanted to get bigger and we knew that we couldn't just do that on membership fees. So, we have, you know, become a 501c3 and do all the normal channels that 501c3's do to get funds, which we could probably talk about later. I'm not sure that that's of interest to the general audience. >> Being that you're more than just 1 garden. You're a network that's in the system for. So, I mean, 1 little plot doesn't really need to be incorporate, but you're a system. >> A system, but-- >> That's different. >> Yeah. And the really important thing is that we're about education. You know, like, I get dinged sometimes, you know, about speaking about community gardens because our gardens come and go. You know we have them for 2 to 3 years, we find a new piece of property, we move the garden. It's really, really about education. And then that education has legs that stretch out to other applications. So, you know, when I wrote "Start a Community Food Garden," I talk about the difference between our gardens and other gardens. But we also have case studies about organizations around the country that are small, but thinking big. And some that are small and that's fine just to be small and serve that situation. But there's a lot of mission driven stuff out there. And I think that that's one of the keys to success with any program is to have a reason for doing it. And making sure everybody is bought into that reason, the community is involved in that reason and then you move forward. Because it's so much more than just we need to come pull weeds. It's we need to come work together because of x, y, z. Because we're, you know, helping inequality in our neighborhood or we're helping people that may not have access to fresh food or whatever that is. And I think that's really the difference is, you know, we started out with a mission and moved forward with that. Yes, sir? >> You might have answered this partially, but how long was it, slash, how large both in terms of plot size [inaudible]. Where were you before you decided that moving to a 501c3 [inaudible] >> We decided to become a 501c3 in 2011. So, we had just the first year because it was so shocking the response that we got from people because people wanted to learn. So, we went after that right away. >> And how large were you when you made that decision? >> You mean large in terms of staff or? >> In terms of staff, members, plots, block plots? >> We had the 1 garden, it was 154, 4 by 8 plots. We had about, you know, 154 technical members and then about 3.5 people per plot. So, you can do the math on that. We were all volunteer. We didn't have any paid staff. But we just felt like this story, you know, would have ramifications for Chicago. Yes? [ Inaudible Question ] The question is season extension. Our gardens open around Earth Day. So, this year they open April 27th and then close the first weekend in November. Because nobody wants to garden in Chicago in the winter. It's just-- they think they do and believe me they don't. So and we are very tired by that time. So-- >> Earth Day through what? >> Earth Day through the first weekend in November. This year I think it's November 8th. So, we don't do any season extension. We don't have any hoop houses. We don't do any of that. [ Inaudible Question ] Well, again, we're not interested in bulk production. We're interested in teaching individual families. So, that would sort of be out of our mission. You know, we wouldn't have a need to do that. So, people do. There's a lot of micro-green stuff happening. We actually share 1 of our properties. We share it with a refugee training farm. They have a giant hoop house and they do all sorts of stuff, but that's not our shtick. So, we don't do it. But it is certainly happening. And if you want to grow anything in Chicago in the winter, you need a set up like that because it's brutal. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, sir? >> Speaking of brutal, I spent some time in Russia in certain areas. And you can't go anywhere in that environment without seeing a lot of seasoned extending stuff, like crop beds and [inaudible]. And the use of each [inaudible] as a source of 1. >> Yeah. So, the comment is with travels in Russia, there's a lot season extension. And I probably can make the leap to say you see a lot of gardens in Russia. I mean, Europe is very different from us in terms of their approach to gardening because you know they didn't have a new territory to build on. They're using the space they've got. And gardens are very integrated into their culture. I'm actually going to Sweden this summer, my husband's from Stockholm and doing research on their community gardens, which started at the turn of the last century as a result of the Industrial Revolution. People were concerned that urban kids didn't know where their food came from, didn't have the opportunity to be outside. So, it's same story. You know, we're all eaters here, they're all eaters there. You know, like, everybody is using food and has used food, you know, to eat of course, but to connect and be together in community. Thank you for the comment. Yes? >> This kind of relates to this question, but when you went out to start this, did you know that you needed to build the community first? >> Absolutely. >> Or did you figure it out? >> No. Absolutely. At the time I was traveling 80% of the time and I had a full time job. So, I-- for me, I wanted to connect with people because I moved to this new neighborhood. I didn't know anybody. And I had come from a background where community was everything. You know, we were very religious growing up, but that was it. You weren't, you know, you were your family of course, but you were part of something else. So, I wanted that. And so, I knew that that had to happen. One; because you can't have giant garden without a community of people to tend to it. It's just going to be a big failure. And also, I thought, you know, we grow as the size of the community. When I said that I though 20 people would want to participate it would be great, all those people wanted to participate. We didn't have to be like, hey, we're doing this, come do it with us. It created itself. And that community piece was the most important thing. Yes? >> The American Community Growing Association, you talked about the [inaudible]. >> Yes. >> How does the community, garden community work? >> So, the American Community Gardening Association is a non profit organization. Their website is communitygarden.org. It's a member organization. It's a volunteer run group that's been going for 35 years. You can go to the website and become a member. You can donate. You can participate in their annual conference. This year it's in Denver. And those conferences are really amazing. I used to be in the conference business and I never really understood it. I mean, I was in it for years and I never really understood the value of it until I went to a conference that made an impact for me. And I was like, oh, wow, I've been doing this for a long time and now I see why. Because what you find is that everybody has the same problems. Everybody has the same joys, but everybody has the same problems. And that's, you know, participating in these conferences and leading workshops and stuff, that's what really led me write this book because everybody thinks their challenges are unique. You know, but if you talk about it or you have an opportunity to realize that everybody's having these things, then 1 you don't blame yourself or 2 you come up with good solutions. Like, you're in a room of community garden leaders and it's just like, well, I do this, well, I do this, well, I do this. You're like, oh, aha, that would be great, you know. So, it really streamlines the process. It's like having a bunch of mentors, you know, all in 1 place. You have the people that are just starting out, new and enthusiastic. And you have the people that have been doing it forever and haven't given up because they know how awesome community gardens are. And so, it's really a great thing. Yes? >> Is there like a list serve or a group or something or an e-mail group for people who start community gardens [inaudible]. >> Well, ACGA is really the best to do that. They do have a list serve. They have a fabulous facebook page. So, they've got a lot of great information. It's a great organization. Did you have a question? >> I just wanted to reinforce I think what you're saying. I was on a waiting list for a community garden in my neighborhood that's run by the city. And it was like a 4 or 5 year waiting list. And it was very, very frustrating. And I went to my church in Arlington and they had a large plot of land. And I said, can we start this? And we started it. It's small. We raise potatoes for the food bank. This past weekend we had a blessing of the worms. >> Oh, I love that! The blessing of the worms, that's great! >> Our Sunday school children, you know, they teach the Bible School [inaudible]. I have a 4 by 8 foot plot there. I finally made it off the waiting list of the other community garden. I have a 20 by 15 plot, but I tell you, I'm much happier with my church community garden, rather than a place where it's just I feel like I'm renting land. >> You know, houses of-- >> And that's really a-- that's-- so, thank you. >> Houses of worship are a great venue for community gardens because there's already a need. You know, they're already ministering to somebody no matter what faith. And there's a motivation and a mandate to help others. So, you have that need. There's usually land. You know, even in urban areas, churches seem to have-- houses of worship. It's not just churches, everything, seems to have a little bit land. And you've got people. You know, you've got a group of people that are already sort of bought into the mission of what you're doing. So, I think houses of worship can really be, you know, sort of the tip of the arrow for some of this community garden work. And I've actually worked with a couple of churches or you know communicable groups to talk about you know how community gardens can start and be maintained. So, thanks for that comment, that's fun. I think we're-- >> Yeah, I think there's another lecture after this, so. >> Okay, we got to move along. >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov