Residents in East Buffalo have an exciting opportunity to join the Seeding East Buffalo Fellowship Program! Selected fellows will train with an experienced East Buffalo grower to learn how to grow their own food. Fellows will also receive a $350 grant award for growing supplies including soil, seedlings, and materials. By the end of the program, fellows will have the knowledge they need to grow food at home, to help their neighbors with gardening, and to advocate for a better East Buffalo!
DEADLINE The deadline to apply is April 18, 5:00 PM EST and fellowship winners will be announced in May, 2022.
WHEN WILL THE PROGRAM START AND WHAT WILL FELLOWS DO? The Seeding East Buffalo program will begin in May 2022. Fellows will learn about a variety of topics with experienced growers and community leaders. Fellows will learn about Black farmers/grower’s relationship to land, agriculture and food systems, and agriculture practices for sustainable soils, and the local growing season. Fellows will receive hands-on training focused on growing food from seeds and seedlings, seed saving, organic pesticide management, and harvesting. Fellows will also have the opportunity to learn how to shape policy to better serve communities. Fellows will train weekly on a farm in East Buffalo during the 2022 growing season (additionally, a welcome workshop and a graduation celebration will be held at an off-farm site). Most activity will happen on the weekends.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE? Applicants must be 18 years of age or older and reside in one of these Buffalo neighborhoods: Masten Park, Fruit Belt, Pratt-Willert, Broadway Fillmore, MLK Park, Delavan Grider, Kensington-Bailey. No gardening experience is required!
WHO IS BEHIND THE PROGRAM? The fellowship program is supported by a coalition of community leaders and researchers as part of the Growing Food Policy from the Ground Up Project (GFPGU). The urban farmers leading the training are from Urban Fruits & Veggies (UFV). UFV is proud of the high quality of the produce they provide to the community. Only the best seeds, soil and organic fertilizers are used when planting healthy crops. Their management team are certified in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), and have a focus on food safety and providing quality products grown with the best non-treated seeds, quality soil and no chemical pesticides! UFV is certified as a Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE). Read about UFV at: https://www.urbanfv.com. For more information, contact Urban Fruits & Veggies, CEO, Allison DeHonney by email at dehonn@outlook.com or by phone at 716-829-3782.
Partners behind this effort include Appetite for Change, Food for the Spirit/Buffalo Food Equity Network, Freedom Gardens, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Avenue Project, University at Buffalo Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab, University of Minnesota, and Urban Fruits & Veggies LLC. Funding for this effort is made possible in part by the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR). You can read more about the overall effort at: http://foodsystemsplanning.ap.buffalo.edu/project/growing-food-policy-from-the-ground-up-gfpgu/
Please begin your application!
https://tinyurl.com/seedeast
“What are the politics of nature? Who owns it, where is it, what role does it play in our lives? Does it need to be tamed? Are we ourselves natural? In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of [the] essays [in the book] engages with a single archival object, whether directly or obliquely, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere.”