Description:
Mission of Team: The Flagstaff FoodLink Community Garden ART seeks to change the way we produce, consume, and value local food through educational outreach, increasing community participation in community gardens, and building innovative partnerships between Flagstaff businesses, non-profiits, and community groups.
History and exciting updates, news, quantifiables: In Fall 2012 in an effort to increase community awareness and understanding of Izabel Community Garden in Flagstaff’s Sunnyside community, the CG ART designed and painted five murals for the garden. The CG ART engaged youth from the Flagstaff Recreation Center in the painting process, and established a relationship with Coconino High School. In the Spring the CG ART is hoping to build upon these outreach efforts in order to create consistent opportunities for these youth to learn about gardening and help establish Izabel Community Garden as a vibrant community free space.
Facilitator/Leader Names, Titles, and favorite quote: Jeff Hawkinson, Lead Graduate Facilitator. ““Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emily Davalos, Graduate Facilitator
Peter Moorhouse, Graduate Facilitator
Accomplishments:
Since Fall 2009, students have done hands-on work to give shape and definition to the vision of a just, sustainable, and more democratic food system in Flagstaff. Some accomplishments include:
Who’s Who
Liz Krug grew up in the “thumb area” of Michigan on a dairy farm about 20 miles from Lake Huron with a desire to form more connections between people and nature. She pursued her environmental interests at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, and ultimately moved to Arizona where she worked in research and marketing at Arizona State Parks. Seeing so much development take place in Phoenix and the surrounding desert was the impetus in pursuing a master’s degree in NAU’s Sustainable Communities program, where she is interested in seeing more land conserved for food production. Liz believes that designating and conserving land for food production is the starting point in developing a local food system, which has the power to form new and sustainable connections between and among people and nature.
·Conducted relational work with members of the Flagstaff community and helped develop the Greater Flagstaff Food Policy Council in 2010
·Organizde a free film screening of “King Corn” and an education table outside the Union in 2011 for the nationally-recognized Campus Food Day
·Visited farms in the Verde Valley and Flagstaff in 2010, and interviewed farmers to update the Canyon Country Fresh website, a marketing website that connects producers and consumers to local and regional food, and contribute to a regional food production needs assessment
·Mapped apple trees in Flagstaff’s Sunnyside neighborhood in 2011, contributing to greater food security in the area
·Planedt seedlings for the Flagstaff Garden Starts CSA program in 2012, a local program that grows altitude-specific garden vegetable starts for community members
·Identified, explored, and critiqued the local and regional Flagstaff food system through film screenings, education tabling events, and relational meetings with members of the community
·And much more!
Community Partners: Flagstaff Foodlink, Flagstaff Garden Starts CSA
What is happening this semester with the Foodlink CG ART? That’s up to YOU!
Please email Liz Krug at eak64@nau.edu to get involved.