Macomb Food Initiatives Group » Education

FIG Helps Plant Gardens At Lincoln School

Dan Barclay — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:12:18 +0000

WIU professors Dr. Heather McIlvaine-Newsad and Dr. Joel Gruver and FIG helped several teachers at Lincoln School establish container gardens during the warm weather in April.

Dr. Heather McIlvaine-Newsad and students plan their garden.

The students in Mrs. Standley’s and Miss Hentzel’s third grade classes and Mrs. Streit’s first grade class all got to taste carrots and lettuce, mix soil, and plant seeds in container gardens constructed from kiddie-sized plastic swimming pools. FIG provided funds for the pools, seeds and watering cans.

FIG Chair Dan Barclay mixes soil with the students.

Dr. Gruver provided the soil, seeds, and lettuce starts.

The students and Dr. Gruver prepare the garden for planting.

Dr. McIlvaine-Newsad provided seeds, snack carrots and lettuce.

Everyone wants seeds!

The students had a lot of fun and will now get to learn something about what it takes to keep a garden growing. The lettuce, radishes and flowers are all sprouted and thriving. The students will be able to harvest some of those crops before school is out in early June. The carrots are up as well, but they will not be ready to harvest until mid-summer.

Earth Summit at WIU

Dan Barclay — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:33:08 +0000

FIG was well-represented at WIU’s Earth Summit on Wednesday, April 7th. Treasurer Jamie Lane and Chair Dan Barclay staffed an information table. Several people indicated interest in FIG and were enthusiastic about FIG’s mission. The Macomb Food Co-op Steering Committee had a table right next to FIG’s and it was exciting to see all of the interest that people have in establishing a local food store in our area.

FIG turns out for WIU Guest Speaker Vandana Shiva

Dan Barclay — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:59:32 +0000

WIU guest speaker Dr. Vandana Shiva drew a large crowd of FIG members to her talk last night in the Grand Ballroom of the University Union. Entitled, “Sustainability and the Global Food Crisis,” her talk addressed a variety of themes that are important to FIG such as corporate control of farm land, seed varieties, water supplies, and anti-democratic influence over agricultural policies. Shiva spoke about the importance of local food systems under community control as a safe-guard for future food security. Click here to learn more about the Work of Dr. Shiva and her organization, Navdanya.

Life Classes explore local food

Dan Barclay — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:49:05 +0000

Margaret Ovitt, the Membership Coordinator for FIG, recently reported to the Board on two Life Classes that she offered in 2009. The spring class was called, “What’s For Dinner,” and included reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemna, a viewing of the film King Corn, and a tour of Good Hope Gardens. Good Hope Gardens is a local example of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and is a family farm that has been operated by the Decounter family in Good Hope, Illinois, across at least four generations.

The fall class read Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally and also watched severall short films. Margaret explained that, “I also had everyone bring a local dish to class one day as well as prepare one local meal a week and report back on where the food from that meal came from. The class all submitted a recipe or two containing local foods, and I am in the process of making a class recipe collection.” She had a total of 27 students in the two classes.

Earth Day

Dan Barclay — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:32:32 +0000

On April 25 Margaret Ovitt and Dan Barclay organized and staffed a table at the Earth Day fair at Spoon River College in Macomb. FIG Brochures and Local Food Guides were available to the public. The event was sponsored by Spoon River College and Environmentally Concerned Citizens (ECC). Story teller Susan Fowler engaged young and old alike with participatory activities and performances. Many thanks to Lisa Gruver and Bob Zellmann for organizing a great event!

Involving the audiance in an Earth Day story

Children’s tent at Macomb Farmers’ Market

Lisa Gruver — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:12:15 +0000

Dear supporters of the Macomb Farmers’ Market and all Macomb families,

You may have heard that the Food Initiatives Group (FIG) will be providing a Children’s Tent for the Farmers’ Market this year. We are excited about attracting new families to the market and hope to introduce them to the many delicious foods that the Market has to offer. We’re asking for local groups and agencies to help us by sponsoring the tent at least one Saturday during the season, which begins May 23rd and ends October 29th.

All we ask is that your group provide a craft or activity for the children, and staff the tent with several volunteers to assist the children with the activity from 9-11 a.m. that day. The activity or craft should be simple and take only about 5 minutes to complete. Some appropriate activities might be string figures such as cat’s cradle, braiding bracelets, simple origami, making cards, weaving paper, leaf rubbings, etc. If you would like suggestions for an activity, we would be happy to help you; don’t be shy! FIG will provide the tent, tables for the children to work at, and extra crayons and paper for children to draw and color. You may also bring a small sign with your group’s name, as well as literature or information about your group to distribute at the tent that day.

We hope that the community will embrace the Children’s Tent at the Farmers’ Market, and through your participation the community will become more aware of your group as well. Thank you for considering sponsoring a Saturday at the Children’s Tent. We ask that you please respond to Leslie Timlin (leslietimlin@hotmail.com) as soon as possible to let us know if you are interested, and in which month you would prefer to participate. We will send you an email with your date as soon as we finalize the schedule. If this date doesn’t work for you, please let us know and we will accommodate you with another date. Also, please tell us briefly if you already know what activity you plan to have on your day at the tent.

Thank you for your support of the Macomb Farmers’ Market!

Sincerely,
Food Initiatives Group, Farmers’ Market Committee

Environmental Summit

Dan Barclay — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:04:50 +0000

On April 8th Margaret Ovitt organized a table and display for FIG at Western Illinois University’s 2009 Earth Summit. FIG Brochures and Local Food Guides were given available to the public.

Margaret with FIG display at 2008 Earth Summit

The Keynote speaker at the 2009 Earth Summit was Dr. Sandra Steingraber, whose publications include Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, and “The Ecology of Pizza (Or Why Organic Food Is A Bargain)”.