As part of our year-long Farm to School planning grant, I have pulled together a group of excellent people in Julian to serve as my advisory board.  They are a gorgeous slice of our community: parents, gardeners, health practitioners, alumni, farmers, grant writers, chefs, camp directors, business owners, school staff, board members, etc.  We met this month for the first time.

After briefly reviewing progress with the grant, I broke them in to groups to circulate around the room and jot down ideas on posters with headings like: “Ideas for getting discounted or free produce,”  “Lesson and fieldtrip ideas,” and “Ways to celebrate National Food Day.” We met again as a large group to read through these ideas and further stimulate the brainstorming.  As “chief researcher” in this process, I then compiled all of the ideas and am now following the leads.  I am thrilled to have such a knowledgeable and passionate group of folks to learn from throughout the grant process.

I’m reminded of the necessity and beauty of collaboration, as this has been a good week for it.  The owner of a local winery swung by school on the weekend to prune our grapevines.   Garden Beneficials (and husbands) visited over the weekend and after school to transplant strawberries, water and pull some mystery rebar out of the ground.  I’m heading out the door right now to collect a donation of seeds from our feed store.

It is no cliché when we say our garden grows community!

P.S. If you live in Julian and want to join the fun, you are welcome!  Just give me a call or write me a note—our next meeting will be in May!