AmeriCorps Week is March 10th-18th this year. We honor the hard work of service Corps members in our communities. I asked local AmeriCorps Volunteers in Services to America (VISTA) members to write about their experience doing a year of service building capacity and fighting poverty at local non-profit agencies. Below Jamie Ports shares her story of service as AmeriCorps VISTA at UC Davis Communities and Health Practitioners Together. For more information about AmeriCorp programs go to http://www.americorps.gov or check out my SacPress article from March 9th titled "AmeriCorps Works". Prior to my AmeriCorps service, I was working as a Peace Corps Health Volunteer in Malawi, Africa from 20

AmeriCorps Week is March 10th-18th this year. We honor the hard work of service Corps members in our communities. I asked local AmeriCorps Volunteers in Services to America (VISTA) members to write about their experience doing a year of service building capacity and fighting poverty at local non-profit agencies. Below Courtney Jallo shares her story of service as AmeriCorps VISTA at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services. For more information about AmeriCorp programs go to http://www.americorps.gov or check out my SacPress article from March 9th titled "AmeriCorps Works".   My name is Courtney; I am a twenty-something female VISTA working at Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services. Fuele

AmeriCorps Week is March 10th-18th this year.  We honor the hard work of service Corps members in our communities.  I asked local AmeriCorps Volunteers in Services to America (VISTA) members to write about their experience doing a year of service building capacity and fighting poverty at local non-profit agencies.  Below Deborah Elliot shares her story of service as AmeriCorps VISTA at The GreenHouse. For more information about AmeriCorp programs go to http://www.americorps.gov  or check out my SacPress article from March 9th titled "AmeriCorps Works".   Deborah's Story: I am a middle child of seven children. Because I grew up in a large family, I didn’t grow up with a lot of things. We

Sacramento City College students, faculty and staff gathered on campus Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the kickoff of the City Farm pilot project, an experiential curriculum-based community garden that will serve as an alternative teaching mechanism for multiple disciplines throughout the next school year. The project was developed over the spring semester by a group of students and administrators led by the school’s faculty garden coordinator and graphic communications professor, Robyn Waxman. “We had been thinking about how to get all these other disciplines to learn from the dirt,” Waxman said, adding that future students will be able to use it for hands-on learning. “It signifies a r

It’s back to the drawing board for designers from the Department of Parks and Recreation and City Councilman Steven Cohn. Plans for a new park in Midtown need to be refined after a community meeting Wednesday that revealed concerns about the future park’s amenities. Community members gave their input Wednesday about the proposed neighborhood park site at 19th and Q streets, which sits on contaminated land. Located across the light rail tracks from Safeway along T and S streets, the 0.9-acre plot of land was acquired by the city of Sacramento in 2008-2009 for approximately $2 million and the property remains gated off according to Mary Debeauvier, a principal planner with the Parks and Re

Four City Council members discussed ways of increasing community gardens in Sacramento on private and public property during the Law and Legislation Committee meeting Tuesday. According to Joy Patterson, the principle planner for the city, the proposed ordinance will lay out how community members can use vacant properties for the development of community gardens where people can come together for the purpose of growing food and personal use. “Several city departments have looked at the issues surrounding community gardens on public property and private property and have prepared a draft ordinance for community gardens on private property for the review and discussion by the Law and Legis

How? By contributing to local history!  While researching my recent article on the Capitol Area Plan and the Ron Mandella Community Garden, I noticed how widely the facts varied from source to source, and how many facts were just plain missing. And even though this is a story that is relatively recent in living memory, the most frequent answer given in every interview I conducted was: “I don’t remember.”  If you have any information about any version of the Capitol Area Plan, the relationship between the Capitol Area Plan and the West End redevelopment project, the history of the Ron Mandella Community Garden (also known as the Terra Firma Garden and the adjacent garden known until the m

(Read Part 1 here, or click on the green Storyline tab) When CADA issued a Request for Proposals to private developers in 2000, the subsequent fight between RMCG advocates and CADA ended in 2004 with the RMCG’s destruction and two new gardens, one built as part of Fremont Mews and one built near Southside Park. A full account of the final protracted battle—especially regarding the lawsuits, the soil remediation issue, and the garden advocates’ organizing strategies—is still lacking, but the contested details of those years are not covered here. Instead, two of CADA’s tactics during this period are reconsidered in light of the evidence presented thus far: one, their presentation of the blo

Fifty years ago last month, the California State Legislature adopted the first version of the Capitol Area Plan (CAP). Revised in 1977 and again in 1997, this document’s incarnations have ordered the acquisition and arrangement of the state’s central city properties in the Capitol Area, a state-defined zone encompassing a sizeable swath of downtown. The story of Sacramento’s downtown development is convoluted, but the CAP is a key thread throughout that story. To mark its golden anniversary, this retrospective focuses on how the plan affected a specific block: the one enclosed by 14th, 15th, P and Q streets. Once the site of the Ron Mandella and Southside Community Gardens, identified as

Tahoe Park residents braved wind and cloudy skies Saturday to attend the grand opening of the Tahoe Park Community Garden. Wielding golden scissors, a team including Congresswoman Doris Matsui and Sacramento City Councilmember Kevin McCarty cut the ceremonial red ribbon. "This will only enhance your neighborhood," Matsui said, "this gives you a gathering place." She went on to say that community gardens reduce crime and vandalism "because everyone now has a stake in the community." The garden, which is on the campus of Tahoe Park Elementary, was created as a means to fight obesity and promote healthy lifestyle choices and eating habits. "Young people sometimes think food comes from McDon

There is so much to be learned from planting, working and harvesting a garden. I’m excited to be a part of a new community garden at 58th & 2nd Ave, and can’t wait to see all our seeds grow. It’s amazing to me the growing number of community gardens in our Sacramento area. One such garden is on the high school campus of Rio Americano. A few years ago when I worked there full time in the Autism program, the teacher felt the need for his students to work with their hands out in a garden, and went about making it happen. The lessons ranged from building boxes, life cycles and cooking to the simplicity of knowing colors and what herbs are used for. While subbing in my old class this past week

Tucked away at the outskirts of Southside Park just before the freeway tangle of 80, 5 and 99, there is a little oasis: the Southside Park Community Garden. The garden is bordered by an iron fence and located on the corner of 5th and W Streets. In that garden you can find a series of plots that gardeners rent out for their own private use. Some grow flowers, many grow food, and all share in the numerous gifts of the garden. I met up with the Master Gardener, Bill Maynard, who is the Community Gardens Coordinator for the 5 community gardens in the greater Sacramento area. I arrived at the garden just as Maynard and 20 volunteers had finished working on several large planters. I peaked ar