Thanks For A Great MLK Day!

On Monday of this week, we had a great turnout for our MLK Day of Service. 70 students and a dozen team leaders, as well as 6 AmeriCorps VISTA's from GFGH took part in the challenge, serving a combined 520 hours at local non-profits.

We have about 100 photos posted on our Facebook page if you want to check them out and we'll try to have a slideshow up soon as well.

Many thanks go out to our sponsors; the Corporation for National & Community Service, and Wisconsin Campus Compact, for providing us with a grant to fund the day's activities; Wilmington College for giving us a space to host our event, vehicles for volunteers to get to their sites, and for the staff and faculty who volunteered as team leaders; and to Chipotle of Jeffersonville, for feeding our volunteers lunch. It was delicious!

Following our Day of Service, we kicked off a canned food drive in the local community, which will end on Friday, January 20th. The proceeds from this drive will go to the local food pantries and shelters.

January/February Newsletter

Click below to view a copy of our most recent newsletter.

In this double issue, you can read about how GFGH made Martin Luther King, Jr. Day into a "Day On" instead of a "Day Off" with the MLK Day Collegiate Challenge on January 16th. You can read our review of "The Bountiful Container", find out about upcoming Read & Seed Events, and try out a new recipe. We also have our Volunteer Spotlight as usual and we've introduced a new feature called the Harvest Calendar, which will help gardeners to plan out their growing season with useful tips and reminders.

January/February 2012

To find copies of our previous newsletters, please click here. And if you would like to get the Grow Food, Grow Hope Newsletter in you inbox, it's easy! Just click to sign up!

If you have comments or suggestions, please let us know.Thanks!

MLK Day Collegiate Challenge

JANUARY 16th, 2012 WILL BE A DAY ON - NOT A DAY OFF!

We currently have 85 participants signed up to take part in the MLK Day Collegiate Challenge at Wilmington College. This is a dedicated group, choosing to make the National Holiday into a “day on” instead of a “day off”. Students, College faculty and staff, and VISTAs from Grow Food, Grow Hope will take part in the day of service, volunteering at six local non-profits. Teams will have just three hours to complete their projects and a budget of around $100 a piece. Funding for the day of service comes to us from a grant from Wisconsin Campus Compact and the Center for National & Community Service.

The day of service which has an Olympic theme will kick off at 9:30am in the McCoy Room in Kelley Center on the Wilmington College Campus. Volunteers will be fed a light breakfast provided by Sodexo and at 11:00, teams will head out to their respective service sites to begin their work.

Teams will do such tasks as; painting, cleaning and organizing, and light repairs. When volunteers have completed their challenge, serving for a total of 255 combined hours, they will return to the college where a free lunch from Chipotle of Jeffersonville will be waiting for them. During the meal, teams will be asked to reflect on their service experiences.

Later in the evening, Wilmington College is hosting MLK Convocation Celebration and will kick off the start of a 5 day canned food drive which will end on Friday, January 20th. For information on where to donate, please contact Meghan Otto.