Get Involved

Greetings Growers!

We are excited to start the new year and dive into our projects and committee plans, won’t you help us? A main area of focus for us this year is engage and increase our membership.

We are committed to providing our members garden space to grow their own food. In addition to maintaining your garden we ask that all members invest some time on a committee of their choice. We seek to engage our members by broadening opportunities for engagement with sustainable agriculture. You do not need to have a garden with us to participate in these committees. In fact we have a number of members who only serve on committees. Please review the committees listed below. You can also get involved by initiating your own project or by joining our leadership team! We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you out at the farm!

Joining our Leadership Team: Officers are a huge part of making the farm a success. We are always looking to engage students with leadership opportunities. Past leaders have gone on to manage culinary farms, work as food journalists, produce inspired art with natural dyes, and work as leaders in their communities. The farm has served as a wonderful catalyst for students to explore their passion for food-be it medicine, food, or art. Email us to join the team at kufarming@gmail.com.

The Service Learning Initiative: an initiative to engage with service learning by seeking opportunities to connect student volunteers with farmers and gardeners in Northeast Kansas. The connections we make via this initiative are priceless, as are the experiences we have at these farms, school programs, and gardens! Volunteering is considered service learning and can assist students in attaining their Certification of Service Learning (CSL) from KU. The CSL appears on your transcript and shows the University’s recognition of your achievements.  Learn more about getting certified at the Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. If you have taken a service learning course we encourage you to consider earning your certificate by volunteering or by serving in a leadership position with the farm. We are currently recruiting officers. Don’t graduate without this important designation on your transcript!  While this is not a committee, we are recruiting a member to work with advertising this certificate to our members. Got ideas about how to increase participation? We would love to hear them.

Community Advisor Program: Not a student, faculty, or staff at KU? Want to get involved? We have created a program just for you! As a community advisor you serve an on-going role in strengthening our organization and influencing members devoted to sustainable living.  As an advisor you set the pace of your involvement. We ask that all advisors serve an educational role. Some serve our community simply by providing a yearly workshop, others participate hands-on by overseeing projects at the farm. This program is only limited by our own imagination! Advisors are integral to our ability to connect with the Lawrence community in a long-term sustainable manner. Interested in getting involved, have a passion for educating students about sustainability? Contact us to get involved! kufarming@gmail.com

Farm Committees: As a farm member you can select one of four committees to participate in. Please review the description of each. You can also propose a project or join the leadership team. Each committee is chaired by one of our officers.

1. Sustainability Committee: This newly formed committee works to maintain, improve and expand upon our compost system and other farm projects.  Healthy soil is integral to any land management system and we are excited to work closely with our community advisors to make sure we establish and maintain a successful and sustainable food system. This is a great opportunity to learn about what goes into making great compost/soil which is integral to organic sustainable gardening! This committee also serves to develop long-term planning at the farm.
   1. Compost
      1. Greening with Grounds: We currently need folks committed to pick up and delivery of coffee grounds from campus to the farm. These grounds serve as a great source of “green” material for our sheet composting all winter.
2. Fundraising Committee: is a committee committed to finding, planning and executing fundraising opportunities.  We had a very successful fundraising event with Chipotle and will be planning a similar event soon. We will also be making seed jewelry to sell at the Kaw Valley Seed Fair and terrariums to sell at the Lawrence Earth Day event in 2015.
3. Outreach Committee is dedicated to connecting others to opportunities in Lawrence and to building community through volunteerism in agriculture. We seek to be one piece in building a solid infrastructure for our Lawrence community of growers. See the following subcommittees and get involved.
   1. Transplant/Seed Donations: There is more and more need to have folks help us regularly in the greenhouse.  In late winter we start plants in the greenhouse for our members and the community.  Every year we donate hundreds of plants and seeds to area gardens. Recipients have included the Boys & Girls Club Teen Center Garden, Healthy Sprouts, Delaware Commons, the Lawrence Community Garden Project, the Food Action Network, and the South Middle School garden.  In order for us to grow healthy organic plants we need help.  This committee also works to source, donate, and organize our seed supply. We have regular work days on Sundays starting in March.  Please consider donating your time or joining this important committee
   2. Community Garden Sponsorship Program: Are you interested in working with us to promote your community garden to the KU community?  Please email us if you coordinate a community garden and have interest in this program (kufarming@gmail.com). We know that access and convenience to a space is central to incentivizing new growers to get involved with community gardens and food growing projects. We love promoting any garden in town and letting students know about all the rich opportunities in Lawrence. Sponsoring your garden simply means that we promote and work with you to recruit new members from the KU community.  Sponsorship can also extend to a partnership where we work together to enhance our shared vision in developing a just and equitable sustainable food system. We currently sponsoring and provide management support to the Lawrence Community Garden Project and the Lawrence Community Shelter community garden.
   3. Volunteerism in Sustainable Agriculture: We organize volunteer events to assist those working towards sustainable food systems in the community. We have organized events for the Lawrence Community Shelter, the Prairie Moon Okanis Garden, The Lawrence Community Garden Project, Red Tractor Farm, Lominska’s and others. Committee members should device creative ways to recruit volunteers and to establish strong relationships with area organizations, growers, and farms.
   4. ECM Veggie Lunch: Our group has committed to cooking Veggie Lunch at Ecumenical Campus Ministries (ECM) 2-4 times every semester. Veggie Lunch is a weekly, all-volunteer run vegetarian lunch at the ECM at KU. This program has a long history of feeding our community healthy vegetarian meals. We need folks to help plan, prepare and cook the meals on Wednesday nights. Lunch is served every Thursday during the school year. Please email ecmku@ku.edu if you would like to volunteer regularly. Email us at kufarming@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer when our group cooks.

 

 

Advertisement