Ann DeSanctis' June Update
Pittsburgh Food Policy Council - All of the hard work to get ready for the PFPC new invitee meeting finally paid off the day-of. We had solid attendance and, for those who were there, the ideas, collaboration, and narrowing of goals was a great success. Looking forward, we are planning on expanding the steering committee with more diverse members and we are trying to determine if we can move the Symposium from the proposal to the planning stage.
Pittsburgh Garden Experiment- Jeff and I, after having the PGE meetup/blog site be riddled with events at the end of May that will last us through mid-July, decided to concentrate on our hands-on work. This started with combing the thrift stores all over town for blank t-shirts on which to print. Then we went to town with screen printing one weekend at the Braddock library and we have already sold a couple of shirts with the hopes of selling them all. Our storage/office space is coming along. We procured white boards and the permaculture clients are keeping Jeff and I busy. Even more exciting is that the Children’s Museum, who had us water two gardens with compost tea, is looking to start composting for the whole museum through ComposTable.
Penn State Ag Extension - The venue search for next year’s Local Foods Showcase is already underway and I briefed the support staff with the requirements so we can start narrowing down. With full permission from Heather to “go for it” in regards to blogs I posted two in-depth blogs (Arsenal Cheese and the National Value Added Conference [NVAC] tour) with pictures and have ideas for more to come. The NVAC was a fun volunteer event for me and I made some great networking connections.
SCA- SCA trainings were focused on entrepreneurship, especially related to sustainable agriculture and were presented by Heather from Penn State and Jeff from PGE/Steel City Soils. It was great fun to volunteer at the Garfield farm and I hope to return!
Other- Additionally, I attended the PNCIS conference at Pitt, and Urban Ecology Collaborative meeting (that I hope to keep attending), and a Basic Grant Writing workshop through the Foundation Center. Now I just need to find time to write a grant or two!
