Blatchley Community Gardens

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#SeedMoneyChallenge fundraiser launches today for Jarvis Street community garden project

Sitka’s Jarvis Street community garden project is participating in the annual #SeedMoneyChallenge, a 30-day fundraising challenge running from Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, and we could really use your support.

In addition to keeping 100 percent of the funds we raise from individuals like you, we have a chance to win a challenge grant of up to $1,000 from SeedMoney based on how much we raise over the course of the 30-day challenge period. The fundraiser goes live at 8 a.m. Alaska Time on Wednesday, Nov. 15, and we are competing against more than 400 other garden projects around the world.

The Jarvis Street community garden project is one of two community garden projects originally proposed by Transition Sitka and the Sitka Local Foods Network, which would fill a glaring need in this town since the Blatchley Community Garden was closed in 2016. This project will build a new half-acre community garden at the top of Jarvis Street, near where the Sitka Homeless Coalition is building a tiny home neighborhood for unhoused Sitkans.

The funds raised in this campaign will go toward the $2,000 cost of a survey on the proposed site, which is needed for permitting the garden. Even though the garden site has Sitka Assembly approval, there are preliminary hurdles, such as paying for a licensed surveyor to establish the garden boundaries. Transition Sitka will receive the funds from this campaign.

As extra incentives, SeedMoney is offering a $400 bonus grant to the campaign that raises the most in the first 24 hours and 50 $100 bonus grants to the 50 campaigns that raise the most during the first week. Your support on launch day can help us secure one of these bonus grants.

Please support our campaign here, https://donate.seedmoney.org/9535/jarvis-street-community-garden.

For more information, go to https://transitionsitka.org/projects/sitka-food/sitka-community-gardens/ or call project coordinator Joel Hanson at 907-747-9834.

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Sitka Planning Commission to discuss community gardens proposal at Wednesday meeting

The Sitka Planning Commission will hear testimony on a lease request to build two community gardens on city land during its meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 19, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

Transition Sitka and the Sitka Local Foods Network are jointly making the proposal, which would build Sitka’s first true community gardens since Blatchley Community Garden closed in 2016. The proposal will build two community gardens, one off Osprey Street behind the Vilandre Park ballfield next to Blatchley Middle School and a garden off the top of the Jarvis Street hill near where the new village of tiny homes for the homeless will be built.

“These gardens will fill a big food security need in our community, since we have a lot of people who live on boats or in apartments where they don’t have gardening space,” Sitka Local Foods Network board president Charles Bingham said. “When we worked on the Sitka Comprehensive Plan 2030, building new community gardens was listed as a major goal for the near future.”

There was a town hall on July 10 to discuss the proposal, which was moderated by the Sitka Planning and Community Development Department. KCAW did a morning interview before the town hall, and the Daily Sitka Sentinel wrote a story about the meeting (paywall).

For more information, go to https://transitionsitka.org/projects/sitka-food/sitka-community-gardens/ or call project coordinator Joel Hanson at 907-747-9834.

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Check out the July 2023 edition of the Sitka Local Foods Network newsletter

The Sitka Local Foods Network just sent out the July 2023 edition of its monthly newsletter. Feel free to click this link to get a copy.

This month’s newsletter includes short stories about the opening of the 2023 Sitka Farmers Market season, an upcoming town hall about building new community gardens, an update about how you can support the Sitka Local Foods Network by buying a t-shirt or hoodie from our online store, information about our 2023 sponsorship programs, and an invitation to join our board of directors. Each story has links to our website for more information.

You can sign up for future editions of our newsletter by clicking on the newsletter image in the right column of our website and filling in the information. If you received a copy but didn’t want one, there is a link at the bottom of the newsletter so you can unsubscribe. Our intention is to get the word out about upcoming events and not to spam people. We will protect your privacy by not sharing our email list with others. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, like our Sitka Farmers Market page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@SitkaLocalFoods).

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Town hall meeting on July 10 will discuss new community garden proposal for Sitka

A town hall meeting to discuss Sitka community gardens will take place from 6-8 p.m. on Monday, July 10, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

Nonprofits Sitka Local Foods Network and Transition Sitka are proposing to build two community gardens — on Jarvis Street and off Osprey Street.

The city’s Department of Planning and Community Development will moderate the discussion of the two proposals.

For more information, go to https://transitionsitka.org/projects/sitka-food/sitka-community-gardens/ or call Joel Hanson at 907-747-9834.

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Check out the April 2023 edition of the Sitka Local Foods Network newsletter

The Sitka Local Foods Network just sent out the April 2023 edition of its monthly newsletter. Feel free to click this link to get a copy.

This month’s newsletter includes short stories about an effort to build two new community gardens in Sitka, our search for a 2023 Sitka Farmers Market manager, the upcoming deadline of the 2023 Pick.Click.Give. donation period, an update about how you can support the Sitka Local Foods Network by buying a t-shirt or hoodie from our online store, information about our 2023 sponsorship programs, and an invitation to join our board of directors. Each story has links to our website for more information.

You can sign up for future editions of our newsletter by clicking on the newsletter image in the right column of our website and filling in the information. If you received a copy but didn’t want one, there is a link at the bottom of the newsletter so you can unsubscribe. Our intention is to get the word out about upcoming events and not to spam people. We will protect your privacy by not sharing our email list with others. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, like our Sitka Farmers Market page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@SitkaLocalFoods).

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Transition Sitka, Sitka Local Foods Network work to bring community gardens back to Sitka

In the spring of 2016, Sitka’s main community garden, Blatchley Community Garden was closed. Since then, Sitka hasn’t had a true community garden. But that soon might change.

Joel Hanson, who is part of the community sustainability group Transition Sitka and recently joined the board of the Sitka Local Foods Network, has been working on a proposal to create two community gardens. Both are about half an acre with 50 or more 10-foot-by-20-foot garden plots each, and located on city property. One is located off Osprey Street, next to the Vilandre baseball field next to Blatchley Middle School. The other is located near the top of Jarvis Street, near where the Sitka Homeless Coalition is building a new tiny house community for the unhoused.

More details, including maps, are included in the two linked handouts at the bottom of this story.

“Community gardens plant the seeds for a solution to community food security,” Hanson said. “They create a sense of place and cooperative engagement. They promote health, advance equity, encourage inclusion and foster resiliency. They are for people of all ages.”

“Rebuilding a community garden in Sitka has been a major need as far as food security in the years since Blatchley Community Garden was closed,” Sitka Local Foods Network president Charles Bingham said. “We have a lot of people in town who want to grow their own food, but they live in an apartment or on a boat and don’t have the space to garden. This gives them a place to grow their own produce. When Blatchley Community Garden was closed, all of the spaces were being used and there was a waiting list. This proposal fills that need and allows space for expansion.”

Over the past few months, Hanson has been meeting with city officials and committees/commissions, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, UAF Cooperative Extension Service, and other organizations to develop the proposal linked below. These community gardens still need approval before they can be developed. Once approved, we will need to raise money for supplies, recruit volunteers or hire workers to develop the land (which may involve cutting trees and leveling off soil), and more.

If you are interested in volunteering, helping raise money to build the gardens, having a plot in one of the gardens, or just staying in touch with what’s happening, please click this link and complete the short survey, https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SitkaGardens. For more details, contact Joel Hanson at 907-747-9834 or email captainjoel@alaskan.com.

• Sitka community gardens project prospectus (with maps of both locations)

• Two-page Q&A sheet with more information

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Like what we do? Please join our board of directors or volunteer with us

The 2019 Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors, from left, Amanda Anjum, Charles Bingham, Nina Vizcarrondo, Laura Schmidt, Stanley Lopata. We are recruiting new board members for 2021.

Did you enjoy the fresh local veggies at the Sitka Farmers Market this summer? Did you take any of our garden education classes this spring? Are you concerned about increasing access to local food for all Sitka residents?

The Sitka Local Foods Network is holding an open house for potential board members and volunteers from 6-7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 9. Due to COVID-19 coronavirus health concerns and the need to social-distance, we will meet using Zoom online meetings (a meeting link will be sent by email if you contact Charles Bingham at the email address below). This is a good time to learn about what we’re doing and how you can help.

Please consider joining the board of directors for the Sitka Local Foods Network to help us pursue our mission to increase the amount of locally produced and harvested food in the diets of Southeast Alaskans. We need more board members in order to keep running our programs.

Board members help direct the Sitka Local Foods Network, a non-profit that promotes the harvest and use of local food in Sitka. In addition to setting the focus of the group during our monthly meetings, board members also serve on at least one committee supporting at our three main projects of the Sitka Farmers Market, St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, and garden education. In 2018, we launched the annual Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest to encourage food entrepreneurs in Sitka.

We also hope to help with the Sitka Community Gardens project as we look for a new location now that Blatchley Community Garden has been closed. In addition, some board members have supported other local foods projects in Sitka, such as the Sitka Kitch, Let’s Grow Sitka, the Sick-A-Waste compost project, the Sitka Community Food Assessment project, Sitka Fish-To-Schools, other school education projects and more.

To apply for a spot on the board, please fill out the application linked below and submit it to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.org. For more information, please email us. Please note this is a working board, and our group is evolving and maturing as we try to raise funds to hire staff. Board terms are for three years, with seats up for reapplication each winter.

We also are looking to increase our pool of volunteers who will help out during the various projects hosted by the network each year (no formal application needed, just send us your name/contact info and what types of projects you enjoy). We need volunteers to help with the upcoming Sitka Farmers Markets, helpers for our lead gardener at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, and people to teach gardening classes.

The next regular Sitka Local Foods Network board meeting is from 6-7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 9, using Zoom online meetings (email sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com to get a link to join our meeting). The board usually meets once every 4-6 weeks. Please note, we will sometimes move our meetings to avoid conflicts with board member schedules, venue schedules and to ensure a quorum. All of our board meetings are open to the public.

Click here for a copy of the Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors job description. Click here for a copy of the board application.

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First Baptist Church community garden has limited space available for new gardeners

Were you one of the many Sitkans who lost your garden plot two years ago when the Sitka School District closed Blatchley Community Gardens? The small community garden in front of Sitka’s First Baptist Church has some (limited) space available to grow veggies this year.

The community garden at First Baptist Church is located on the Crabapple Drive side of the church’s property at 514 Halibut Point Road. Some of the ground will need some work, but there is a pile of topsoil by the garden for those building raised garden beds.

Sam Pointer, who is coordinating the space for the church, said about a quarter of the garden’s space is available to Sitka gardeners, and possibly more. To learn more about how you can sign up to use space at the church garden, contact Sam at 623-7775 or dad4lyf@yahoo.com.

In the meantime, we are looking for more community garden space in Sitka. If you have garden space available, contact Sitka Local Foods Network president Charles Bingham at 623-7660 or charleswbingham3@gmail.com.

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Sitka community gardens project meeting on Thursday moved to Harrigan Centennial Hall

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Since the Sitka School District closed Blatchley Community Gardens in October, the gardeners have been removing their raised garden beds and soil in preparation for finding a new location for Sitka’s community gardens.

Due to a schedule conflict, the Sitka community gardens project meeting scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 1, has been moved to Harrigan Centennial Hall instead of its originally scheduled location of the Sitka Community Hospital classroom.

The Sitka community gardens project is one of the two community wellness projects chosen at the 10th annual Sitka Health Summit in October. Because of the recent closure of the Blatchley Community Gardens by the Sitka School District, Sitka residents are looking for a replacement site and structure for some new community gardens. People are encouraged to bring their ideas about where they think might be a good location for new gardens, and how the gardens should be structured.

All are invited. For more information, contact Dave Nuetzel, 738-8372, or go to community.garden@hotmail.com or sitkagardens@gmail.com. People also can like the Sitka Community Gardens page on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Sitka-Community-Gardens-210713299032006/, for more info.

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Check out the December 2016 edition of the Sitka Local Foods Network newsletter

snapshotdecember2016slfnnewsletter

The Sitka Local Foods Network just sent out the December 2016 edition of its monthly newsletter. Feel free to click this link to get a copy.

This month’s newsletter includes short articles about our #GivingTuesday campaign on Nov. 29, a request for new board members, an update on two food-related Sitka Health Summit projects, and info about some upcoming classes at the Sitka Kitch. Each story has links to our website for more information.

You can sign up for future editions of our newsletter by clicking on the registration form image in the right column of our website and filling in the information. If you received a copy but didn’t want one, there is a link at the bottom of the newsletter so you can unsubscribe. Our intention is to get the word out about upcoming events and not to spam people. We will protect your privacy by not sharing our email list with others.