The deadline for surveys to be completed in the Sitka Community Food Assessment has been extended to the end of the month. Our goal is 600 completed surveys and as of Tuesday, May 21, we had 392 that had been recorded.
The Sitka Community Food Assessment is a 2012 Sitka Health Summit project designed to help shape food policy and improve Sitka’s food security. To learn more about the project, KCAW-Raven Radio hosted an interview with project coordinator Lisa Sadleir-Hart that aired on Monday, May 20.
Surveys are available online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MQTF22Q, or click the Sitka Community Food Assessment logo in the right column of this webpage. Printed copies are available at Kettleson Memorial Library. A sign has been posted at the corner of Lincoln and Lake streets to update people on the progress of the project.
Millions of people around the world, including several in Sitka, will take a stand by hosting a local March Against Monsanto. The Sitka march takes place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 25, at Castle Hill. So far, more than 370 marches around the world are planned on May 25.
The Sitka March Against Monsanto is being organized by Brett Wilcox, who has created a Facebook page with more details. Brett and his 14-year-old son, David, will take things a step (OK, many steps) further when they start a transcontinental run across the country in January to raise awareness about some of the ethically challenged practices of the agri-business Monsanto. These include creating GMO (genetically modified) foods that are unlabeled and untested, putting patents on crop seed so farmers have to pay high fees to plant food, and more.
In addition to the march, various Sitka residents will speak on a variety of topics, such as how GMO-food causes health problems, the number of former Monsanto executives who now work for our government, farmer suicides in India due to Monsanto practices, the Monsanto Protection Act slipped into the recently passed US Farm Bill, etc.
This month, Brett hosted free Monsanto Movie Nights at 7 p.m. on Fridays, May 10, 17 and 24, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
According to a press release about the event:
Sitka’s March Against Monsanto will be held on Castle Hill, the location where Russia sold the vast territory of Alaska—land it did not own—to the U.S.A.
March organizer, Brett Wilcox, chose Castle Hill for Sitka’s March Against Monsanto for its symbolic significance. “There are many similarities between the original ‘Land Grab’ that took place with the first European expansion and Monsanto’s current global ‘Seed Grab,'” Wilcox states. “Both involve the privatization of Nature, a concept that was largely foreign to Native Americans and Alaska Natives. And both have resulted in loss of freedom and loss of life. The difference is that Monsanto’s seed grab not only further disenfranchises Native Americans; it disenfranchises all nations and all people. The citizens of the world are, as it were, sitting in our canoes in Sitka Sound, watching powerful people and corporations claim and repackage life as their own, thereby stealing our seed sovereignty and seed freedom.”
Chuck Miller, a Tlingit “Elder in Training”, will preside at the event. “My grandmother used to teach my family that we need to treat our food with respect or it will not provide for us,” Miller states. “My ancestors’ teachings are still a very big part of my life and I want to be able to pass that on to my children, grandchildren and those yet to come. GMOs are not the way to treat Mother Earth and the generations yet to come. I urge all the Native people of Alaska and our non-Native brothers and sisters to come and support this cause.”
“Sitka’s March Against Monsanto will not be a traditional march,” says Wilcox. “Sitka’s event will be a ceremony to honor nature as well as the indigenous people of Alaska and the Americas. We will stand on Castle Hill united with the people of the world in defense and protection of life and nature.”
For more information about the Sitka March Against Monsanto, contact Brett Wilcox at 747-7437 or brett@runningthecountry.com, or contact Chuck Miller at 752-9955 or cohomojo25@yahoo.com. KCAW-Raven Radio aired a story on Tuesday, May 21, about Brett’s and David’s plans to run across the country and to host this march. Brett also recorded a commentary for KCAW-Raven Radio.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article first appeared on this site in April 2010. It is repeated because much of the information remains current and newsworthy.)
As you start to plan your garden for this spring and summer, don’t forget to Plant A Row For The Hungry. The Plant A Row For The Hungry program (also known as Plant A Row or PAR) is a national campaign by the Garden Writers Association of America that got its start in Alaska.
In the cold winter of 1994, Anchorage Daily News garden columnist and former Garden Writers Association of America President Jeff Lowenfels was returning to his hotel after a Washington, D.C., event when he was approached by a homeless person who asked for some money to buy food. Lowenfels said Washington, D.C., had signs saying, “Don’t give money to panhandlers,” so he shook his head and kept on walking. But the man’s reply, “I really am homeless and I really am hungry. You can come with me and watch me eat,” stayed with Lowenfels for the rest of his trip.
Jeff Lowenfels
The encounter continued to bother Lowenfels, even as he was flying back to Anchorage. During the flight, Lowenfels came up with an idea when he started writing his weekly garden column (the longest continuously running garden column in the country, with no missed weeks since it started on Nov. 13, 1976). He asked his readers to plant one extra row in their gardens to grow food to donate to Bean’s Café, an Anchorage soup kitchen. The idea took off.
When Anchorage hosted the Garden Writers Association of America convention in 1995, Lowenfels took the GWAA members to Bean’s Café to learn about the Plant A Row For Bean’s Café program. The Garden Writers Association of America liked the idea, and it became the national Plant A Row For The Hungry campaign (also known as Plant A Row or PAR). In 2002, the Garden Writers Association Foundation was created as a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit to manage the Plant A Row For The Hungry program.
“I am not surprised by the growth of PAR,” Lowenfels wrote in an e-mail to the Sitka Local Foods Network. “It is now in all 50 states and across Canada and there are thousands of variations of the original program — from prison gardens for the hungry to botanical gardens donating their produce from public display gardens. This is because gardeners always share information and extra food, so the idea was a natural.”
It took five years for the program to reach its first million pounds of donated food, but the second million only took two years and the next eight years saw a million pounds of donated food (or more) each year. Since 1995, more than 14 million pounds of food have been donated. Not only that, the program is getting ready to expand overseas to Australia, England and other countries with avid gardeners.
“We have supplied something in the vicinity of enough food for 50 million meals,” Lowenfels wrote in his e-mail. “Gardeners can solve this hunger problem without the government. And we don’t need a tea party to do it! Or chemicals, I might add, as author of a book on organic gardening (Teaming With Microbes, written with Wayne Lewis)!” (Lowenfels recently released a second book, Teaming With Nutrients, which is a follow-up to his first book).
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one out of every eight U.S. households experiences hunger or the risk of hunger. Many people skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going an entire day or more without food. About 33 million Americans, including 13 million children, have substandard diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they can’t always afford to buy the food they need. In recent years the demand for hunger assistance has increased 70 percent, and research shows that hundreds of children and adults are turned away from food banks each year because of lack of resources.
While many people credit Lowenfels for creating the Plant A Row For The Hungry program, Lowenfels says the real heroes are the gardeners growing the extra food and donating it to local soup kitchens, senior programs, schools, homeless shelters and neighbors. You can hear him pass along the credit to all gardeners at the end of this interview last year with an Oklahoma television station (video also embedded below).
“One row. That’s all it takes. No rules other than the food goes to the hungry. You pick the drop-off spot or just give it to a needy friend or neighbor. Nothing slips between the lip and the cup, I say,” Lowenfels wrote in his e-mail.
For people wanting to Plant A Row For The Hungry in Sitka, there are several places that would love to help distribute some fresh locally grown veggies or berries to those who are less fortunate, such as the Salvation Army, Sitkans Against Family Violence (SAFV), local churches, Sitka Tribe of Alaska and other organizations. The food the Sitka Local Foods Network grows at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden goes to the Sitka Farmers Market.
The Sitka Local Foods Network also takes donations of local produce to sell at the Sitka Farmers Markets, and all proceeds are used to help pay for SLFN projects geared toward helping more people in Sitka grow and harvest local food. For more information, contact SLFN President Lisa Sadleir-Hart or one of the other board members at sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.
(The following is a letter to the editor sent to the Daily Sitka Sentinel from Blatchley Middle School earth science teacher Karen Lucas. The letter ran in the Thursday, May 16, 2013, edition, and Karen provided the Sitka Local Foods Network with a copy to post on our site.)
Dear Editor,
For our soil conservation studies, the seventh grade earth science students at Blatchley Middle School had a local soils expert come to class.
On a very sunny Monday, a couple weeks ago, Kerry MacLane, clad in bib overalls and broad brimmed hat, with his loaded-up wheelbarrow with five types of local soil, mini-greenhouse, plant starts, a very informative visual presentation, a tubular water wall, and a scavenger hunt up his sleeve that included a solar electric panel, solar powered fan, kale plants, newest compost pile, garlic and raspberry canes, wheeled his way down the halls of Blatchley.
After a concise basic powerpoint on local soils, greenhouse productivity, where our food comes from, and how Sitka disposes of waste; and learning that optimum soil for Sitka is one-third native soils, one-third compost and one-third sand; that starfish and herring eggs are good for the garden, too, and the lively discussion therewith; two teams were supplied each with a different scavenger hunt, and the class departed for the Blatchley Community Garden behind the school to identify items on their list.
Students nibbled on chives, kale and rhubarb, and generally exulted in being outdoors on that fine day in spring. Returning to the classroom, discussion ensued about the Farmer’s Markets, community greenhouse project, and the Sitka Local Foods Network, and how students could get involved in local gardening at home or in the community.
Kerry has certainly helped raise the consciousness of Blatchley students, and Sitkans alike, has been, and continues to be, instrumental in helping Sitka to progress toward sustainability in growing our own food, promoting community gardens, spearheading the Sitka Farmers Markets, and local greenhouse project that is underfoot, for all this, and for spending that Monday with us in the indoor and outdoor classroom, the Blatchley Middle School seventh grade earth science students are grateful; so, on their behalf and mine, thank you, Mr. MacLane, for sharing your knowledge with us about local soils, making relevant and useful, the ‘dirt on dirt.’
Karen Lucas Earth Science Teacher Blatchley Middle School
(The following editorial about protecting forage fish, such as Pacific herring, was submitted to local media on April 11 by Sitka Tribe of Alaska tribal chairman Michael Baines.)
State of Alaska Denies Herring Forage Fish Status
Currently Pacific herring are acknowledged as a keystone forage fish species that is responsible for maintaining the health of the marine ecosystem in the waters of California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia (BC). As you cross the maritime boundary between BC and Alaska herring lose their forage fish status and become just another commercially harvested finfish. At a recent Board of Fish meeting in Anchorage, the Board heard testimony from fishery managers, the herring industry and the public on a proposal that would have acknowledged herring as a forage fish by adding them to the State’s Forage Fish Management Plan (FFMP).
The FFMP became effective in 1999 and was intended to prevent the development of new fisheries on forage fish while allowing existing commercial forage fisheries to continue. The Plan states that forage fish perform a critical role in the marine ecosystem by transferring energy from primary (zooplankton) and secondary (phytoplankton) producers to upper trophic level shellfish, finfish, marine mammals and sea birds. The Plan also recognizes that, “abundant populations of forage fish are necessary to sustain healthy populations of commercially important species of salmon, groundfish, halibut, and shellfish.”
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game commented that adding herring the FFMP would not affect the way it currently manages herring fisheries in the State. When asked by the Board if herring met the definition and fulfilled the role of a forage fish as described in the Plan, the ADF&G Southeast Regional Commercial Fisheries Coordinator responded that he felt they did.
Supporters of the plan stressed that herring are an ecological keystone species that are recognized around the world as a forage fish. The Federal government holds herring to a higher standard that other forage fish by having no directed fisheries on herring in federal waters and by listing them as a prohibited species that is not allowed to be retained as by-catch.
Herring industry representatives testified that they felt herring stocks are healthy, well managed and did not need to be acknowledged as a forage fish. Concerns were also expressed that listing herring as a forage fish would lead to changes in the way herring are managed. This would have required the State to look at herring in a different light. It may have paved the way for more conservative forage fish friendly management plans to be brought forth through the Board of Fisheries process in the future.
Unfortunately for Alaskans, this proposal was voted down on a 4-3 vote. Three of the opposing Board members are commercial fishermen or have ties to the commercial fishing industry. These Board members reiterated comments made by the industry that herring stocks are healthy, well managed and did not need to be listed in the plan.
The arguments put forth by the industry representatives and members of the Board in opposition to the proposal were not germane to the issue of adding herring to the FFMP. The health of a population has nothing to do with its definition as a forage fish. If this were the case the Lynn Canal and Prince William Sound herring stocks would be considered forage fish while the apparently healthy Togiak stock would not have the same status. Likewise, if acknowledging herring as a forage fish by adding them to the FFMP eventually changes the way stocks are managed, it should tell us something about their current management.
The acknowledgement of herring as a forage fish would have allowed managers to look at herring in a different light and might have paved the way for more conservative forage fish friendly management plans to be brought forth through the Board of Fisheries process in the future. Refusal by the State of Alaska to acknowledge herring as a forage fish sends a message to the world about Alaska’s biased Board of Fish process and the State’s priorities when it comes to managing its marine resources. Alaska boasts having the best managed fisheries in the world, but that reputation is now tarnished. It’s a sad day for Alaskans when greed and political influence win out over the common good of all who live in this great State.
If you feel the Board of Fisheries erred in their decision to deny herring forage fish status, you are encouraged to contact Alaska Governor Sean Parnell and the Board of Fisheries and request that the State reconsider adding herring to the State’s FFMP. This is an Alaskan resource that needs to be managed for the benefit of all Alaskans.
(Sent to)
Governor Sean Parnell, P.O. Box 110001, Juneau, AK 99811-0001, Phone (907) 465-3500, governor@alaska.gov
and
Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Board of Fisheries, P.O. Box 115526, 1255 W. 8th Street, Juneau, AK 99811-5526
On Sunday, March 10, I’ll be in Sitka to participate in the Let’s Grow Sitka garden education event. But I won’t be there to give you tips on how to grow abundant food — fine Master Gardeners and other local and national experts will be on hand do that. I’m coming to motivate you! I have so much confidence in the gardeners of Sitka that my job is to prepare you for your bumper crops. Imagine winter meals with food stored and preserved from your garden.
I will have information about preparing and safely preserving your harvest, and I’ll have a pressure canning gauge tester on hand to test your gauges. I’ll have information about a wide range of vegetables and how you can enjoy them over the summer and even after your garden has been put to rest for the winter.
I look forward to coming to Sitka regularly in the coming years, and welcome calls and emails from Sitkans with questions about food (preparation, preservation, safety, and entrepreneurship), home resource use and conservation (energy, food, finances, and consumer goods), and family emergency preparedness. I’m here to assist individuals and support agencies and groups in their own work, with Cooperative Extension classes, information, and publications.
Please stop by the Let’s Grow Sitka event from noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, at the ANB Founders Hall at 235 Katlian. Come chat with me, bring your questions and ideas, and take advantage of all the resources Let’s Grow Sitka will have to offer.
And always feel free to contact me at 907-796-6241 or sarah.lewis@alaska.edu at the UAF Cooperative Extension Service office in Juneau.
Mark your calendars as the Sitka Local Foods Network will host two big garden events Saturday and Sunday, March 9-10, in Sitka.
The first event is a presentation by Shane Smith of the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Botanic Gardens from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 9, in Room 229 of the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka Campus. The second event is the fifth annual Let’s Grow Sitka garden education event from noon until 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall, 235 Katlian (don’t forget to set your clocks ahead an hour Saturday night).
The Sitka Local Foods Network is excited to bring Shane Smith to town to discuss gardens and greenhouses. Shane is the founder of the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Botanic Gardens and has been its director since 1977. Shane is the author of the Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion, and he will be signing copies of his book. Shane received the American Horticulture Society’s 2012 Great American Gardener Award.
Shane also will have a booth at Sunday’s Let’s Grow Sitka event, which is an annual event designed to get Sitka residents excited about the upcoming garden season. This annual event brings together local garden supply stores, local gardeners, landscapers and anybody who is interested in learning how to grow food and/or flowers.
There will be a wide variety of individuals and businesses with booths for the event, with some booths providing gardening information geared toward and others selling gardening supplies. Lunch will be available for purchase. There also will be a chance to learn from certified Master Gardeners, a chance to learn about greenhouses and high tunnels, an opportunity to buy seeds and seed potatoes, and there’s a scavenger hunt for the kids.
For more information, contact Linda Wilson at 747-3096 (evenings and weekends) or Cathy Lieser at 1-907-978-2572. Table space still may be available for people wanting to provide information about different types of gardening or gardening products/services available in Sitka.
The Sitka Local Foods Network thanks the City and Borough of Sitka, Shee Atika Corp., and the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) Diabetes Programs for their help in making these events possible.
Bob Gorman, Extension Agent of the Sitka office of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, shows some germinating seed starts during a free garden workshop on March 11, 2009.
The course is a basic horticulture class covering such topics as soil and pest management, food gardening, greenhouses and season extenders, and plant propagation.
The purpose of the service learning class is to train community people who will provide 40 hours of Master Gardener-related community service in Sitka.
The class costs $150 including the manual, handouts, supplies, and instruction. The class consists of lectures, demonstrations, reading, laboratory exercises, videos and DVD’s. The instructor is Sitka-based UAF Cooperative Extension Service Agent Bob Gorman.
Preregistration is necessary. To register for the class go to http://bit.ly/ces-workshops or call 907-747-9440.
The class begins at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 7, and finishes April 18 with a final exam. Instruction is on six Saturdays and four Thursdays. Part of the Alaska Master Gardener and Southeast Alaska Master Gardener programs include public service, where Master Gardener students help with community gardening projects.
Students should be high school graduates, GED or similar education level. Home school and high school students are welcome.
For questions about the class or course content, contact the instructor at 907-747-9440.
Pacific High School, the alternative high school in Sitka, has been awarded a VISTA volunteer for up to three years to develop the school’s lunch program for replication, and to add summer food service and farm-to-school elements.
“It’s a very exciting opportunity for a person with a passion for food to gain program development skills and really make a difference in food systems here in Sitka,” Pacific High co-principal Sarah Ferrency said.
Applications are being accepted with the job to start in April. To apply, go to the Corporation of National Services website. A two-page job description is posted below. For more information, contact Sarah Ferrency at ferrencys@sitkaschools.org.
In addition to the dozen films, the festival will feature an appearance by Tlingít chef Robert Kinneen about the Store Outside Your Door (a project with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) promoting healthy traditional foods). There also will be a roundtable discussion about Sitka’s food resiliency (food security).
The festival opens with a feature film TBA at 8:30 p.m. on Friday night at the Larkspur Cafe.
On Saturday at Harrigan Centennial Hall, the schedule includes Ratatouille (a family friendly movie) at 10 a.m., Ingredients at 12:30 p.m., End of the Line at 2:30 p.m., Two Angry Moms at 3:45 p.m., followed by a roundtable discussion about Sitka’s food resiliency from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Saturday’s schedule concludes with another feature film TBA at 8:30 p.m. at the Larkspur Cafe.
Besides the Sitka Conservation Society, the film festival is sponsored by the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, SEARHC, Sitka Food Co-op, ArtChange Inc., Sitka Film Society, Alaska Pure Sea Salt Co., and the Larkspur Cafe. On Tuesday, Feb. 19, Tracy Gagnon with the Sitka Conservation Society and Andrianna Natsoulas with the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust were interviewed on KCAW-Raven Radio’s Morning Edition program about the film festival, and you can click here to listen to the interview.
Sitka Local Foods Network 
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