Sitka Local Foods Network

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• Sitka community greenhouse project to host two meetings this week

This is the inside of a community greenhouse built above the Arctic Circle in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, that has been one of the models for the Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center (Photo from http://www.cityfarmer.org/inuvik.html).

This is the inside of a community greenhouse built above the Arctic Circle in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, that has been one of the models for the Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center (Photo from http://www.cityfarmer.org/inuvik.html).

The Sitka community greenhouse project will host two meetings this week about its project and how it might impact Blatchley Community Gardens.

The first meeting is an informal tea for people leasing garden plots at Blatchley Community Gardens, and it takes place  at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 15, at the Sitka Westmark Hotel dining room. The meeting topic will be people to share ideas about improvements and expansion of the community gardening in Sitka.

The second meeting is the regular monthly meeting of the Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center project, and it takes place at 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Sitka Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall (408 Marine Street, parking is off Spruce Street). This meeting will feature reports from committee members on possible building sites (one possible site is at Blatchley Community Gardens).

For more information, contact Kerry MacLane at 752-0654.

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• In 2014, you can support the Sitka Local Foods Network through the Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend’s Pick.Click.Give. program

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Each year Alaskans get to share in the state’s oil wealth through the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend program. Starting in 2014, Alaskans can share their wealth with the Sitka Local Foods Network through the PFD’s Pick.Click.Give. program.

This is the first year the Sitka Local Foods Network will participate in the Pick.Click.Give. program, which allows people to donate in $25 increments to their favorite statewide and local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations when they file their PFD applications from Jan. 1 through March 31. When you choose to donate part of your PFD to the Sitka Local Foods Network, you support the Sitka Farmers Market, St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, Blatchley Community Gardens, education programs about growing and preserving food, the sustainable use of traditional foods, the Sitka Community Food Assessment, the Sitka Food Summit, and a variety of other projects designed to increase access to healthy local foods in Sitka.

Lovalaska FB Square PhotoGrid Tag (1)In 2013 there were 26,063 Alaskans who gave nearly $2.45 million to their favorite nonprofit organizations, up from $545,000 donated by 5,175 people in the program’s first year of 2009. Some Alaskans choose to donate to just one group, while others may spread several donations around to many groups. There now are more than 500 total 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations participating in Pick.Click.Give. for 2014, including 22 from Sitka.

So how do you make a donation to the Sitka Local Foods Network through the Pick.Click.Give. program? First, go to http://pfd.alaska.gov/ and fill out your PFD application. When you get to the section of the application asking if you want to participate in Pick.Click.Give., click on the PCG link and search for the Sitka Local Foods Network. You also can look for us by using the town search for Sitka.

The Pick.Click.Give. program only is available to people who file their PFD applications online, and not to those who file by mail. Even though you can’t file a new PFD application after March 31, you can go into your application and update your Pick.Click.Give. donations through August.

You still can donate to the Sitka Local Foods Network if you aren’t from Alaska or aren’t eligible for a 2014 PFD. To donate, send your check to the Sitka Local Foods Network, 408D Marine St., Sitka, Alaska, 99835. You also can send in a check if you are trying to make nonprofit donations before the end  of the 2013 tax year. Please let us know if you need a receipt for tax purposes. For more information about donating, you can send an email to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.

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• Sitka Local Foods Network to host annual meeting and potluck on Saturday, Jan. 11

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The Sitka Local Foods Network will host its annual meeting and potluck dinner from 6-7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 11, at the Sitka Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall (408 Marine St., parking off of Spruce Street).

Participants are encouraged to bring a dish featuring local foods to share, and please bring your own utensils (note, this is a non-alcoholic event). This event is a good event to attend for people who want to learn more about the Sitka Local Foods Network and what we do around town.

“Attendees will hear about project updates plus the current board will vote on by-law changes,” Sitka Local Foods Network Board President Lisa Sadleir-Hart said. “New board members also are being recruited.”

Individuals interested in board of directors membership can email sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com for an application. For more information, call Lisa at 747-5985.

• Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors application

• Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors job description

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• Sitka Food Co-op to host all-day planning workshop on Saturday, Nov. 23

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Are you interested in helping the Sitka Food Co-op develop its short- and long-term plans? Then come join us in an all-day planning workshop from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Fireside Room at the First Presbyterian Church, 505 Sawmill Creek Rd.

This workshop will be facilitated by Lisa Sadleir-Hart, board president of the Sitka Local Foods Network and project coordinator of the Sitka Community Food Assessment. Workshop participants will create an action plan for the co-op’s next five years, as well as developing the co-op’s vision and priorities.

Sitka Food Co-op Board Chair Keith Nyitray said, “Topics to be covered include whether we need a paid “general manager” position, whether and/or when to conduct a feasibility study about opening a retail store-front, starting home-deliveries, submitting paperwork to accept WIC, whether to switch incorporation to a non-profit status or not, moving toward establishing a two-tiered membership system, bulk buying and/or member equity sharing, and more.”

According to the Co-op’s website, the purposes of the Sitka Food Co-op are to:

  1. Create a community-based, member-owned buying service;
  2. Make available wholesome natural and organic foods and products as inexpensively as possible;
  3. Support and encourage local growing of fresh organic foods;
  4. Purchase and purvey, whenever feasible, the goods or services of local and regional growers and producers; and
  5. Serve as a center for activities and services which otherwise enrich the life of the community.

This workshop is open to everyone, including non-members, but please RSVP by Nov. 21 at sitkafoodcoop@gmail.com. There will be a potluck lunch, so please bring a dish to share. To learn more about the Sitka Food Co-op, go to http://sitkafoodcoop.org/.

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• Sitka Community Food Assessment findings to be presented Nov. 14 at inaugural Sitka Food Summit

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SitkaCommunityFoodAssessmentLogoThe Sitka Community Food Assessment work group will present its findings during the inaugural Sitka Food Summit, from 6-9 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 14, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

A 2012 Sitka Health Summit project, the Sitka Community Food Assessment has examined where Sitka residents get their food, what types they eat, what they grow, what they hunt and fish for, where they shop, what type of access people have to healthy food, and other questions about Sitka’s food supply. The findings of the food assessment will help Sitka improve its food security.

“The Sitka Community Food Assessment work group decided early on that there needed to be an opportunity for Sitka to engage with the food data and shape the writing of the food assessment indicator report,” project coordinator Lisa Sadleir-Hart said. “The inaugural Sitka Food Summit will use a format that was first tested in the late 1990s when the Island Institute was developing Sitka’s initial indicator report.  We’ll interact individually with the data, then use a conversation café model to discuss what the data brings up for us as Sitkans.  The working group wanted to create a venue that meets the needs of a wide range of citizens.”

The event sponsors include the Sitka Community Food Assessment Work Group from the Sitka Health Summit, Alaskans Own Seafood, the Sitka Food Co-op, Sitka Community Hospital, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) Community Transformation Grant and Diabetes Prevention programs, the Sitka Local Foods Network, the Southeast Soil and Water Conservation District, and Sitka Tribe of Alaska. There also will be refreshments thanks to Sitka Community Hospital’s Basement Bistro, St Peter’s Fellowship Farm and Sitka Conservation Society staff.

For more information, contact Lisa Sadleir-Hart at 747-5895 or sitkafoodassessment@gmail.com. (Editor’s note: A few photos from the Sitka Food Summit are posted below.)

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• Scenes from the 19th annual Running of the Boots

RaceStartsPilotBoyLooksAtGirlThe 19th annual Running of the Boots costumed fun run fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network took place on Saturday, Sept. 28, as part of the End-Of-Season Celebration.

This year the race had a new course, starting in front of St. Michael the Archangel Russian Orthodox Cathedral and heading out Lincoln Street before looping onto Harbor Drive near City Hall and finishing on Maksoutov Street. There also were prizes for costumes, a table with late-season produce from the St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden, a band, and more.

A slideshow of scenes from the race follows below:

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• Don’t forget to vote for the Sitka Local Foods Network in the 50 States for Good contest

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Did you vote today? Please help the Sitka Local Foods Network win a $10,000 grant to continue its work on food security and local foods issues in Sitka, Alaska, by voting for us in the fifth annual Tom’s of Maine 50 States for Good contest.

There is one finalist per state (we are Alaska’s representative), and the top 15 vote-getters each get $10,000 to continue their work. But we need to be in the top 15 to win anything. If we win, we will use the money to expand community gardens, improve the Sitka Farmers Market, and support other local foods projects right here in Sitka.

You can vote by going to http://www.50statesforgood.com/ and following the instructions (we’re listed under Alaska). You can vote once per day, and voting goes from Sept. 16 through Oct. 15. Please share this with your friends, so they can vote too. Thanks.‪ #‎50statesforgood‬ ‪#‎sitkalocalfoodsnetwork‬ ‪#‎sitka‬ ‪#‎alaska‬

For more information, go to https://sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/2013/09/16/%E2%80%A2-sitka-local-foods-network-named-alaskas-lone-finalist-in-50-states-for-good-contest/

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• Seventh annual Sitka Health Summit helps celebrate a culture of wellness in Sitka

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The seventh annual Sitka Health Summit is coming up, and this year’s event features health fair, lunch-and-learn, community planning day and community wellness awards.

This annual event got its start in 2007, when leaders from Sitka Community Hospital and the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) got together to try and build bridges between their health organizations. Working with other partners, they created the Sitka Health Summit as a way to help improve the health culture in Sitka.

Summit_LogoThis year’s summit opens with the Sitka Community Health Fair, which takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, at Sweetland Hall on the Sheldon Jackson Campus. This event features workers from the Alaska Health Fair Inc., who will provide a variety of medical tests such as cholesterol checks, glucose tests, vision screenings, flu shots, and more. It also includes informational booths from a variety of health-related programs in Sitka.

At noon on Monday, Sept. 23, at Kettleson Memorial Library will be a lunch-and-learn with Dr. Don Lehmann, a local physician and sports medicine specialist. He will give a brief talk called “Whistle While You Walk,” which will feature highlights about Sitka’s trail system. Participants can enter for a chance to win a set of walking sticks.

The “Community Planning Day: Selecting Sitka’s Wellness Goals” is from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, at Sweetland Hall. This all-day event is when members of the community get together and select two community wellness projects to work on this year. The two projects will receive $1,500 in seed money, plus facilitation to help get the project going. Last year’s three winning projects included the Sitka Downtown Revitalization project, Walk Sitka‘s work in applying for a Walk Friendly Communities award, and the Sitka Community Food Assessment. Some of the top projects from previous years include the Sitka Bicycle Friendly Community award applications in 2008 and 2012, the Choose Respect mural at Blatchley Middle School to raise awareness about sexual and domestic violence, the Sitka Outdoor Recreation Coalition’s Get Out, Sitka! project to get more families and kids outdoors, supporting the Hames Athletic and Wellness Center as a community resource, etc. There also have been several projects related to local foods, such as creating a Sitka Farmers Market, expanding community gardens and building a community greenhouse, planting dozens of fruit trees around town, promoting more local fish in school lunches, community composting,, and more. The first 65 people to RSVP will receive a free lunch (contact Clara Gray at clara.gray@searhc.org).

Finally, this year’s Sitka Community Wellness Champion Awards will be presented as part of the Monthly Grind at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 5, at the Sheet’ká Kwáan Naa Kahídi on Katlian Street. The awards are made in a variety of categories, such as physical fitness, nutrition, tobacco control and policy, holistic health, injury prevention, and general wellness.

For more information, call Doug Osborne at 966-8734 or go to the Sitka Health Summit’s website at http://www.sitkahealthsummitak.org/.

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• 19th annual Running of the Boots costumed fun run raises funds for Sitka Local Foods Network

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It’s time to dig your XtraTufs out of the closet and gussy them up. The 19th annual Running of the Boots begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28, at the big tents near St. Michael of the Archangel Russian Orthodox Cathedral on Lincoln Street. This year’s event features a new meeting point and course, allowing the race to be a bigger part of the End-of-Season Celebration festivities hosted downtown by the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Cruise Line Association.

“I’m excited about the Running of the Boots joining the End-of-Season folks under one big tent … literally,” race organizer Kerry MacLane said. “We’ll have music, hot chocolate, and folks can enjoy a complimentary lunch after oodles of prizes have been awarded.”

So what is the Running of the Boots? It’s Southeast Alaska’s answer to Spain’s “Running of the Bulls.” Sitkans wear zany costumes and XtraTufs — Southeast Alaska’s distinctive rubber boots (aka, Sitka Sneakers). The Running of the Boots raises funds for the Sitka Local Foods Network, a nonprofit organization that hosts the Sitka Farmers Market and advocates for community gardens, a community greenhouse, sustainable uses of traditional subsistence foods and education for Sitka gardeners.

The Running of the Boots is a short race for fun and not for speed, even though one of the many prize categories is for the fastest boots. Other prize categories include best-dressed boots, zaniest costume, best couple, best kids group and more. The new course starts by St. Michael’s Cathedral, and heads down Lincoln Street toward City Hall, takes a left on Harbor Drive and loops up Maksoutov Street and back to the starting line.

The entry fee for the Running of the Boots is $5 per person and $20 per family, and people can register for the race starting at 10 a.m. Costume judging starts about 10:30 a.m., and runners hit the streets at 11 a.m. Local merchants have donated bushels of prizes for the costume contest, including a flightseeing trip for three, toys, gift certificates and pies. The Sitka Local Foods Network will host a Sitka Farmers Market booth with fresh veggies for sale. The booth takes debit cards, WIC vouchers and Quest cards.

“This is a really fun way to advance the Sitka Farmers Market and our other Sitka Local Foods Network projects,” MacLane said. “This is a must-see annual change-of-the season tradition in Sitka.”

To learn more about the Running of the Boots, contact Kerry MacLane at 752-0654 or 747-7888, or by email at maclanekerry@yahoo.com. Historical information about the race (through 2005) can be found online at http://www.runningoftheboots.org/, and info about the Sitka Local Foods Network and more recent Running of the Boots events (2008-12) is online at http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/.  Also, like our new Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SitkaLocalFoodsNetwork.

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• Sitka Local Foods Network named Alaska’s lone finalist in 50 States for Good contest

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The Sitka Local Foods Network has been selected as the Alaska representative in the fifth annual 50 States for Good contest, where one representative nonprofit organization from each state and the District of Columbia compete for a chance to win $10,000 from Tom’s of Maine.

Supporters of the Sitka Local Foods Network can take part in a public vote to help the organization share in $150,000 total grants from Tom’s of Maine (15 awards of $10,000 each). Voting is simple, just go to http://www.50statesforgood.com/, and follow the instructions. People can vote once per day for one nonprofit finalist during the period from 8 a.m. Alaska time (noon Eastern) on Monday, Sept. 16, through 4 p.m. Alaska time (8 p.m. Eastern) on Tuesday, Oct. 15. A free Facebook account is required for voting, and people who do not already have an account can go to https://www.facebook.com/ to create one.

The 50 States for Good program was created to help uncover local nonprofit groups that address a variety of community needs and engage volunteers to get the work done. This year’s finalists offer a diverse range of community services, such as improving access to local foods, working with people who have autism, helping street teens, supporting the needs of low-income residents, providing food and hygiene products to the homeless, building playgrounds, and more.

The Sitka Local Foods Network works on a variety of food-oriented projects in Sitka, a community of 9,000 people on Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. Even though there is no commercial agriculture on the island, the Sitka Local Foods Network created the Sitka Farmers Market, which sells produce grown at the organization’s St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden and from family backyard gardens. The Sitka Local Foods Network also is trying to build the Sitka Community Greenhouse and Education Center, which will be a commercial greenhouse providing local produce and bedding plants for residents, and an education center teaching local students about gardening. Education is another focus of the network, which hosts the annual Let’s Grow Sitka garden exhibition in March and brings nationally known speakers to town to teach about gardening, seeds and greenhouses.

“We are honored to be chosen to represent Alaska in the 50 States for Good competition,” said Lisa Sadleir-Hart, president of the Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors. “If we are successful, we hope to further food production in Sitka using a host of strategies, such as creating an additional community garden, offering seed money to the community greenhouse and education center working group, or helping the school district jump start a school-based garden program. An award of $10,000 from Tom’s of Maine can really help Sitka make strides in improving its local food system.”

The 51 finalists (one from each state plus the District of Columbia) were selected from a pool of about 1,100 nominated nonprofit organizations by an independent panel of judges that included Huffington Post columnist Lisa M. Dietlin, Cool People Care president Sam Davidson, assistant features editor covering social good for Mashable.com Matt Petronzio, and The Vampire Diaries star and nonprofit founder Ian Somerhalder.

“A desire to do more for a favorite can often be hindered by a lack of time to volunteer or the financial means to make a donation,” said Susan Dewhirst, goodness programs manager at Tom’s of Maine. “The 50 States for Good program makes it easy for anyone to have an impact and directly help organizations that are bringing goodness to communities in a variety of creative and inspiring ways.”

For several decades, Tom’s of Maine, a natural products company focused on oral and personal care products, has donated 10 percent of its profits back to the community and encourages its employees to use 5 percent (12 days) of their paid time off to volunteer every year. For more information, visit http://www.tomsofmaine.com/ or like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TomsofMaine. Voting information will be at both links.

To learn more about the Sitka Local Foods Network and some of its community projects, go to http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/ or like the organization’s new Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/SitkaLocalFoodsNetwork.