Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This weekend is jam-packed, as evidenced below:
1) Food, Inc kicks off GardenHouse Film Series, TONIGHT! (Friday, Feb. 5)
2) Buying a Home on Lansing’s Eastside, TOMORROW! (Saturday, Feb. 6)
3) Composting Workshop, Tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 6
4) Friends of Fenner Annual Meeting, Tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 6
5) All You Can Eat Chili at Resurrection, Tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 6
6) See how the Eastside Fares in terms of Physical Activity
7) GardenHouse Book Club, Feb. 23
8 ) Youth Gardening Conference on Feb. 20
9) At Everybody Reads in March
1) Food, Inc. kicks off the Hunter Park GardenHouse
First Friday Film Series on Friday, February 5th at 7 pm.
Beginning this week, the GardenHouse will host a food-related film on the first Friday of every month. At 7pm on February 5th, we will kick off our film series with “Food, Inc.”. Bring a neighbor or two and come on down to the park to watch this amazing documentary. It just might change the way you think about food.
The film, an Oscar nominee in the documentary division, features interviews with Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin. Come watch this with friends and stay for the conversation to follow, facilitated by Linda Anderson.
Check out http://www.foodincmovie.com/ for more details. Please call 517-999-3910 or email allisonb@allenneighborhoodcenter.org to let us know you are coming. Admission is free; donations are accepted.
2) Buying a Home on Lansing’s Eastside this Saturday, Feb. 6
Join us on Saturday, February 6, from 10 am – 12:30 pm at Foster Community Center, room 210, for all that you need to know to begin your search for a home in this affordable, friendly, and connected community. You’ll hear about Eastside Amenities (parks, gardens, our lively and walkable commercial districts, and many neighborhoods, each with its own unique character and assets). And you’ll hear from and have a chance to meet one-on-one with representatives from various institutions on Financing Options, including conventional mortgages (National City) and rehab mortgages (Summit Bank), Individual Development Accounts (MSUFCU), down payment assistance (City of Lansing, Franklin Non Profit Housing Corp.), how to purchase a foreclosed home (Eric Schertzing of the Land Bank), and more.
Discover why people are choosing to live on Lansing’s Eastside in order to enjoy the best of an urban lifestyle! For further information or to pre-register, call Tom Curtis at 367-2468, ext. 2015 or email him at tomc@allenneighborhoodcenter.org. (Sponsored by Allen Neighborhood Center and James Pyle of Lana Wagner and Company.)
3) The Art of Composting…February 6, 2-3:30 pm, in the Hunter Park Community GardenHouse, Free Workshop
K’Anna Burton, an instructor with over 20 years of experience with composting methods, will show you how to turn food and garden waste into “black gold” for your garden, limiting land fill usage and maximizing the nutrients your plants need to grow strong and healthy. We’ll explore the basics of backyard composting, hot piles and indoor worm composting. Composting can be a simple process that creates excellent, fertile soil to successfully grow veggies & flowers! Forget the blue water; come down to the GardenHouse and learn the natural method for making miracles in your 2010 garden. For further information or to pre-register, call Allison Burkeholder at 367-2468 or email her at allisonb@allenneighborhoodcenter.org.
4) Friends of Fenner Annual Meeting
Saturday, February 6, 2:00pm-4:00pm, Fenner Nature Center lower level
Agenda: Annual Review, Future Plans, PowerPoint Presentation, Group Brainstorming
Please attend this crucial session that will help decide the future of Fenner Nature Center. You can help keep the center running with your continued interest and participation. Board members are needed for 2010 and beyond. Interested people with knowledge of best business practices, non-profit management and fund development are encouraged to consider this opportunity to help keep Fenner’s doors open. Volunteers are also needed for committee work such as Publicity, Outreach, Fundraising, Events, Gift Shop and Programming.
Call FNC @ 483-4224 if interested.
Carol Miller, email: cemiller756@gmail.com
5) 20th Annual All You Can East Chili Dinner at Resurrection
Sponsored by “REACT TEENS and Alumni of Resurrection Cub Scout Pack #227
Saturday, February 6, 2010, 5:30-7:30 pm, Adults-$4, Child (w/adult) – $3, Family-$15, at Resurrection Parish Hall at 1531 E. Michigan Ave.
Bring the whole family and enjoy an evening out of “All You Can Eat Chili!”
6) See how the Eastside Fares in terms of Physical Activity
The Ingham County Health Department, Public Health Services Division is proud to announce the release of the first issue of ‘Our Health: Examining Topics from Our Health is in Our Hands.’ ‘Our Health’ is a 1-page, quarterly brief focusing on a specific health topic among residents of Ingham County. The first edition of ‘Our Health’ entitled, “Physical Activity in Middle-aged & Older Adults in Ingham County”, focuses on the physical activity habits of middle-aged and older adults, one of the fastest growing segments of our population. You can view the current issue in the ‘Publication’ page of the Ingham County Health Department website or by clicking on the following link http://hd.ingham.org/media/11301/ichdphysicalactivityfactsheet.pdf .
Evidence that what we say just may be true: “Good Health is Contagious; Catch Some on the Eastside”.
7) Join the GardenHouse Book Club; read Food Not Lawns
For our next book, the rapidly growing GardenHouse Book Club will be reading a very explicit how-to for turning your yard into a garden and your neighborhood into a community. You can purchase Food Not Lawns by Heather C. Flores from Everybody Reads beginning later this week, and then join us on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 6:30 pm at the GardenHouse.
Here’s what Amazon.com had to say:
“…A source of both information and inspiration for one of the most hopeful and exciting movements of our time.” — Michael Ableman, author of Fields Of Plenty
“For activist readers who believe activism is a political pursuit, FOOD NOT LAWNS: HOW TO TURN YOUR YARD INTO A GARDEN AND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD INTO A COMMUNITY offers a different viewpoint, maintaining that growing food where you live is a key method of becoming a food activist in the community. Chapters advocate planting home and community gardens with an eye to drawing important connections between the politics of a home or community garden and the wider politics of usage, consumption, and sustainability. Another rarity: chapters promote small, easy changes in lifestyles to achieve a transition between personal choice and political activism at the community level, providing keys to change any reader can use.” – Bookwatch/Midwest Book Review, December 2006
For further information or to join this lively, stimulating book club, call Allison at 367-2468 or email her at allisonb@allenneighborhoodcenter.org.
8 ) Youth Garden Conference
February 20, Southside Community Center. Register now for the 3rd Annual Youth Gardening Conference at www.youthgardeningcoalition.org. If you are involved or would like to be involved with a youth garden, come learn about what is happening in the Lansing area. Gain knowledge and resources to help grow your youth garden and network with others growing school and youth gardens throughout the Lansing area. Both youth and adults are welcome.
9) At Everybody Reads in March
HerStories celebrates Women’s History Month on March 6, 13, and 20 with local storytellers and authors at 1:00pm, followed by free writing workshops at 2:30pm. March 27 at 4:00pm is the HerStories Benefit Show and Open-Mike. Everybody Reads, 2019 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing, (517) 346-9900.
