GardenShare Open House in two weeks

"Over the Edge" to raise money for United Way

United Way's Over the Edge event in September was a huge success, so much so that they are doing it again on June 16-17! This year will be up on the roof of the Watertown Housing Authority’s 155-foot-high Midtown Towers, and we’re looking for people to join us for the amazing ride. Registration fee is $25 and participants raise a minimum of $1,000 for the privilege of rappelling down the building.

This event will allow 90 people to test their courage while raising money for the nonprofit partners of the United Way that provide prevention, intervention & crisis care across Northern New York. Participants can sign up by either calling the United Way office at 315-788-5631 or registering online, https://www.firstgiving.com/UWNNY/over-the-edge-for-nny-2017

Please see Over the Edge video. We hope you will be interested in registering to do this Tower of Terror!!!  Please share with all your co-workers and friends and let’s make this another huge success.

A MONTH FOR SENIOR HUNGER AWARENESS

More than 10 million Americans age 50 and older are at risk of hunger every day. The AARP Foundation has designated as April Senior Hunger Awareness Month as a way to highlight the issues of food insecurity and hunger among seniors. It has created  educational resources like "30 Hunger Action Items" to encourage people to take simple steps to help combat hunger in their communities. Denny's is showing its support via an in-store donation drive. For all AARP members who dine at participating Denny's restaurants and show their membership card during April, Denny's will donate 25 cents to AARP Foundation (up to $250,000).

Source: PRNewswire, 4/5/17, Senior Hunger Awareness Month

Ag Literacy - Grapes!

Last week was Ag Literacy Week in New York State.  GardenShare staff and volunteers partnered with Cornell Cooperative Extension to get into elementary school classrooms to read and do activities with the students.

This year's activities were sponsored by Welch's and focused on grapes.  Welch's produces grape juice in western New York and donated copies of the book, "The Grapes Grow Sweet" to every school.

In Canton, I helped in a fourth grade classroom, where thanks to one of our great volunteers, we had a whole lesson plan around grapes including interesting facts and even vocabulary words.  Did you know that New York is the third largest producer of grapes in the US?  California is first and Washington second.

We had the students sample three kinds of grapes - purple, red, and green and then vote for their favorite.  In this classroom it was a tie between red and green.  They also got to try raisins and frozen grapes.

I found these fourth-graders attentive and engaged and was impressed with their geography knowledge as we discussed where grapes are grown.

Americorps volunteer Brianna Blackburn and student intern Jamie Oriol went to Clfiton Fine schools into Jessica Schreppel's first grade classroom of 8 enthusiastic students and Tammy Perault's second grade class of 13 students.

"The students of both Mrs. Perault's and Schreppel's classes loved the story of Julian and his first grape harvest," Brianna reported.  "The highlight of my experience were the students reaction to how many billions of pounds of grapes our country consumes, and of course, the grape juice tasting and the students trying to creatively describe the difference between juices. The Concord grape juice was by far the favorite of the two!" 

Senator Ritchie at Maple Weekend

WADDINGTON, N.Y. — State Senator Patty Ritchie recently took part in “Maple Weekend” by visiting Sweeter Creations Sugar House in Waddington.

During annual Maple Weekends, maple syrup producers across the state open their operations to the public, offering everything from tours to pancake breakfasts.  At Sweeter Creations Sugar House, Senator Ritchie was able to see how sap is turned into maple syrup.

New York State is second behind Vermont in maple production with 1,500 producers and more than 2.5 million taps. The Empire State has the greatest number of tappable maple trees in the United States, at 300,000 million, producing over 700,000 gallons of maple syrup each year.  In 2015, New York maple production had reached its highest level in 70 years, according to the USDA.

—The Office of NY State Senator Ritchie

Why do our helpers live in poverty?

At this past Friday's poverty forum, Steve Knight, CEO of United Helpers, told us that his organization serves over 1,800 people per day and about 70% of them live in poverty.

He went on to say that United Helpers and its subsidiary, Sparx, employ 1,000 people and he estimates that half of them are also poor.

I have always hated the idea that, as an employer, I might be paying people less than a living wage.  I'm sure Steve hates that, too!

This sad fact raises a question of values.  We often pay the people who care for our most vulnerable community members - children and seniors - so little that they cannot adequately support their own families.

Why do we place so little value on this kind of important work that makes our families and communities stronger?

How do we change that?  How do we change public opinion, government officials minds, and donors and funders perspectives to understand that if we want to do the good work of our nonprofit organizations, we need to pay people to do the work.  And they need to be able to support their own families.

I don't have an answer, but I know we will never find an answer if we don't begin the conversation!

Gloria

Some thoughts on poverty in St. Lawrence County

This past Friday, a group convened in Canton to start a discussion about the issues surrounding poverty in St. Lawrence County and what we can do to better address it.

Chris Rediehs, the Commissioner of Social Services for the County, was one of the speakers and laid out some worrisome statistics:

• Over 2,000 County residents are supported by the Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF, what some people might call "welfare")
• In addition to those residents, nearly 14,000 additional residents are enrolled in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)
• 9,500 households rely on heating assistance to stay warm in the winter
• These programs bring $240 million annually into St. Lawrence County, meaning we have a disproportionate reliance on funds from outside our own region.

Commissioner Rediehs noted that poverty is about both lacking resources and finding doors to opportunity closed, so that giving people food is not going to solve the problem.  He also has seen that poverty is not usually a permanent situation and that all of us may need a little help at some point in time.

He made three suggestions for how people can get involved:

1. Events like today to illuminate the issue of poverty and its complexity.  Educate yourselves and work to educate others.
2. Volunteering - there is no one solution, but every effort helps.  While giving out a meal of a bag of canned goods will not solve all of a household's problems, it will help them in the moment and that's important.  Consider how else to volunteer that might get beyond the hand-outs to a hand up.
3. Don't accept that it's hopeless.  It's not and we can make progress toward solutions.