Health Hubs! Healing Spaces! Green Team! Young Farmers! All of our programming is in full swing, and it’s all here for you to explore. Watch for opportunities to get involved. Click the tiles below for program-specific updates or just scroll down to read everything.
health hubs
garden network
Kilbourn garden
maglio farm
shared harvest
urban waters
YOUNG FARMERS
GREEN TEAM
ground corps
HEALTH HUBS
This past month, our Community Garden Health Hubs hosted yoga and planting workshops galore. We led ten classes in total across our six Health Hub sites on topics related to garden pests, soil health, and composting systems. We’re very excited that we’ve secured funding to continue season extension and indoor growing workshops from now until January. Watch for upcoming events on social media and on the Health Hubs page of our website.
Upcoming Health Hub Workshops
If you’re interested in participating in Health Hub programming, we’d love to see you in the gardens! Check-out the list below for upcoming Health Hub events.
Want to participate in Health Hub programming?
If you live near one of our Community Garden Health Hubs and would like to participate in healthy outdoor programming, fill out this form to let us know what types of activities you’d like to see in the gardens. We would love to see you there!
GARDEN NETWORK
We’re proud to support our inspiring gardeners and look forward to working together as the season continues. There are a lot of volunteer opportunities in the next month. Keep an eye out for weekly opporutnities on our Volunteer Sign-Up page and social media.
Compost Crusader Discount
We are excited about a new collaboration with Compost Crusaders! Compost Crusaders is offering discounted compost to gardens or partners affiliated with Groundwork Milwaukee. Compost will be discounted from $35 per yard to $30 per yard for orders of 3 yards or more.
Garden Network Volunteer Opportunities
We’ll be hosting volunteer work days at the below times on a weekly basis. View our sign-up page for specific times and locations.
KILBOURN GARDEN
On August 12th, we organized a day of support with approximately 20 incoming first year medical students at the Medical College of Wisconsin. They assisted us with various tasks at Kilbourn Garden including making new number labels for beds, sealing garden signs, mowing, compost management, and debris removal. For the Medical College of Wisconsin, the goal of this service program is to send their students into the community with an upperclassman mentor to learn about the city and get to know populations they will soon be serving as physicians.
Volunteer
Each Thursday at Kilbourn, we host a volunteer workday to keep the garden looking fresh throughout the season. Thanks to all the volunteers who have helped us to keep the space tidy so far this season. If you’d like to come help out, follow the link below and sign-up for a ‘Weekly Kilbourn Workday’ time slot.
Maglio Farm
The height of harvest season is upon us! We are surrounded by huge squash and bright red tomatoes. In July we harvested more than 2,000 pounds of fresh produce! All of it was donated to local food pantries. Thank you to all of our hardworking and dedicated volunteers. We truly could not do this without you!
Volunteer
If you’re interested in supporting the Maglio Farm, follow the link below to see available work opportunities. This work depends heavily on volunteers. Thank you for dedicating your time and energy toward healthy eating and food sovereignty in Milwaukee!
shared harvest
Fruit Gleaning
Season’s gleanings, everybody! Fruit gleaning season is upon us. We’ll be gleaning on Tuesdays and Fridays (5:30pm-7:30pm), August through September. Fruit is donated locally and volunteers are encouraged to bring as much home as they’d like. Sign up at the link below. Select the ‘Fruit Picking (Gleaning)’ slots and we’ll reach out to coordinate the rest.
Register a Fruit Tree
Did you know we’ll harvest your fruit as well as your veggies! Register a fruit tree with us today and we’ll organize a crew of volunteers to come save those cherries, apples and pears from going to waste. We’ll rescue your fruit and bring it to a local food pantry. Register your tree at the link below.
Fresh Food Connect
Does your home garden have too many zucchinis? Overgrown collards? An abundance of kale?! We can help you donate it! If you’re a backyard gardener and would like to donate your extra garden produce to local food pantries, sign-up for Fresh Food Connect and our volunteer couriers will come pick-up your donation once a week. To sign-up, download the Fresh Food Connect app from the app store and create an account.
Urban Waters
Week 6 of Green Team was designated WATER WEEK! We did a week's worth of water-based curriculum and activities. This included rainwater harvesting system education, water quality testing, trash pickup along Lincoln Creek, and a water challenge (drinking enough water throughout the week). The Green Team tested water quality along the Milwaukee River at Estabrook Park. They tested for temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and identified different classes of macroinvertebrates. At Lincoln Creek, a tributary of the Milwaukee River, the Green Team collected litter. They collected roughly 1,400 pieces of trash! The crew also learned about the importance of green infrastructure like rain barrels and rainwater harvesting systems and discussed other ways that our garden network leaders obtain water for their spaces (fire hydrant permits and nearby houses with outdoor spigots). The week finished with a tour of the MMSD wastewater treatment plant on Jones Island. It was stinky, but the team perked up a bit when they learned they could start at $35/hour with a high school diploma.
YOUNG FARMERS
Sherman Park
The end of July marked the end of Young Farmers for the two groups of Boys & Girls Clubs members growing at Sherman Park: Mary Ryan Boys & Girls Club and Milwaukee Academy of Sciences Boys & Girls Clubs. Over the six week training, youth learned about planting, caring for their plants, and, of course, how to safely harvest, wash and cook what they grew. The Young Farmers tasted all kinds of new fresh flavors. Some of their favorites were sour cherries, chocolate mint, kale chips, and mulberries. They really enjoyed cooking together!
Cherry Street Community Garden
Young Farmers at the Cherry Street Community Garden learned to test soil for nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and pH level. They also learned to use special tools to remove the pits from and caramelize cherries. Obviously, when they were done, they tested out the final product on some ice cream!
Thurston Woods Community Garden
The Thurston Woods Young Farmers have been hard at work taking care of their beans, squash and pepper plants. They planted 30+ flower plants in five of their raised beds. They also learned to prime the inside of the raised beds by carefully removing any soil and applying primer with a sponge brush. With each painter at their station, they completed the priming of three beds in the record time of 10 minutes!
GREEN TEAM
Green Team has officially ended for the 2021 season. We had a great time with our crew and wish them all the best as they head back to school. Some highlights from the summer were: hiking through Havenwoods Forest and learning about the importance of physical activity for our mental and long term health; learning about resume and cover letter writing from Groundwork Milwaukee’s Deputy Director of Programming and Operations, Damien DeBuhr; learning about remote sensing and how it can be a tool to address environmental injustice from NASA scientists with help from Groundwork Milwaukee’s Deputy Director of GIS, Lawrence Hoffman; meeting artist, Akira Yashema Mabon, who taught the crew how art can be a catalyst for social change; and, on the final day, they all played basketball and went to the beach. To hear about the Green Team’s experience this summer directly from the crew, check out the Green Team Blog 2021.
GROUND CORPS
Ground Corps completed monthly maintenance at the bioswales early in the first week of the month and ended that week with nearly all of our Ground Corps receiving limited CPR AED training. The team is now certified for one year. This month we were able to begin construction on three Healing Spaces Initiative sites (All Peoples Church, Solomon Church and Harambee Tot Lot on 1st and Keefe) digging pathways and erecting structures for shade sails. We also painted little libraries scheduled to be delivered to other Healing Space Initiative locations and planted 30+ perennials with the help of members of the NDIC and Eras Senior Network volunteers.
