Community Garden Committee, June 23, 2015
Holden Community Garden Committee Minutes
June 23, 2015
VISION STATEMENT:
To educate and empower people of all ages & diverse backgrounds by creating a central place of wellness where anyone or everyone has an opportunity to develop or enhance their awareness of the nutritional value of local organic food, the importance of environmental stewardship, and reconnecting with nature all while recapturing a sense of community.
Attendance: Jessica Bader, Eileen Charboneau, Stephanie Goodwin, Tanya Lewis, Todd Miller, and Steven D’Aquila (sdqdc@verizon.net).
We met briefly with Town Manager Jacqueline Kelly prior to meeting in order to discuss Todd’s involvement/internship and the details of the official town process. Our meeting times and agenda will need to be submitted to Robin ahead of time, so that she can post 48hrs (business) in advance. Assistant Town Manager Peter Lukes (plukes@holdenma.gov) will be the contact person for any town related questions.
Todd presented us with his draft of a Master Garden Plan (similar to strategic plan) in order to focus our process on attainable goals. Committee members reviewed the plan and agreed to utilize this document as a working document for future meetings. Todd will develop in google docs, so that committee members can edit, add and share ideas at any point in time.
Discussed the initial action of meeting with residents in order to collect data of what the community would like to see. The committee agreed that having in person ballots, a presence at Holden Days and a live FB page is the 1st step before we take any physical action on the property. The committee would like to get a sense of what the community would like to see from the Creamer property/community garden space, before making any decisions.
Discussed our ideas thus far for the site, and Todd will develop a checklist/ballot to provide residents. Eileen will reach out to Rachel Ross who has a table at the farmer’s market, in order to ask if we could have a ballot box and ballots there every Tuesday. Stephanie shared her “wishlist” of ideas and will forward the list to committee members to be included in the ballot. Todd will create the FB page, and forward to committee members for review. Jessica will forward the ballot info to Todd and any pictures to be included in the FB page and will edit/review FB page as needed. Jessica will follow up with the organizers of Holden Days in order to ask if we could have our own table for information purposes at the event in August. Steve’is connected to the senior center through his mother, so he will reach out to them about helping to promote/spread interest with flyers/ballots.
We also discussed keeping a resource library/list, compiling the resources from Minutes and if it was made into a separate google doc, members could add resources at any point.
Important Dates:
HCG Mtgs: 2nd & 4th Monday of every month- 7/13, 7/27, 8/10, 8/24
AgComm Mtg: 3rd Tuesday of every month- 7/21, 8/18
Holden Days: 8/22
Other Resources:
-Wachusett Recycling Cetner has old beams which may be useful for building projects. Steve will inquire whether we can use or they are strictly for Habitat for Humanity projects
-Garden club for extra plants after their annual sales
-potential business to place ballots/flyers: Gale Free library, Senior Ctr, Jeds, Sweets n Java, Big Y, Blue Plate Lounge, farmers market