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Original grant as submitted

Project Summary

Project Narrative

Area Satellite Map

Project building photos
 

Possible garden spaces photos
 

Letters of Support

Budget
Included Attachments:

Senior/Key Person Profile

1.   Grant Application Package

2.   Application for Federal Assistance, Research and Related Personal Data

5.   Project / Performance Site Locations
 

15. Research and Related Other Project Information
 

Included attachments:

To whom it may concern,

Greetings. My name is Brian Solomon and I am the 10th District Alder in the City of Madison, Wisconsin. I have an amazing community within District 10 known as the Allied Drive area. This neighborhood has a number of struggles, almost all related to poverty. But there are a number of exciting initiatives in the neighborhood and a number of caring, hard working members who are actively involved in positive change, increased leadership, and better community participation.

All of the efforts are directly related to improving the neighborhood and community, which has numerous positive outcomes for the health and wellbeing of the residents, the children, and the City. There are several food / gardening related projects in the community, including a container garden project and the proximity of community gardens. But these differ in important ways from the initiative that would be created under this grant and will only serve to complement, not conflict, with the overall objectives.

I strongly support this proposal and the health, education, economic, and social justice benefits it will bring to the Allied community. If I can be of further service, please do not hesitate to contact me at briansolomon@charter.net or 608.446.1362.

Thank you for your consideration,

Brian

Brian Solomon, Alder

Madison District 10

To whom it may concern,

Please add my strong support to the 'People's Garden Grant Program' proposal.  I have worked in this neighborhood for many years and am all too familiar with some of the negative social determinants of health that exist as a consequence of poverty.  There has been some very positive change with increased resident participation and leadership recently.  With some of the community building efforts that have occurred over the past few years, there is a new interest in strengthening this neighborhood and a proposal such as this would provide an opportunity to move residents further in the direction of caring for their neighborhood so that Allied Drive can become a model in Madison.  With all of the property in the identified area being rental property, the residents have few opportunities to develop the kind of community pride that home ownership often motivates. When community pride blossoms, there are multiple outcomes such as reduced crime, better neighbor-to-neighbor relations,  improved tenancy, and healthier environments.

Last year we sponsored a container garden project that introduced residents who have not had much gardening experience to the pleasure and techniques of vegetable gardening.  It was a terrific success with new gardeners taking responsibility for tending their small gardens.  Children became involved in planting, weeding, picking and weighing as produce developed.  The opportunity to nurture a living and growing thing has a ripple benefit of being translated to caring for one's living space, one's children, one's neighborhood etc.  Additionally, growing your own food that is healthy, will have tangible benefit in the wellbeing of residents who live in a neighborhood that has challenged access to grocery stores and all too often resort to a diet heavy in high fat and high carbohydrate foods from the local fast food restaurant.

The goal of our cooperative is to encourage the community to come together, and to promote leadership and self-responsibility through education and employment incubation.  Working together in gardens provides just such an experience.  Dorothy Krause has worked tirelessly in the neighborhood advocating for efforts that strengthen this neighborhood in many capacities- as a resident, recently as an alder, as a member of the neighborhood association, and as a cooperative steering committee member.  Her expansive vision and follow-through on projects prepare her well for implementing this proposal.  She has the support of many people and organizations to be successful in this effort, and the Allied Wellness Cooperative will be very involved in helping to create these gardens.

Please seriously consider this proposal.

Susan Corrado
Allied Wellness Cooperative Project Coordinator

Hi, Dorothy,

I work for Project Home, owner of a 48 unit apartment community on Allied Drive.  Our residents have benefited from the garden plots that we've already established on our property.  The benefits you describe for your program:  good food, productive activity for residents, opportunities for employment, beautification of the neighborhood, and science based informal education opportunities will all make Allied Drive a better place to live. I support your proposal, and I hope you are successful.

Jan Reek
Director of Programs

2299 Spring Rose Rd
Verona, WI 53593
In the town of Springdale
608.845.8724
info@farleycenter.org
www.farleycenter.org

 August 25, 2011

Dear Dorothy:

 I am writing to express the enthusiastic support of the Farley Center for your People’s Garden proposal to the USDA.  We greatly respect the work of the Allied Wellness Cooperative and other program partners to the People’s Garden application.   Your proposal addresses an essential unmet need of residents in the Allied Drive neighborhood: access to healthy food.  If funded, this worthy project will give critical assistance to neighborhood residents to create community gardens.   

We are particularly interested in the project because we train beginning farmers, and we see participants in this project as potential aspiring farmers.  If funded, the People’s Garden project could be a stepping stone for the gardeners to launch farm businesses with our training and business development assistance.  We will welcome the project participants to attend our public and free training workshops in organic farming practices.  From there, we will see if there is interest for any of the gardeners to launch businesses with our nonprofit farm incubator. 

Let me share some background about our work at the Farley Center.  The Linda and Gene Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability has created a farm incubator and an ecologically-sound and sustainable natural green burial grounds near Madison, Wisconsin.  The Center is located on 43 acres of forest and farmland.   Through the farm incubator, new farmers are supported with land, tools, education, and marketing support.  All production is organic.  Currently ten acres of the land is cultivated by a group of families, including six farm businesses that sell produce.  Growers include Hmong, Mexican, Colombian and African American women and men.   The Center is working in close collaboration with Community GroundWorks, a nonprofit organization that connects people to nature and local food. Organized in Madison, Wisconsin in 2001 as The Friends of Troy Gardens, Community GroundWorks serves diverse communities and schools across the region.  www.troygardens.org  The nationally renowned Troy Community Garden in Madison is managed by Community GroundWorks. 

Sincerely,

Janet Parker, Farm Incubator Facilitator

Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society
2010 Whenona Drive
Madison, WI 53711
608-271-8218
www.uuprairie.org
admin@uuprairie.org

August 26, 2011 

This is a vote of support for the The People's Garden Grant Program proposal submitted by Dorothy Krause for the Allied Community. 

 Our congregation, Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society, is located in the neighborhood adjacent to the Allied Neighborhood and has been a member of Allied Partners, an organization of local churches, for the more than 10 years. We have seen the many positive changes that have occurred in the neighborhood over the past several years with the concerted effort of both the city and the residence of the community themselves. 

This project would be a wonderful boost to the neighborhood by bringing a sense of natural bounty and beauty into the neighborhood, provide training to people who have not had the opportunity to work with the soil, and open opportunities to provide classes in horticulture, nutrition and food preservation while providing a small income for some of the participants. 

Our congregation has just completed the requirements for our denomination’s “Green Sanctuary” status.  We are very committed to improving the natural environment as well as the well being of the people in the neighborhood and would undoubtedly become involved in implementing this grant.

 We are in whole hearted support of the Grant.

 Sincerely,

Barbara Park

President

I enthusiastically support Dorothy Krause’s People’s Garden grant application.  Dorothy and the Allied community are a perfect match for a cooperative gardening, landscaping, food-producing project.  She is an avid gardener and knows what such a project would entail.  Community members and the entire neighborhood would benefit greatly from it.  Dorothy is well-connected with Allied residents and with resources in the greater Madison area.  She is committed to the health of her community

            Dorothy and I are members of a church neighboring her proposal’s target area.        A People’s Garden project would enhance our church by increasing  beauty, community pride and cooperative efforts in a nearby area.  I have known Dorothy  for many years and can vouch for her responsibility, leadership and organizational skills. Her election to alderperson over another candidate who was expected to win is testimony to the respect she has garnered in her community.           

Doleta Chapru