Growing to Give: A Forum for Gardeners

Hosted by St. Francis Episcopal Church

Sponsored by, Episcopal Ministries of Long Island

Are you ready to take your garden to the next level? Have you wanted to feed the hungry in your neighborhood? Contribute to the healing of the earth? Build community and do justice while doing so? Join us for the Growing to Give Forum to strengthen your skills as a gardener and to consider how gardening can be a catalyst for personal and community transformation.  

New gardeners and old pros alike will come away from this day of learning with ideas and techniques for starting, nurturing, and maintaining organic gardens. Whether you are growing for yourself or ready to explore innovations that will allow you to help address food insecurity on Long Island, this forum is for you.

The day will highlight and illuminate innovative agricultural movements happening on Long Island and also offer practical tips that can help your garden flourish. You’ll be inspired and learn from a variety of speakers and experts including:

Plenary Speaker: Brian Sellers-Petersen, Author of Harvesting Abundance: Local Initiatives of Food and Faith

Brian Sellers-Petersen is a respected author and expert consultant for church-wide agricultural ministry and land stewardship. Currently, his work is dedicated to church and missional agriculture, land stewardship, food ministry, environmental justice and civil society engagement. Through his work with Episcopal Relief & Development, Brian has a breadth of knowledge to share on agriculture including farmers markets, church gardens, farms with community supported agriculture (CSA) operations, indoor hydroponic gardens, apiaries and community garden education. He now works to continue to build the movement for strengthening and expanding small-scale agriculture in the United States.      

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau and Suffolk County is a local resource for information on soils, site improvement, plant selection, proper plant care, eco-friendly practices, integrated pest management, composting and so much more. Cornell Cooperative Extension offers research-based support to gardeners with online horticulture leaflets, gardening schools and master gardener classes.

Lawn Island Farms - Jim Adams, co-founder of Lawn Island Farms, joins us for this forum to talk about the movement towards small scale urban farming which transforms lawns into productive food systems. The organization seeks to build a healthier and more sustainable communities through hyper-locally grown organic produce. Jim was recently profiled in the New York Times piece "For Farmers Without Land, a Long Island Lawn Will Do."

Program & Agenda

Panel Presentation I: Hunger? In MY Backyard?  

Marian Hart, Freeport Inn

Yolanda Murray, Long Island Council of Churches

Jon Stepanian, Community Solidarity (formerly Food not Bombs)

 

Panel Presentation II: Local Initiatives in Growing to Give

Ann McPartlin, Church Gardens

The Rev. Roger Joslin, Church & Community Farm Partnerships

Mary Sweeney, School Gardens

Jennifer Henning, Backyard Gardens

Jim Adams, Plant Food Everywhere

Lunch & Tour of The Garden @ St. Francis

Afternoon Informational Sessions will Include: Soil Health, Composting, Beekeeping 101 

A light, healthy lunch will be served 

 

Register Now!