Student Profile: Ellie Limpert (Summer Practicum 2010)

Ellie at West Haven Farm.

Groundswell volunteer Audrey Gyr caught up with former Groundswell student Ellie Limpert this past week to capture her reflections on her participation in Groundswell's Summer Practicum in Sustainable Farming & Local Food Systems.

Groundswell: What is your background?

Ellie Limpert: I am a senior at Cornell University majoring in Biology and Society with a focus on Human and Environmental Health, and Agricultural Development. Before the Summer Practicum I was a nutritional science major. My minimal agricultural experience was as a horticulture apprentice at a greenhouse for 2 summers, and a bit of volunteering at Dilmun Hill the student Organic Farm. 2010- I was unsure how to spend my summer, I got an email from a sustainability club about the practicum and I was intrigued…looked into it, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. 

GS: Where are you and what are you doing now?

EL: I am currently studying abroad in Granada Spain—in an Environmental Studies program. I am taking classes on Sustainability in the Mediterranean, Environmental Politics of the European Union, and Ecosystems of the Andalucia. In addition (most exciting!) I have found work on a local small organic farm! Never would I have even dreamt of seeking this out on my own, but since working at West Haven I have been longing to be on a farm again—there honestly isn’t another way I’d rather spend my free time—and it’s one of my most cherished experiences here!

Student Profile: Lynne and Justin of Finger Lakes CRAFT

Lynne and Justin plowing with horses at Northland.

Interview by Audrey Gyr, Groundswell volunteer

Lynne Haynor and Justin Schaude were both members of the Finger Lakes CRAFT program this year while they interned on Northland Sheep Dairy. While they were there, they started a vegetable market garden and sold at the Homer Farmers Market.

They first met while studying at UW Madison. Lynne was studying agroecology and Justin was working at the student garden while studying Rural Sociology. Lynne grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and first discovered agriculture at the age of 24 when she worked at a periurban gardening program for youth. The program focused on education and work readiness in marginalized communities and Lynne spent 3 growing seasons there producing organic vegetables.

Justin grew up in the suburbs of Minnesota and California. He dropped out of college and traveled extensively while working odd jobs, including in an orphanage in India. He first became attracted to agriculture while working at a men’s shelter in Minneapolis. During that time he read a book that posited farming as a strategy to get people off the street. Justin decided to go back to school for social work but he became more and more interested in farming.  He has been farming for the past 5 years. Lynne and Justin both did another apprenticeship on a CSA farm in Wisconsin after graduating from college. They have also worked on farms in Mexico. They strongly suggest any beginning farmers to have an apprenticeship because it can really help you plan what you want to do. They also stress the importance of having a mentor and that a beginner can accomplish a lot by just working on a project.

Volunteer Spotlight: Fred Schoeps

Since being a part of its creation in 2009, Fred Schoeps has volunteered for Groundswell in many capacities and we are grateful for the significant commitment he continues to make!

By Devon Van Noble

This month’s Volunteer Spotlight is on a very special Groundswell contributor, Fred Schoeps. Fred was instrumental in the planning and creation of the Groundswell Center in 2008-9 and he has continued to provide support through advising, envisioning, and putting his shoulder to the wheel on numerous projects.

Fred’s contributions have included helping to manage the early phases of our website development, scoping out database options for tracking our many contacts in the community, reviewing budgets and grant proposals, and harnessing his tremendous passion for Groundswell to reach out to organizational supporters and community members. He is a model of inspired and inspiring volunteer commitment, making himself available to address almost any of Groundswell’s organizational needs as they come up. He was also our first Advisor to step forward with a generous donation for the Groundswell Farm Enterprise Incubator.

“Fred brings a wealth of business and organizational expertise to the Groundswell team,” says Groundswell Director Joanna Green. “He is absolutely passionate about what he calls 'knowledge management systems' and he loves to think creatively about how to improve communications, organize information, and support people to achieve great things.” Fred’s professional background includes many years with IBM in its systems engineering, management consulting and marketing departments. He was a member of the launch team for IBM’s original foray into the PC business and later, as IBM’s Director of Learning and Knowledge Management, was instrumental in the Re-Engineering IBM project. After retiring from IBM he moved with his wife Margot to Ithaca in 2008. Shortly thereafter he joined the Board of Directors for EVI, Inc. that advises EcoVillage at Ithaca Center for Sustainability Education.

Student Profile: Marcia Harrington

This month, Groundswell is proud to spotlight Marcia Harrington, a trainee from Groundswell's New Farmer Training Program!

A lifetime New Yorker from Syracuse, Marcia grew up spending time in the garden and has happy early memories of her grandfather’s small urban farm. Her interest in agriculture continued in her teen years, when she enjoyed visiting family member’s farms. 6 years ago, after years of backyard gardening, she began seriously looking for a property where she could create a farm of her own. Two years ago, she bought a beautiful piece of land in the town of Skaneateles, and found herself living her dream of getting back to the land. Although Marcia did have an understanding of agriculture that she gleaned at an early age, she felt she needed to get some training to refresh her knowledge and says the New Farmer Training Program has given her the confidence to begin some of her dream projects. 

Although she spent brief periods of her life in other places across the Northeast, Marcia has maintained a very close connection to the Central New York area. As a young adult, Marcia got a Fine Arts Education between Carnegie-Mellon and Syracuse Univeristy. She had a studio at Eureka Studios in Armory Square where she founded a figure-drawing group called the “Walton St. Irregulars” that provided local atists with an opportunity to work with live models. In the 1980’s she became a cartographer at SU, where her work focused on thematic mapping of post-colonial Latin America. Marcia has also been a committed community organizer, active in the Interreligious Council’s Community Dialogue to End Racism, Syracuse’s Tomorrow’s Neighborhoods Today community councils, working in community gardens, and on the Board of the Syracuse Neighborhoods Initiative, addressing neighborhood vitality and safety. For the past 12 years, she worked for United Way of Central New York as the Marketing Vice President.

Marcia’s 8-acre homestead has been the same contiguous parcel since the house was first built in 1830, and has been a family homestead farm ever since. The previous owners had bought it just after the Great Depression and raised a family there. When the patriarch passed away, the home sat empty for about 5 years before Marcia moved in. Because it had not been updated in some time, Marcia hired a contractor to renovate the home. But when he went bankrupt in the middle of the project, Marcia realized that she was going to have to learn much more than just how to farm. She soon found that home renovtions can be a time and money pit, but the the work itself was something she could learn to do and she steadily took on each new challenge. Working on the home renovations gave her time to observed the land’s life through the year before she planted or modified the landscape, but this spring she could wait no longer! She prepared a 50’ x 50’ garden (see above; Marcia’s garden in June 2011) and has already grown a wide variety of herbs, flowers, and vegetables (see below; September 2011). You can see the joy in Marcia’s face when she describes the beautiful land and its Wassaic silt loam soil!

Student Profile: Allan Gandelman

Allan Gandelman is a student in Groundwell's New Farmer Training Program.

Interview by Devon Van Noble

Allan Gandelman in the greenhouse
at Main Street Farms.

Allan has had a lifelong passion for farming. "For the past 10 years I had my own gardens, fruit trees, and raised goats in New Paltz," he says. When he moved to the area and began working as a middle/high school social studies teacher at Cortland Alternatives School, Allan found himself deeply interested in school food. "Being aware of school food issues in the Cortland County School District inspired me to be able to provide healthy food for kids year round, food that didn't depend on international sources."

Now Allan is an urban farmer and entrepreneur in the rural town of Homer, NY. His enterprise, Main Street Farms, sells organic produce and vegetable transplants.  He hopes to tackle the issue of healthy school food by distributing his locally grown produce to area schools through his nonprofit, Schoolyard Gardens.

Student Profile: Joseph Amsili

Joseph Amsili is a student in Groundswell's Summer Practicum in Sustainable Farming & Local Food Systems.

by Drew Walsh, Summer Practicum Teaching Assistant

Joseph carries transplants destined
for the field at the Ithaca Youth Farm.

Joseph entered the world of local food in 11th grade at the Lehman Alternative Central School (LACS) as part of the Green Thumb Committee, spending his summers in the fields at the LACS garden and West Haven Farm.  During 11th and 12th grades, he was involved in in growing food for the school cafeteria in the LACS garden and hydroponically.  He recalls preparing lots of pesto, salsa, and other produce for the school, musing that even though slicing lots of peppers doesn't seem like much on the surface, he was also forging connections between students and their food as well as gaining a better understanding the environmental consequences of agriculture, which he finds to be extremely important and meaningful work.

After high school, Joseph spent some time abroad in Barcelona, tending gardens in a housing co-op and working with Transition Barcelona and Wiser Earth, an environmental activist networking site, in between his many hours of skateboarding.  Upon returning to the Ithaca area, he interned at Stick and Stone Farm, and resumed his volunteer work with the LACS garden and Localvores club.  Joseph attended American University for about a year, finding himself again working in student gardens and even began an internship at Will Allen's Growing Power, before that was cut short by a broken collarbone.  

The Congo Square Market: an interview with Jhakeem Haltom

The Congo Square Market at the Southside Community Center will reopen for its third season this Friday afternoon. A collaboration between Southside Community Center, Ithaca Youth Bureau's Paul Scheurs Memorial Program, and the Whole Community Project at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, the market's mission is threefold: "one, to build a stronger and more self-reliant local community; two, to develop Southside's economic base; and three, to encourage community and personal health." Groundswell interviewed Jhakeem Haltom, the market's founder and manager, to talk about how the market came to be and what he's looking forward to this year.

Groundswell: How did the Congo Square market get started and what inspired you and others to create it?

Jhakeem Haltom: The name Congo Square Market is derived from the physical space located in New Orleans called Congo Square. Throughout the American institution of Slavery, Congo Square was a space in which slaves, Whites, and Native Americans could share culture without the oppressive interruption of systematic bondage. This was a place of tremendous joy and jubilation, as plans for future freedom and community development were discussed, stories of the lost past were told, and the community shared music, dance, and food. The idea is to bring this concept to Ithaca, where we can honor African-American history and create a place of convening to better develop community health within the African American population, and eventually for the community at large. All will be welcome at the market, but what people will experience is the strength within the Southside and Northside communities, rather than weaknesses that are often overemphasized.

GS: What did you use as a model or a guide?

JH: In talking to various community leaders, it has become abundantly clear that many residents in the urban downtown community are interested in exploring a healthy diet as well as building a strong community for themselves and their children to live in. Although Ithaca has a farmers market, local organic farms, and multiple grocery stores highlighting organic and natural foods, there are durable barriers hindering many people in our community from accessing those goods. The lack of affordability is time and time again revealed as the primary reason behind not buying these foods or even entering these stores. There are very real cultural barriers as well. Through Congo Square Market, we hope to make this space available by providing affordable healthy food as well a cultural bend toward this community. The cultural element will include the types of foods and goods available, music, the personal element and people working in the market. This safe space will provide a more comfortable arena for members of this community to approach the idea of community unity and healthy eating. 

A New Farmer's Story

Antonio and Rebeca are starting their farm on a small scale this season.

We'd like to share the story of one of our trainees in the New Farmer Training Program. Anthony Ceravalo is a first generation American who is starting to farm this year with his fiancée on land he owns near Cazenovia, NY.
 
"I am an immigrant. My father was a farmer who had olive and citrus groves. My family has a long history of growing their own foods as well as canning and preserving. I worked in manufacturing in the upstate New York for 20 years. I lived through many plant closings. In 2009 I lost my job of 15 years when my former company went bankrupt. There are no jobs in upstate New York, so I knew I had to try something different.

"When I exhausted my unemployment benefits, I moved back to Spain with my fiancée Rebeca (we are dual citizens), leaving my young adult children at my home in upstate New York. However, there is a severe economic crisis everywhere. I missed my home and my relatives in New York. The quality of life here is superior. I started to plan to go home and start my own business. Rebeca inspired me to become a vegan in 2008. My health improved dramatically. She inspired me to think about where my food comes from, how it is produced, etc. We gardened extensively, but now I want to start a farming business to provide jobs for both of us (she is also unemployed) and my children (two of which are unemployed or underemployed) and my fiancée's relatives (also unemployed)."

"I want to focus on locally grown vegetables and fruits and prefer not to use pesticides. I think I can be successful because I own 30 acres of land in upstate New York, I have gardened all my life, and I worked as a maintenance manager so I can fix any machine and build anything. Farming is the future of America and it is the one thing that cannot be offshore."

We look forward to working with Antonio, Rebeca, and all of our other trainees as they embark on the exciting and challenging pathway toward creating successful farming enterprises.

Working Toward Food Security in Ithaca: An Interview with Jemila Sequeira

Last week the Ithaca community held a Community Food Security Dialogue to discuss what a food system that works for everyone would look like, and how Ithaca can begin moving toward that goal. We caught up with Jemila Sequeira, Groundswell advisor and Community Food Security Dialogue organizer, to ask some questions about this important work. 

Jemila Sequeira

Groundswell: How did the Community Food Security Dialogue begin? What events led up to it?

Jemila Sequeira: In 2009, the Cornell Public Service center appointed myself and Bethany Schroeder as Civic Fellows. My fellowship focused on recognizing my work with Gardens 4 Humanity; Bethany's for her work with the Ithaca Health Alliance and the Ithaca Free Clinic. This gave rise to two civic dialogues in 2009 on health and food security. My fellowship ended in the spring of 2010, but I felt I had a moral obligation to continue this work. After the civic dialogues, many people- landowners, farmers, food preservers, and others- were looking for a way to bring cohesiveness and a sense of purpose around the creation of a healthy food system for our community. The Community Food Security Dialogue was a way to keep the conversation going.

I was also concerned about including people who, historically, haven't been part of the discussion. Conversations around food in our community are often fragmented and top-heavy, with disproportionate input at the academic and institutional level, while those usually most profoundly affected by these issues of food and well-being are not at the table. I didn't want to close out the year without a chance for those people who were not being represented to have a voice. I also had been inspired by my recent trip with other Ithacans involved in the food movement to the Community Food Security Conference in New Orleans earlier this year. The dialogue here was a way to begin to examine how the ten square miles around Ithaca fit into the global movement around building a healthy food system.

GS: Who has been working with you on this project?

JS: Logistically, to hold this dialogue, I worked with Joanna Green, Kirtrina Baxter, Elan Shapiro, Sarah Reistetter, Cornell students Meredith Palmer, Zackery Murray, and Ben Pinon, and several community representatives. But people have been working on and thinking about this project begun long before I came. It always has been, and will always be, a project of the whole community. This work is cross-generational, and spans the entire socioeconomic, political, institutional, and community spectrum, and so many people have been involved. In particular I want to recognize Tony Petito of the new Neighborhood Pride grocery store, and his role as part of a group of elders that are still active and committed to their community, with their hearts centered in the neighborhood.