All, Many who till city soil, labor in the urban gardens and inhabit city council chambers to create a local food revolution, often do so in a kind of isolation. Their work is not seen as central to the larger questions of economic reinvention or community transformation. Food Policy Councils of the kind organized by Susan Roberts and Angie Tagtow in Iowa, the Healthy Eating Initiative in Morris, MN, Hank Herrera's work in Dig Deep Farms and the East Bay local food revolution -- these efforts integrate the larger themes surrounding food, bringing together the strands of neighborhood and nutrition to make the entire community more resilient.
In old industrial city of Flint, Michigan the Flint Farmers' Market plays a similar role. As a one community activist said, "The farmers' market offers a safe place for everyone; a place where everyone is treated equal, where everyone is a peer." Under the leadership of Dick Ramsdell and with help from Karianne Martus (second in command), the Flint Farmers' Market has initiated a community-wide TV/Radio campaign to build stronger community connections around food. The effort is funded by a grant from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Development. It's ostensible goal is to increase Winter attendance at the Flint Farmer's Market (open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday all year-long). But, Dick and Karianne chose to see the task more broadly; as an opportunity to reach out to the entire Flint community. I wrote and produced the thirteen 30 second TV and Radio spots for this effort. The stories come from 50 interviews with Flint residents. The spots use Flint voices and Flint produced music. The work to create the spots, by itself, fostered new collaborations. Local TV stations are surveying viewers about "which spot is their favorite." A reception will be held this week to honor all who worked on this media project. I have posted all thirteen (13) spots on You Tube on my Local Food Revolution (christhefilmmaker) Channel. The URL is http://www.youtube.com/user/Christhefilmmaker?feature=mhum In most pre-industrial societies, men have to "dream" their children before they can conceive them. I believe the same is true for communities. Communities need a dream, a vision of what change is possible, what goals they are striving for, before real change can be accomplished. The Flint Farmers' Market MEDIA PROJECT strives to create that dream of the future using the community voices of the present. The work in Flint is real and revolutionary. Check out the spots. You can contact Dick Ramsdell at chs_ramsd...@hotmail.com Karianne Martus can be reached at kmmar...@aol.com The market's website is www.flintfarmersmarket.com Let me know if you have any questions OR want a DVD of the 13 TV spots or a CD of the 13 Radio spots. Peace and good food, Chris Christopher Bedford Filmmaker-Writer-Organizer Center for Economic Security #6543 Hancock Road Montague, MI 49437 chrisbedf...@charter.net 231-893-3937 www.chrisbedfordfilms.com www.healthyschoolmeals.org www.center4economicsecurity.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20110119/c2932c3f/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
