iGROW project takes root

With just a week under its belt since the launch of its
interactive Website, the “iGROW” segment of the Sonoma County
Health Action project seems to have taken healthy root.
The iGROW project is one of seven community health improvement
projects under Health Action, a program established by the Sonoma
County Board of Supervisors in 2007 to improve the health of county
residents and is designed to support the growing, sharing and
eating of healthy foods throughout the county.
“iGROW is a grassroots, community campaign to help people touch,
taste and connect with local, healthy produce and to increase
community engagement in creating a vibrant, resilient, and
sustainable food system,” said Health Action Program Manager Ellen
Jones Bauer.
“The Website was just launched last week,” Bauer added, saying
as the word gets out and more people learn to post information
about their gardens or related events on the Website, “we believe
it will continue to grow.”
“So far,” she said, “the response has been great.”
“The timing of this,” Bauer continued, “is very synergistic with
other movements in the county — a growing number of folks
interested in sustainability and access to healthy, local food,
saving money on their food budgets and things like getting to know
your neighbors.”
According to the iGROW Website already 21 gardens have been
registered online.
Health Action has three priority goals for improving community
health including encouraging physically active lifestyles, eating
healthy and nutritious foods, and ensuring that all residents have
access to a trusted source of prevention-focused primary medical
care, said Bauer.
iWALK, Health Action’s first physical activity initiative, was
started last May.
“iGROW,” Bauer said, “was born out of a concern about an
epidemic of obesity, diabetes and other health risks associated
with a poor diet low in fresh fruits and vegetables.”
“If you look up data from the California Health information
Survey,” she added, “you will see increasing rates of overweight
and obesity in recent years. Rather than wait for Sacramento or
Washington to offer solutions to this growing health concern,
Health Action wanted to look to what we can do locally as a
community.”
Saying the county is loaded with experienced food growers, and
given the ag friendly climate here, Bauer said using the
interactive iGROW Website is a good way for people to connect with
related information, resources and each other.
“It’s all about making connections,” she said. “We want to
encourage them to share their knowledge and skills with each other.
This is a platform for people to connect.”
As an example, Bauer said, individuals, schools or community
groups trying to figure out how to start a garden, get more
information on plants or other gardeners or even requesting items
like community garden benches, can punch up the Website and post
their requests with expectations of useful responses as time goes
on and more people visit the site.
“The www.igrowsonoma.org website, is a
one-stop place for Sonoma County residents to find information on
how to start a food garden, tips for growing food all year in
Sonoma County, garden registry of community, school and home
gardens, calendar of classes and events for growing and sharing
food, how to connect with other food growers, how to find local
resources and support for food growing, and more,” she said.
iGROW’s goals, Bauer added, are to “engage significant numbers
of people as food gardeners in Sonoma County, increase the numbers
of food gardens in the county, with the goal of one on every block,
particularly in neighborhoods with little access to fresh fruits or
vegetables.”
In addition, she said, the project will help county residents
build skills in food garden design, maintenance, food production
and processing. Increase the consumption of healthy produce by
sharing or individual family production and “engage community
members to advocate for increased access to affordable, locally
grown, healthy food.”
Resources listed on the iGROW Website include:
*Daily Acts – Homegrown Guild Supports people to turn their
landscapes and neighborhoods into thriving food growing
communities.
*Farm to Pantry Community volunteers who work to provide fresh,
affordable food to all members of the community through gleaning,
garden support and other projects.
*The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, School Garden Teacher
Training and Support Program.
*The Redwood Empire Food Bank.
*The School Garden Network promoting sustainable garden and
nutrition-based learning programs in Sonoma County schools.
*Slow Harvest, a network of community volunteers, farmers,
gardeners, food banks and food professionals who glean excess food
from local farms, gardens, farmers’ markets, bakeries and other
producers and transport it to local food banks.
*Sonoma Compost, a local producer of organic compost and mulch
from 100 percent recycled organics with local school program.
*Sonoma County Harvest Share. This website helps link Sonoma
County farmers and home gardeners with abundant produce to people
who can use it.
Other listed resources include the University of California
Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardeners program, the West County
Community Seed Bank, a grassroots community seed bank with free,
locally grown, open pollinated, pesticide and GMO free seeds.
For more information find Ellen Bauer at eb****@so***********.org.