Fat City Farms
Project Proposal
Roaring Fork High School
Fat City Farms is a non-profit organization devoted to developing gardens and greenhouses on various community sites includes schools. This project is proposed at no-cost to the school district and would provide the following benefits:
Integrated learning opportunities with high school science classes
Provide fresh fruit and produce for the school lunch room
Opportunities for community volunteers to be involved in the garden, greenhouse, and instructional program
The green house, a 30X60 foot structure will be removed from a site in Glenwood Springs and reconstructed on a site behind Roaring Fork High School, of approximately one acre in size, that has been mutually agreed upon by Fat City Farms and the RFSD office staff, including Larry Estrada, our facilities director.
In addition to the green house, a small section of land on the south side of the high school will be used for a garden area. The garden area will be fenced to prevent deer from disturbing the garden and will contain a small tool shed to hold the necessary equipment.
The school will be responsible for providing the community, teacher and student volunteers to work with and in the program.
Fat City will be responsible for work done in the greenhouse and on the garden in the summer time. They use community volunteers and college students
Prior to coming to the Board for approval, Fat City Farms will create a draft of an MOU that addresses the following:
Liability insurance provided by Fat City Farms
Provision for a green house manager
Code issues regarding placement of the green house and garden
Code issues/state health issues regarding the use of produce in the school lunchroom
Funds for the program to be provided by Fat City Farms
Placement of lights and security cameras behind the building
Damage insurance
Termination of program
Responsibility for upkeep and maintenance
Access to the green house and garden via the fire lane
Parking for volunteers
Solar lighting around the greenhouse for security
Construction materials and height of fence around the garden
Access to water for watering the plants as well as access to potable water for washing and cleaning the fruits and vegetables
Maintenance of grounds around the outside of the fenced garden
Construction and composition of compost bins
We have asked the FCF meet with the neighbors adjacent to the RFHS property to insure that we have addressed any issues they may have regarding the placement of the garden or greenhouse
FCF would like to have an agreement in place by spring and begin the placement of the green house and garden area soil preparation.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Roaring Fork High School, Carbondale - proposal
RE-1 School District 2009.03.25
Re: Garden, Greenhouse at RFHS
Who we are:
Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, running a CSA Farm School, with a network of supporting organizations, and a mission to “grow farmers” for an emerging local food economy and culture. We will briefly introduce our partner organizations, Fat City Farms, C.O.R.E., the Basalt Thrift Store, and Slow Food Roaring Fork, and thank the School Board for this meeting, and for their questions, after.
Why we are before you:
We are part of a growing national movement to improve our food supply in healthfulness, safety, and security, as well as to reduce the food industry’s “carbon footprint” by creating local food production and distribution networks. We are very fortunate in the Roaring Fork Valley, to have a history of farming and ranching, as well as excellent present-day instructors, experienced with growing food in this climate: Jerome Osentowski, Ken Kuhns, Jennifer Craig, and others. Some of the essential “glue” that binds all these efforts together is fundamental: improving the healthfulness of food for our children, in their school lunch. Giving them the understanding and the skills to grow their own food, and to learn how to grow it in ways that are healthy for the eater, as well as for the land, is “priceless”.
What we propose:
A partnership with RE-1 to provide the land and water at RFHS, for us to build a greenhouse and a fenced-in garden area, as a Carbondale Center for our CSA Farm School operations, and for the RE-1 School District’s emerging agricultural curricula. Our CSA Farm School will use garden and greenhouse facilities from early May through September (5 months) each year. Some of our Farm School instructors and graduating students will be available to assist your Teachers, as they prepare and run their own classes, from October through April (7 months) each year. We will use September to wind-down our operations, and to give your Teachers and their Students “tours” to orient them for their school year in the greenhouse. We will also be able to involve the classes in outdoor harvesting work during September and October, when they can reap some of our Summer crops for their cafeteria. We will also engage with your Teachers and Students in the Spring, as we come in to help plant the outdoor gardens in April, and take over for our CSA Farm School operations in May.
How we will accomplish this goal:
· Fundraising efforts already underway, for private and foundation grants, for the design and construction:
· Greenhouse frame to be donated by the City of Glenwood Springs, for a structure measuring 31’ x 76’, and 13’ tall in the center. We will place this structure outside the wood shop and kitchen.
· Greenhouse foundation, “climate battery” solar heat storage system, frame assembly, double-inflated poly greenhouse covering, vent panels and ventilating fans, controls, backup heating, planting beds, potable water wash sink and irrigation systems, purchased with outside funding;
· Outdoor Garden fencing, terracing, irrigation, tool storage shed, soil, mulch, and annual and perennial plants, purchased with outside funding;
· Construction and assembly of the greenhouse and garden area will be accomplished largely by volunteers, guided by CSA Farm School instructors and students, who will be working continuously through the Summer on it. If private funds are available in sufficient amounts, we will provide paid labor to accelerate the one-time construction process.
· Provide a Greenhouse Manager to “check in” frequently with RFHS Teachers, regarding maintenance of greenhouse climate control systems, backup heating, etc. As the RFHS curricula develop and Teachers gain experience, this position may fall back to “on-call” status.
· CRMPI will provide complete liability insurance for property and participants in our CSA Farm School program. Protection of RFHS property, students and other local public and private school participants, during their use of the facilities, would be covered by RE-1 School District insurance, already in place.
· Complete communication, review and periodic inspection by Colorado Health Dept. inspector, for all agricultural operations on the site.
· Ongoing maintenance of greenhouse and garden areas, complete with replacement of damaged components and plants, as necessary.
What we will need from the RE-1 School District:
· A letter of support for this project;
· A letter of RE-1 Board concerns, if any, that have not yet been addressed;
· Co-sponsorship of an agreement, for a minimum of ten years, to lease the greenhouse and garden areas to CRMPI, for its CSA Farm School, with all conditions detailed;
· Some help with security, to focus one or two security cameras on the greenhouse and garden areas, to help deter, or to determine identity of vandals, if possible. We would rather deal with some sort of vandalism loss, than to create a prison-like atmosphere for our school farm.
· Access to land, irrigation water, potable water for the greenhouse. We will obtain a donation from Solar Energy International, of a solar photovoltaic electric system for ventilation and heat storage fans, with batteries.
· An Ag-program coordinator, to schedule classes among RE-1 Teachers and Students, as well as occasional visiting classes from other school districts, and continuing education classes for the community. CRMPI’s CSA Farm School program coordinator will take over scheduling of classes during the Summer season.
What opportunities will this present to RE-1 students and their community?
· Real, homegrown food for lunch! “I grew this!”
· Farming curriculum, uniting science, sociology, zoology, civic studies, language, art, into FOOD. Priceless!
· Extracurricular learning through CSA Farm School, Summer programs, internships, lifelong education.
· Creating a culture of locally made food, will help generate the evolving “eco-science” of inhabiting this place, in a way that is healthy for the land, as well as for the people. This is exactly the science we need now, always.
· Creating a culture of locally made food, will keep a major economic resource re-circulating in the local community, re-generating local prosperity, supporting schools, families, businesses. We will begin building this economy together, starting with our schools.
We hope everyone is enthusiastically interested in this partnership and project. We are already underway, helping create a small geodesic dome greenhouse at Yampah Mountain High School, scheduled to be built in April. We intend to help all the willing schools in the Roaring Fork Valley to enter this emerging curriculum, with greenhouses and gardens wherever possible. We hope to reach our goal of an agricultural facility at each of the Valley’s public and private elementary and secondary schools, within the next half-decade.
Re: Garden, Greenhouse at RFHS
Who we are:
Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, running a CSA Farm School, with a network of supporting organizations, and a mission to “grow farmers” for an emerging local food economy and culture. We will briefly introduce our partner organizations, Fat City Farms, C.O.R.E., the Basalt Thrift Store, and Slow Food Roaring Fork, and thank the School Board for this meeting, and for their questions, after.
Why we are before you:
We are part of a growing national movement to improve our food supply in healthfulness, safety, and security, as well as to reduce the food industry’s “carbon footprint” by creating local food production and distribution networks. We are very fortunate in the Roaring Fork Valley, to have a history of farming and ranching, as well as excellent present-day instructors, experienced with growing food in this climate: Jerome Osentowski, Ken Kuhns, Jennifer Craig, and others. Some of the essential “glue” that binds all these efforts together is fundamental: improving the healthfulness of food for our children, in their school lunch. Giving them the understanding and the skills to grow their own food, and to learn how to grow it in ways that are healthy for the eater, as well as for the land, is “priceless”.
What we propose:
A partnership with RE-1 to provide the land and water at RFHS, for us to build a greenhouse and a fenced-in garden area, as a Carbondale Center for our CSA Farm School operations, and for the RE-1 School District’s emerging agricultural curricula. Our CSA Farm School will use garden and greenhouse facilities from early May through September (5 months) each year. Some of our Farm School instructors and graduating students will be available to assist your Teachers, as they prepare and run their own classes, from October through April (7 months) each year. We will use September to wind-down our operations, and to give your Teachers and their Students “tours” to orient them for their school year in the greenhouse. We will also be able to involve the classes in outdoor harvesting work during September and October, when they can reap some of our Summer crops for their cafeteria. We will also engage with your Teachers and Students in the Spring, as we come in to help plant the outdoor gardens in April, and take over for our CSA Farm School operations in May.
How we will accomplish this goal:
· Fundraising efforts already underway, for private and foundation grants, for the design and construction:
· Greenhouse frame to be donated by the City of Glenwood Springs, for a structure measuring 31’ x 76’, and 13’ tall in the center. We will place this structure outside the wood shop and kitchen.
· Greenhouse foundation, “climate battery” solar heat storage system, frame assembly, double-inflated poly greenhouse covering, vent panels and ventilating fans, controls, backup heating, planting beds, potable water wash sink and irrigation systems, purchased with outside funding;
· Outdoor Garden fencing, terracing, irrigation, tool storage shed, soil, mulch, and annual and perennial plants, purchased with outside funding;
· Construction and assembly of the greenhouse and garden area will be accomplished largely by volunteers, guided by CSA Farm School instructors and students, who will be working continuously through the Summer on it. If private funds are available in sufficient amounts, we will provide paid labor to accelerate the one-time construction process.
· Provide a Greenhouse Manager to “check in” frequently with RFHS Teachers, regarding maintenance of greenhouse climate control systems, backup heating, etc. As the RFHS curricula develop and Teachers gain experience, this position may fall back to “on-call” status.
· CRMPI will provide complete liability insurance for property and participants in our CSA Farm School program. Protection of RFHS property, students and other local public and private school participants, during their use of the facilities, would be covered by RE-1 School District insurance, already in place.
· Complete communication, review and periodic inspection by Colorado Health Dept. inspector, for all agricultural operations on the site.
· Ongoing maintenance of greenhouse and garden areas, complete with replacement of damaged components and plants, as necessary.
What we will need from the RE-1 School District:
· A letter of support for this project;
· A letter of RE-1 Board concerns, if any, that have not yet been addressed;
· Co-sponsorship of an agreement, for a minimum of ten years, to lease the greenhouse and garden areas to CRMPI, for its CSA Farm School, with all conditions detailed;
· Some help with security, to focus one or two security cameras on the greenhouse and garden areas, to help deter, or to determine identity of vandals, if possible. We would rather deal with some sort of vandalism loss, than to create a prison-like atmosphere for our school farm.
· Access to land, irrigation water, potable water for the greenhouse. We will obtain a donation from Solar Energy International, of a solar photovoltaic electric system for ventilation and heat storage fans, with batteries.
· An Ag-program coordinator, to schedule classes among RE-1 Teachers and Students, as well as occasional visiting classes from other school districts, and continuing education classes for the community. CRMPI’s CSA Farm School program coordinator will take over scheduling of classes during the Summer season.
What opportunities will this present to RE-1 students and their community?
· Real, homegrown food for lunch! “I grew this!”
· Farming curriculum, uniting science, sociology, zoology, civic studies, language, art, into FOOD. Priceless!
· Extracurricular learning through CSA Farm School, Summer programs, internships, lifelong education.
· Creating a culture of locally made food, will help generate the evolving “eco-science” of inhabiting this place, in a way that is healthy for the land, as well as for the people. This is exactly the science we need now, always.
· Creating a culture of locally made food, will keep a major economic resource re-circulating in the local community, re-generating local prosperity, supporting schools, families, businesses. We will begin building this economy together, starting with our schools.
We hope everyone is enthusiastically interested in this partnership and project. We are already underway, helping create a small geodesic dome greenhouse at Yampah Mountain High School, scheduled to be built in April. We intend to help all the willing schools in the Roaring Fork Valley to enter this emerging curriculum, with greenhouses and gardens wherever possible. We hope to reach our goal of an agricultural facility at each of the Valley’s public and private elementary and secondary schools, within the next half-decade.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Fat City Farms - Board Assignments
I would like to suggest some serious assignments so we can make serious applications. We should dedicate ourselves to the fundamentals:
A specific Project: What will it cost? Carbondale or Aspen first? – MT
What donations of money, time, material, equipment and land, can be generated locally? DB
What donations of money can be generated in the outside world? SB and TJ
What do our Financials look like? AJ
How are we networked into the world, and with our sibling organizations? AJ, Danny and Brian
Everybody ready to get to work? Are our assignments clear? Does anyone feel misplaced?
So, in clarification and addition:
Tom, please create and maintain a schedule of grants and application deadlines, both locally and worldly.
David, please pass along to Tom any grant programs you find in the local community, and to me any offers of work in-kind, for my Project estimates.
Jerome, you have the best nose for in-kind donations, please pass along your bounty to me as well.
MT and AJ will work with Danny on the website, and spin off graphics for the brochure pieces;
Susan and Tom will create the documents for grant applications, including the brochure, with Danny.
Please feel free to split up work as it fits you.
When we are ready, we will start pumping the applications out.
Danny, Jerome and MT will work on their “Naturalist Nights” presentation, remaking it into 15-min. and 30-min. versions, to help educate and activate the local community. We will present our short version at the "Foodie Summit" in Woody Creek on Thursday evening, April 9, and at the RE-1 School Board meeting in Glenwood Springs, Wednesday evening, March 25.
A specific Project: What will it cost? Carbondale or Aspen first? – MT
What donations of money, time, material, equipment and land, can be generated locally? DB
What donations of money can be generated in the outside world? SB and TJ
What do our Financials look like? AJ
How are we networked into the world, and with our sibling organizations? AJ, Danny and Brian
Everybody ready to get to work? Are our assignments clear? Does anyone feel misplaced?
So, in clarification and addition:
Tom, please create and maintain a schedule of grants and application deadlines, both locally and worldly.
David, please pass along to Tom any grant programs you find in the local community, and to me any offers of work in-kind, for my Project estimates.
Jerome, you have the best nose for in-kind donations, please pass along your bounty to me as well.
MT and AJ will work with Danny on the website, and spin off graphics for the brochure pieces;
Susan and Tom will create the documents for grant applications, including the brochure, with Danny.
Please feel free to split up work as it fits you.
When we are ready, we will start pumping the applications out.
Danny, Jerome and MT will work on their “Naturalist Nights” presentation, remaking it into 15-min. and 30-min. versions, to help educate and activate the local community. We will present our short version at the "Foodie Summit" in Woody Creek on Thursday evening, April 9, and at the RE-1 School Board meeting in Glenwood Springs, Wednesday evening, March 25.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Fat City Farms Budget 2009
Here is a financial report, of sorts:
Bank balance as of Feb 28:
$ 1,352.21
Checks written since Feb 28:
$ 499.50 Cohen Law Firm, re: Basalt Thrift Store
Anticipated expenditures:
Danny Brown, web & brochure development March-May ‘09 $ ??.
Brochure printing & mailing March-May ’09 $ 350.
MT, conceptual project designs (after discount):
Carbondale High School March ’09 $ 500.
Aspen Middle School GH March ’09 $ 350.
MT, Jerome, Detailed project designs for construction: (after discount):
Yampah High School March-April ’09 $ 500.
Carbondale High School April-May ’09 $ 2,500.
Aspen Middle School GH April-May ’09 $ 2,000.
CSA Farm School 2009:
Detailed budget to follow, but anticipate summer budget of: $ 9,000.
Tuition? Scholarships?
Instructors?
Expenses?
Construction money for:
Yampah Mtn HS $ 3,500. max.
Carbondale HS (tbd)
Aspen MS (tbd)
Obviously, we need to hold some meetings to cover all the details around these numbers, and around planning our summer classes with Jerome and others.
Jerome and I met with the Yampah HS staff Monday, and their excavator. We staked out the dome, and discussed the steps we'll take to breathe life into their new classroom. That was one group of excited teachers! I congratulated them on being the little "alternative school", first of all the schools in the valley to bring a greenhouse online. Go Farmers!
Bank balance as of Feb 28:
$ 1,352.21
Checks written since Feb 28:
$ 499.50 Cohen Law Firm, re: Basalt Thrift Store
Anticipated expenditures:
Danny Brown, web & brochure development March-May ‘09 $ ??.
Brochure printing & mailing March-May ’09 $ 350.
MT, conceptual project designs (after discount):
Carbondale High School March ’09 $ 500.
Aspen Middle School GH March ’09 $ 350.
MT, Jerome, Detailed project designs for construction: (after discount):
Yampah High School March-April ’09 $ 500.
Carbondale High School April-May ’09 $ 2,500.
Aspen Middle School GH April-May ’09 $ 2,000.
CSA Farm School 2009:
Detailed budget to follow, but anticipate summer budget of: $ 9,000.
Tuition? Scholarships?
Instructors?
Expenses?
Construction money for:
Yampah Mtn HS $ 3,500. max.
Carbondale HS (tbd)
Aspen MS (tbd)
Obviously, we need to hold some meetings to cover all the details around these numbers, and around planning our summer classes with Jerome and others.
Jerome and I met with the Yampah HS staff Monday, and their excavator. We staked out the dome, and discussed the steps we'll take to breathe life into their new classroom. That was one group of excited teachers! I congratulated them on being the little "alternative school", first of all the schools in the valley to bring a greenhouse online. Go Farmers!
Blog Conferences - Scheduling
Susan -
Michael - I'm on the computer most mornings and late afternoons on weekdays, available for blog conferences.
David -
AJ -
Tom -
Danny -
Michael - I'm on the computer most mornings and late afternoons on weekdays, available for blog conferences.
David -
AJ -
Tom -
Danny -
CSA Farm School Insurance
Jerome's Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, with it's two decades of teaching, can get the CSA Farm School insurance we'll need to obtain and maintain agreements with the School Districts.
Jerome is expecting school insurance quotes by March 20. Fat City Farms will raise the money to fund the insurance and the school, until the school can pay these expenses independently
CRMPI will run the school, generate curriculum, hire instructors, raise students, and collect tuition, when we all agree it is appropriate to charge tuition, and how much.
I will add the details to this post when they become available:
Jerome is expecting school insurance quotes by March 20. Fat City Farms will raise the money to fund the insurance and the school, until the school can pay these expenses independently
CRMPI will run the school, generate curriculum, hire instructors, raise students, and collect tuition, when we all agree it is appropriate to charge tuition, and how much.
I will add the details to this post when they become available:
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