March 23rd, 2010
APP hosted Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: A Hunger and Food Security Workshop last Thursday at Capitol Heights Baptist Church in Montgomery. Over 50 attendees came together to break bread and to share information, new ideas and strategies for fighting hunger in the Montgomery area.
We heard from local hunger relief programs (Montgomery Area Food Bank, Angel Food Ministries,Montgomery FBC Caring Center), community gardening experts (Montevallo Seed to Table, Jones Valley Urban Farm) and DHR representatives (Food Assistance Program, JOBS Employment Program) about ways to get fresh, healthy, and delicious food to our friends and neighbors.
DHR representatives Patricia Huffman, Margaret Green and Mary Lois Monroe explain the benefits available from family assistance programs, as well as the challenges of accessing these resources.
One of the best ways you can address the interrelated issues of hunger, rising food costs and malnutrition in your own neighborhood is to start a community garden. See this Slate article for suggestions on how to get started, as well as our Resource page on Community Gardening.
Edwin Marty of Jones Valley Urban Farm and Leanne Read of Montevallo Seed to Table talk gardening.
Thank you to Pastor Warren Culvert and Capitol Heights Baptist Church for graciously hosting the event; Ama Shambulia, director of West End Community Gardens for catering our delicious, fresh, and and local vegetarian lunch; Trevor Jaggers at Starbucks Vestavia and Tina Gilliland at Starbucks Hoover for food and coffee donations.
For more resources from the event, see our Montgomery Hunger Resource Guide.
Posted by Robyn Hyden