ABG Highlights from 2014
Alameda Backyard Growers proves that a small group of people with big hearts and a lot of community support can accomplish great things! Take a look at our highlights of our group’s progress and impact in 2014:
1. Increased attendance at monthly meetings
ABG continued offering educational meetings on timely gardening issues, led by local experts and gardeners, as we have every month since our launch in March 2010. Meeting attendance grew significantly over 2014, and now generally ranges from 30 to 60 attendees. In 2014 meeting topics included:
- Fruit Trees
- Growing Tomatoes in Alameda
- Seasonal Gardening
- Companion Planting
- Water-wise Irrigation
- Community Gardens
- Tool Maintenance and Sharpening
- Managing Pests
- Losing Your Lawn
- Alameda’s Agricultural Past
View our 2015 monthly meeting schedule here.
2. Hosted a special community event – the screening of ‘A Place at the Table’
ABG continued its outreach to the public through a variety of special community events. In 2014 we sponsored “A Place at the Table,” a film screening and call-to-action on food security issues. About 80 people attended. Our partners in the event included County Supervisor Wilma Chan, Alameda Food Bank, Alameda County
Community Food Bank, Bread for the World, Mastick Senior Center, Alameda Point Collaborative and Michaan’s Auctions.
3. Collaborated with other community organizations at the following events to encourage people to grow and eat their own fruits and veggies:
- Community Garden Day of Service, Jean Sweeney Open Space Park
- City of Alameda Earth Day Festival, Washington Park
- Earth Day at Amelia Earhart School, Bay Farm Island
- Alameda’s 4th of July Parade
- Everything Alameda, Lower Washington Park
- Improving Soil Quality workshop, in collaboration with the Alameda Free Library
4. Completed a pilot project – Branching Out
Branching Out was created in response to seeing sick or neglected fruit trees in Alameda, whose inedible fruit was going into green bins instead of into hungry bellies. ABG secured a grant from StopWaste.Org to provide a limited amount of low-cost fruit tree pruning services to property owners in the city of Alameda. We provided services to 100% of the applicants and have started to see healthier trees with better tasting fruit.
5. Continued our successful Project Pick gleaning program
Project PICK Grow Some, Keep Some, Give Some Away has been ABG’s goal since our start. In 2014, ABG volunteers picked, and donated to the Alameda Food Bank, 3,296 pounds of fruit and vegetables from yards in Alameda – food that otherwise might have gone to waste.
Click here for a downloadable flyer on ABG’s Highlights for 2014.
Highlights from previous years: