Walnut Way has been selected as a finalist for Communities Take Root a program which provides fruit orchards for community organizations like Walnut Way. Beginning April 15, voting begins for the 2011 Communities Take Root program. Edy’s Fruit Bars will launch a nation-wide public relations and media campaign, encouraging people across the United States to visit www.CommunitiesTakeRoot.com to cast their vote.

We need your help to make sure Walnut Way wins! Visit www.communitiestakeroot.com to cast your vote. Please share with all your friends and family! 

Historically, Walnut Way gardens and orchards presented an opportunity to enhance the neighborhood environment and shift perspective. Plants flourished on vacant lots that were once dumping grounds for litter and disruptive behavior.  Gardens and orchards provided a diversion, attracting positive attention and curiosity while restoring connections to growing.

Our goal is to make healthy, affordable food available to residents. Food is grown on Walnut Way vacant lots using insight derived from neighborhood consultation. Our operation is environmentally sustainable by prohibiting the use of chemicals in our food production. In addition to making food available, these neighborhood-based gardens, fields and orchards peak interest and curiosity. Neighbors, especially children, are much more inclined to try foods which are grown right inside their communities. Neighbors can see the product grown and talk directly with the people growing it. Our first fruit trees were peaches, planted after consulting with neighbors. We are now the only vendor selling peaches at Fondy Farmers Market. Neighbors can purchase our fruit crops at the Fondy Market using cash, WIC Farmers Market vouchers, and through EBT (electronic benefits transfer).

Vegetable gardens, rain gardens, fruit orchards and apiaries have become sites for neighborhood-based learning. Adults and children gather in Walnut Way to learn how a community can rebuild through connections to our living world. Gardens captivate all our senses and ground us in the present moment through explorations of taste, smell, touch, sight, and sound. Orchards remind us that fruits of years to come are being created today. Bees teach us the value of communal living and purpose. Our neighborhood campus provides experiential learning opportunities for all ages.

Walnut Way Urban Agriculture has also become a vehicle to extend work development skills to adults and youth. Residents are engaged to learn about tending to gardens and have become gainfully employed. Youth participate in summer internships where garden skills are learned while financial literacy and personal development skills are nurtured. Knowledge continues to be acquired in the areas of garden product marketing, value-added processing, and sales.

We are asking friends to visit the Communities Take Root website to cast their vote for a Walnut Way orchard. This award would expand our existing, successful urban agriculture program.