Jan. 9th WSC Meeting Notes and Action Items

Thanks everyone for meeting at Coffee to a Tea today. Here’s what we discussed:

Overall everyone still likes the idea of 21st Century Victory Gardens, backyard wildlife sanctuaries, and other ways to green West Seattle. A lot of questions came up about whether there are groups that are already doing this work that we can support? Or are we trying to do something different here that we need to start from scratch? A couple of our action items will help answer those questions.

Teri invited Aaron who shared with us the work that CHOSS (Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle) is doing, and what they are trying to get off the ground. They are teaching people how to plant at their own homes, planting veggies in yards and containers; harvesting from fruit trees; teaching canning classes, and sharing harvests with the food banks. CHOSS is already working on getting volunteers from the high school and community college. Aaron is already working with CHOSS on planting three p-patch gardens in the community, and needs two more locations.

Nicole popped in after overhearing our conversation, and what a providential coincidence since she has worked with Seattle Tilth for years. She can help answer our questions about what Seattle Tilth is working on, their goals, needs, etc. For example she was able to share that Seattle Tilth has a coordinator matching volunteers with p-patches, and they offer compost bins at a subsidized price (answering a couple of our goals already).

Heather also popped in and told us about her work organizing Oh Mama, a group for moms with young children to volunteer, ages 3 and over – goal is to connect moms with other moms and teach children about service. She wants to work with us if we have volunteer projects for youngsters.

Other ideas shared:
Backyard sanctuaries – put together tour of West Seattle backyard sanctuaries
Work at the farmers market to share information with West Seattleites
How to make condos more friendly to birds and bees – how to pick plants for your sun exposure and patio size
Promote mason bee blocks
Native plant sale coming up – purchase and nuture trees until they are ready to be planted in a yard
Seattle Foundation – possible to get a grant for our projects (Community Grant Program)
Find a source for rain barrels (cheap or free)
Handouts for people we can help (for people who don’t have computers)
Can White Center Foodbank pick up food from containers at homes on a regular basis? (so we don’t have to deliver harvested food?)
Street tree coordination – Nicole is trying to get that started
West Seattle Christian would be willing to let us dump soil
Seattle Tilth teaching classes – need more spaces to teach/more gardens in the southwest Seattle areas.
If we decide to move ahead with plantings –
April 15 is last frost date –
But depending on the location you can plant peas, lettuce, spinach in February

Actions:
Kim will call Avila at CHOSS to see if we can volunteer behind their organizational efforts

Teri will talk to her neighbor, the president of the WSHS PTA, about volunteering parameters for school kids

Kim will talk to Barb about how to get school kids involved

Nicole will talk to Tilth (if there are any questions that she didn’t answer – but primarily, how can we help stretch their efforts into West Seattle?)

Nancy W. will talk to Farmers Market to see if it’s possible to get a booth to educate people about p-patches, backyard sanctuaries, etc.

Kendall will talk to Junction Association about getting a free booth at West Seattle Street Fair this year

Kim will see where you can get rain barrels and/or instructions for installation

Jasmine and Dan/Nancy will measure their yards so we know how much space they have for planting

Frances will talk to Ama Ama about hosting the next meeting

Next meeting at Ama Ama, February 8, 4 p.m.
At the next meeting, we should plan on coming to a consensus on a single first goal for the group. Please be thinking about this – what means most to you? What do you think we can accomplish? Getting your hands dirty with some planting, coordinating volunteers, community education – something else? Time to focus! Thanks everyone!