Gardening It Is!

Watonwan County has four gardens and also the Gardens in a Box located in the mobile home park in St. James. Take a look to see how beautiful these gardens are looking! In this growing season, we've increased our number of gardeners at each garden, expanded tillable land, and also added the garden in Butterfield. We're off to a great start!

Old water tower parking lot in Butterfield

2nd Ave S & 15th St. S St. James

410 4th St. NE Madelia

Gardens in a Box-Mobile Home Park St. James

910 10th Ave S. St. James

For more information on gardening contact: Kathy Lillevold at lille015@umn.edu

Watonwan Summer Food Service Program

The Watonwan County Summer Food Service Program (also known as Kids Kafe) kicked off on June 14th, 2010 with phenomenal numbers! Kids eat free and adults can join for a nominal fee. There is a host site at each school district within Watonwan: Butterfield school, Madelia Elementary school, and St. James Armstrong school. Butterfield is serving lunch and also attracting a number of employees from the local factory in town. Madelia and St. James are serving breakfast and lunch. This wonderful program is also providing educational/recreational programming before and after lunch. Kids Kafe planned to serve 245 meals a day between the 3 school districts. By the end of the day on the 16th, they were up to serving 337 meals between the 3 districts. Amazing! Also, Watonwan is incorporating a "Walking School Bus" to get kids safely to and from school.

The Watonwan County Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is also collaboratively working with Minnesota Valley Action Council (MVAC). MVAC is staging work for those in need through the SFSP.

Tune in-there'll be more to come! Hailey

Martin County Community Garden- Rotary Club Garden

Friday May 28th 2010
Chera and I had a meeting with the Rotary Club Garden Committee to discuss plans for the garden for next year. We spoke about creating our action plan and making sure everybody is on the same page about the wants and needs of the garden. The idea was brought up to speak to people who have lots this season and tell them about the changes we are planning to make for next season so that it will not be a huge shock next year when things have been changed.
Chera and I were also given the awesome opportunity to go and see the garden! It is amazing! Many of the lots are already growing many different kinds of vegetables. We were even able to speak to some of the gardeners who were out there when we were there. They are very proud and very appreciative of their lots. More updates to come!
Jess

Faribault County SHIP Kick-Off!

We are excited for the Faribault County SHIP Kick-Off on June 1, 2010 at Blue Earth Area High School. If you RSVP'd for dinner, you won't be dissapointed! The menu includes a healthy meal of pork loin, provided by Faribault County Pork Producers, wild rice salad, green beans donated by Seneca and angel food cake with strawberriers. Christine Purvis and the food service staff will be helping to prepare the food. The presentations will begin starting at 6:30. If you did not RSVP for dinner you are still welcome to attend the presentations :)

Chera Sevcik, SHIP Coordinator for Faribault, Martin & Watonwan Counties will provide a presentation on SHIP and what it means for the communities in Faribault County. Chris Chalmers, Community Education Director for Albert Lea Schools and co-chair of the Albert Lea Blue Zones Project will talk about Blue Zones and the impact on Albert Lea as a result of implementing policy and environmental changes to encourage healthy, longer lifestyles. Our keynote speaker is Dan Burden, national expert on walkable/bikeable communities. In addition to the speakers, you will also learn more about the SHIP projects impacting Faribault County!

See you there!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Statewide Health Improvement Program of Faribault, Martin & Watonwan Counties Blog! This blog will be updated on a weekly basis to help keep community members and SHIP team members in Faribault, Martin & Watonwan Counties updated with current information! We are excited to offer this blog as a place to learn from one another, network with each other and to provide updated resources and information.

Thanks for looking and please pass on to others :)