There’s a recipe in this story:
Seeking Common Ground and the programs that operate under its umbrella are the embodiment of that dream. The programs include a community organic farm at Denome’s home on Hicks Road in South Bristol; a farm-to-cafeteria program that works with Ontario County Cornell Cooperative Extension, local farmers and food service directors to increase the use of local foods in cafeterias; and Herb Haven, an herbal gardening and retail training program for women and children who are striving to become economically self-sufficient.
About 50 women are participating in one or more of the programs. The community farm is a cooperative that offers the chance to learn about agriculture and help grow a variety of vegetables and other edibles in exchange for having healthy, homegrown food. At Herb Haven, women attend eight to 10 hours a week to learn life skills (such as budgeting and setting goals), horticulture and retail job skills and attend a support group. They plant, tend and harvest the garden, create useful products with the herbs and then sell them from a shop at the site in Crystal Beach on Route 364. Free nutritious meals are provided for women and children, and a child-care program offers arts, crafts, song, dance, gardening, cooking and creative play…
Group of women fighting poverty at home - Wellsville, NY - Wellsville Daily Reporter
Jack writes on his blog regarding Instructions from The Cook:
The start of AA was a small act realizing a big dream. Two men started by helping two other men toward recovery and today million of lives are transformed by the community they built. If you have examples you know of or have been a part of, send them to us. The book, that will be titled “Instructions From The Cook: Recipes for Building Community” will feature descriptions, implications, and applications of a community building model around these recipes.
View the Intentional Model Recipes here. Email your recipes to recipes@radicaltransitions.net. You can also leave them here in a comment.
One of the reasons why we’re featuring “recipes” in the book is that many communities need a jump start in creativity. It’s not that they lack the ability to be creative. It’s that their individual and collective capacity for creativity has been hidden beneath a problem orientation to everything and everyone.
Each recipe suggests new combinations of gifts, assets, and opportunities. Like combining a local company work team, a group of seniors, a small flock of grade schoolers, a master gardener, and a vacant property the city is willing to sell for a dollar.
Recipes are essential for reminding people of their innate neurophysiological capacity to make random and new connections that lead to social innovations.
Jack posted something to his blog that illustrates AIM on different levels: it’s about conversations, small acts, inviting participation, being engaging. This is an excerpt from a flight chat with a seat mate who joins neighbors in regular small acts of connecting people in his SanFrancisco community. They were talking about the Kerouac stories of natural communities a couple generations ago.
I started to say, “Well, you know this year is the 50th year of …” he [Bob, a San Franciscan electrician] finished with “Yea, On The Road … Kerouac”, leading to another hour of recounting the rich tapestry there. The routine he and some of his neighbors have is once a week or so, they’ll set a bench out front of their home near the Mission District and drink wine, offering to anyone who shows up. It is magic in bringing people out of their houses and into community. No surprise that he is one of the entrepreneurial members of a thriving non-profit board…
Neighborly Benchwarming is a great example of something we’re including in the book—Recipes for building community. It’s one of the areas Jack and I are looking for your ideas on. If you have any tips or techniques on creating community that we could include (with attribution of course), please email them to us, or leave them in a comment below.
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