You’re invited to join us for the exciting kick-off of this year’s Faith & Food program!

• Hear about the experiences of last year’s participants.
• Find out the first steps to begin growing food.
• Learn tips andtricks from other participants.
• Get your congregation signed up to grow food for the hungry this year!

Volunteers working on the St. Andrews Faith & Food Garden in 2009

New and returning congregations are invited to attend. We hope you will be a part of this exciting program to fight local hunger!

Monday, March 22
6:30-8:30pm
Memorial Christian Church (730 Tappan)
Light dinner will be served

Questions? Call 734-663-1870 or e-mail melihe@umich.edu

Faith and Food is back for the 2010 growing season! Faith and Food assists congregations in creating community gardens to fight local hunger. Congregations then donate 50 % of their yield to local food banks. Last year local congregations donated over 3500 lbs of fresh produce. Come to our kick-off meeting on March 22 to learn how your congregation can be involved. (Click here for more on Faith & Food.)

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church's Faith & Food Garden

We are pleased to announce the return of the Faith and Food initiative in 2010. Once again, we are partnering with two well-known hunger relief agencies, Food Gatherers and Growing Hope, to support the development of congregational gardens to feed the hungry.

In 2009, fifteen congregations participated in the program, producing over 3500 lbs of fresh produce for the hungry in Washtenaw County. This year we are hoping for even more community involvement to make a bigger impact on addressing local hunger needs.

The 2010 program is setup to support new congregational gardens and existing congregational gardens to grow food for the hungry. Visit www.foodgatherers.org and click on “Get Growin’ for Food Gatherers!” for great resources to get started on your garden for 2010! You can also contact Food Gatherers with questions at getgrowing@foodgatherers.org or call 734-761-2796.

Click here for a Faith & Food 2010 Fact Sheet about this year’s program.

We look forward to working with you this year to get fresh, healthy produce to our neighbors in need.

UPDATE: As of May 2010, we have 25 congregations participating in Faith and Food! That’s almost double last year’s participation! Thanks to all of the volunteers who make it possible for their congregations to donate fresh, healthy, local food to the hungry in our area.

One year ago the peace movement was jubilant at the election of a new administration. One year after a new administration came to office, where does the peace movement see itself?

A panel of community leaders and peace activists from ICPJ task forces will discuss the policies and actions of the administration of the past year and the effect on the peace movement. Panelists will focus on ICPJ’s issue areas including climate change, Latin America, hunger, Israel/Palestine, war and disarmament, and racial & economic justice.

Date: Wednesday, January 20th
Time: 6:30-8:30pm. Join us for dessert and coffee/tea at 6:30pm, followed by panel speakers and discussion.
Location: Church of the Good Shepherd (2145 Independence Blvd., Ann Arbor). 

For more information, call (734) 663-1870 or email info@icpj.net.  Free and open to the public. Join us!

Download the poster to help spread the word. Continue Reading »

A volunteer works the garden at Mesiah's Temple, Ypsilanti

At our first Faith & Food gathering at Memorial Christian Church in March, over 70 community members representing over 40 congregations learned about congregational gardening to feed the hungry.

Since that first meeting, Faith & Food has successfully organized over a dozen congregational gardens growing healthy, fresh, local produce for low-income families. And the program has provided resources and materials to many more.

How did it go? What did we learn? How can we continue to ensure that the hungry in our community have access to food?

Find out at the…

FAITH AND FOOD SEASON WRAP-UP MEETING
Monday, Oct. 12th  6:30-8:30pm
Food Gatherers Warehouse
1 Carrot Way, Ann Arbor, 48103

The meeting will begin with a tour of the Gathering Farm, followed by refreshments and a presentation. We will discuss the pilot year, what we have learned, and where to go from here. Join us to learn more about this exciting initiative to grow food for the hungry!

(Questions, contact Merilynne Rush, faithandfood@growinghope.net, 734-786-8401)

Join us for these self-guided tours of Washtenaw County garden sites that create smart, fast and sustainable ways to increase low-income people’s access to locally grown, healthy food.

• Visit Faith & Food congregational gardens to see for yourself how this collaboration among ICPJ, Food Gatherers, and Growing Hope is supporting congregations to grow healthy food for the hungry.
• Get a look at other area gardens developed by Food Gatherers, Growing Hope, and Project Grow to see how local community members are responding to increased need for healthy, affordable food.

Choose from 2 dates: July 22, 6 – 9 p.m. OR August 1, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Featured locations: (DOWNLOAD A SITE MAP HERE!)

• The Gathering Farm at Food Gatherers, Ann Arbor
• The Growing Hope Center Urban Farm, Ypsilanti
• Project Grow’s Edible Avalon Community Garden at Arbordale, Ann Arbor
• Faith & Food Congregational Gardens, including:
  • St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Ann Arbor
  • St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Ann Arbor
  • Messias Temple Apostolic Church, Ypsilanti
  • Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Ann Arbor, 7/22 only
  • Holy Faith Lutheran/Episcopal Church, Saline, 8/01 only

Continue Reading »

In March, ICPJ, Food Gatherers, and Growing Hope worked together to unite representatives from congregations across Washtenaw County at the first Faith & Food meeting to hear about how their congregations could get involved in gardening for the hungry. Now, only two months later, and thanks to grant funding from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, the Faith & Food program already has 17 member congregations growing vegetables to donate to Food Gatherers for distribution to area food banks and meal programs!

Grace Fellowship Church’s participation in the Faith & Food Program was recently highlighted in the Ann Arbor News .  Continue to read the full article…

Continue Reading »