Thursday, September 20, 2012

On the Road Again

Hey Folks,

As 14 volunteers head out in the veggie oil powered fleet to plant 11 new school orchard in 12 days I wanted to share with you one of the under-explained reasons why we work the way we do. After spending the last 3 days training the new volunteers, on my way back to office I stopped for a moment to read the back of the bus.

"Working together we can make the future better"


This longtime saying at Common Vision has become somewhat of a mantra for the organization. From our beginnings as a small group of friends with a big vision we've always strived to model how people working together can change their community and the greater world.  While training the crew this week, I stopped in the middle of curriculum components like 'fruit tree biology' and 'how local foods impact carbon footprint' to remind the crew that really the most important lesson they could impart on our students is that by learning to cooperate towards a common goal of positive change individuals and communities have been able to make incredible changes to the world. That, in summary, "Working together we can make the future better."

-Leo Buc

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Fall Fruit Tree Tour 2012!


It's that time again, the beginning of our planting season.  This year we're kicking it off with a two and a half week planting tour of schools in Northern California.  We'll be visiting 11 schools and planting over 200 new fruit trees in Santa Cruz County, Richmond, Sacramento, and Nevada City.  As always, we'll be bringing an all-star volunteer crew on the road (there's still a few spots) and infusing school orchard plantings with science and arts education. 


FALL TOUR SCHEDULE 2012

SANTA CRUZ
Thursday, September 20th:   Del Mar or Live Oak Elementary  
Friday, September 21st:   Happy Valley Elementary   

SACRAMENTO

Sunday, September 23rd: CCAA, CCAA High, Serna Village Return Visits for TreeCare
Monday, September 24th: Deterding Elementary   * with Big Tadoo Puppet Crew
Tuesday,  September 25th: Language Academy   * with Big Tadoo Puppet Crew
Wednesday, September 26th: Jebediah Smith Elementary* with Big Tadoo Puppet Crew

NEVADA COUNTY
Thursday, September 27th: Grass Valley Charter School  * Local Performance TBA
Friday, September 28th: Nevada City Charter School of the Arts   * Local Performance TBA
Saturday, September 29th:  Nevada City Community Planting TBA

BAY AREA- RICHMOND
Monday, October 1st: Washington Elementary   * with Big Tadoo Puppet Crew
Tuesday, October 2nd:  Lovonya DeJean Middle * with Big Tadoo Puppet Crew




Monday, September 3, 2012

Good Food Movement Growing Everywhere!

When I arrived at the office this morning, there was an Associated Press article titled "Food Hubs Connect School Districts with Farmers" waiting in my inbox.  The article overviews ways that non profits, farmers, for profit businesses, and governmental agencies from school districts to the USDA are working to get healthier food into the hands of students across the country.  From a web service that sources and provides purchase and delivery of local produce to San Joaquin Valley schools, to new federal school lunch guidelines requiring serving leafy greens, to school gardens and orchards producing food right on site, it seems like there is the inertia to make broad scale change to the American food system.  It's been a long time coming, and there is a long way to go, but we're finally all getting on the same page and making a change from top to bottom, and bottom to top.

Check out the article.