News

Neighborhood House Receives $8,000 Grant to Work with Food Literacy Project

July 7, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Abby Branstein
    Neighborhood House
PHONE: 502-774-2322 ext. 226
EMAIL: abranstein@nhky.org

Neighborhood House has received an $8,000 grant from the Presbyterian Hunger Program, an organization devoted to working with communities to eliminate the causes of hunger. The grant will fund a collaborative project between Neighborhood House and the Food Literacy Project, a non-profit education agency based on a Louisville vegetable farm. The Food Literacy Project exists to encourage Louisville residents to make healthy food choices that are also good for the community and environment. It offers most of its programming on Field Day Family Farm, an eight-acre vegetable subsection of Oxmoor Farm about 8 miles east of downtown. With its strong presence in Portland, Neighborhood House will bring the Food Literacy Project’s food and farming expertise to west Louisville.

During the course of the gardening project, Portland youth plant, cultivate, and harvest seasonal vegetables at Neighborhood House. They also develop recipes for preparing healthy meals using the vegetables they have grown. Teenage participants will eventually sell some of the vegetable harvest at a neighborhood farmers’ market. In this way the project fosters leadership, entrepreneurial and health education, and community action among west Louisville teens.

“At the Food Literacy Project, our work is about reconnecting people with food, farming, and healthy alternatives to the industrial food system which leads to environmental degradation and high rates of obesity,” said Executive Director Carol Gundersen. “Working with Neighborhood House enables us to engage youth who live without adequate access to fresh, healthy food as they become agents of education and change in their community. This collaboration harnesses the positive potential of young people to combat issues of food injustice.”

The early stages of the partnership between Neighborhood House and the Food Literacy Project got underway this spring. Elementary school students worked in raised garden beds behind Neighborhood House, took a field trip to Oxmoor Farm to experience a working farm up close, and prepared a community meal featuring the vegetables they grew. Looking ahead to the summer, they also started seedlings that teens in the program will eventually harvest and sell. As long as the weather during the growing season cooperates, in the coming months these young gardeners should have plenty of fresh produce to share at Neighborhood House and in the Portland community.

About Neighborhood House

Neighborhood House, established in 1896, is a community-based organization providing programs and services which enhance the quality of life for individuals of all ages in the Portland area. Our programs focus on educational enhancement, civic responsibility, cultural enrichment, health promotion, social skills development, and employment opportunity and training.