Stories of Greening in the Hamilton, Ontario Region

Reporting Period Nov 01, 2011-October 15th, 2012

Greening Sacred Spaces

We re-launched the project in November and over the past months have had many activities to report on. Our focus this year was on the themes of:

1. Food

2. Youth engagement in sustainability issues.

Our deliverables were as following:

Year 1

Enhanced Volunteerism

. 10 green teams will be established; at least 3 of these will be Youth Green Teams

. 10 Green Facilitators will join the program

. Existing volunteers will be maintained

. 1 steering committee with 5 community leaders will continue in the region

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We connected with 10 new faith groups this year and 5 new faith-based organizations.

The new faith contacts have started to receive our updates and plan to be involved in greening in the upcoming months.

We also connected with 40 youth leaders in both established faith groups and new ones.

We are being invited to give presentations to already established youth groups and this seems like a more realistic approach to engaging youth as opposed to trying to set up youth green teams-which has been a complete failure.

We developed a youth package, and we made efforts to establish a youth advisory committee for GSS. This idea is still in its infancy.

Our volunteer base was maintained and expanded on. We also had two McMaster University students from the Religious Studies Department who assisted with the program. They contributed 24 hours each working on a powerpoint presentation for youth (see attached ppt), a map displaying locations of all the greening sacred spaces in our Hamilton network, helping with outreach and staffing tables.

Over the summer, through Environment Hamilton, a student joined us and helped work on project materials, resources, blog updating and delivery of a presentation on water conservation to young people through the United Church’s summer camps (8 of them).

She also helped get prizes for the ‘Get to worship without your vehicle challenge.’

This brings out total volunteer hours including volunteers in Hamilton faith groups to a total of 525 hours.

Our steering committee was expanded to include 10 representatives from 5 at any given meeting.

Enhanced Community Capacity

5 networking meetings are held in Hamilton with over 100 participants. We had 7 networking meetings reaching 535 participants in total.

3 of these meetings will focus on sustainable food and youth engagement. This deliverable was met.

2 green sacred space awards will be distributed in Region. Awards were presented to Melrose United Church and Grace Lutheran Church.

Enhanced Green Activities

25 green actions and 25 green events will be undertaken bv faith communities

We surpassed this goal with both activities and green actions. 41 green events and 195 green activities in our Hamilton network.

Thanks to our efforts we have 5 faith institutions that now have solar top projects.

Connections we’ve made in the community and beyond:

Arocha

Neighbour 2 Neighbour

Scene Change

Good Food Box

Dundas in Transition

KAIROS

IDEAS Burlington

Nourishing Hamilton Peterbourough film screening and panel discussion: Feb 02, 2012 Freeway Coffee House.

We screened 'Nourish Peterborough,' a documentary film that follows ten unique community groups from Peterborough who are advocating for food security and sovereignty. These are programs that have a substantial influence on many people's lives, though many of them go overlooked and/or underfunded. Nourish Peterborough provides a platform for these organizations, giving members, participants, volunteers and staff, a louder voice in the community.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion on nurturing the growing organic food movement in Hamilton.

Crystle Numan, from Environment Hamilton's Good Food Box Network and Neighbour to Neighbour's Building Better Futures talked about how advertisement and the media have us thinking that 'healthy'

means blemish free, symmetrical, polished etc when in reality this means unhealthy pesticide use, or transportation over great distances.

Crystle has been involved with community gardening since starting Hill Street Community Garden (5 churches initiated this) in 2010.

Loretta Jaunzarins, pastor at Grace Lutheran church talked about how her church got involved with food security issues by starting a good food box program ( veggies and fruits at a very low cost, once a month and available to everyone who wants one). She's experimenting with straw bale gardening on church grounds and so far, good things are happening. She is also looking into growing fruit trees at the church.

Bill Wilcox, with Hamilton Victory Gardens ( a faith based initiative) spoke about the work he and his organization are doing to fight poverty in Hamilton. They have already secured sites to raise more garden beds across the city.

Clare Wagner, Community Garden Program Coordinator at Green Venture showed us a map of community gardens in Hamilton. She talked about the need to collaborate with one another as community groups in order to get the best results.

we also heard from pig farmers Tanya and Mark Veenstra who shared with us photos of their ethically run farm (Boar and Chick farm).

We enjoyed organic chili at $2 a bowl and a very kind person from the audience brought a large bag of delicious apples that he shared with the crowd!

GSS partnered with Dundas in Transition to present the movie POWERFUL: Energy for everyone. The event was followed by a panel discussion and how community groups can get involved in renewable energy and the Feed in Tariff. A good 100 people attended.

Nourishing Hamilton: Food, Faith and Justice. April 15th, 2012 Grace Lutheran Church.

Food for ethical thought

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/705860--food-for-ethical-thought 

Garden lovers traced the origins of local food Sunday — down to the roots. Intercultural organization Faith and the Common Good paired with Environment Hamilton to host the Nourishing Hamilton Fair: Food, Faith and Justice at Grace Lutheran Church. The afternoon event featured 10 booths with information about local green groups such as Earth Day Hamilton-Burlington, Hamilton Victory Gardens and Hamilton Community Garden Network.

There were many issues associated with food they hoped to raise awareness around, Greening Sacred Spaces project animator Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko said. “It’s an aspect of justice, really. If you don’t have space or money, how are you going to get food?” she said. “Fair trade is another aspect — thinking about where the food is coming from. That’s important, too.”

Faith and the Common Good’s Greening Sacred Spaces program provides faith groups with practical ways of being more sustainable places of worship.

Sean Hurley, 51, moved to Hamilton two months ago and came to the fair because his wife has a garden and was interested in learning more about food issues.

“I think the core of any economy is food and if we don’t look after how we get our food, we’ll lose control of our own economies, essentially,” he said. “We’ll become dependent on imported food. … In the end, we lose the ability to even afford to feed ourselves.”

Sara Collyer, operations manager of the Neighbour 2 Neighbour Centre, spoke to participants about the organization’s community gardens at places of worship, a school and at a residence on the Mountain used to supply their food bank or neighbours in need.

“Traditionally, emergency food (wasn’t) the healthiest food so we feel by doing this we are able to provide healthy food to people who come to use our services,” Collyer said, adding they had 30,000 pounds of fresh vegetables last year.

Jim Sweetman, vice-chair of the Waste Reduction Task Force, was also present, distributing information on the city’s green bin program and material on recycling. The Dundas resident has been composting in his own back yard for the past two years and encouraged others to try it in addition to using the green bin.

“This city is definitely progressive and ahead of most communities in Ontario, but there’s still more we can be doing and keep pushing,” Sweetman said.

Tracy Hochheimer, 50, agreed. Hochheimer said she and her husband have their own garden, but have a lot of shade in their back yard and need more land to grow on. “Look at all the land that’s not being used. Food could be grown there.”

dawong@thespec.com

905-526-2468 | @WongatTheSpec

Nourishing Hamilton Fair: Food Faith and Justice (Networking event held at Grace Lutheran Church).

East Plains United Church, Burlington. April 25th, 2012

Hamilton/Burlington KAIROS and Greening Sacred Spaces/Environment Hamilton presented 'Signs of Hope in the Carbon Crisis: An Evening with Alanna Mitchell.'

Alanna Mitchell, author of Sea Sick: the hidden crisis of global ocean change is an environmental journalist who has travelled the world talking to scientists about the oceans.

All life—whether on land or in the sea— depends on the oceans for two things:

— Oxygen. Most of Earth’s oxygen is produced by phytoplankton in the sea. These humble, one-celled organisms, rather than the spectacular rain forests, are the true lungs of the planet.

— Climate control. Our climate is regulated by the ocean’s currents, winds, and water-cycle activity.

Alanna Mitchell shared about how she joined the crews of leading scientists in nine of the global ocean’s hotspots to see firsthand what is really happening around the world.

She talked about the impact of coral reef bleaching, the puzzle of the oxygen-less dead zones such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico, and the devastating implications of the changing Ph balance of the sea.

Alanna delved into the traumatic experience of coming to terms with how sick our oceans are. Encased in a minuscule vessel with one other passenger (lying head to toe side by side), at the bottom of the Ocean, having an 'accident' where she ended up wetting the vessel and then having to clean it up, she had an epiphany.

If you foul your nest, you have to clean it up. And so it goes with the Earth, our home. Hope, that mysterious force that keeps us going when all the odds are against us, preparing ourselves for the unexpected, flooded down on her and she says, 'the transformation to hope happened because I wanted to hope."

About her book:

Sea Sick is the first book to examine the current state of the world’s oceans —the great unexamined ecological crisis of the planet—and the fact that we are altering everything about them; temperature, salinity, acidity, ice cover, volume, circulation, and, of course, the life within them.

We had an audience of 100 people.

Green Sacred Spaces Awards 2012

May 28th, 2012 Melrose United Church, Hamilton.

Melrose United Church earned a Green Sacred Spaces Award of Excellence for their work in conducting an energy audit, retrofitting with energy efficient compact fluorescent lighting, upgrading weatherstripping, and initiating a rooftop solar panel project.

Congregants are encouraged to take environmental messages home through weekly e-bulletins and e-newsletters. Melrose United Church partners with various environmental organizations. Grace Lutheran was honoured with a Green Sacred Spaces Award of Excellence for their work hosting the Good Food Box program, growing a community garden, planting fruit trees, naturalization of the property and hosting a wonderful food fair featuring over 10 local food initiatives.

Grace Lutheran has completed an energy audit, basic retrofitting and upgrading of boiler and is exploring the possibility of going solar. Congregants are encouraged to take environmental messages home through weekly e-bulletins and e-newsletters. Grace Lutheran Church partners with various environmental organizations and the Victory Gardens Hamilton group.

Greening Sacred Spaces at the HHEAT Renewable Energy Summit June 10th 2012

SUMMER FUN AT HAMILTON UNITED CHURCHES!

“Cooking from Scratch” from the Good Food Box at Quaker Meetinghouse

“Half of the participants were vegetarian and it was excellent to have planned only vegetarian recipes so that everyone could eat everything. We recommend a high chaos tolerance for the “chefs”. It is difficult to have more than 2 cooks in the kitchen at once.” One of the ‘chef.’

Yum!

Food Security Stories from the Global South; Oct 3rd 2012

Hamilton Victory Gardens, Mary St. site.

Oct 17th, Wentworth Baptist Church.

People around the globe need to be concerned about food security for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons are place-specific (arid climates), some are political (conflict usually disrupts the food supply) and some are economic (not everyone can afford access to food). The issues are global in scale too: climate change, peak oil, and peak phosphorous are areas of concern.

We cannot take the cheap food system that feeds so many of us for granted: not only does it leave us with a planet that is both "stuffed and starved", but the systems and conditions that we have assumed would always do the job is under threat, due to the depth and breadths of the challenges touched upon above.

Speakers Bill Wilcox (Hamilton Victory Gardens) and Karen Burson (Eat local at Environment Hamilton) shared food security stories from the global south.

Bill shared his experiences during an urban agriculture study tour to Havana, Cuba, the world’s leader in urban agriculture.

Bill also talked about the Hamilton Victory Gardens (HVG) that he has speared headed. HVG is a faith based, volunteer, not-for-profit corporation, whose purpose is to develop and grow sustainable gardens, based on Urban Agriculture techniques, throughout the City of Hamilton, with an objective of providing local, organic, fresh produce to Hamilton’s marginalized population through local food banks and hot meal programs. Hamilton Victory Gardens is affiliated with Good Shepherd. http://www.hamiltonvictorygardens.org/

In 2007, Bill organized and implemented the first Victory Garden in Hamilton, which was located on 4 acres of property behind a church on the mountain. After 4 years of managing that garden, he decided to bring the Victory Garden concept below the mountain into the areas of highest need. This year, Hamilton Victory Gardens has SIX locations around the city, and has plans for expansion in 2013. In the 4 years that Bill managed the Victory Garden at the mountain church, a total of just over 40,000 pounds was harvested. In the 2 years of the Hamilton Victory Gardens being below the mountain, there has been a total of over 10,500 pounds to date--with another month of harvesting still to go in 2012.

His model has inspired other faith groups like St. Marks United Church to follow suit and they have now a wonderful Victory garden on their front lawn.

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Karen Burson is cofounder of the Hamilton Good Food Box Network and member of Community Food Security Stakeholder Committee, works with Hamilton Partners in Nutrition and organizer of Hamilton’s first ever conference on food policy. She discussed some of Belo Horizonte's best known and most influential food programs, and explored what the success of these programs might suggest about the future of food security right here in Hamilton. Since 1993, the city of Belo Horizonte (Brazil) has received international prizes for its initiatives in reducing hunger and malnutrition, and has received the attention of academic studies and popular press throughout the world.

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Taking it all in!

Youth Engagement:

We have developed a package for youth and youth leaders. Here it is:

Do you know a youth who would be interested in joining our Greening Sacred Spaces (GSS) Youth Advisory group?

GSS YAG will work together on projects that promote environmental stewardship, eco-justice action in our places of worship and in our community!

GSS Youth leaders will meet quarterly They will network, share ideas They will enjoy the support and mentoring of community leaders and partners They will have access to resources and equipment such as video camera, editing equipment and

more They will link to eco-focused volunteer and ‘service’ opportunities in the community Youth will gain and build upon leadership skills They will meet new friends and be with peers who are equally passionate about protecting the

environment around us

About Greening Sacred Spaces:

Greening Sacred Spaces is a program of Faith and the Common Good. GSS assists more than 500 faith

communities in Canada take action to create a more sustainable and energy-efficient place of worship.

Greening Sacred Spaces helps congregations form “Green Teams,” provides “How To” guides for improving the energy efficiency of religious buildings, offers downloadable greening resources and educational tools including case studies and funding information, and holds multi-faith community workshops across Canada on topics such as renewable energy and energy conservation . This year, GSS is focusing on food and faith and youth engagement.

Environment Hamilton is the not-for profit organization that rolls out the GSS program in Hamilton. In Hamilton, we have over 140 faith communities linked to the Greening Sacred Spaces program.

GSS YAG is organizing a welcome meeting to be held in September: all youth, youth leaders, and anyone interested in working with and engaging youth are welcome.

For more information please contact:

Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko at: 905 549 0900 Email: bekoko@faith-commongood.nethttp://greeningsacredspaceshamilton.blogspot.ca/http://www.greeningsacredspaces.net/

Calling all Young People! Are you a youth who wants to ‘Green things up” or make some positive change at your place of worship?

Are you interested in participating in a Canada-wide movement towards environmental sustainability through inter-faith and inter-cultural co-operation? If so, this handout is for you!

As a youth, you have an opportunity to become a leader in the sustainability movement. Greening Sacred Spaces and your faith community provide an avenue for you to pursue this

path.

What is Greening Sacred Spaces?Greening Sacred Spaces (GSS) is a practical program developed by Faith & the Common Good (an interfaith network across Canada) to assist faith communities and individuals in taking concrete actions to promote sustainability and to educate members of the community about eco-justice issues.In Hamilton, the GSS program is rolled out by Environment Hamilton, which is a local not-for-profit group that works on and collaborates with dozens of projects throughout the city to help citizens enhance and protect the environment around them.

Check out these links:GSS Youth: Learn more about the program: http://www.greeningsacredspaces.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80&Itemid=140GSS Hamilton’s Blog: http://greeningsacredspaceshamilton.blogspot.ca/

Resources to Get You Started!Greening Sacred Spaces (GSS) offers:

1. Online resources for greening your sacred spaces2. Networking opportunities3. Regular updates to events and volunteer opportunities in the GSS Network

NEW! Join the GSS Youth Advisory Group!GSS YAG will work together on projects that promote environmental stewardship, eco-justice action in our places of worship and in our community!

• GSS Youth leaders will meet quarterly• They will network, share ideas • They will enjoy the support and mentoring of community leaders and partners• They will have access to resources and equipment such as video camera, editing

equipment and more• They will link to eco-focused volunteer and ‘service’ opportunities in the commu-

nity• Youth will gain and build upon leadership skills• They will meet new friends and be with peers who are equally passionate about

protecting the environment around us

Environment Hamilton (EH) offers: http://www.environmenthamilton.org/1. EH Projects The Good Food Box: a non-profit fresh fruit and vegetable distribution program. It makes healthy fresh food

affordable and accessible to everyone. For only $15 you receive a box of fresh quality produce worth $25 or more. We

buy food at wholesale prices, with a preference for Ontario farmers.

The Fruit Tree Picking Project: organizes volunteers to harvest fruit from trees in Hamilton that would otherwise go to waste. Fruit tree owners contact us if they have trees that are available for picking. Volunteers then pick the fruit and divide it between the tree owner, local food banks and social service providers. Volunteers also enjoy the 'fruits of their labour' and get to take some of the fruit home. This year the Hamilton Fruit Tree Project will include fruit preserving workshops. Please contact us if you'd like to volunteer or know of a tree that needs to be picked! Canning workshops are offered with fruit picking!The DustBusters: aims to reduce the airborne dust and particulate matter (PM) that dirties our city and enters our lungs. By building capacity within communities and empowering residents to observe, record, and report instances of excess dust and dust drag-out, we hope to place pressure on Hamilton's worst offenders and encourage them to conform to health and safety standards at both the municipal and provincial levels.

Moving is Not an Option: began in 2005 when a new industry moved into a North End Hamilton neighbourhood. The residents felt they shouldn't have to move (and for some it wasn't an option anyway). That's where our project got its name. Funded by The Hamilton Community Foundation's Tackling Poverty II initiative, we work with

families in the lower city, helping residents address environmental issues in their neighbourhood as well as helping to build community.

2. Environment Hamilton (EH) ToolsEnvironment Hamilton’s Toolkit for Youth who are leaders in their groups. This is a youth lead project

Smoothie handbook and other recipes. Check out our Hamilton Eat Local Blog: http://hamiltoneatlocal.blogspot.ca/

Videos: Check out our YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/envirohamil-ton?feature=results_main

Power point: Why should you care? Available on the GSS Blog (need to upload it). Editing equipment and video camera Volunteer opportunities Weekly email updates about events and opportunities

3. Service Opportunities in the Community Hamilton Victory Gardens: a faith based, volunteer, not-for-profit Corporation, whose purpose is to develop and grow sustainable gardens, based on Urban Agriculture techniques, throughout the City of Hamilton. Their goals are to provide local, organic, fresh produce to local food banks and hot meal programs, and are affiliated with Good Shepherd. http://www.hamiltonvictorygardens.org/

The Rotary Sunrise Garden at St. Mark's: A community garden from which the produce will go to the Dundas Food Bank. This garden encourages community building and knowledge about gardening. http://www.dundasintransition.ca/community-gardening.php

Worship Without Your Car: Get To Your Faith Centre A Greener WayTraveling green is an important way we can be stewards of our planet. Over the weekend of September 21st, 22nd and 23rd, Greening Sacred Spaces Hamilton invites people of all faiths to travel to worship that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on foot, by bike, by public transit or carpool. Your faith group will be competing against other Hamilton faith groups for a chance to win a prize (TBA) for your place of worship. The groups with the highest percentage of participants get the prizes.This is an opportunity for you to organize an event at your place of worship. Be part of the fun while promoting active transportation. Register your place of worship to participate and promote active transportation by emailing Beatrice (See below).

IDEAS and EXAMPLES/ OTHER INITIATIVES: You can do these too!

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Cathedral High students grow a veggie garden and sell produce to the school cafeteria. They have a catering program that uses the food too

Grow food at home in containers or your backyard Start a small street market (and earn dollars!) Workshops: make your own beauty products, make your own cleaning products, can-

ning and preserving food. We can help you organize one! Run an ‘Eco- Film Challenge’ Create Space for youth to do sewing, cooking etc. E.g. http://harrrp.ca/ Offer a Film Series- TED talks http://www.ted.com/talks Connect with the Oliver’s Garden project. Currently it is a program of Green Venture but

it has so much potential to continue growing and serving demands for youth gardening in Hamilton http://oliversgardenproject.com/

Offer “Green Tweets” and Facebook updates (of the week) Plan a 15 mile dinner Make “Eco” art Bike safety and bike repair. New Hope Bike Co-op: http://www.newhopebikecoop.ca/) Make "seed-bombs" for Guerilla gardening ( Green Venture/Eco House) http://eco-

house.greenventure.ca/ Green-cycling initiatives: "Think Recycle" (electronics recycling) http://www.thinkrecy-

cle.com/

Don’t do it alone! Connect and partner with other churches and local groups to host events and work together.

CONTACT INFO

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Project FacilitatorGreening Sacred SpacesEnvironment Hamiltonbekoko@faith-commongood.net905 549 0900

Beatrice Ekwa EkokoProject FacilitatorGreening Sacred SpacesEnvironment Hamiltonbekoko@faith-commongood.net905 549 0900

Project FacilitatorGreening Sacred SpacesEnvironment Hamiltonbekoko@faith-commongood.net905 549 0900

Project FacilitatorGreening Sacred SpacesEnvironment Hamiltonbekoko@faith-commongood.net905 549 0900

Project FacilitatorGreening Sacred SpacesEnvironment Hamiltonbekoko@faith-commongood.net905 549 0900

Project FacilitatorGreening Sacred SpacesEnvironment Hamiltonbekoko@faith-commongood.net905 549 0900

Project FacilitatorGreening Sacred SpacesEnvironment Hamiltonbekoko@faith-commongood.net905 549 0900

Project FacilitatorGreening Sacred SpacesEnvironment Hamiltonbekoko@faith-commongood.net905 549 0900

Another faith group’s gone solar! That makes 5!

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The walk to church challenge at Regina Mundi

Thank you for participating in this year’s 'Get to Worship without your vehicle Challenge.' Below are the winners of the competition. Congratulations and please be in touch to arrange pick up of your prizes!

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New Hope Church- FULL participation are the winners of the "Get to Worship without your ve-hicle challenge.' They will receive 2  return VIA rail tickets from Aldershot to Montreal to put in a draw. They will also receive two certificates for CarShare valued at $50 each courtesy of Hamilton CarShare http://communitycarshare.ca/hamilton/Their youth Emily Sinclair will receive a bike helmet for her efforts in organizing her faith group to do the challenge. Thanks to Zsuzsi Trim at Healthy Living Division, City of Hamilton for do-nating the helmet.

Westdale United Church.

Westdale United   comes in a close second. They will receive two certificates for the CarShare program coutesy of  HamiltonCarShare, worth $50 each.http://communitycarshare.ca/hamil-ton/ They will receive a free meditation workshop valued at $150, cortesy of Kelly Hilton Medi-tation.

Regina Mundi R.C. Church.

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Regina Mundi comes close with 103 people walking to worship that weekend. They will receive rainbarrel courtesy of RainBarrel.ca. They will also receive a GO Transit customer coupon val-ued at $50.00 and redeemable when used towards the purchase of GO Transit fare media- cour-tesy of GO Transit.

Save water: Get a rain barrel. First Unitarian church. May 2012From rainbarrel.ca

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Get on the Map! When it comes to greening, the Hamilton faith community are taking the lead. From energy au-dits and energy conservation, community gardening, water and waste management, green and blue bin usage, styrofoam elimination, spiritual worship, community outreach, using non toxic cleaning products, going solar, climate change activism faith groups are engaging their members and working to protect our environment.

That's why we want to celebrate and showcase these efforts by putting you on the map! No effort is too small. We plan to put this on a google map for all to see the great work the Hamilton faith community is doing!

Here's how it works:There are 4 categories you can fit in. Seedling, Light Green, Medium Green, Deep Green.Contact me if you are interested in participating and I will send on the criteria for each level.

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THE REGULAR GSS HAMITLON NEWSLETTER

Receive regular updates! Get the support, resources and opportunities you need to green your sa-cred space and practice!

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