[Press Release] : FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Unite 4 Health Community Garden Grand Opening and Ribbon-Cutting Event

[Press Releases]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Maureen Coy, Health Educator - Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services
573-874-7559 or mkc at gocolumbiamo.com 

Mike Burden, Garden Leader - Unite 4 Health Community Garden leader
815-535-7297 or mikeburden77 at gmail.com




Unite 4 Health Community Garden Grand Opening and Ribbon-Cutting Event

COLUMBIA, MO (June 12, 2012) - 

The Unite 4 Health Community Garden, now in its second full season of production, is celebrating its success with a grand opening and ribbon-cutting event:
 
 

When: Thursday, June 14 at 1:00 pm
 Where: Unite 4 Health Community Garden, 1005 West Worley in Columbia (just west of the Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services parking lot)
 Why: To celebrate a successful first year and a promising start to the 2012 growing season
 Who: Garden stakeholders and representatives from the Columbia Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors

The 25-plot garden, which also has four fruit trees, blackberries, elderberries and raspberries, is the result of an innovative public-private partnership aimed to make fresh fruits and vegetables more abundant in the community by improving access to gardening space. Garden stakeholders, who signed a joint use agreement for the vacant urban lot in the summer of 2011, include:

*City of Columbia Public Works (which owns the site)

*Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services

*Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture

*Community Garden Coalition (which was instrumental in Columbia being awarded the honorable distinction of having more community gardens than any other Missouri city of this size in the state by the Missouri Dept of Agriculture's 10,000 Garden Challenge and receives $6900/year in funding from Public Health and Human Services' Division of Human Services)

*PedNet Coalition (through its Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)

Gardeners tend to their individual plots and meet regularly to complete group projects. Boone County's WIC (Women, Infants and Children) education and nutrition program also uses the site to demonstrate home scale food production and the value of fresh fruits and vegetables. Gardeners often share excess produce with WIC participants. The garden is also an example of how stormwater can best be managed and used. More information on stormwater management can be found at www.gocolumbiamo.com/PublicWorks/StormWater. The City of Columbia Water and Light Department and Boone County Extension also assisted in making the garden possible.


 -30- 

______________________________________________________

You have received this message because you subscribe to the City of Columbia’s Web Mail service. To view linked material click on provided links or copy and paste them into your browser's address menu.
______________________________________________________

If you would like to stop receiving messages, modify list options, or subscribe to other lists visit the Web Mail section of our Web site and follow the instructions provided. 

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Web_Mail/
______________________________________________________

Archived press releases can be viewed online at:
http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Public_Comm/Public_Information/Press_Releases/
______________________________________________________

If you would like to stop receiving messages, modify list options, or subscribe to other lists visit the Web Mail section of our Web site and follow the instructions provided. 

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Web_Mail/