Greenagers is reinstating its Community Hiking Days, with the first hike of 2010 scheduled for Saturday, January 16th, 2 p.m.  Hiking location TBD; check back here soon!  The Greenagers Youth Board and Staff will lead the hike.

Come one, come all!  We will hope for sunshine, but if the weather turns out to be awful, we will move the hike to Sunday, January 10th.  Dress warmly…

The Youth Board will choose the first hike; subsequent hiking trails and routes will be selected communally at the end of each hike.

Youth Board meetings are scheduled for the first Monday of every month, 6-7 p.m and are open to all interested youth.  The next Youth Board meeting is Monday, January 4, 2010.  On the agenda for the January meeting is the Front Lawn Foods Initiative – designing the gardens; and the January 30th screening of The Gods Must Be Crazy – promotion/marketing.  Please let us know if you would like to add to the agenda.

Notes from the first Youth Board Meeting on November 30th follow.

FIRST GREENAGERS YOUTH BOARD MEETING – NOVEMBER 30, 2009 – 6 – 7:15 p.m.

PRESENT: Sam, Ben, Annalena, Kurt, Matt, Luca, Will & Samantha

 I.                    Next Mahaiwe Movie Night?

a.       Title?  The following titles were proposed. 

                                                              i.      The Gods Must Be Crazy – selected for January showing

                                                             ii.      Wall-E

                                                            iii.      Finding Nemo

b.      Date?  Youth Board agreed to shoot for a Saturday night in late January.  Will to contact Karin Watkins at The Mahaiwe to select a date.  Saturday, January 30^th selected for screening of The Gods Must Be Crazy.

c.       More idea-focused films could be screened at The Triplex (on a Saturday or Sunday morning/afternoon).

                                                               i.      Planet Earth Series proposed. 

                                                             ii.      Beacon Theater proposed as an optional venue.

                                                            iii.      Will/Samantha to contact Richard Stanley at The Triplex.

 II.                  Student Curated Culture Series

a.       When/How Often?

                                                               i.      Once/month f

                                                             ii.      Once/wk for a month, 2x per  year

                                                          iii.      Once every other week for 2 months – voted on and approved.

b.      First Series: March and April 2010.

c.       Proposals for a new name? 

                                                               i.      “Art In March” (as in “We Need Art In March)

 III.                Front Lawn Foods

a.       Who gets gardens?

                                                               i.      Greenagers to get together and walk around town on a Saturday, knock on doors….start canvassing the community in February and March.

                                                             ii.      Memorandum of Understanding between garden recipients and Greenagers.

                                                            iii.      Donations received from community members  for gardens to go into Front Lawn Foods general fund. 

                                                           iv.      Sponsor a Garden Campaign – all sponsors would be invited to the Harvest Dinner, with the garden recipients and gardeners.

b.      Front Lawn Foods cookbooks (informal)

c.       Possibility of vertical or hanging gardens for sites that don’t have space for a plot.

d.      Possibility raised of not using boxes – Concerns with this include variations in soil quality, volunteer hours required to prepare the land.

e.      Next Steps: Canvass the community – February or March – and develop the garden design.

 IV.                Community Hikes

a.       Youth Board to choose the first location; subsequent hiking trails will be selected at the end of each hike.

b.      1^st hike: Saturday, January 9^th, 2:00 p.m.

c.       Greenagers to prepare posters to hang in the schools.

 V.                  Other

a.       Upcoming possible collaborations include work with Riverwalk, GB Trails, Helen Berube Teen Parent Program.

b.       Manos Unidas – great opportunities here for anyone in/near the Pittsfield area.

c.       MMRH’s National Honor Society  - Christina Ferrina – Greenagers to contact NHS to let students know about volunteer opportunities.  NHS members are required to complete a certain number of volunteer hours each year.

d.      Clark & Green –local architecture firm with strong emphasis on green design – look into possible internships/independent studies.

e.      Database of Ideas on the website: there will clearly be lots of great ideas for programs and projects moving forward, but as we will not be able to do them all, there should be a list of ideas on the website for people to access and follow through with, should they wish to.

Fresh, the movie, will have 5 showings over 3 days at the Stagecoach Tavern in Sheffield: Friday, Dec. 4th at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 5th at 5:30 and again at
8:00, and Sunday Dec. 6th at 4:00 and 6:00. (Cost for the film is $5;
Stagecoach will be serving off its regular menu.) Dinner as well as
film reservations are encouraged as seating is limited. Please call
The Stagecoach Tavern @ 413-229-8585.*

Fresh, like most documentary films, has a message for all of us.  It’s about the need for sustainable food. But the message in Fresh is positive, empowering, and well, fresh! Some of the characters you’ll meet in Fresh will be familiar to you from Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Like Joel Salatin, the man who moved his family to a worn out farmstead in Virginia and turned it into Polyface, Inc., which represents America’s premier non-industrial food production oasis. His dream is to inspire multitudes of such farms across the
country. Other faces of Fresh include a grocery store owner, David Ball, who stocks his aisles with only locally produced food.

The producer and director of Fresh, Ana Sophia Joanes, has come up with a unique model of distributing her film. In fact, the distribution process mirrors the film’s message. Her website urges community-based showings of the film in order to promote follow-up discussion and prompt action for change. Fresh will not be released to theaters until Spring, 2010.

* The Stagecoach Tavern is located at 864 S. Undermountain Rd. (rt. 41); 2 miles south of Berkshire School, Sheffield, MA.

Fresh is being brought to you by Slow Food of Western Massachusetts, with  sponsorship from The Stagecoach Tavern, The Berkshire Co-op, The Nutrition Center, and Moon in the Pond Farm.