Lentils in War & Peace

Apr 2, 2023

By Sajneet Kaur Chauhan, intern

The Healthy Local Food program at Armijo High in Fairfield brings together 30 students each week to learn about healthy, seasonal, local food in both the school garden and culinary sessions. The program is offered through two SuSol programs — Solano Gardens and Local Food Cooking Education — in partnership with Innovative Health Solutions, Armijo High School and the school’s multimedia and garden clubs. Students will share what they have learned through final multimedia projects. Here, student Sajneet reflects on a recent class. Follow the program’s progress on Instagram @healthylocalfoods and check out their in-progress website at healthysolano.com

Sajneet during the Armijo Healthy Local Food program / photo credit: David Avery
As a comforting, versatile food quick enough for weeknight cooking, lentils will keep you well fed all winter. But they’re good to eat at any time. People in many countries eat lentils to ensure prosperity in the year to come. Canada is the world’s leading producer and exporter of lentils. In India, 6.3 million tons of lentils are produced in a year.

You might be wondering why I am introducing lentils. Lentils are a traditional food in India where my parents grew up. In our family we shop for lentils at the local Indian grocery store in Fairfield. When you enter the store, the smell of spices will ignite your senses and surely make you hungry. There are varieties of spices like turmeric, chili powder and cardamom. A few days ago, we cooked Mexican Lentil Soup in the Armijo High School Healthy Local Food program, and I was inspired to learn even more about lentils.

Lentils are low in sodium and saturated fat, and high in potassium, fiber, folate, and plant chemicals called polyphenols that have antioxidant activity. In my culture, pregnant women are recommended to eat lentils, especially sprouted ones, because they are rich in nutrients. These nutritional properties have led researchers to study their effects on chronic diseases. There are four main categories of lentils: brown, green, red/yellow, and specialty. One specialty lentil, the black lentil (beluga lentils) is the most nutritious variety of lentil, boasting the highest amount of protein in addition to high levels of calcium, potassium and iron.
Growing up, I was obsessed with eating lentils! We cooked lentils every day and I figured out it was healthy for our daily life. In the Healthy Local Food program when I heard that we were going to cook lentils I was so excited about spreading my culture. Lentils are a great part of a healthy plant-based diet. According to NPR.org, lentils were introduced in the U.S. a few years before World War II and “gained their enduring popularity thanks to their ready availability, low price, and high nutritional benefits” during and after that conflict. I’m glad this program gave me a chance to learn even more about something that has been a part of my life since I can remember.

 

The Healthy Local Food Program is run through Sustainable Solano, with funding from Solano Public Health and a California Department of Food and Agriculture grant. Innovative Health Solutions is also a partner that supports the program and receives funding through the CalFresh Healthy Living Program administered through the Nutrition Services Bureau of Solano Public Health.
Funding for culinary instruction was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant AM22SCBPCA1133. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.

2023 Benicia & Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Tour is April 22!

Mar 29, 2023

By Nicole Newell, Sustainable Landscaping Program Manager

The Redwood Guild garden in Benicia during the 2022 tour

We will be opening up our demonstration food forest gardens in Benicia and Vallejo for the annual tour on April 22, and are thrilled that it coincides with Earth Day! Come celebrate spring with us and enjoy time in the gardens connecting with each other after this long, rainy winter. Learn about the gardens here.

Each garden offers ideas and inspiration on how to use water efficiently while creating a lush thriving garden that supports life and provides food and habitat. Some of the garden sites will have education and information on bees, honey, Monarch butterflies, laundry-to-landscape greywater, compost, Food is Free stands, native plants, local food, guided tours, spring festivals and so much more. We will also have laundry-to-landscape greywater education in English & Spanish! All of the gardens will showcase plants that thrive in Solano County.

This year SuSol formed a new partnership with the Vallejo People’s Garden and together installed the Pollinator Pathway native plant garden on Mare Island. It was a true collaboration that highlighted the amazing work that can be done when we partner together and remember Our Worthy Place in the garden! Our deepest hope for this year’s tour is that people get energized and inspired to take action and become caretakers of the land and each other.

Read below to find out more about the day’s events and what to expect in each garden so you can plan out your day!

Register here

This program is made possible by the generous support from the Solano County Water Agency.

Plan Your Day

Learn about each garden you can visit here

How It Will Work

You can choose to tour for the whole day or for half a day.
Learn about the gardens here
Benicia Demonstration Food Forest Gardens will be open 10 am-1 pm
Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Gardens will be open 1-4 pm

Register here

Itinerary pickup and special events:

9-11 am: Itineraries will be available at Avant Garden in Benicia (400 First St.). This itinerary will include all of the demonstration food forest gardens in Benicia (open in the morning) and Vallejo (open in the afternoon).

9 am: Author and designer Joshua Burman Thayer will give a talk at Avant Garden on California Food Forest Gardens. He will have his Food Forest for First Timers book available for purchase.

12-1 pm: Itineraries for the Vallejo garden sites (open in the afternoon) will be available at the Global Center for Success (1055 Azuar Dr/BLDG 733).

12 pm: Designer John Davenport of Cali Ground Troops will give a talk on Lawn Conversions for Water Savings and offer a guided tour of the Pollinator Pathway garden.

City Church: Coming Together for Community Impact

Mar 20, 2023

By Michael Wedgley

Michael Wedgley of Soilogical BioSolutions and Designs previously managed our Solano Gardens program, including overseeing the installation of the community garden at City Church of Fairfield. Here, he reflects on that garden installation and the community surrounding it.

Participants prepare the ground at City Church of Fairfield for the community garden

Putting together community gardens has varying degrees of success, but our recent turnout at City Church of Fairfield blew me away. We had so many volunteers from many different walks of life all come together to support the efforts of growing food for people in the community that might not have access to fresh, organic fruits and vegetables.

Leading these installs with so many people can have its challenges, but it’s because so many things get accomplished so fast, and you have to be moving through the tasks at a very quick pace. It also translates to a very productive day, and it’s so heartwarming to see the connection that everybody is making with the land and the work they’re putting into it.

On Feb. 25, Sustainable Solano along with a group of about 40 volunteers came together to create the community garden at City Church. The garden will be used to provide fresh produce for the residents at City Church who are recovering from addiction, and given away to the local community through the church’s daily food drives.

The volunteers were given safety instructions and split into groups to tackle specific tasks. Some volunteers cleared the area, while others marked out the garden’s boundaries. They worked hard to ensure that the areas where garden beds would be were cleared of woodchips, and dug in-ground swales, which they filled with woodchips. These swales will act as a water catchment basin and store rainwater, allowing it to seep into the soil and provide food for microbes such as fungi. The fungi, in turn, will provide water and nutrients to the plant roots, making the garden more sustainable and resilient to environmental changes.

On March 4, volunteers returned to the site to create growing mounds by adding soil to the prepared beds, and started to lay irrigation. Halfway through the install, we were hit with a huge amount of rain and had to end the day. Although the volunteers were not able to complete the installation we were able to get a lot of work done, and a workday on March 18 finished up the irrigation and put in trees and plants.

Overall, the community garden installations have been a fantastic effort that is promoting community involvement and is encouraging individuals to connect with each other and with nature in profound ways. It was amazing to see everyone come together to make a positive impact and make serenity and nutrition accessible for everyone in their community.

Upcoming Ways to Engage with the Solano Gardens Community

April 1: Emmanuel Temple Spring Planting Day (Vallejo)

April 5: Armijo High Garden Work & Maintenance Day (Fairfield)

April 15: First Christian Church Spring Workday (Vallejo)

Solano Gardens is funded by Solano Public Health

Connecting with Community

Mar 20, 2023

By Jazzmin Ballou, Solano Gardens Program Coordinator

The Solano Gardens program is recognizing its garden champions this spring — those people who make community gardens a success, paying attention to what makes them thrive. This blog post is from the quarterly newsletter to garden champions, and we wanted to share it with our wider SuSol community as well!

Jazzmin Ballou, Solano Gardens program coordinator, helps set up a new garden bed at Faith Food Fridays’ Learning Garden

Winter speaks in whispers, begging us to slow down, quiet down and listen. One thing I appreciate so much about working with the land is that I can’t ignore this call. Even with my spinach, broccoli and kale in the ground, I rest, enjoying the low maintenance process of winter crops’ maturation. I’m sure many a gardener, farmer, nature-enthusiast, and good Earthly neighbor can relate.

The soft, excited voice of spring beckons us forth out of our solitude and into the warm embrace of the world around us; into community. With more light and more warmth, people all across the Northern Hemisphere find themselves spending glorious time outside, reconnecting with neighbors of all species. We salute the bees, we admire the return of the leaves to the trees, we invite our friends out for coffee at our favorite cafe just so we can sit outside, and we envelop ourselves in our gardens, preparing for the most productive time of the year.

As the spring kicks off, ponder what your community connections look like as a result of the warmer weather and our increased access to natural light. Who are you reaching out to? What plants are you nurturing? What plants are nurturing you? Notice the benefits that are present as a result of connections of all kinds: how happy you feel after reconnecting with a friend over coffee, the fresh smell of your garden bed after you’ve added compost and soil and sowed your first seeds, the unsolicited joy at seeing a group of poppies growing out of the sidewalk.

Community has dimensions, which span from your mailman to the microorganisms in your soil. As gardeners in community gardens, we have the gift of holding, facilitating, and ultimately benefiting from community at all levels. We stand at the center of a network that our ancestors lived with and tapped into in everything they did. Our straying away from this community is the reason we live in a world that is wrought with polarization and violence.

At this point in history, so many of us are choosing to collectively return to this Earth-centered way of life. One that is reminiscent of that of our ancestors, but that is original and being shaped to suit our needs. In so many places, this choice to return is sparked by community gardens. Land access is a privilege, and thus community gardens provide space for those who may not have the space to explore these connections on their own. They also provide a space for knowledge to be shared and spread, setting up newer gardeners for success as they build community with the world around them. This work is revolutionary, evolutionary, and done with pure love for the whole. To all the community gardeners out there, I thank you. The Solano Gardens team is excited to begin this journey together, strengthening our connections to one another and to Mother Earth.

Upcoming Ways to Engage with the Solano Gardens Community

April 1: Emmanuel Temple Spring Planting Day (Vallejo)

April 5: Armijo High Garden Work & Maintenance Day (Fairfield)

April 15: First Christian Church Spring Workday (Vallejo)

Solano Gardens is funded by Solano Public Health

$2.5M in Funding Brings Together 3 Solano Nonprofits to Build Capacity, Lend Support

Mar 16, 2023

March 16, 2023
For immediate release

Media Contact: Allison Nagel
805-512-0901
allison@sustainablesolano.org
Interviews, photos and other materials available upon request

Quick facts:

  • Three Solano County nonprofits have received capacity-building funding that will strengthen those organizations to support their community-driven work over the next five years.
  • The cohort of the three nonprofits will determine together how to divide and spend approximately $500,000 per year, for a total of $2.5 million over the next five years.
  • The cohort was selected by an advisory committee consisting of Solano County community leaders in partnership with Magic Cabinet board members
  • Magic Cabinet is a philanthropic foundation that centers and amplifies the work of community-driven organizations by offering collaborative multi-year capacity-building funding. This gives nonprofit leaders the tools, funds, and autonomy to decide what’s needed, when, and how to use it to best support their missions.

 

$2.5M in Funding Brings Together 3 Solano Nonprofits to Build Capacity, Lend Support

Three Solano County nonprofit organizations have been selected to receive a total of $2.5 million in capacity-building funding from philanthropic foundation, Magic Cabinet, that will help them to grow and strengthen their organizations to better support their community-driven work for the next five years.

Leaders of the three organizations — Mile High Residential Treatment & Behavioral Health, North Bay Housing Coalition, and Sustainable Solano — say that this funding will help them to achieve new goals, while also bringing them together as a cohort to share strategies and support.

“This long-term financial support will elevate NBHC to the next level,” said Mary Eble, executive director of North Bay Housing Coalition. “We are excited for what we can accomplish and learn from this experience.”

Magic Cabinet centers and amplifies the work of community-driven organizations by offering collaborative multi-year capacity-building funding that drives better decisions and cross-sector collaboration. This in turn creates a network effect of funders and nonprofit leaders, supporting one another as peers, amplifying their missions together. The Solano cohort will determine together how to allocate and spend approximately $500,000 per year to meet the unique challenges and opportunities of each organization.

“This funding will allow Sustainable Solano to fortify our organizational capacity to work on the ground, to build a democratically managed, non-hierarchical organization and to ultimately increase our impact in the community,” said Elena Karoulina, executive director of Sustainable Solano.

Magic Cabinet provides funding and access to a peer network to small- and medium-sized nonprofits in the Greater Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay areas. The foundation’s unique participatory approach invests in nonprofit cohorts that share a common geography and mutually supporting missions. Magic Cabinet’s approach brings together four elements of community-centered philanthropy: trust-based philanthropy, participatory decisions, capacity building, and long-term investment. Since 2019, Magic Cabinet has awarded over $45 million to nonprofits in Washington and California.

“Our grantmaking process is designed to support the whole nonprofit, not just the programs. We encourage our nonprofit partners to build capacity and infrastructure that will support their missions for the long-term,” said Christina Engel, executive director of Magic Cabinet. “We are changing how philanthropy works with the nonprofit community it supports. To put it simply, it’s all about relationships and shifting power to our nonprofit partners.”

This is the second cohort based in Solano County. In 2022, Magic Cabinet awarded funding to A Place-2-Live, Rio Vista Care, and Solano Advocates for Victims of Violence.

Throughout the five-year partnership, both the grantees and Magic Cabinet can discover operational strengths and pinpoint areas for improvement. The collaborative cohort creates a space for the three nonprofit partners to support and advise each other. Within the cohort model, uncovering an area of improvement is not a negative but an opportunity to build a stronger nonprofit — and a potential capacity-building project.

About Mile High

Mile High Residential Treatment & Behavioral Health impacts the lives of foster youth one day at a time by creating an environment that allows for a new beginning, positive growth, and independence. The organization’s primary mission is to help our youth heal the wounds of various unfortunate traumatic experiences. This is accomplished through evidence-based and trauma-informed methods that lay the foundation for youth to ascend to new heights of personal excellence.

For more information, visit https://www.milehighbh.org/

About North Bay Housing Coalition

North Bay Housing Coalition’s mission is to increase affordable housing for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, based on the belief that people living with intellectual/developmental disabilities can and should have equal access to affordable housing, independence, and the opportunity to live a vital life in their community.

For more information, visit https://www.northbayhousingcoalition.org/

About Sustainable Solano

Sustainable Solano is a countywide nonprofit organization that brings together programs that support and sustain one another and the Solano County community to promote ecologically regenerative, economically and socially just communities in a world that works for everyone. Initiatives include sustainable landscaping, local food, resilient neighborhoods, youth leadership, sustaining conversations and community gardens.

For more information, visit sustainablesolano.org 

About Magic Cabinet

Magic Cabinet is a philanthropic foundation that centers and amplifies the work of community-driven organizations by offering collaborative multi-year capacity-building funding that results in more equitable and well-resourced nonprofits. Magic Cabinet’s approach to philanthropy is highly collaborative. We pair with high-impact leaders, partners of all sizes, as well as social and community leaders to experiment transparently and bring a flexible and participatory approach to philanthropy. Within any partnership, Magic Cabinet can provide nonprofit discovery, education support, and collaborative granting.

For more information, visit https://magiccabinet.org/