EAOP Grad on State House Garden Campaign
Carrie Abels in Montpelier, Vermont:
There’s something to be said for an advocacy group that is small, highly focused, and under an intense deadline. That’s what I discovered this spring, when I worked with five other Vermonters to win state approval for a vegetable garden on the Vermont State House lawn.
We met each other in January, at a gathering on ways to make Montpelier (Vermont’s capital) a more sustainable place to live. The six of us discovered that we all had the same idea – to create a State House vegetable garden that would inspire people to start food gardens of their own. So we decided to meet weekly to develop our idea – and meeting weekly was important, as a few of us once belonged to grassroots groups that met too infrequently to build momentum.
What’s more, we had a deadline. We wanted to start planting in May, but we only had three months to draw up a plan, create a polished presentation, and deliver our idea to the state commission that oversees the State House lawn. So we focused on tasks. It quickly became apparent that each of us had a particular skill that no one else in the group had; for example, I like to write, so I took the weekly minutes and wrote the proposal. All citizens’ groups should find out what each member does well and (just as importantly) what they like to do.
Early on, we also figured out who our key allies would be, and asked them for letters of support. We secured donations of seeds and supplies, making sure donors knew how they would benefit from the project. We also anticipated potential concerns and figured out solutions in advance.
When it came time for our presentation, we made sure each member of our group spoke – ours had been a team effort, and we wanted the commissioners to know that. They ended up voting unanimously in favor of our project.
My time in the EAOP certainly prepared me for an experience like this, and I’m grateful. Come visit the garden sometime!
And in the press today…
At Vermont State House, time for green thumbs
Dave Gram, Associated Press via Barre Montpelier (Vermont) Times Argus
MONTPELIER — Signs of the times: a cash-strapped state government cutting the budget for flowers outside its Capitol – and frugal Vermonters stepping up to plant vegetables instead.A Statehouse known for the green legislation that gets crafted inside — and for the crunchy, green ethos of many of its constituents — now sports two long, narrow plots of organic vegetables on either side of the steps leading to its front door.
“We’re the only state which has a capital that doesn’t have a McDonald’s,” said Carolyn Jones, a Montpelier sixth-grader. “We’re a green state, a healthy state.”
What organizers are calling the first Statehouse vegetable garden in the country got its start Thursday, as a crew of students from Montpelier High School brought 150 lettuce seedlings from the school’s greenhouse to plant under the gaze of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, whose statue graces the top of the building’s golden dome.
The youngsters — whose school’s Web site touts a “Composter of the Month” — braved a steady rain to do the planting, while adult organizers and dignitaries huddled under a party tent nearby. Sopping wet, the teens disappeared as soon as the plants were in the ground.
(17 May 2009)
