Food Survey News

Hello HRN members.......

Hope you are all well and enjoying the warmness.

As most of you would be aware, HRN received funding to conduct a Local Food Survey of food producers for the region. 

The aim of the survey is to gather information to gain an understanding of the overall food supply within our region and to determine where and when there may be potential to fill gaps in demand with local produce.

Thanks to the efforts of mostly Liz, Su, Melissa, Maureen and Felix, a total of 27 surveys of local food producers have been completed. However, we still have 109 producers to survey!!! 

Can any of you help us complete some of the remaining surveys, particularly if you have any farmers or food growers nearby? You may even know some of these folk and/or are willing to talk to them about the survey. Let us know if you have a bit of time to get the ball rolling again as it is something we would dearly like to finish in the near future. You could join us at HRN headquarters and have fun working together.

Thanks, Ivan and Su

Community Transport Grants

The purpose of these grants are to assist community groups in providing community based transport solutions. A grant may be sought for the full or partial amount required, up to a total of $1,000 , see Guidelines . Grants may be sought for the hiring of buses, the purchasing of tickets for public transport services, such as buses, trains or trams, the use of taxis or any combination of these. Grants are also available to groups that have innovative transport ideas or ways of promoting or facilitating transport in the shire. THIS IS ONE FOR US SURELY !!!
If you have an innovative idea for transport in our area, this is the time to discuss it. If you are merely interested in applying for funds to pay the community bus fuel bill for a group tour to CERES, Petty's Orchard, or John Ditchburn's wonderful garden in Ballarat  http://www.urbanfoodgarden.org/
   ... either way we can model transport solutions with the help of this grant. Let us know if you have some time to meet to discuss our submission.

Fund Raising for Chilean friends

The Fund Raiser for Chile was a possible for this Thursday night but we've been too busy with the abundance of food from the garden and town trees to organise it. New date for a light local food dinner, and slides and talk by David Holmgren is 1st April ..... a second fund raiser will incorporate a community dinner and musical entertainment.

On February 27th 2010 Chile was hit by a ´Mega-earthquake´ that shook the very foundations of Chilean society. In total 4.2 million people have been affected, many of whom are still without basic public services. Approximately 1.5 million homes have been destroyed or heavily damaged, with an estimated 1 million people left homeless. Initial estimates suggest the recovery will cost US$30 billion and take 3-4 years.

Grifen (about 100km from the epicentre said on 10/3) "We are just over a week out from the big shake, battened down the hatches and secured our situation. We realise that we are blessed and uniquely prepared to make a big difference in the restoration of Bio Bio Chile. In coming months we will be living up to our destiny as a regional centre and living university of Transition fully engaged in regenerative design for eco-social regeneration."

Find images here elmanzano.ning.com/photo.

Can you help to invest in the resilience of the small rural community of Bio Bio in Chile, post quake, as a living model of local resilience that can be replicated throughout the devastated region of Chile?

Donations for raffle/silent auction welcome.

Some recommended reading

Hi all,

Here is a message from David Holmgren, Co-originator of the Permaculture concept: some recommended reading with relevance to our community:

Envisioning sustainable communities (parts 1 and 2)

by Pamela Courtenay-Hall and Gary Clausheide

This is very good at clarifying the difference and relationship between communities, movements and pressure groups.

The importance of envisioning 'community' (part 3)

by Gary Clausheide

This is a good summary of the ancient history of community from a European perspective and will be very useful as we attempt to grapple with recreating communities.

I look forward to part 4 at Energy Bulletin.

This could be a good discussion paper for those involved in both Transition Towns and Intentional Communities. The approach that is set up here is obviously suggesting that only intentionally designed communities can deal with the more fundamental structural impediments and oppositional forces to the creation of true community.