Join us for these self-guided tours of Washtenaw County garden sites that create smart, fast and sustainable ways to increase low-income people’s access to locally grown, healthy food.

• Visit Faith & Food congregational gardens to see for yourself how this collaboration among ICPJ, Food Gatherers, and Growing Hope is supporting congregations to grow healthy food for the hungry.
• Get a look at other area gardens developed by Food Gatherers, Growing Hope, and Project Grow to see how local community members are responding to increased need for healthy, affordable food.

Choose from 2 dates: July 22, 6 – 9 p.m. OR August 1, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Featured locations: (DOWNLOAD A SITE MAP HERE!)

• The Gathering Farm at Food Gatherers, Ann Arbor
• The Growing Hope Center Urban Farm, Ypsilanti
• Project Grow’s Edible Avalon Community Garden at Arbordale, Ann Arbor
• Faith & Food Congregational Gardens, including:
  • St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Ann Arbor
  • St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Ann Arbor
  • Messias Temple Apostolic Church, Ypsilanti
  • Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Ann Arbor, 7/22 only
  • Holy Faith Lutheran/Episcopal Church, Saline, 8/01 only

This is a self-guided tour.  Stop at one or all of the sites in any order. Volunteers will personally show you around and tell you about their program.  Learn gardening techniques such as building raised beds and fences and recruiting volunteers.  All produce is donated to meal programs, food banks, and neighbors.

DOWNLOAD A SITE MAP HERE!

For more information:
Call – 734-786-8401
Email – faithandfood@growinghope.net

PRESS RELEASE – Big Community Harvest Garden Tour

The Big Community Harvest Projects are funded by the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation/Pfizer Big Idea Grant.

Read on for more details about each of the featured sites…

The Gathering Farm at the Food Gatherers, 1 Carrot Way, off Dhu Varren, Ann Arbor

This large, impressive garden maintained on-site by staff and volunteers grows high yield, high nutrition vegetables for immediate distribution to food banks and meal programs, or for preservation for the winter months.

The Growing Hope Center, 922 W. Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti

This urban farm and Growing Hope Headquarters under development features a 3000 square-foot hoop house and demonstration and training gardens.  It showcases how healthy food can both help feed the community and provide opportunities for green jobs.

Project Grow’s Edible Avalon Community Garden, 1010 S. Arbordale, Ann Arbor.

This group of gardens provides an opportunity for Avalon tenants to learn new skills, meet their neighbors, share recipes and cooking ideas, become more self-sufficient, and have access to nutritious foods that they have grown themselves with hands-on support from Project Grow and volunteers.

Faith and Food Congregational Gardens:

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 3109 Scio Church Rd., Ann Arbor

This garden was started in June, 2009 and features a large tilled area on a sprawling, rural lot.  Learn how these volunteers got the work done in a short amount of time, including building a critter-proof fence.

St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 306 N. Division St., Ann Arbor

During the winter months, members of St. Andrews attended the Growing Hope Institute course on community gardening in preparation for sustaining a small vegetable garden on this crowded downtown property.  Planted in April, these four 4′ x 8′ raised beds have been producing an incredible amount of food.

Messias Temple Apostolic Church, 200 Harriet St., Ypsilanti

This large, urban garden near downtown Ypsilanti is essentially maintained by a few dedicated members, with the goal of involving other area churches, including nearby First United Methodist.  Some exciting youth activities are planned.

Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 4001 Ann Arbor Saline Rd., Ann Arbor (July 22 only)

For three years several families have gardened side-by-side in this charming little garden.  They are all now contributing to the Faith and Food program by growing the requested vegetables and making collective donations to Food Gatherers.

Holy Faith Lutheran/Episcopal Church, 6299 Saline Ann Arbor Rd., Saline (August 1 only)

Holy Faith decided to build their new garden on the front yard in plain view of the busy road to act as a living billboard, advertising that this church is participating in local solutions to rising needs, and inviting others to be a part of the solution.

Join us on Monday, July 6th for The Call in the Darkness: The Economic Crises and the New American Dream — Independence Day Community Discussion and Potluck Dinner!

On Independence Day, we celebrate our country’s heritage, values, and democratic ideals that define the “American Dream”. But as the economic crisis continues to reshape our lives and our plans for the future, how do our visions of the “American Dream” begin to change?

You are invited to this informal community sharing of our hopes, concerns, questions, and insights as we reflect on this unique 4th of July holiday. (Families are welcome!)

Location: Wesley Lounge, Wesley Foundation (shares a building with First United Methodist Ann Arbor: 602 E. Huron, Ann Arbor – on State between Huron and Washington).
Date: Monday, 7/06
Time: 6:30-8:30pm

Please bring a dish to pass. RSVP’s appreciated to gracek@icpj.net, 663-1870.
Co-sponsored by Michigan Peaceworks.

ICPJ’s Racial and Economic Justice Task Force (REJ), in collaboration with Partners for Transit and other local groups, is currently working to promote public transit in Washtenaw County that is sufficient and available for all who need it. Our first step is to collect Transit Testimonials from community members. We want to hear from Washtenaw County residents what you want in a public transit system.

Take the 2-minute survey to share your Transit Testimonial and help us make better public transit a reality! (You can also download a copy of the survey to print or share with others.)

REJ is tracking other local transit issues and keeping you informed. Read about the recent CALLS TO ACTION here.

MEDIA ADVISORY, June 12, 2009 Download as a PDF

CONTACT: Chuck Warpehoski, 734-972-8304, chuck@icpj.net

At the Monday, June 15 Ann Arbor City Council meeting, Mayor John Hieftje is scheduled to issue a proclamation declaring June to be “Torture Awareness Month.” This proclamation will coincide with movie showings, banner hangings, and other events organized by the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Michigan Peaceworks, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

“The recently-released ‘torture memos,” show us that torture was permitted by very high levels of our government,” said Chuck Warpehoski, Director of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, “and they show us how much more of this story remains hidden. That’s why we’re urging President Obama to create a Commission of Inquiry on torture, and we call on Congress to pass ‘Golden Rule’ legislation so abuses like this don’t happen again.

Other Torture Awareness Month events planned by Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice and Michigan Peace Works include:

• Movie screening of Torturing Democracy at the Michigan Theater on June 13;

• “Theology on Tap” discussion of torture at Arbor Brewing Company at 7:00 on June 22;

• Hanging of a banner reading “End Torture Forever. Investigate. Legislate.” over State Street from June 19 to 28;

• Downtown sidewalk chalking;

For more details, please visit www.icpj.net/torture.

Proposed Text of Mayoral Proclamation:

PROCLAMATION

Recognizing Torture Awareness Month

June 15, 2009

WHEREAS, documented incidents of torture that have happened by or on behalf of the United States government have been discovered; and

WHEREAS, torture is illegal under the Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention Against Torture, Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, over 26,000 religious leaders and other people of faith and conscience have endorsed the National Religious Campaign’s “Statement of Conscience” declaring, “Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved — policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation’s most cherished ideals”; and

WHEREAS, thirty-eight retired military leaders, including two former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have spoken publicly against torture saying, “If degradation, humiliation, physical and mental brutalization of prisoners is decriminalized or considered permissible . . . we will forfeit all credible objections should such barbaric practices be inflicted upon American prisoners”; and

WHEREAS, security experts such as FBI special agent Jack Cloonan, torture victim Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), and former Army JAG Major General Thomas Romig have stated that abuse of U.S. detainees encourages recruitment by terrorist groups; and

WHEREAS, citizens of Ann Arbor, MI, along with groups such as Michigan Peaceworks and the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, are participating in efforts to oppose torture, promote a commission of inquiry into U.S.-sponsored torture, and strengthen U.S. laws barring torture; and

NOW THEREFORE, I, John Hieftje, Mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan, do hereby stand against all forms of torture and inhuman treatment and do proclaim June as Torture awareness month in the City of Ann Arbor. This month will recognize the struggles of those who fight against torture and attempt to help the victims of Torture.

I hereby set my hand and seal

This the 15th day of June, 2009

John Hieftje, Mayor

———

Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (www.icpj.net) empowers people of faith and people of conscience in the Washtenaw County/Ann Arbor, Michigan area to act on their moral and religious values to build a better world.

# # #

Download this flier and share it with friends!

Mauricio Funes, of the FMLN party, is now the president of El Salvador.  The former guerrilla organization has transformed itself into an effective political party that has won the presidency of the nation!

Mary Anne Perrone will give a first-person account of an SOAW delegation to El Salvador in May, meeting with the FMLN party members, social organizations,  unions, and victims of the government during civil war and beyond.

Sylvia Nolasco-Rivers, a native Salvadoran who came to the US as a refugee from war-torn El Salvador will give her perspective on this new era in her native country.

When: Tuesday, June 23, 7:30 pm
Where: First United Methodist Church of Ypsilanti, 209 Washtenaw Rd,
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Details: www.icpj.net; 734-663-1870, chuck@icpj.net, download the flier.

Grace Fellowship Church’s participation in the Faith & Food Program was recently highlighted in the Ann Arbor News .  Continue to read the full article…

Members of Grace Fellowship Church in Ypsilanti create garden of giving

by John Mulcahy | The Ann Arbor News

Sunday June 07, 2009, 7:00 AM

Photo credit: Eliyahu Gurfinkel, The Ann Arbor News. Members of the Grace Fellowship Church in Ypsilanti planted a vegetable garden with the intention of donating half of the produce to the Food Gatherers of Ann Arbor. From left are William Anderson, Joe Little and his daughter Cyntina Grantham, James Powell, Debbie McCray, Rose Williams, Angela and Andrew Robinson and their daughters, Adairah, 12, and Tangee, 16.

Andrew Robinson and some other congregation members at Grace Fellowship Church in Ypsilanti put some real muscle and a lot of good will into creating a garden this spring.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

• Faith and Food is not recruiting more congregations for gardens this year. However, to inquire about next year:

Call: 734-786-8401.

E-mail: FaithandFood@GrowingHope.net.

• To learn more about Food Gatherers and its programs:

Call: 734-761-2796.

Visit their Web site: www.foodgatherers.org

On a piece of church-owned land on Mott Road in Ypsilanti Township they dug a 1.5-foot deep trench by hand all the way around a 30-foot by 30-foot area. They installed a fence in the trench, laid cardboard over the whole enclosed surface and covered it with three truck loads of compost, which became the planting bed.

Starting in mid-May they planted broccoli, beans, squash, tomatoes, collard greens, cabbage and other vegetables.

When the harvest starts coming, half of the food will go to Food Gatherers of Ann Arbor to help feed low-income people and the other half will be distributed among Grace Fellowship church members.
“We are glad that we can be part of something so worthwhile,” Robinson said.

It is just one of 14 church gardens – 12 of them new this year – in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and other parts of Washtenaw County being cultivated for Faith and Food, a program sponsored by Growing Hope of Ypsilanti, Food Gatherers of Ann Arbor and the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice.

Another four congregations are donating from members’ private gardens. Five of the participating churches are in Ypsilanti.

Merilynne Rush, who coordinates the program for Growing Hope and recruited churches to participate, said the goal is to create a fast, smart, sustainable way to give low income people access to healthy, locally grown food. The project has been embraced because many people like to garden, she said.

“People caught onto this idea very quickly,” Rush said.

The program specifies which foods the gardeners grow, based on Food Gatherers’ needs. Examples are foods with long shelf lives, such as carrots or potatoes; peas, because they are harvested early; and collard greens, because they aren’t routinely donated, Rush said.

Eileen Spring, president and CEO of Food Gatherers, said that Faith and Food is part of an overall effort by Food Gatherers – including by starting its own garden – to secure a more predictable and consistent supply of good, healthy food.

“It is one of our goals to get more food quickly in response to rising needs,” Spring said.

Faith and Food is backed in part by a $92,000 grant from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation to Food Gatherers for a program called The Big Community Harvest. Food and Faith is one part of that four-pronged program.

Some of the grant money is being used to re-imburse the participants for materials, such as the fence that went around Grace Fellowship’s garden.

Other materials are donated by the church members. For instance, the compost used for the Grace Fellowship garden came from portions allotted to some congregation members from the Ypsilanti Township compost yard.

The project is one that requires a lot of follow-through, including plans for weeding, watering and harvesting, Rush said. In the case of Grace Fellowship’s garden, Growing Hope was able to provide rain barrels to catch rain for watering since the garden is not near a water supply, Robinson said.

The project plans tours of the gardens July 22 and Aug. 1, Rush said.
The program is not accepting any more new gardens this year, but welcomes inquiries for next year, Rush said.

John Mulcahy can be reached at jmulcahy@annarbornews.com or 734-994-6858.

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2009/06/members_of_grace_fellowship_ch.html

Michigan Religious, Legal, and Peace Groups Mark Torture Awareness Month by Calling for Investigation, Legislation

UPDATE:

The press conference went off well. Here are the results:

• Radio Interview on WILS-AM with Chuck Warpehoski
• Audio of press conference
• Radio Interview on WDBM-FM
• Video of the press conference
• Lansing State Journal story about the event
• Photos of event
• Coverage by WLNS TV6

MEDIA ADVISORY: June 8, 2009 (Download as a  PDF)
CONTACT:  Chuck Warpehoski, 734-972-8304, chuck@icpj.net

WHAT Press Conference in front of “End Torture Forever” banner that will hang on the Michigan State Capitol Building’s East Steps

WHEN: Thursday, June 11, 9:30 a.m.

WHERE: Michigan Capitol Building – East Steps.

SPEAKERS:
Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) and the assistant Imam of Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit. Walid also serves as a board trustee for the Detroit Metropolitan Interfaith Workers Rights Committee.

Mary Bejian, Deputy Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. The ACLU, through the courts, legislatures and communities, has worked tirelessly to expose the abuse and torture of detainees in U.S. military prisons and “black sites” overseas, and to uphold the rule of law.”

The Rev. Reid Hamilton is the Chaplain of Canterbury House, the Episcopal Campus Ministry at the University of Michigan, and brings to anti-torture activism his experience as a military lawyer with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Jim Turner is a Regional Representative for U.S. Senator Carl Levin.  Sen. Levin has been a leader in the Senate, investigating torture. Senator Levin has pushed for strong standards to prohibit cruel treatment and torture. Jim Turner shared excerpts from Sen. Levin’s May 27, 2009 speech at the Foreign Policy Association.

Erika McNamara is an attorney and serves as the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice representative to the Regional and State Partners Council for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

Other events for Torture Awareness Month in Michigan include:

Ann Arbor — June 13th: Michigan Theater, 1:00 pm, Saturday, June 13, 2009. Showing of the documentary movie, Torturing Democracy, by Sherry Jones, describing how the U.S. government adopted torture as official policy in the aftermath of 9/11, followed by discussion with Human Rights expert Susan Waltz.

East Lansing — June 23rd: MSU College of Law, 7:00 pm, Tuesday, June 23, 2009. Panel presentation, “What is at Stake in the Torture Debate?” – with Catherine Grosso, Susan Waltz, Dorean Koenig, and Erick Williams

Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice empowers people of faith and people of conscience in the Washtenaw County/Ann Arbor, Michigan area to act on their moral and religious values to build a better world. The Peace Education Center and the Greater Lansing Network Against War & Injustice educate and advocate for peace & human rights in the Lansing area.

Want to get the newsletter delivered to your door? Become a member.

Follow the link to read the full letter to Attorney General Holder.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Hon. Eric Holder
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530

RE: FBI spying in Mosques

Dear Attorney General Holder:

Recently we at the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice have heard reports alleging that the FBI has been sending informants into mosques to collect information about who is attending and who is giving to charity.

We find these reports deeply disturbing and we request that you mount a full investigation into these allegations. As you know, there have been troubling reports that the FBI sent a convicted criminal to pose as an agent provocateur in several California mosques, including allegations that an FBI agent told one of the mosque attendees that the agency would make his life a “living hell” if he did not become an informant.

Here in Michigan, Dawud Walid of the Council of American Islamic Relations has reported hearing about efforts to infiltrate a variety of area mosques on what he dubs “fishing expeditions.”

If true, these reports would seem to indicate a practice of religious profiling on the part of the FBI. We at the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice oppose religious, ethnic and racial profiling. We have seen how it threatens civil rights, weakens communities, and sows mistrust.

We do support FBI efforts to bring criminals to justice and to prevent crime, but they should not single out communities based on how they pray, the color of their skin, or their national origin.

We urge you to order a full investigation into these allegations and to conduct a thorough review of FBI and Department of Justice policies regarding racial, ethnic, and religious profiling to ensure that they protect groups from inappropriate surveillance.

Sincerely
Chuck Warpehoski
Director