Blog

The Randolph Street Community Garden is located between Randolph and Neil Streets at Beardsley Ave. on the Campus of Stratton Elementary School.

We have another great summer of programming this year! Our drop-in programs are open to individual, unaccompanied, school age children and younger children with an adult (15 and up) caregiver, and are offered free of charge. Programs cancel on rainy days.

lOOK AT US HERE: http://https://www.facebook.com/ChampaignCountyEDC/videos/10155632873117807/?t=20Happy Summer! The garden is up and running. Most gardeners have planted their beds. We are waiting for this years YES (Youth employment) to begin. I’m sooo happy! Programs officially start 6/5 but I be around a lot before then.
Here is the schedule again.
Randolph Street Community Garden
Summer 2018
The Randolph Street Community Garden is located between Randolph and Neil
Streets at Beardsley Ave. on the Campus of Stratton Elementary School.
We have another great summer of programing this year! Our drop-in programs
are open to individual, unaccompanied, school age children and younger children
with an adult(15 and up) caregiver, and are offered free of charge. Programs
cancel on rainy days. No programs 07/02 – 0/6
Garden ½ Day Camp: Tuesday – Friday, 05/20 – 8/10, 8:00am – 12:00pm
Get your ‘green thumb training’. Learn to plant, care for, and harvest your own crops. Start
your garden bed ( 16’X4’) as a family and your ½ day camper can learn to maintain it in this
program! Gardening and a craft activity each day.
Jr. Volunteers: Mondays 06/04 – 08/06 8:00am – 10:00am
Training the next generation of community volunteers. It is never too early for children to learn
to give back to their community. Volunteers make it possible for us to provide fresh vegetables
to Church of the Brethren Food Pantry and feed those at risk of hunger.
Tots and Parents in the Garden: Mondays, 06/04 – 08/06, 10:00am – 11:00am
Tots and their caregivers (15yrs old and up) are invited to work together in a shared bed where
tiny hands learn to care for and use tiny tools while helping to plant and to grow.
Garden Smell Tour: Mondays, 06/11 & 06/25, 07/09 & 07/23, and 08/06,
11:00am- 12:00pm
Thanks to a grant from the Champaign Urbana Herb Society, groups of children and their
caregivers, and individual school age children, are invited to explore the smells in our herb
garden.Bring a sack lunch and stay for the story program that follows.
Stories in the Garden: Mondays, 06/04 -08/04, 12:00pm- 1:00pm Everyone is
invited to bring a sack lunch and enjoy a weekly story telling program in the garden.Come and
find our “Why No One Will Carry An Alligator Down To The Water”, and hear other folk tales
and stories.
Garden Work Days:
Saturday :April 14, May 12, June 9, September 8, 12:00pm – 3:00pm
July 14, & August 25, 10:00am-2:00pm
Garden Market Days:
Saturdays June 16 & 30 , July 21 & 28, August 04, 18, & 25
Don’t want to shop at 7:00am or drive to Urbana? Come support our young growers. We grow cash crops to help support the garden. Buying your produce from us helps us to continue our free programs. So, come on out, we are an afternoon market. 12noon to 3:00pm or sellout out.
Garden Kitchen:
Well this just depends on when our produce is ready. Jelly and Jam making classes will be held at least 4 times in the summer. We will also teach canning classes so that surplus can be used in winter.
Garden Steward: Dawn Blackman the Steward for the Randolph Street Community Garden can be reached at 217 390-8911 or text me at 217 390-0651

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT OUR EXPANSION PROGRAM

Randolph Street Community Garden from Illinois Public Media on Vimeo.

The goal of The Randolph Street Community is to provide local residents, living in a food desert, the opportunity to grow or purchase healthy produce, and to pass on gardening traditions to a new generation of children. The video above shows what we have been doing. We would like to expand this project to include:

1. Addition of a second business component of residential food waste composting.

2. Installation of a green house.

3. Installation of an irrigations system.

4. Acquisition of property in the neighborhood to serve as operations base for programs and collaborative projects between community and university groups.

5. Establish a “Gown to Town” initiative to house, in the community, social justice oriented graduate students and local community organizers to:

-develop trusting relationships with community members
-engage and empower community members through training and education
-conduct research (with community members) that articulates their needs
-develop and implement programs to meet those needs.

The Randolph Street Community Garden is a key site of development for the Champaign community. It is where diverse populations intersect and interact.In 2014 alone, 1,434 volunteer hours were worked. That’s 184 people that came to the garden to help other people grow food, clear their beds, water, share knowledge and learn about one another. Just under 600 people attended planned garden events. People who are black, brown, red, white, and yellow, city residents and university students, church and un-churched, children, men, women, able bodied, disabled, and elders. All participate at the Randolph Street Community garden, where food, fun, and friendship grow and we are building community!

Your donation will help continue and expand this crucial community development work.

For further information, you may contact Dawn Blackman at dawnblackmansr at yahoo dot com.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR EXPANSION PROGRAM