Locals will be able to partake in some “hot and messy fun” this weekend during a gathering for tomato lovers at an urban farm in the LeDroit Park neighborhood.
The first-ever “Tomatopalooza” will kick off at Common Good City Farm (V St. NW between 2nd and 4th streets NW) this Sunday at 11 a.m., according to the event’s organizers.
During the event, attendees will gather around 100 pounds of organic tomatoes for a crash course in canning the acidic red fruit. The event will include expert instruction from Washington Post food columnist Cathy Barrow on how to preserve tomatoes, what you can make with them and which tomato varieties are the best for canning.
“It’s so easy and fun,” said Lisa Zechiel, owner of Washington’s Green Grocer, the local business helping to organize the event. “It gets people using local produce and doing things themselves. They can make thing themselves out of basic ingredients.”
And here’s a bonus: everyone who attends Tomatopalooza goes home with two pints of canned tomatoes, she said.
After the canning demonstration, attendees will sit down for a lunch of tomato sandwiches with or without bacon, salads, watermelon, drinks and Barrow’s popular slab pie, Zechiel said.
Tickets are $25. All proceeds go toward funding Good City Common Farm.
Photo courtesy Washington’s Green Grocer
(This post was updated at 9:33 a.m. on Tuesday with yet another way to give.)
Black Friday is gone. Cyber Monday is almost over. Time to put the pocketbook away? Almost! But not before Giving Tuesday tomorrow.
What’s Giving Tuesday? It’s sort of like the charitable equivalent of your average consumerist holiday spending spree. Held on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, the event is meant to kick off the charitable season for nonprofits across the globe.
Cool, but how do I donate? There are plenty of national charities you can donate to, many of which are mentioned on the Giving Tuesday website. Additionally, there are tons of local good causes worth supporting. Here are 13 ways to give back without leaving your neighborhood:
- Attend a Collective Action For Safe Spaces happy hour at Right Proper Brewing (624 T St NW). The happy hour will help support the organization’s safe bars program.
- Contribute to the Sitar Arts Center. Each donation will be matched one-for-one up to $1,000 by the Wise Owl Club.
- Buy shoes and dance classes for kids at the Dance Institute of Washington.
- Give to the D.C. Center for the LGBTQ Community.
- Help beautify the Dupont Circle neighborhood by contributing to Dupont Circle Main Streets.
- Kids need to read and write real good. Help ’em do that at 826DC.
- Donate to Green Door, a program that “prepares women and men with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other mental illnesses to work, live and thrive in the District of Columbia.”
- Help The Starfish Foundation educate 150 at-risk youth in Guayaquil, Ecuador by buying drinks at Johnny Pistolas (2333 18th St. NW) in Adams Morgan.
- Give to Martha’s Table or Bread for the City to help feed the hungry.
- 86 cents of every donation to Thrive D.C. goes toward helping the homeless.
- Seasonal food hub Common Good City Farm accepts donations year-round.
- Columbia Heights performance and art nonprofit BloomBars is entirely community-funded.
- Ride a bike near Dupont Circle in honor of World AIDS Day tomorrow and help donate to Whitman-Walker.
- Help families with SNAP access fresh fruits and veggies by donating to the Columbia Heights Farmers Market Bonus Bucks campaign.
- Through the Heart, a nonprofit dedicated to pregnancy loss support and education, is also accepting donations.
Photo courtesy of Giving Tuesday
A LeDroit Park-based nonprofit farm is holding a free lunch for community members tomorrow.
Common Good City Farm (V Street NW between 2nd & 4th Streets) volunteers will use ingredients culled from the organization’s urban fields to cook healthy lunches for residents at noon.
The volunteers, who are teenagers from farm’s summer youth program, will prepare the meal with help from local chef Josephine Chu.
Common Good City Farm Executive Director Rachael Callahan said the teenagers are looking forward to showing off skills they learned in the program.
“The community lunches are a lot of fun”, Callahan said. “We really get to showcase the work that the kids in the summer youth program are doing and we get to share that with everybody in the community.”
Common Good City Farm was founded in 2007 to provide the community with access to fresh local produce.
Photo via Facebook/CommonGoodCityFarm
From Mathew Harkins. Email him at mharkins[AT]borderstan.com.
Martha’s Table on 14th Street NW. (Luis Gomez Photos)
There’s a lot to be thankful for in our community. Borderstan is home to some wonderful development projects, from new condos and apartment buildings to new supermarkets to a seemingly unending supply of new restaurants, bars and cafes.
There are a lot things being offered in the neighborhood, so why not carve a little time out of your day to give something back?
Along with all those great things mentioned above in the neighborhood, there are some great venues for volunteering here in Borderstan.
N Street Village
N Street Village, located on N Street between 14th Street and Vermont Avenue, is a facility designed to help homeless and low-income women in our neighborhood through supportive services and housing. NSV takes a broad, holistic approach in assisting these women as they face a number of challenges that vary from individual to individual, including homelessness, addiction, mental illness and more.
A selection of the volunteer opportunities at NSV includes: tutoring, preparing and serving meals, maintaining the courtyard garden, helping with fundraising and much more. To find out more about these opportunities and to apply to volunteer, head over to the NSV Volunteer page.
Common Good City Farm
Since there’s no better way to state it than what’s already on their website, Common Good City Farm’s mission “is to grow food, educate, and help low-income DC community members meet their food needs.” Located just outside the Borderstan area near V and 4th Streets, CGCF is exactly what it sounds like: a small farm in the middle of the city that teaches residents and students about food production, healthy eating and environmental sustainability.
Just last year, they CGCF “provided over 6,300 pounds of fresh vegetables to low-income families.” There are many ways to help, including donations, dropping off scraps for composting and volunteering on the farm itself. See their Get Involved page as well as their Volunteer page for more information.
Martha’s Table
Located on 14th Street between V and W Streets, Martha’s Table uses education, nutrition and family support services to address poverty and issues stemming from poverty. Some of their volunteering opportunities include preparing food, tutoring children and staffing their mobile soup kitchen. You can find out more about these opportunities and fill out a volunteer application on their Volunteer Opportunities page.
Other Organizations
- Bread for the City – “The mission of Bread for the City is to provide vulnerable residents of Washington, DC, with comprehensive services, including food, clothing, medical care, and legal and social services, in an atmosphere of dignity and respect.”
- SOME (So Others Might Eat) – “An interfaith, community-based organization that exists to help the poor and homeless of our nation’s capital. We meet the immediate daily needs of the people we serve with food, clothing, and health care.”
- DC Central Kitchen – “Through job training, healthy food distribution, and local farm partnerships, DC Central Kitchen offers path-breaking solutions to poverty, hunger, and poor health.”
- Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes – A local church, located on Massachusetts Avenue between 13th and 12th Streets, with a handful of programs that reach out to the neighborhood through blood drives, partnering with other institutions (like NSV), working with local seniors and the disabled, and more.
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Support the LeDroit Park-based Common Good City Farm at the October 27 benefit concert at DC9. (Image courtesy
Who: New York bands Suckers and Rewards. Tickets are $15.
What: Benefit concert for Common Good City Farm. Common Good City Farm is an urban farm and education center, located in LeDroit park, growing food for low-income residents in DC and providing educational opportunities for all people that help increase food security, improve health, and contribute to environmental sustainability.
When: Thursday, October 27. Doors open at 8:30 pm.
Where: DC9, 1940 9th Street NW.
More info and tickets: Here is more information and a linkfor purchasing tickets.
More Info on Common Good City Farm
Common Good City Farm has a simple but powerful mission: grow food, educate, and help low-income DC community members meet their food needs. It effectuates this mission by providing hands-on training in food production, healthy eating, and environmental sustainability. The Farm — located in the heart of the LeDroit Park community — provides a safe outdoor setting to learn, grow, and nourish.
Through on-site demonstrations and outreach, Common Good City Farm integrates people of all ages, classes, and races to create vibrant and safe communities. Since 2007, the non-profit has taught over 1000 DC residents in workshops, engaged over 1500 DC school children, and hosted over 2000 volunteers. One volunteer came all the way from England: just this summer, Prince Charles got his hands dirty at the Farm. For press inquiries: [email protected]
