Revised August 3, 2011
Small Grants Announced
Somos La Semilla Network is requesting proposals for small projects that:

·       Provide training to strengthen the knowledge and practical capacity to grow, distribute and use local food

·       Foster communication and sharing of experiences to support and build local food systems

·       Promote connections and collaborations between local food producers and users

·       Build on existing efforts to expand and sustain local food systems

We will be accepting applications until October 31, 2011.  RFP: Word PDF  Application: Word PDF

Since the initial February 2010 conference, the networking group has maintained contact through conference calls and an in-person gathering in July 2010 to discuss and plan ongoing projects. The following projects are underway:

(1) 2010 Santa Cruz Valley Organic Farm & Garden Tour
The first farm and garden tour is planned for Sunday, September 12th, 2010 from 9-6pm.  It is an open garden or field day, self guided, free educational and inspirational event.
More information >

(2) Healthy Food, Healthy Future Conference DVD
An educational DVD about the Healthy Food, Healthy Future gathering was created and is being revised for Spanish voice over and subtitles before greater distribution.

(3) Community Organizing Workshop 
Network members have expressed a desire workshop in community organizing. This will most likely be a day long training with the idea of gaining more skills for leaders in long-term change and to get more people involved in the work you are doing.  This most likely will take place in September in Benson area.  Training is proposed to be a 2-hour session on Leadership, one-one-one meetings and a 2-hour session on Broad based organizing.  Also there will be a session on Culture of meetings, elements of meetings and facilitation.  Please contact us if you would like to participate or if you have someone you'd like to refer.  More information will be coming.

(4) Skills and Resource Gathering
We are in the process of gathering skills offered by group members and resources needed from participants to share.
 
(5) Seed-to-Seed Curriculum Development & (or Train-the Trainer)
Curriculum development emerged as a strong interest from the February 2010 conference. We are in the process of collecting technical information and translating it to region-specific and needs-specific tools. If you are interested in curriculum development, please contact us.