“Feed the Need” with the WCPT Holiday Harvest Food Drive

December 2, 2011 Mike Nowak Faith in Place, food drive, Local First Chicago, local food, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Mike Sanders, National Forest Foundation, sustainability, WCPT Holiday Harvest

November 27, 2011

WCPT Holiday Harvest Food Drive begins December 1–Feed the Need!

Gosh, I’m so excited that you would think Christmas was coming or something. Or maybe it is. Or maybe next Thursday, December 1 is the first day of the WCPT Holiday Harvest Food Drive, which runs through December 11. Our thanks to our partner, Faith in Place, which has lined up a number of the drop off locations listed below.

When you bring your locally bought, healthy and sustainable foods (though we’ll take anything, really), you should look for the barrel marked with the WCPT Holiday Harvest logo (pictured left). Of course, you can’t just show up at 3:00 a.m. and expect to drop in your goodies, so here are the times that we know about so far. If a location in your area doesn’t have all of the information you need, never fear–I will be updating this page as I receive it:

WCPT AM & FM, 6012 S. Pulaski Road, Chicago, IL 60629
Donations are accepted:
Monday-Friday 9:00am-5:00pm, Saturday-Sunday 8:00am-2:00pm
Ring the bell during the week to drop off food
Of course, Mike Sanders and I will be standing outside to receive your donations during our special Holiday Harvest Broadcast on December 4 from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Donations will go to one of the participating Holiday Harvest food programs.
First Evangelical Free Church , 5255 N Ashland Ave Chicago, IL 60640
Donations accepted:
Tuesdays & Thursdays 9:00am to 4:30 pm
Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, Sundays 9:30 am to 4:00 pm
Site of Faith in Place Winter Farmers Market on December 11. You can purchase local, sustainable goods, turn around and drop them right in the WCPT bin!
Donations will go to Breakthrough Urban Ministries
Healthy Horizons Inc, 7034 Indianapolis Blvd # 1, Hammond, IN 46324-2244
Donations accepted:
Monday-Friday 9:00am-8:00pm
Saturday 9:00am-6:00pm
Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm
Little Mountain-Hope Ministries, 5716 South Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60636-1723
Donations currently accepted Tuesday evenings and all day Sunday. More times to come. Donations will go to the Little Mountain food program.
Travelers Rest Spiritual Church, 7030 S Racine Ave, Chicago , IL 60636
Donations currently accepted Tuesday evenings and all day Sunday. More times to come.
Amor De Dios United Methodist Church, 2356 South Sawyer Avenue, Chicago, IL 60623
Donations currently accepted Thursday afternoons and all day Sunday. More times to come.
Donations will go to the Amor de Dios food program.
Euclid Avenue United Methodist, 405 South Euclid Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302
Site of Faith in Place Winter Farmers Market on March 24, 2012
Donations go to the Oak Park/River Forest Food Pantry
North Shore Unitarian Church, 2100 Half Day Rd Deerfield, IL 60015
Donations accepted:
Monday-Friday 10:00am – 2:00pm
Sundays 9:00am-1:00pm
December 4th Special Hours: 8:30am-3:00pm
Site of Faith in Place Winter Farmers Market on December 4! You can purchase local, sustainable goods, turn around and drop them right in the WCPT bin!
Donations go to their local food pantries.

As noted above, Mike Sanders of Our Town and I will join forces for a three hour Holiday Harvest Broadcast on December 4 from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. (I can’t mention that enough.)

As I have mentioned repeatedly, our goal is to do a drive that is “healthy, local and sustainable,” at least to the extent possible and practical. Over the past several weeks on the Holiday Harvest page on this website, we have tried to show how very possible it is to donate healthy protein-rich foods, preserved and canned goods, healthy grains and dried fruits and more.

Last week I talked to Suzanne Keers, co-founder & executive director of Local First Chicago, about their city-wide Buy Local campaign for the 2011 Holiday Season called “Unwrap Chicago: Eat, Drink & Buy Local.” The idea is to educate citizens on the importance of buying locally. Of course, WCPT and The Mike Nowak Show hope that you shop and buy local food, which you will then donate to the WCPT Holiday Harvest. Simple, no?

This week, I’m pleased to be able to talk to Rev. Dr. Bill Shereos, Senior Pastor of First Free Church in Andersonville, which is one of our drop off locations. They will be sending their collection to Breakthrough Urban Ministries in the Garfield Park neighborhood.

We are continuing to update the Holiday Harvest page, and I hope I hope you’ll check it out from time to time and begin gathering food to donate during our drive. Our motto: Feed the Need. Thanks for whatever you can do.

Will the prairie–and bison(!)–make a comback in Illinois?

Okay, kids. Time for a quick quiz. (Bet you didn’t see this coming.) Of the 21 million acres of prairie that were originally in the Prairie State (um, that’s Illinois, in case you’re stumped), what percentage is left?

A. 10%
B. 1%
C. 0.1%
D 0.01%

If you answered D.–ding, ding, ding!–you’ve been paying attention to just how cavalierly Americans over the centuries have treated their natural resources. I’m getting ahead of myself here, but take a look at the Timeline of the American Bison, courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Believe me folks, it ain’t pretty.

But back to praires. In 1996, a remarkable thing happened for the remaining prairies in Illinois. The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie was established on the former Joliet Arsenal. What made Midewin (prounounced mi-Day-win, and pronouncing it correctly is kind of the secret handshake of Illinois environmentalists) so remarkable is that, among other things, it was the first national tallgrass prairie in the country. The long-range goal was to take 20,000 acres of military and farm land and bring back as much prairie ecosystem as is humanly possible.

Interestingly, Midewin, just a stone’s throw from Chicago in Wilmington, Illinois, is part of the National Forest System, which might seem odd because it is far from being a forest. Perhaps that’s not so bad because the National Forest Foundation, a nonprofit group that works with the U.S. Forest Service to provide financial and technical support, announced in October that it was putting it’s muscle behind the restoration.

About 2,000 acres of prairie fields have already been restored at Midewin, but the land is still dotted with military bunkers and checkered with abandoned farm fields. Much needs to be done, which is why the NFF announced a 10-year plan to restore another 18,000 acres and even reintroduce bison on to the property–hence the bison reference earlier. C’mon, how cool is that? I’ll bet you didn’t even know that there were bison roaming Illinois at the beginning of the 19th Century…unless you clicked on the link above.

Midewin is the eighth site to be part of NFF’sTreasured Landscapes campaign. What does that mean? Well, money, for one–to the tune of helping to raise $174 million for the 10-year restoration project. To get a sense of what they hope to accomplish, take a look at this video. One of their partners in this unique venture is The Wetlands Initiative.

I’m pleased to welcome Mary Mitsos, Vice President of Conservation Programs for the National Forest Foundation and Paul Botts (in the interest of full disclosure, he is Beth Botts’ brother), who is Executive Director of The Wetlands Initiative, to talk about how the future of prairies of Illinois is about bringing back some of its past.

Sustainable Food Fundamentals
The D. Landreth Seed Company 2012 Catalog is on its way!

This is just a quick note to let you know that if you’re one of the people who are trying to keep the historic D. Landreth Seed Company in business by ordering a catalog, there will soon be one in your mailbox. A friend of mine who ordered five catalogs received hers on Black Friday (seems fitting, somehow, that she didn’t have to be among the crazed shoppers).

Barbara Melera, owner of D. Landreth, the oldest seed house in America, wrote to me on Facebook that people who ordered multiple copies are already receiving theirs. If you requested only one (stupid me!), they will arrive soon.

You can get a sense of the quality of this catalog by linking to sample pages here. It makes a great gift for your gardening friends, and they’re only five bucks a pop. Meanwhile, you can log onto these various social media sites to continue to get the word out: Landreth Seed Co, Save Landreth Seed Company, Order their 2012 Catalog!, and more. If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #savelandreth. If you just want to make a contribution, go to ChipIn.com and click the icon on the upper right hand side of the page.

A couple of articles about climate change

Meteorologist Rick DiMaio is a wealth of information, not only about the weather, but about climate change, and he’s always alerting me to stories about the latest in climate science and news. This one echoes Rick’s own thoughts about how a little bit of warming can lead to weather extremes.

However, it can be difficult to have a civil conversation over the holiday dinner table with climate skeptics. If you find yourself in that situation, Mother Nature Network has some tips about the subject in an article called How to discuss climate change with your uncle during the holidays. It might just save your self-esteem…if not your sanity.