21 x 21 feet

Vegetables for the grant.

• Pumpkins

• Water melons

• Green beans

• Tomatoes

• Collard greens

• Okra

• Black eyed peas

• Peanuts

• Potatoes

• Sweet potatoes

• Carrots

• Lettuce/cabbage

• Peas

• Zucchini

• Cucumber

• Pineapple

Positive Growth - Grant’s name

Located behind the safe house which is a drug program facility.

945 20th Street South.

Reverend Matthews

Composting---

324-7050 Arlinda Johnson

Teacher: Arlinda Johnson wants a plot of her own. Own plot of land for each child. Ownership, buy in, can carry these skills at home to do at their own home.

(Pop corn seeds)

Fencing (organic spray to repel raccoons and feral cats)

Some notes regarding Mt. Zion visit 2/4/09

Pat Fried - executive director (receives "in kind" support from the church)

Pastor's vision - grow services for the area; this is the same vision that Pat has for the facilities.

Diane Bradshaw - children's center director

Doris Newton - tutoring director

Eric - youth pastor

When contacting any of the Mt. Zion staff please cc both Pat and Trey (very important for protocal and to "stay in the loop")

dbradshaw@mzhs.org

dnewton@mzhs.org

pfried@tampabay.rr.com

Arlinda Johnson - Teacher giving input on gardening grant. Tried last summer to create a garden area; however due to weeds and lack of buy in and effort the garden wilted.

Rhonda - volunteer and administrator

Mry Flynn - teacher; adult ed. She is a teacher with the Pinellas County School System

2-yr. old center - Yvette

3-yr. old center - Brenda Williams

4-yr. old VPK program - Beverly Howard (asst. Arlinda Johnson)

Pat Fried made it crystal clear that she wants to create faith based learning and mentoring programs, and paramount to everything that is created, is that everything needs to have specific outcomes which can be documented and measured. This is of vital importance, as without these measurable outcomes funding will not be granted to Mt. Zion.

Pat would also like to see a mentoring program developed which is geared toward middle school students. At present, only elementary school tutoring is available. At a later date she would like to see middle and high school tutoring added. In addition, she mentioned that the educational program which is presently in use at the facility is more of a "day care" facility than a preschool; aside from the VPK program which obviously receives government subsidy.

It was great to get a "real" view of the facility by actually touring Mt. Zion last week. Craig, Tina, Casey, and myself were able to get a good grasp of Arlinda's wants and needs for her students concerning the gardening grant; which Craig has aptly named Positive Growth. Arlinda was able to show us the location of where she would like the garden to be. She was also able to give us a better idea of the plants she wants to include in the garden. Contrary to what we were initially thinking, she told us she would like vegetables, not plants. This is due to the children actually using the vegetables for food which they and their families can consume. She was able to give us a precise list of the veggies she would like to have the students grow. (I noted them above). She also informed us of the "failed" garden attempt this past summer when weeds, hot weather, and the time limits of only working with camp children, who were all "forced" to participte caused the garden to die. Standing where the garden once stood, we noted that there is ample room to try again. Craig walked out the area (21 x 21 feet) and we noted that it is made up of an area which has both sun and shade provided from a tangello tree. Arlinda also informed us that the hard work of digging out the 21 x21 foot area would be taken care of by a member of the church, whose brother unfortunately passed away on New Year's Day.The deceased had dug out the original garden which also died. So, with the hard labor of the digging out covered, and Craig making some contacts with a nursery which is willing to donate soil, and Casey writing up the lessons plans to go along with the garden, we're well on our way to completing the necessary background work needed prior to writing the actual grant.

We all left our discussion with Arlinda very excited. We can't wait to get to class next week and write the grant. Hopefully, we'll be able to write it up in class. If we don't get it totally completed, we know it will be finalized within two weeks to be sure.

The site viit to Mt. Zion gave everyone a better overview of the hierarchy of Mt. Zion. Also, for our little group, it gave us the necessary contact, Arlinda, to put our plan of creating a garden in action because we saw how enthusiastic Arlinda was to get started and implement our ideas for her students. This spurred us on to a realistic, tangible goal. In a word; excitement!!!!