Summer of Solutions Hartford, CT has invited the community to join a picnic/potluck in the Zion Street Community Garden where they will be leading a discussion on food justice and food security. They also will be provide materials for volunteers to grow plants and take them home! So far, they have already filled over 50 wooden beds, nearly 200 tire beds, and have hundreds of plants, including 8 different tomato varieties!

Over the summer, SoS Hartford, CT has been working on their ⅓ acre garden which half of which is community garden plots and 4 languages are spoken there! The neighborhood is very diverse and neighbors provide supplies for the garden or volunteer from 9am-8pm. SoS Hartford asked for donations of wood to start their garden beds but couldn’t find any; so they are using tires instead b/c tires are free! Right now the garden consists of a large variety of organic tomatoes, hot peppers, cucumbers, Swiss chard, broccoli, kohlrabi, rhubarb, mulberry tree, cherry tree, and more.

I was asked to join Southern Energy Network’s No Coal Campaign here in Georgia in mid-June, two weeks after the campaign’s kick-off and just a few days before our first large outreach event; and, well, it would be a severe understatement to say that I was a tad overwhelmed.

While I would love to promote myself as an outstanding environmental justice advocate, I would have to cross my fingers behind my back. I spent my undergraduate career devoted to the preservation of the public sector and fighting back against efforts to privatize what little public space we have left, so I am definitely a black-belt activist; but somehow along the way I never managed to pick up my green-belt, so to speak, failed to take action on the obvious connections between corporate greed and an unjust energy economy.

Before joining SEN’s No Coal Campaign, I was involved in planning non-violent actions in response to Georgia’s passing racist, anti-immigrant legislation; and as I watched over 10,000 Georgians take to the streets on July 2nd, just a few days after starting work with SEN, something clicked. I mean, this wasn’t a glorious revelation, but a definite “ah-ha!” moment for my activist life.

Over the summer, SoS Iowa City, Iowa has been working on revitalizing Iowa City through eco-education, solar schools, and sustainability. 

The Solar Schools project has contacted and met with school board members in the Iowa City Community School District.  We hope to get on the school board agenda for the next meeting this summer, where we can present our Power Purchase Agreement materials, energy savings and project outline. We are currently calculating the energy savings cost for specific schools in the Iowa City Community School District.

This summer has been an eventful time for WeatherizeDC, the flagship program of the nonprofit, The DC Project. 

The WeatherizeDC team, along with dedicated volunteers, has been diligently advocating the expansion of the local clean energy market through the creation of green jobs across the District.

The organization, which addresses the twin challenges of sustainability and poverty in the D.C. area, has been able to garner interest in weatherization throughout D.C., Maryland and Virginia by developing deep roots in the community and attending various events locally and nationwide.

Our friends at the Energy Action Coalition are holding their National Day of Action this weekend. Young adults from all over the country come together to create grassroots change in their neighborhoods, seeking environmental reform and change. Here at the Portland Enrichment Program, we are striving to promote sustainable practices in the Foster Green Eco-District, a low income and diverse community in Southeast Portland.

For the National Day of Action, we will be canvassing a large community in Southeast Portland centered around the Zenger Farm, a working urban farm that models, promotes and educates about sustainable food systems, environmental stewardship, community development and access to good food for all. We will give residents a survey about the condition of their community and what they believe their community needs.

Post by Karin Bucht

For the National Day of Action, the Corvallis Summer of Solutions team for will be doing “Critical Mass Canvassing” in order to “Energize Corvallis”. What does this mean? We’ll be recruiting and signing up 50 volunteers from the community to join our team in canvassing neighborhoods, going door-to-door, and talking with fellow community members, in the hopes of getting people involved in our program. Following hourly trainings we’ll be leading our groups of recruits into three target neighborhoods in Corvallis for a couple hours of canvassing with their community.