Following a successful meeting in November, a project team building a community orchard in Des Moines' River Bend neighborhood plans to meet again December 15 from 6-7:30 pm (get all the event details here).
The event will consist of a meeting of the whole group with project updates and then meetings of several smaller teams who will focus on specific activities.
The small group meetings will include:
- Design team: Focused on the physical design of the garden. The space available measures 47.5' wide by 200' long and is located at about 3rd Street & Forest Avenue, but beyond that, this group will decide what to create in the space.
- Neighborhood involvement & communications team: This group has a long list of potential community partners and will be leading efforts to make sure the orchard fits well in the neighborhood and wider area.
- Training & Job skills team: This group will be asking questions about how the garden can be used for all range of training and community programming on orchard management, food production and more.
- Food security team: This group will discuss will be done with the orchard's produce as well as how the orchard can help raise awareness of (and help solve) food security problems in the neighborhood.
Whether you are interested in joining a specific team or are curious about other ways you can help the project succeed, you're encouraged to attend the meeting December 15 to learn more. Have more questions? Our project page includes contact information for the project organizers.
The orchard group has also agreed on a regular meeting time which will take effect in January: the 3rd Monday of the month from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm.