University of Calgary
PAE-19: Community Sustainability Partnerships

● KidsGrow! Kids Grow! is a student-led community outreach program designed to engage community children and youth in urban agriculture. The program helps young people develop a connection to their food, learn how to grow organic food, and foster a connection with both the community and the environment. The CCEL is currently hiring a larger team (6) of Kids Grow! facilitators for the 2013 spring/summer. ● Communal Table Project – this is a new program that was launched in October 2012 as a partnership between the Faith & Spirituality Centre, the Centre for Community-Engaged Learning, and food & culture professors, with the support of community experts in the local food scene. The idea of the CTP is to bring together students, faculty, staff and community to talk about food while preparing and sharing a meal together. The CTP strives to use local food when possible, and at each of the monthly dinners (free to all participants), there is a featured speaker. Featured speakers have included local farmers and community leaders from Slow Food Calgary. The CTP also belongs to the Eagle Creek Community Supported Agriculture winter-share program. Participants learn how to prepare local food, develop a stronger connection to food, and meet those involved in local food production. Each monthly dinner is attended by 25-45 people. ● Common Ground Project ($1,000) – Canada wide initiative to support intercultural, inter-faith communities and Ellis Don ($3,000) have both provided support to the CTP ● CUSP Alberta Higher Education Forum: The University of Calgary is hosting the Canadian Alliance of College and University Sustainability Professionals (CUSP) – Alberta event aimed at sharing best practices and identifying trends across the province in operational practices to advance sustainability. ● imagineCALGARY: A long term plan for a sustainable future that was developed with input from more than 18,000 Calgarians. The Plan includes a long-range vision for the city of Calgary and more than 100 targets that provide reference points for organizations and individuals to determine what action can be taken to build a sustainable community. The University of Calgary is proud to be one of more than 50 partners in imagineCALGARY and is leading a number of initiatives to help achieve the goals established in the plan. One such initiative involves the development of performance measurement tools that will enable collective measurement of progress made among all partners in imagineCALGARY. ● In partnership with the Students’ Union Volunteer Services and the Campus Food Bank, Meal Exchange and the Centre for Community-Engaged Learning student volunteers coordinate Hunger Week – a series of events that raise awareness about local food production, hunger and food security. Held in March, the 2013 program features an aquaponics demonstration and a information fair about various involvement opportunities related to food. Additionally, a number of campus leaders (staff and students) will participate in the Hamper Project, an online campaign to raise awareness about hunger on campus whereby 8 people receive a hamper from the Campus Food Bank (the cost of which is provided by the Students’ Union), live off of it for a week, and keep a blog about the experience.

Kids Grow! - http://kidsgrowgardening.blogspot.ca/ CUSP forum - http://ucalgary.ca/sustainability/files/sustainability/CUSP%20Poster%202013.pdf