Nifty Blogs and WT opportunities: Local Food in Lorain County

At the BCSL I share an office with Food Policy Options Intern Avi Miner, a 2009 OC grad who does lots of awesome things with local foods.  Cool things that Avi does:

• He manages the Oberlin City Fresh stop, the local farm share program where you can sign up for a weekly bag of whatever fresh has come off the local farms
• He oversees private readings and Winter Term students who work on local foods issues
• He maps out where the food at local restaurants and the College cafeterias come from
• He researches important policy questions like:
• Can you have chickens/bees/other small livestock in your house in Oberlin?
• Can you have a vegetable garden in your front yard and not have the city mow it down for being over the limit for lawful lawn height? (this actually happened in Elyria)
• Then he takes these questions and finds out how we can change policy to allow these things so that people can grow more of their own food legally--because nothing is more local than your front yard.
• He bowls. Talk to him about bowling!

If you are interested in getting involved with Avi's work, come by the BCSL Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday to talk to him.  Remember: he can do private readings and winter term projects! You can also follow what he does and learn more about the local food movement at The Oberlin Food Blog:  http://oberlinfood.wordpress.com/

Gearing Up

Incoming Freshman: It's not too late to sign up for the 14th annual Day of Service! (you may also fill out page 57 of the Big Book of Forms).
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Things are starting to get crazy at the BCSL. As school approaches, the majority of the staff is hurrying to get things done, be it recruitment or reports or public relations or last minute details. We also welcomed Avi (Policy Options Intern) and Sarah Ho (Civic Engagement Intern) back to after their summer travels. Yay! Tuesday's staff meeting had a full table and a high laugh volume.

As a student, I am used to the craziness starting on the first day of school, so it is interesting to see the craziness from the flip-side. First year students don't arrive for two weeks, but Avi thought he spotted one out the window yesterday. Here's what the pre-student organized chaos looks like:

Day of Service: Christina, DOS Coordinator, is reporting 370 freshmen are signed up, which breaks last years records! (And you can still sign up!) She has the site leader t-shirts coming and is getting ready for a last wave of recruitment.

LEADS: Brenda, LEADS and CSWSP Coordinator, is working out the last minute details on the LEADS schedule, looking for paint, and trying to come up with menu items. The LEADS opening dinner is this Sunday!

Bonner Scholars: Donna, Director of the Bonners, is working on the fine details for the Baby Bonner orientation and looking for one last 2014 candidate.

BCSL, general: Beth, Director of the BCSL, is disappearing to undisclosed locations for stretches of time so she won't be bothered while putting the final touches on a major report that is due really soon.

Education Outreach: Andy Frantz, who directs programs related to education, is handing out schedules for Education Discussion Lunches and America reads tutoring orientations as well as organizing the launch of the Oberlin-wide book reading of Farenheight 451.

Events: Sarah Ho, Civic Engagement Intern, jumped right back into the thick of it by planning madly for the BCSL Open House during orientation and ordering tasty food for the Baby Bonners.

Food Policy: Avi (Policy Options Intern) is getting back into the swing of things and organizing lots of big meetings to talk about Policy Options to get the ball rolling.

Data/PR/Benefit Bank: My Benefit Bank training on Saturday was canceled, so maybe I'll have time to get some of this stuff done: I'm putting finishing touches on graphics for a BCSL Banner, the annual report, doing massive updates to the new BCSL website that will hopefully go live before students get back, aiming to have a Science Center Display done before classes start, gathering statistics for the poverty simulation, and trying to help the Benefit Bank clients trickling from OCS. And next week I'm hanging out at the Lorain County fair, promoting the Benefit Bank with Community Action. Phew.

Happy weekend!