Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

More education news from Program Director Ross Danis:

The Dodge Foundation Teacher Fellowships are based on the idea that great teachers are interesting and interested people. We help support the professional development of teachers in a variety of ways, but the Fellowships are one vehicle that really inspire us, as well as all who participate. Sometimes the Fellows find that their entire world view changes as result of their experience in the program.

While there are many stories that illustrate the power of the Teacher Fellowships, the most recent “raw data” came to us in November from a group of teachers from the Maple Avenue School in the South Ward of Newark, who visited Japan as part of their Fellowship. They created an “E” board that details their experience. Check it out. We think it is pretty darn cool.

As the Dodge Foundation shifts its focus this time of year to our Education grants, Education Program Director Ross Danis notes the work of an organization in Newark helping young people succeed, even under the most difficult of circumstances:

Dr. Vincent Mays runs the Youth Education and Employment Success Center (Ye²s Center), a remarkable partnership between the City of Newark, the Newark Public Schools, Rutgers University, and a spectrum of non-profit organizations. He is a “can-do” guy, who, with an extraordinary team, is helping to improve education and employment opportunities for the youth of Newark.

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Program Officer Wendy Liscow contemplates the importance of local foods and discovers how they can transform even the worst reputation: hospital food! This is the final installment of our Environment Stories series.

Inspiring a New Vision for Institutional Food

I recently joined a friend’s book club, and at our first meeting, we all pitched a few books that we thought the group would enjoy reading. There were plenty of books on my fiction list, but I decided to choose two books that had transformed my relationship with food: Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. These books both give new meaning to the old saying, “You are what you eat.”

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Although it had been 12 years since she visited the city of Paterson, Arts Program Director Laura Aden quickly found out this summer how green it has become, thanks to the tireless efforts of City Green. This is the fourth in our Environment Stories series. Please visit us tomorrow for the fifth and final story from Program Officer Wendy Liscow.

City Green: Growing Healthy Cities

Despite constantly traveling throughout our wonderful state, I have only been to Paterson once before - 12 years ago, as part of my Leadership New Jersey experience. I discovered that amazing things are happening in Paterson when I met Jennifer Papa, the indefatigable founder and Executive Director of City Green, and I saw firsthand how deeply committed she and the staff and volunteers of City Green are to creating livable, green communities in Paterson.

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At the Center for Whole Communities‘ Knoll Farm in Vermont this summer, Environment Program Director Michelle Knapik joined a group of New Jersey leaders interested in food-people-land connections to explore the fundamentals of building relationships in order to establish and develop a community food system “movement.” This is the third in our series of Environment Stories as told by our Program Staff.

Silos and Spoons

There were yurts, fire circles, and outdoor showers. There were the shimmering night skies of Vermont, the late August warmth of Knoll Farm, and the Center for Whole Communities faculty. Enter a stakeholder group from New Jersey comprised of farmers, soil scientists, state and federal government specialists, land preservation experts, organic and sustainable farming experts, a restaurant owner, land trust experts, urban gardening experts, and a Dodge Foundation representative. The Foundation’s purpose in convening this diverse group was to help participants explore the connections between agricultural preservation and a New Jersey (or regional) community food system that can address issues of food access, equity and security.

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