Saturday, October 25th, 2014 marks the groundbreaking of the first ever Quad City food forest. Thats an area where all plants and trees are edible with different types of nuts and berries. The goal is to provide healthy food options and to educate folks about our local eco-system. More than 100 community volunteers were out planting 80 trees in the Blackhawk Gardens Community food forest in Davenport. City leaders are hoping this will grow within our community and promote healthy eating for years to come. “This is probably the significant long lasting thing that the city fathers going to do. These trees some of them will last hundreds of years in addition theyll provide food in times of emergency,” said Bill Gluba, mayor of Davenport. Digging and digging, planting everything from pecans to chestnuts and much more. In five years, nuts and berries will be popping up providing free food for the public, but it doesnt stop there. Organizers hope that this forest will be first of many in the Quad Cities. “What we want is for people to collect seeds and take this home and grow this at their homes so we want it to spread everywhere and this is going to be the example in the community. Its an ancient practice around the world and its sustainability if were going do whats right for our planet we need to do it,” said Chris Rice, organizer. He says its going to help educate the public about fruits and trees native to our area, while teaching the next generation about their food system and where their food comes from. Volunteers like the Silva family agree. For them, this isnt the first time their family has helped build an edible food forest. “Its something we did in our community in Mexico as well so we are excited to see this here too and most importantly we are planting the trees with some food for the future,” said Guillermo Silva, volunteer. Planning ahead for the future while creating a place for the community to grow and build a food system for everyone to enjoy. “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago but the best time now to start is today so what we start here today will take a number of years before the fruit starts bearing so thats why we want to start it should have been done years ago,” said Mayor Gluba. ____________________________ Connect with The Quad City Food Forest on Facebook and learn how you can help at: facebook/QC.FoodForest Sign up for The Quad City Food Forest email newsletter: tinyurl/QCFoodForestNews ____________________________ Watch this video on youtube: youtube/watch?v=6qPrc1V6D5s See this story on the WHBF TV-4 Website: ourquadcities/story/d/story/groundbreaking-of-the-first-ever-quad-city-food-fo/12579/ySfD4DjY40OExXJC24K6Pw
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 12:00:01 +0000