GageGretterHawkenProjects2023

  I was inspired to do a senior project that had something to do with the environment after taking the Marine Science intensive last semester. We were able to travel to the Bahamas and learn about the ocean, and how the environment impacts the residents of Eleuthera. Locals benefit from ecotourism which attracts people from all over the world to snorkel and scuba dive to experience the beautiful reefs. They also catch conch and fish as a way to get food and then also to sell it as a way to make money. The coolest part about the intensive was talking to and interviewing the locals and getting a better understanding of how they were affected by the environment. When we first met with Veronica in January or February to talk about what we had planned for the spring, I knew I was going to love the project because we toured several locations where we were going to work, and we met so many interesting people who had their unique stories of how and why they are involved with homesteading...

  What are ways in which Hawken School can give back to your organization? Do you have ideas for collaboration between Hawken and your organization in the future? There are several ways that I think Hawken could help out with Food Depot 2 Health. I think the first thing would be service days. I am pretty sure Hawken has already partnered with them in the past, so if that is the case, we should definitely continue to visit them for service days. Especially service days in the spring because there is so much work that needs to be done in preparation for the summer and the warmer months. I also think it would be an amazing intensive option for underclassmen. First, Glenville Gateway 105 is very close to the Gries Center and the University Circle Campus, so it would be relatively easy to get there and most of the other locations are in the general vicinity. The intensive would be perfect for anyone who is interested in sustainability, urban gardening, the food industry, environmental...

  We started prepping the soil at the garden to actually begin planting many of the flowers, vegetables, and other plants that we transplanted at Glenville Gateway 105 earlier in the project. Veronica and Mike have a plot of land in the green space behind Michael R. White Elementary School where we were building the hoop house where we are going to plant. We started by clearing off their plot of land because dead grass, weeds, and sticks were covering up the soil because they haven’t tended to the garden since last fall. When we were clearing the weeds with hoes and shovels, we had to make sure we avoided the garlic plants that Veronica planted last fall. It was so cool to see how big the garlic got over the winter. We also learned that Veronica classifies weeds as anything you can’t eat. She told us that different growers have different definitions of what weeds are which I found interesting. We then used a tilling machine which dug up the ground and loosened all of the soil whi...

  An interesting project that we have been working on is the hoop house (basically a greenhouse) we are building at a greenspace in the back of Michael R. White elementary school. It is about 5 minutes away from Glenville Gateway 105, so we have been spending our afternoons working there with Michael, and 3 other guys who are working with Food Depot 2 Health named Nigel, Shamar, and Malik. We started by assembling arches that will hold up the tarp in the hoop house. We needed to make 18 of them, which kind of took a long time because they are around 20 feet wide, and we needed to attach a bunch of cross beams using drills and wrenches. Each one took about 15 minutes to make so the time really added up after 18 of them. We then started putting the arches into pipes that were put into the ground on either side of the hoop house. This was not easy because we needed to hoist the arch which is pretty heavy and shaky into the air to get them into the pipes which are about 4 feet high. ...

  We have met some incredible people over the past week working with Food Depot 2 Health and the Waltons. The greenhouse we work at, Glenville Gateway 105, is located at the corner of Superior and 105th and typically has the sliding doors open to the public on the street, so all kinds of people knock on our door or walk into the garden. Some of the amazing people we have been able to meet are Renee Wren, Hot Sauce Pete, and Nigel, Shamar, and Malik. Renee Wren was a woman who sold some of her plants during the plant sale we hosted last Friday. She spent basically two days with us while she set up her display (it was not supposed to take that long, but she loved to talk so she was not the most efficient). Ms. Wren was one of the most interesting people I have ever met. She is about 60 years old and lives in Glenville. She served in the military early on in her life and now has devoted her life to the arts. Ms. Wren considers herself to be a master of all art forms. She performed her...

  We spent the first five days working at Gateway 105 Greenhouse in Glenville. It is on the corner of Superior and East 105th street. This is an area that can lack fresh produce and green space, so Mike and Veronica Walton thought it was a perfect place to start a farmer’s market/greenhouse to grow fresh plants and then transform into a space that other plant vendors could come and sell their produce. It is not an easy task to sustain a garden, let alone an entire greenhouse, so Matthew and I spent much of our time helping with whatever task they needed us to. We transplanted hundreds of seedlings (which they call plugs because they are in trays with around 60 to 80 tiny plants that you can plug into soil). We safely removed the plugs from their trays and then, transplanted them into larger trays filled with a soil mixture that helps them grow into larger plants which can be sold or planted at one of their gardens. The plant species we worked with were Dusty Millers, Beefsteak To...

Over the past few days, we have been working with Mike and Veronica Walton. They run a non profit organization called Food Depot 2 Health which grows plants and food in urban areas in Cleveland. They are an older couple who run the non profit as well as help run a for profit company called Wake Robin which sells fermented foods such as pickles, kim chi, and escabeche. They are extremely busy people who are constantly running around going from garden to garden and then to their company every single day. After experiencing just a few days in their lives, I give them so much credit because they handle this seemingly stressful lifestyle so well. You would assume that they would be frantic and on edge most of the time because of how much they have to coordinate, organize, and execute; however, they are the most happy, optimistic, easy going people. They are inspiring to me because I feel like I have been negative lately in many aspects of my life. I think I can have a short temper, or I get...

 I wanted to do a Hawken Project that was outside and focused on something environmental. I have always been interested in environmental science and sustainability because I am a certified scuba diver. I got certified in fifth grade, so I have seen beautiful ecosystems underwater and also reefs that have been destroyed because of climate change. These experiences have made me more aware of how my actions impact the environment and then, in turn, other people around me. Then, I took the Marine Science intensive last semester which furthered my passion for the environment. I knew I wanted to do something revolving around the topic, so I am very much looking forward to learning more about sustainable agriculture. More specifically, I am looking forward to learning about how it impacts the surrounding communities. I think our guiding question should be "how does sustainable agriculture positively impact the Cleveland community?".