Arkansas GardenCorps is a program of the Arkansas Children's Hospital Childhood Obesity Prevention, its mission is to promote the use of school and community gardens to increase environmental awareness and sustainable agriculture practices in Arkansas communities. GardenCorps members serve in school and community gardens across the state to develop and maintain gardens, conduct garden-based education, and build volunteer and community support for sustainability of gardens.

In 2014, the Faulkner County Urban Farm Project became an AR GardenCorps service site, and has been hosting Crystal Bowne since September. Since Crystal starting serving the garden has seen dramatic improvements in its ability to reach into the community. The garden, which used to be ran by volunteers a couple hours a week, is now staffed for three hours, five days a week. A more consistent schedule has also allowed Crystal to coordinate more activities with the library’s adult and children’s program directors, such as a children's scarecrow making activity, a seed swap, a green reader book club and a children's garden club. 

Thanks to Crystal, we have been able to extend our growing season into the winter and donate more food to the St. Peter's Food Pantry (225 pounds to date!). She has also started collaborating with the Women’s Shelter of Central Arkansas, the Faulkner County Day School and the Bethlehem House to start and maintain their own gardens.

For all of these reasons and more we are looking forward to hosting another Service Member in 2015-2016 and we need your help to make that happen. The Arkansas GardenCorps program requires a $5,500 match to host a full-time service member and we have till April 6th to make our goal. Click here to help us raise funds on April 2nd through the Arkansas Gives website.

For more info on Arkansas Gardencorps click here

Click here on April 2nd to support The Locals. Sandra and Beth want to feature your story about why you love The Locals for Arkansas Day of Giving. As part of this community, you have the potential to make a difference. Your participation is essential to achieve our goal! 

Send us your story: [email protected] or [email protected]

Watch Beth tell us a bit about her adventures attending Local Orbit's Food Hub Camp in San Diego, and Sandra talk about the slow food revolution!

Conway Alliance for the Arts, the organization that brings your ArtsFest, has put together a survey to help them learn about the state of the arts in Conway.

Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey. When it asks about arts organizations don't forget to include The Locals in the "other" section.  

Check out this great blog post by Michael Roberts from Arkansas Food & Farm. 

http://arkansasfoodandfarm.com/conway-announces-bold-new-food-hub-for-2015/

Every time you interact with The Locals through social media, or our website, you can earn pitch-in-points! This month we will be giving away Locals t-shirts to the 5 people who earn the most pitch-in-points (Shawn, Sandra, and Beth don't count). In order to play all you have to do is create an account on our website using your Facebook or Twitter, and get to social media-ing. So like, share, comment and tweet to start playing!  Contest ends March 20, 2015 [Employees of The Locals, and their relatives, are eligible to play The Locals Dry T-Shirt Contest.]

Follow Sandra and Beth in their quest to gather information for The Locals Food Hub. Having fun along the way, they are working on their raspberry pi bake-off project recipe. 

The Locals are nomadic, showing up at events near you. Ask us to come to your event and find out where we will be next.

Here is a little something Sandra put together with pictures on her phone. The song "We Will All Be Changed" is by one of her favorite bands, Seryn from Denton, Texas. The lyrics and the images say it all. Thank you for making 2014 such a full year at The Locals. 

Find out how Beth and Sandra are going to get your attention now.