We are working on a new community garden in an Apartment complex,
Walnut Grove, 1118 Nord Ave, Chico.

We will be turning a blacktop into raised beds. This Saturday we will
be cutting up the blacktop and laying the beginning stages of the
irrigation. If you would like to see and help out with this
transformation, come join us 1-4pm.

Call me, 354-1646, if you have any questions.

Stephanie

Where- Walnut Grove, 1118 Nord Ave, Chico
When- Saturday, March 20, 1-4pm
What- making a garden

Carol Albrecht, owner of the farm and a 3rd generation Chaffin farming our land, is starting the Chico-Butte Valley Chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation. This new local chapter will be sponsoring monthly cooking classes.

cChaos launches online outreach site!

We have several new health outreach projects. This week we are launching the first small project. We need a heavy duty shade structure which costs about $300.00.

We are fund raising for the project by offering donation "shares" for $2.70 each. Folks can contribute as many "shares" as they chose and either pay online with a credit card or paypal account - or order and send a check. We hope to raise the money in the next week or two. This little project gives us the opportunity to test out and get feedback on our new e-commerce site.

Please give us your feedback. Check it out at http://www.cchaos.org/czenofchaos

Both of our farmers markets are growing gradually. We have expanded our selection. Still - few people are making use of our EBT nutrition program. Please let it be known that we accept EBT cards and we invite and welcome families of low income to take part in our programs.

Butte County is missing out in over 50 million dollars in economic activity this year due to less than full enrollment in Child Nutrition Program. Dr. Cindy Wolff's presented this information at the Organic and Sustainable Agricultural Conference in November.

24,427 Butte County residents are eligible, but not participating in the Food Stamp Program.

24,427 x $104, the average amount per recipient.

Result? $2,540,408/month in federal funds is lost due to under participation.

But that is not all. For every Food Stamp $1.00, an additional $1.84 is generated in other spending. Equals $4,674,350 a month of lost economic activity.

That is $56,092,200.00 per year.

And it is just the outer skin of the onion. Better fed kids achieve better academically, are healthier, and are less likely to become delinquent - all conditions that reduce the burden of public service programs and those conditions that reflect poorly on our county.

It is my feeling that no other economic program could so dramatically improve the local economy than a program in charge of seeing that every eligible family has access to this child nutrition program.

Furthermore, money spent locally at farmers markets more than doubles the money recycled in the community over those food dollars spend in large grocery outlets - potentially adding another $2,500,000.00 a month to the local economy. Not to mention that the Leopold Center study comparing local to non-local food prices found a savings of over 10% to those purchasing produce at Farmers Markets over Supermarket prices for the same items. (Click on the graph above to be taken to the press release.) Extrapolating

Two male student nurses took around 10 blood pressures and were able to give some tips about how to lower blood pressure at the Fire House Certified Farmers Market in October. They were also able to buy some cheap fresh veggies. This is a cell phone picture of Daniel Ekdahl, taken by fellow student Mike Herman, taking a blood pressure reading in front of the El Medio Fire Station that Thursday.

Markets run year-round on Thursdays - 11 AM to 3 PM - Myers & D Street - Oroville.

We hope to have other health students providing this much appreciated service in Oroville in the near future.