Food Day 2017

The Hub is celebrating our annual Food Day celebration, complete with an urban agriculture demo, a canning demo, kid-friendly activities and lots of pie!

Food Day is a national celebration of food, focusing on health and fairer food policies. The idea behind food day is simple: promoting healthier, affordable and ecofriendly food for all Americans. With our country's resources, there's no excuse for underfed or unhealthy populations. Food Day also highlights one of Mother Hubbard's central mantras: food is a basic human right that everyone should have easy access to.

You can take Food Day as an opportunity to change your perspective on food policies, start eating healthy, or begin educating yourself on food justice. Everyone is welcome to join our celebration, so feel free to bring your friends and family too!

We want to celebrate food in all its glory. That's why we're coming together as a community, discussing issues, and enjoying a delicious slice of pie at our Food Day!

Join the event on Facebook.

We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Hub Gardens at One Year

tomatoes thrive on our sunny patio
at the entrance to the food pantry

a row of cabbages in one of our garden beds
featuring soil built from sheet mulching

It's like a dream come true here at Mother Hubbard's Cupboard.  We've always wanted to share our community gardens with all of the folks using our food pantry services. Our three community gardens at Crestmont, Butler Park and Banneker Community Center have always been open and accessible to everyone, but sometimes seeing is believing. It can be challenging to convey the beauty and convenience of growing food right outside your door...unless...well, you have some food growing right outside your door!

from old washing machine basins to leaky wheel
barrows, many everyday objects can be
repurposed into planters

compost bins made from repurposed shipping pallets

Since moving into our new space last June, our on-site gardens have gone from zero to abundant in just twelve short months. Designed to showcase a number of methods of growing food in small spaces, the Hub garden site includes raised beds, window boxes, found-object container gardening, straw bale gardening, a food forest, herb spiral, perennial beds, lasagne/sheet mulched beds, and STRAWBERRIES! With an emphasis on keeping costs down and conserving resources, our gardens feature compost bins made from re-purposed wooden pallets, rain barrels, a low-tech irrigation system and plenty of mulch (straw, leaves, wood chips...).

a perennial bed lines the front of the building.
also in view: rain barrels and a new picnic table

permaculture inspired herb spiral built during a Hub workshop

Garden interns hand out seeds, plants and gardening tips from our patio, and lead folks into the garden to learn about growing food at home or to take home samples of freshly picked fruits and vegetables. Pantry patrons have picked strawberries, harvested spinach, peas, herbs and other greens, and youth groups have toured, tasted planted and harvested.

a view of the irrigation system and our new sign inviting
folks to join us in the garden

Window boxes constructed by eagle Scouts
line the ramp railing, and host edibles
such as this trailing squash vine

MHC's Garden Coordinator Kendra Brewer, remarked at a recent garden workday "The Hub garden is now where we hoped it would be in our first year. It's a real garden now."