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January |
KGI begins New Year with 12,000 people from over 100 countries in its network. |
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KGI’s Eat the View White House garden campaign featured in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. |
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Eat the View wins Grand Prize in the United Nation’s Foundation’s “On Day One” contest as the most popular proposal for the new president and first family, beating out over 4000 other entries. With the help of the UN Foundation, thousands of e-mails are sent to the White House in support of the idea. KGI and the UN Foundation also partner in their media outreach in support of the idea. |
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February |
White House garden petition posted on Facebook and other places attracts over 100,000 signatures. KGI establishes contact with senior staffers in the White House to advocate for the idea. |
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March |
KGI publishes results of “How Much is a Home Garden Worth?” article and statistics, attracting significant interest in the printed press and blogosphere. |
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First Lady Michelle Obama breaks ground on the First Garden. The garden and KGI’s role in it attract massive international press coverage in outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, BBC, and Boston Globe. |
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April |
Eat the View campaign recognized at “Heart of Green” awards in New York City. |
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June |
KGI begins new mini-campaign to rebrand July 4th as “Food Independence Day,” a national celebration of local foods and food self-reliance. |
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KGI begins partnership with ARZ, a nonprofit group in Goa, India working with victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The project is to help former prostitutes and sex slaves (and their families) grow some of their own food as part of their rehabilitation into healthy, new self-reliant livelihoods. |
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July |
Food Independence Day receives coverage in the Washington Post, Associated Press and many other media outlets and secures the participation of nine first families and thousands of other families who pledge to source some of their July 4th meal ingredients locally. First Lady Karen Baldacci of Maine issues a press release in support of the campaign. |
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Garlic! |
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August |
Kitchen Garden Day is celebrated by people and groups around the world. |
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KGI's partnership with the Organic Agriculture Centre of Kenya helps provide training to hundreds of gardeners and digs several new school gardens and home gardens at a time when Kenya is experiencing drought and worrisome levels of food insecurity. |
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September |
KGI's Roger Doiron tours the White House kitchen garden and hand- delivers KGI's White House garden petition signatures in the form of a “Thank You” book for the First Lady and Chef Sam Kass. He requests that 500-page, 4-column, 8 pt font tome be ceremonially tossed onto the White House compost pile. |
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October |
KGI enters its "Crush Hunger" cause into America’s Giving Challenge, an online fundraising contest, and finishes in 25th place out of over 7000 nonprofit causes. KGI's work recognized with a "Garden Crusader" award by Gardener's Supply Co. |
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United Nations and world leaders meeting at the World Summit on Food Security in Rome signal a shift in approach to fighting hunger, moving away from giving people food to “empowering people to feed themselves” (i.e. KGI’s mission statement!). |
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Eat the View campaign voted one of top “Green Game Changers” of 2009 by the readers and editors of the Huffington Post in the good company of the Environmental Working Group, 350.org, and the Story of Stuff. |
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December |
First Garden gets the First Hoophouse, allowing the White House to grow food year-round. (photo credit: obamafoodorama.com). |
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KGI ends year with 19,000 people in its network with a new website, logo and activities on the way. Watch for their unveiling in January! |
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