Agency Details:

Iskash*taa is a Refugee harvesting and garden to market network. Iskash*taa is a group of refugees trying to make improvements in their new lives through working with Tucson volunteers. We hope to improve English both spoken and written through increased interaction with the larger Tucson Community. Iskash*taa arranges field trips to Tucson's farmer's markets, the Tucson Community Food Bank (CFB), and local farms and community gardens. We are developing a local food harvesting network which provides excess fruits and vegetables to refugees while relieving neighbors of food that would otherwise go to waste. We work with interested groups, and neighborhood and home owners associations. See http://tug.bara.arizona.edu for more information. Workshops are organized to benefit refugees and volunteers alike. Example topics include: composting, food safety and handling, food processing, fruit tree identification, recycled arts and crafts more.

Description:
The Iskash*taa project uses a hands-on approach to teach an intergenerational group of African and other refugees about the local food system while enabling them to share their own unique expertise with the community. Iskash*taa offers harvesting assistance to seniors and all of our neighbors through collaboration with local youth, university students, volunteers and refugees of all ages. We are working to record all data in the computer to further our harvesting efforts through a GIS. All refugee participants will greatly benefit from interactions with community members and practice with English while gaining essential and diversified job and life skills.

Contact people:

Tara Pullano, Volunteer Coordinator, (520) 722-9285, (email) Barbara Eiswerth, Executive Director, (520) 440-0100, (email)

Languages Spoken: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish

Address:

1406 E. Grant Road, Bldg. 2 Tucson, AZ 85719 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.iskashitaa.org

Last updated on July 11, 2009