Bucharest, January 2023
We continue the project “The Orchard School – we work with Nature! It is an educational and practical initiative, dedicated to HEALTHY AND ACCESSIBLE FOOD, WHICH DEVELOPS SOCIAL LINKS, implemented by Livada Comunitara Mărțișor in partnership with Amurtel Romania and Auchan RETAIL Romania. The project runs from May 2022 to October 2023 and involves 100 beneficiaries from Bucharest and Buzau – children, parents, teachers, students, volunteers – and is financed by the Auchan Foundation France.
The project makes a bridge between 2 communities: urban Bucharest (especially the Livada Comunitara Marțișor community in sector 4) and rural Buzău (especially the community on the Buzău River valley, Poieni – Pănătău). The project combines practical, educational and personal transformation activities for harmonious individual living in sustainable and resilient communities.
Grădina Bio Poieni from Buzău
Also, throughout the duration of the project, we support logistically the regeneration of the orchard located in the Tudor Arghezi Memorial House – Mărțișor museum space in Bucharest and the vegetable farm Grădina Bio Amurtel Poieni Buzău which feeds 50 beneficiaries from the AMURTEL Family social home and vulnerable children from The Spring of Hope Pănătău.
Tudor Arghezi Memorial House Bucharest – Mărțișor Community Orchard:
This new holistic approach is necessary in the context of the challenges we are facing at all levels: personal, ecological, educational, social, economic. Through the project, we offer a pleasant learning environment, through experiences close to nature, found in the philosophy of permaculture. We start from ourselves as part of nature, connect with the community of proximity and actively solve society’s problems with available resources: we reduce waste and carbon footprint, know and honor biodiversity, weave healthy social bonds and make the transition from passive consumers to proactive citizens who create abundance, find flexible solutions and are open to lifelong learning for a better life and world.
We believe that adults, responsible for raising the little ones (parents, grandparents, teachers, caregivers), represent a critical mass to start this transformational journey, in which they will rediscover the value of interpersonal relationships in the local community, the cause-effect relationship to solve a certain situation, the beauty of applied natural sciences, with the ultimate goal of planting the seed of healing society through resilience and inclusion.
Objectives of the educational activities and sessions in the project:
– we practice healthy and conscious habits on a personal and collective level, through a holistic approach with respect for body-mind-spirit-nature
– we share experiences that will help you change your lifestyle and that will contribute to building conscious and sustainable communities
– we teach you to better know your needs as part of nature, to relate to other members and to protect nature, working together and with pleasure with nature to create abundance and produce food, in harmony with all beings.
The project will follow the principles of permaculture: caring for people, for the earth’s resources and for other beings, through the equitable sharing of resources.
Educational and practical sessions are held monthly by passionate experts:
1. Healthy plant-based food, locally sourced, without waste: we adopt a nutritious diet based on imperfect plants, fruits, vegetables, etc., as natural as possible, ingenious recipes, with low impact on the environment, as little waste as possible, without packaging, local, seasonal and served as raw as possible.
2. Balanced spirit and healthy mind: through meditation, yoga and quality sleep.
3. We protect natural resources: we become responsible consumers aiming to reach zero waste: refuse-reduce-reuse-recycle-compost; we preserve food, we buy and prepare with measure, keeping as many vitamins, minerals, nutrients.
4. Quality time through art and culture: we spend our quality time in proximity areas (small carbon footprint) through artistic and cultural activities.
5. We get involved in the community: we take the step towards becoming leaders for a healthy society, through eco-entrepreneurship projects
6. Healthy body: we gain a state of well-being for our health and the health of the earth by moving in nature, dancing and sports
7. We grow food in a system of permaculture and regenerative agriculture: we learn from nature and work with it, to produce healthy vegetable food together, through a permacultural approach, with respect for every being, maximizing production with the minimum of resources and zero- waste
In fact, throughout the project we benefit from the guidance of the Lorelicious team, to cook plant-based fast and healthy together, to learn how to feed ourselves consciously, in peace, and which vitamins, nutrients and minerals we can assimilate through local, seasonal and imperfect fruits and vegetables, as little processed, packaged and environmentallly and ethically impactful as possible.
What we’ve achieved so far in 2022:
– the continuation of composting at the Mărțișor Community Orchard, producing the 2nd ton of organic compost for soil regeneration and the reduction of biowaste that reaches municipal landfills with a negative impact
– 4 educational sessions out of 7 in Bucharest
– Orchard regeneration activities from Bucharest – cleaning, composting and organic treatments of fruit trees
– Tree and organic vegetables garden regeneration activities in Buzău and fruit trees planting with the AMURTEL community’s children and students from the Faculty of Horticulture Bucharest.
Coming in 2023:
– 3 out of 7 educational sessions in Bucharest
– launch of the competition for community composting
– participation in educational sessions in Buzău – 2 schools on the Buzău River Valley
– participation in the educational camp in an area as natural as possible in Buzău county
Throughout the project we work with volunteers from the local community and students from the Faculty of Horticulture Bucharest, in events with practical activities in the orchard from Mărțișor – Bucharest and the vegetable garden from Poieni – Buzău.
We thank all the citizens and organizations that support the project: Livada Comunitară Mărțișor, the National Museum of Romanian Literature, the Bucharest Community Foundation, the Bucharest Horticulture Faculty, Auchan Retail Romania, Youth Community Action.
Details of project partners “The Orchard School – we work with Nature!”:
https://www.facebook.com/LivadaComunitaraMartisor
https://www.facebook.com/groups/703363830929843
https://legume-eco.ro/ro/cos-de-legume-bio/,
https://mnlr.ro/case-memoriale/casa-memoriala-tudor-arghezi-martisor/
http://www.horticultura-bucuresti.ro/
https://romania.auchan.ro/ro/continut/concurs-de-proiecte-sprijinit-de-fundatia-auchan-franta
