Dear Kitchen Gardener,

Welcome to all of our new readers who signed our White House garden petition or joined our social network. Thank you and welcome!

American voters spoke earlier this month and so did KGI's global gardening electorate.  The results of our mini poll were even more of an Obama landslide than the "real" elections.

We asked: Which of the two major candidates do you feel would be more likely to replant a Victory Garden on the White House Lawn? 

You answered: Obama 1333 votes (87%) McCain 202 votes (13%).

So Americans now know who their next "Commander-in-Chief" will be, but it's unclear whether President-Elect Obama has understood that he's also the nation's "Eater-in-Chief."  I am going to ask you to join me in reinforcing this message by delivering it directly to the Obama-Biden transition office. Here's how you can do this:

1) Go to this comment form: http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision

2) Write your own grow your own message or use this one:

I'm asking President-elect Obama to replant a large organic food garden or Victory Garden on the White House lawn with part of produce going to the White House kitchen and the rest to local food pantries. The White House is "America's House" and should set a healthy example at a time of crisis. President-elect Obama would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had fruit and vegetable gardens before) and showing how we can meet global challenges such as food security, climate change, and energy independence.

3) Attach a photo, if you like.  To do that, you can go here, rightclick on the photo you like, save it to your computer, and then upload the photo with your comment form.

You might be tempted to say "I'm only one person with one voice..." but your one voice, when joined by thousands of others, is a powerful tool for social change. 

For those of you who are new to KGI, the Eat the View! campaign is a focus of ours at the moment given the great opportunity a change of leadership offers, but it is not the only thing we do.  We also organize International Kitchen Garden Day each August, coordinate a growing and thriving online social network of garden learners and teachers, and are building a new partnership and grants program that is helping gardeners around the world. 

First and foremost, though, KGI is a community of people who love good food, so much so that we take what some people might call the "long, hard road" to it by growing and cooking it ourselves when easier options are available.  If we do this, it's because we see food not as a shrink-wrapped, bar-coded product but as a natural process.  We enjoy being part of the cycles of nature and accepting what each season has to offer (which in my case in chilly Maine at the moment is a mess of kale, cabbage and root vegetables). 

We believe that good food, grown and prepared at home is worth celebrating.  It strikes me now as I write this that we have another cause for celebration. This month marks KGI's 5th anniversary as registered nonprofit network.  I want to thank all who have helped make KGI into the welcoming, healthy, and growing community it is (10,000 people...woohoo!). If you want to share any birthday wishes and wishes for the future, you can do so here.

I'm looking forward to what the next five years will bring...a home, school, and community garden revolution...a garden on the White House lawn...real progress towards the UN's Millennium Goal of halving world hunger by 2015.   We can dream and must.  But, more importantly, we must start digging!

With gratitude,

Roger Doiron

Being a nonprofit means that we rely on people like you to keep us going and growing.  You can help by making a small donation through our White House Lawn sale page at EatTheView.org. There is also a possibility to do this as gift in someone else's name by making the donation and then filling out a do-it-yourself "certificate of ownership" which can offered as a thoughtful and eco-friendly holiday gift.  You can also make a tax-deductible donation to KGI with no connection to the Eat the View! campaign, or the White House lawn. This donation can be made online by credit card or by mailing in a check.  Thanks.