Seeds for your "Garden of Eden" from Lions Clubs around the World

For several years I have been "in charge" of buying the candy for our Lions Santa Party at the local skating rink.

Since I am cheap, I WAITED until the day AFTER Halloween and then I would buy a huge amount of the Halloween candy put on sale (usually fire sale prices) by the grocery stores in the area. I would store the candy for a few months then our Lions club would get a group together and bag the candy for the Lions Santa Party. One of our members would dress up as Santa and hand out the bags of candy to the kids at the rink on Santa Party day.

I got thinking the other day of the people I read about EATING DIRT in Haiti to stay alive and curb their hunger. I finally made the connection between the "candy project" and the Haiti problem and how I could use one to help the other.

Every spring the stores around town arm themselves with "gardening seed displays" galore. These displays have seeds for anything and everything a gardener could imagine wanting to grow; vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, flowers, shrubs, trees etc.

At the end of planting season there are huge amounts of these seeds NOT SOLD. They go on sale but much of the seed is never sold. So the Lions Club buys ALL the left over seeds at fire sale prices in bulk quantity from ALL the stores in the area.

Our Lions Club orders a shipping container. We pack it with ALL the seeds we collected and all the other items we assembled that would be useful and well received by the destination country. We then ship the container to a Lions Club in the destination country. Those Lions then use their best judgment in distributing the contents of the shipping container. Haiti was the 1st destination chosen by our Lions Club and here is why.

Haiti's poorest reduced to EATING DIRT
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23126063-1702,00.html

EXTREME poverty is forcing Haiti's poorest people to eat dirt.

Mud cookies - made from dirt, salt and vegetable shortening - have become popular among Haitians desperate to stave off hunger, the Associated Press reports.

The cookies - which are occasionally used by pregnant women and children as an antacid and source of calcium - have become a regular meal.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and one of the most disadvantaged in the world.

Seventy-six per cent of the population lives on less than $2.25 a day, and 55 per cent live on less than $1.13 a day.

Chronic malnutrition is widespread and diarrhea - an easily-preventable disease - kills one in five children under the age of five.

Haitian doctors have warned that relying on the mud cookies will lead to malnutrition.

“Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I will discourage it,” said Gabriel Thimothee, executive director of Haiti’s health ministry.

The mud cookies sell for around five cents each, compared to 60 cents for two cups of rice.

(A more in depth article)
Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/01/29/1264228-poor-haitians-resort-to-eating-dirt

Hopefully the gardening seeds will produce enough food for everyone in the receiving destination that no one will ever go hungry again.

We must all learn to work in our own little "Gardens of Eden".

"Shipping Container" Destination:

Club Details -- PORT AU PRINCE CENTRAL -- HAITI
Club Number: 0000041122
District: rica, Central America, Caribbe
President: ANTONINE ROSEME
Meeting Place: INSTITUT HAITIANO-AMERICAIN
Meeting Address: ANGLE RUES ST CYR ET CAPOIS, CHAMPS DE MARS
Meeting Time: TUE, 1-5, 630PM
Telephone Number:
Email Address: afroseme@yahoo.fr

Or

Club Details -- GONAIVES -- HAITI
Club Number: 0000061171
District: rica, Central America, Caribbe
President: MARC-HENRY MOISE
Meeting Place: FAMILY HOTEL 2
Meeting Address: ROUTE NATIONALE # 1
Meeting Time: MA,1,2,3,4,
Telephone Number:
Email Address: marc-henrymoise@hotmail.com