Monday 7 October 2013

Fun with Public Health and Reupholstering

Hello again from The Minga!

The last week has been rather busy for a number of very positive reasons, one of course being the beginning of another DREAM season.

We managed to get all the beautiful chairs donated by Bohemian Friday's Dick and Lisa Passmore completely redone - we touched up the paint and gave them a fresh new upholstering. You'll have to wait and see what colors we chose though.

Other construction successes have included more electrical outlets being installed, the chalk boards and menu boards are being created and are almost done and we should have our countertops installed within the next day or so - so we'll be ready to serve any day!

In the meantime, we had our first site visit from our local Public Health Inspector last Tuesday. Although the place was a bit of a construction mess, he was able to help show us some key areas to focus on before our actual inspection. This visit was a great refresher as staff and volunteers had to take the Food Handler's Certification Course the following day.

Wednesday morning five Minga staff and volunteers attended the course, some have heard good news already but we expect all of those who completed the test to pass. If you are interested and would like help getting your food handlers certificate, please contact us. There's a class coming up in November!

Other than that, Minga staff met with Jennifer Vo of The Sachem in order to discuss The Minga's involvement with this year's River Arts Festival Culinary Night. We were very excited to share the news since the theme of the event will be local organic food! We can't wait to showcase how delicious healthy food can be, and if you want to join us tickets are on sale Oct. 15. Visit www.riverartsfestival.ca for more details.

Looking forward to this week, we are expecting the place the start falling together, and a lot of cleaning ahead. Once our countertops are installed we have a functional kitchen and can start stocking shelves, setting up equipment and getting ready to open our doors. Just one more health inspection to go!

Can't wait to see you all at The Minga!



Friday 27 September 2013

A Minga Progress Report - It's been a busy week!

 
This week at The Minga has been pretty exciting and there's a lot of new things taking place, so we thought we'd share some good news with you.
 
Monday started by welcoming our new Dunnville Secondary School Co-Op student, her name is Kathleen, and she's going to help out for the semester, pretty cool eh?
 
 
We started out day off with a tour of The Minga which is still being renovated and prepared to open but we saw all sorts of progress, including our beautiful green wall facing the Grand River and our newly installed patio railing.
 
 
Our kitchen equipment arrived on Monday, and is ready to be installed and they are working on the café lighting too!  
 
 
They even hooked up our water, our sinks flows, and our toilets run - HOORAY!
 
So we weren't in the way of the hard working gentlemen in the building we set up a temporary office at Flyers Café - the perfect spot to sit and think - unless you're hungry, than it's rather difficult to concentrate.
 
We began organizing and building a schedule in order to keep track of staff, volunteers, and events taking place in the community centre and meeting room. Kathleen and I were both very surprised as the schedule grew bigger and bigger - and got a lot more complicated than we expected. However, Kathleen reminded me just how much was really going to take place in The Minga - so a big schedule only makes sense. 
 
 
So, because there's going to be so much going on, we thought why not start spreading the word? So we spent an afternoon creating signage and posting them on the front windows and back door of the building in hopes that people will stop and read.
 
Part of our busy schedule includes DREAM meetings and events, and Wednesday night was the beginning of the DREAM journey for this year's Grade 9 students at Dunnville Secondary School. In order to prepare the space for their orientation meeting we had to clean our dirty but very beautiful hardwood floors, and set out seating for 60 people.
 

The meeting was a huge success with a room full of eager parents and their students ready to meet their mentors. While the meeting was taking place, we were bringing in some old but new goods! 


 
Our friends Dick and Lisa, who used to operate Bohemian Friday offered to donate all their tables, and chairs that used to be in the café. They are a little dusty, but with a little paint, some fancy new table tops being constructed by community volunteers, and some fresh new upholstery you won't even recognize them once we open our doors.
 
The rest of the week gave us the opportunity to do more management paperwork, like plan our Fall Menu for opening, create checklists to help guide staff and volunteers and begin some community outreach.
 
 
We are happy to announce that we will be the for the drop-off location for ALL artwork for the River Arts Festival Visual Art Gallery, Youth Art Showcase and Children's Art Showcase between Oct. 21-26 and will all youth and children's art being displayed in our building!
 
The opening day of the River Arts Festival will take place on Nov. 2, bring the whole family out Saturday afternoon for a FREE puppet and musical instrument workshop using recycled plastic containers brought from home, then take a tour of the Visual Art Gallery and Walking Tour in order to complete RAF's Art Scavenger Hunt and win a prize!
 
We will also play host to a Youth Open Mic Night on Nov. 7 with DSS student Jason Jacobs Emceeing the event! If you are interested in performing please email askus@riverartsfestival.ca
 
Plus, we're going to host  River Arts Festival's Culinary Night on Nov. 5, but tickets don't go on sale until Oct. 14 - but they'll sell out fast so buy yours at Haldimand Art Works, at The Minga or online!
 
 
Aside from the River Arts Festival, we are already starting to receive requests for rental of our meeting space for trainings and workshops by local businesses and organizations.
If you would be interested in renting space by donation, don't hesitate to ask!
 

Monday 6 May 2013

Before The Minga

Everything has a beginnning and an end. For some things, their beginnings have yet to come, and others their ends have long past. The Minga is in a state of incubation, we can see from outside the growth beginning to take place, but like a pregnancy the true magic happens where no one can see. Since purchasing the building in Aug. 2012, 146 Queen Street has been stripped down and is currently being rebuilt from the ground up inside taking the building's architectural past with The Minga into Dunnville's future. Here is a link to The Minga's Facebook page which features a album of before pictures. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.492749177458624.1073741829.488502064550002&type=1&l=4c91beeec6 We won't give away the new interior look - you'll just have to come give us a visit once we are open. I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the previous owner of the building had meant to host a water treatment business which never opened. However prior to that 146 Queen Street was the original home of Super Video Centre now located on Broad Street. I have so many memories as a preteen going into pick movies on rainy nights, or renting N64 consoles to play - even on New Years Eve 2001 - we rented Yoshi's World and played all night. Prior to that, I'm not quite sure what existed on the first floor, but I sure do have a lot of early memories of the second floor - it was the original home of Dominic's (sp?) Youth Impact Centre. I spent many evenings with my older cousin, my younger sister and my dad playing air hockey, ping pong, pool and the odd arcade game. Dad never could beat Dom in a game of ping pong. That's the extent of my historical knowledge of the building, but before the doors open, I am determined to find out the early history leading up to my fond childhood memories. I look forward to 146 Queen Street's new chapter and invite you all to be a part, because after all Minga means together.

Friday 26 April 2013

DREAM's Critical Mass Bike Ride 2013

Well, its something I've wanted to do for the last two years and I finally got enough footage to do it this year! So enjoy and pass it along! Hope to see you at our next Critical Mass Bike Ride

Thursday 25 April 2013

The Minga and a Bike Ride of Critical Mass

The Minga Storefront located at 146 Queen Street, Dunnville, Ontario.

The Minga is just a small part of a bigger vision.
The DREAM PROGRAM, since its humble beginnings in 2001 as a community-based organization of volunteers whose mission was to empower youth to reach their academic potential, discover their passions and as a result touch people’s lives in a positive way.
Since 2001, DREAM has seen the growth of youth focus groups concentrated on a variety of social and environmental issues, the Global Literacy Program which invites Grade 11 students to travel to Ek Belam, Mexico to attend field school, and the opening of The Shared Harvest Community Farm.
The DREAM Program hosts a variety of events including a a summer family music festival Turnip The Beets, a Raising Awareness Film and Speaker Series featuring thought provoking speakers, films and student presentations and my personal favourite: The Critical Mass Bike Ride.

The Critical Mass Bike Ride began in 2011 as a way to encourage environmentally friendly transportation and a healthy lifestyle. By relying non-motorized transportation to travel to school, work or for errands increases your level of activity but also your carbon foot print.

This year, on April 22, Earth Day,
more than 50 students from Dunnville Secondary School participated in the Critical Mass Bike Ride through Dunnville. Accompanied by community mentors, teachers, local professionals, friends and family. I was lucky enough to be joined by 4 of the 12 Grade 9 students I mentor and my younger sister who was in DREAM the year it began.

Kevin Hamilton, manager of Shared Harvest Farm speaks of his experience with Critical Mass Bike Rides around the world.



We be departed from Dunnville Secondary School at roughly 4p.m. I was perched carefully on the back of a homemade bike truck consisting of two bikes welded together with a third axel attached to the back of the bikes which supported a flat bed. We were to take up our fair share of the lane as cyclists, and encourage others we pass to join along.
As we began down Lock Street towards the downtown core, I got excited watching the students on bikes fly past and move forward, followed by kids on skateboards and long boards. This wasn't just a day for bikes! We even managed to get some BMX riders, and elementary kids on scooters to join us along the way.

We winded through the side streets in order to reach a destination, something that had never happened in our other Critical Mass Bike Rides. We rolled through to the end of Forest Street to the Silverthorne Refractories building, the home of the old Bick's Support Centre after the factory closed. They had donated their office equipment to be used in The Minga. The group of us escorted the moving van back to the loading dock where we proved many hands make light work. The stacks of chairs were loaded in no time. With one mission complete, we hit the streets again, this time heading for The Minga.

When we reached The Minga, the group took no time jumping off their foot powered vehicles and jumped to work unloaded the moving van and carrying the chairs to the second floor! Again, many hands make light work - I guess its a symptom of a Minga!
For some, it was the first sneak peak at the renovations taking place inside since the fall. There is still a lot of work to be done.
There was a little social break before returning back to the forward foot motion. My sister and two of the students I mentor took the opportunity to lounge on the back of the bicycle truck. *duck face*
 
 
We took to the streets yet again, this time with our sights set on one last lap through down town, and a meandering route back to DSS. As we rolled through the three way stop in downtown Dunnville, our leader kevin chanted
"When I say Happy, you say Earth Day. HAPPY!!!..."
"EARTH DAY!" We chanted.
We aroused the excitement of an elderly woman.
"HAPPY," she quietedly chanted as we rolled by. Unfortunately by the time we caught on to the fact that we were supposed to chant "Earth Day" back un unison, it was already too late. Sorry little lady, maybe next time!
 
 
 
 The students and community members reached DSS with a growing excitement for sharing their passion for a healthy lifestyle and environmentally friendly travel. The group decided that they would be hosting a Critical Mass Bike Ride the last Friday of Every Month this summer.
Please Join Us: May 31, June 28, July 26, Aug. 30, and Sept 27 for our monthly Critical Mass Bike Rides.
We meet at 3:30 at Dunnville Secondary School. All welcome, and if you don't have wheels bring some good walking shoes!

Saturday 20 April 2013

A New Beginning in a Familiar Place

Lacie Williamson - Manger, The Minga


Hi, My name is Lacie Williamson, I was born and raised in Dunnville, graduated from Dunnville Secondary School and now I am the manager of The Minga. Boy do I have a lot of work to do....

I thought the best way to introduce everyone to The Minga would be to take a linguistic angle.
Unfortunately for our culture, we do not have a word in the English language that translates to Minga. So, I will have to use a combination of words which nicely sum up the purpose of The Minga in Dunnville.


Minga is derived from Andean cultures, it is a verb meaning the "coming together for the common good."

Plants and animals Minga in order to sustain themselves, their families and future generations.

Take humpback whales for example. These intelligent underwater mammals will work together in groups of up to twenty using a technique called "bubble netting."
The whales push all their water out in order to sink deep and top up on their air supply. They dive below a school of fish and begin rising upwards while another whale below lets out a large feeding cry to help drive the fish to the surface of the water. While this song and dance show takes place two other whales swim in a spiral motion blowing air bubbles around the rising school of fish trapping them in the middle. As the fish break the ocean surface the whales take turns swimming through the bubbly area scooping up mass quantities of fish.

Just like animals, plants work together in nature on a regular basis, but our vegetable gardens offer a close to home example of a Minga in our own backyard and the benefits of working together.
By planting corn, sunflowers, soybeans, tomatoes and pumpkins together in the same garden, they will naturally work together and leave you with a little less work.
The corn stalks and sunflowers grow very tall, offering a perfect place to lean for growing tomatoe vines and an easy climb for soybeans removing the need for stakes while the pumpkin vines create great ground cover preventing weeds from soaking up the sun and nutrients in the soil.

People around the world, too, survive and thrive when they live, work and play together as a community.

The Minga, located on Queen Street will be a place to gather, to share ideas, to break bread, and most importantly, to grow our community from within.

The Minga will feature a cafe offering hot and cold beverages, a healthy menu of locally sourced and seasonal soups, salads, sandwiches appetizers and desserts with a warm welcoming atmosphere for all ages to enjoy.

Beyond the cafe, there will be a community centre space where we invite all ages and abilities to come and enjoy togetherness.

Over the coming months we will arrange workshops, classes and events in order to meet the needs of those in our community including an after-school study program open to students of all ages.

Minga means to come together, and we invite you to be part of The Minga, to share in our own story of the greater good for our community's greater good.