This spring, we’ll be building raised beds for individual plots to grow vegetables.

Join one of our workdays and claim your own plot! Find updates in the Transition Staunton Augusta Facebook group.

Thanks to the many people who’ve made our garden possible so far, including the property owner and the City of Staunton, as well as nearby neighbors.

We are now also soliciting sponsors to donate soil, lumber for raised beds and other gardening materials. Contact us if you’re interested.

"The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" shows that you can have a modern society with much less oil.

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Tuesday, February 21 at 7 pm
Mockingbird Restaurant, 123 W. Beverley Street, downtown Staunton

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time.

Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call “The Special Period.”

The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.

With energy prices sure to rise in the future in the US, this inspirational film may give us some ideas how to live better with less energy in the Shenandoah Valley and throughout Virginia. We hope you can join us on Tuesday, February 21 at 7 pm at the Mockingbird in Staunton. Come early for dinner!

Visit the film’s website »

Showing Tues, Jan. 17 at 7pm at the Mockingbird in downtown Staunton. Doors open at 5:30 for dinner.

Food Stamped is an informative and humorous documentary film following a couple as they attempt to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet on a food stamp budget. Through their adventures they consult with members of U.S. Congress, food justice organizations, nutrition experts, and people living on food stamps to take a deep look at America’s broken food system. (62 minutes)

“I love this film! It is eye-opening and sobering, yet delivers its message with a warm heart and terrific spirit. One comes away inspired by our potential for inventiveness, and motivated to activism, rather than feeling defeated.”

– Mollie Katzen, Best-Selling Cookbook Author

“Food Stamped should be seen by anyone and everyone.  A surprisingly delightful film given the toughness of the subject.”

– Deborah Madison, Best-Selling Author

Visit the Food Stamped website »

Co-sponsored by the Spencer Center for Civic and Global Engagement at Mary Baldwin College.

Tuesday, December 20 at 7pm (doors open at 5:30 for dinner)

Carbon nation is a documentary movie about climate change SOLUTIONS. Even if you doubt the severity of the impact of climate change or just don’t buy it at all, this is still a compelling and relevant film that illustrates how SOLUTIONS to climate change also address other social, economic and national security issues. You’ll meet a host of entertaining and endearing characters along the way.

•  carbon nation is an optimistic, solutions-based, non-preachy, non-partisan, big tent film that shows tackling climate change boosts the economy, increases national & energy security and promotes health & a clean environment.
• Public opinion is sliding the wrong way – far fewer people are concerned about climate change than even a year ago. We’ve made carbon nation to give a majority of people an entertaining, informed and pragmatic primer about why it’s incredibly smart to be a part of the new, low-carbon economy: it’s good business.
• carbon nation’s optimism and pragmatism are appealing across the political spectrum. While other good films have been about problems, blame and guilt, carbon nation is a film that celebrates solutions, inspiration and action.

YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip): 50 States. 1 Year. Zero Garbage?

Called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road – traveling with hope, humor, and all of their garbage – to explore every state in America (the good, the bad…and the weird) in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens who are tackling humanity’s greatest environmental crises. As the YERT team layers outlandish eco-challenges onto their year-long quest, an unexpected turn of events pushes them to the brink in this award-winning docu-comedy. Featuring Bill McKibben, Wes Jackson, Will Allen, Janine Benyus, Joel Salatin, David Orr, and others. View the trailer.

The YERT Feature Film received the Audience Award at the Environmental Film Festival at Yale, tied with Oscar-nominated Waste Land!

Tuesday, October 18, 7pm, the Mockingbird, downtown Staunton, VA

Tuesday, October 18, 7pm at the Mockingbird in downtown Staunton.

In the valleys of Appalachia, a battle is being fought over a mountain. It is a battle with severe consequences that affect every American, regardless of their social status, economic background or where they live. It is a battle that has taken many lives and continues to do so the longer it is waged. It is a battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal.

The mining and burning of coal is at the epicenter of America’s struggle to balance its energy needs with environmental concerns. Nowhere is that concern greater than in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, where a small but passionate group of ordinary citizens are trying to stop Big Coal corporations, like Massey Energy, from continuing the devastating practice of Mountain Top Removal.

A passionate and personal tale that honors the extraordinary power of ordinary Americans when they fight for what they believe in, The Last Mountain shines a light on America’s energy needs and how those needs are being supplied. It is a fight for our future that affects us all.

Written, directed and produced by Bill Haney, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and founder and president of the eco-housing start-up, Blu Homes, The Last Mountain was co-written and edited by Peter Rhodes and produced by Clara Bingham and Eric Grunebaum. Narrated by William Sadler, the film features original music by composer Claudio Ragazzi and includes the song “Your Control” by Crooked Fingers and Neko Case.

Read more at the film’s website.

Speakers after the film:

Mike McCoy studied Anthropology and Sustainable Development at Appalachian State where he fell in love with Appalachian culture, people, music and mountains. Graduating in 2006 he went on to work with USPIRG in Washington, D.C., as a citizen outreach director. Since the fall of 2007 he has worked with Appalachian Voices out of Charlottesville, Virginia where he has been organizing people across the state to fight against proposed coal plants, to stop mountaintop removal and to promote job creating energy efficiency measures and renewable energy mandates.

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=203686376364534

Come as early as 5:00pm to mingle with folks from Appalachian Voices and/or to enjoy a dinner in the Roots Music Hall, featuring menus highlighting the bounty of our local farms. Call 540.213.8777 for dinner reservations.

On one hand, an unholy alliance of governments and big business promotes globalization and corporate power. At the same time, people all over the world are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance.Communities are re-building human scale, ecological economies based on an economics of localization.

Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people, life is becoming increasingly stressful.

The September showing in Transition Staunton Augusta’s Local Motion Film Series, The Economics of Happiness lays out the problems yet provides not only inspiration, but practical solutions. Arguing that economic localization is a strategic solution multiplier that can solve our most serious problems, the film spells out the policy changes needed to enable local businesses to survive and prosper. We are introduced to myriad community initiatives doing just that, along with a raft of positive, engaging experts who speak to the issues.

This film challenges us to restore our faith in humanity, and to believe it’s possible to build a better world.

Local Motion Film Series September Screening

The Economics of Happiness

Tuesday, September 20, 7pm
The Mockingbird Restaurant, 123 W. Beverley, Staunton

Q & A after the showing with guest speakers:

• Meghan Wiliamson, Executive Director of the Staunton Creative Community Fund, offering loans, knowledge and community to help people start and grow small businesses and nonprofits in the central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and beyond.
• Nathan Vergin, farmer and owner of run a raw milk herd share business in Fishersville, Silky Cow LLC. Homeschooled on a small farm in Minnesota, Nathan worked his way through high school at a nearby dairy by milking 500-600 sheep. Later, he moved to the Valley to apprentice with Joel Salatin of Polyface farm for 2 years.

Movie begins at 7pm. Doors open at 5:30pm for dinner. Free Admission or Pay-What-You-Will (recommended donation of $5/per person). Come as early as 5:30pm to enjoy a dinner in the Roots Music Hall, featuring menus highlighting the bounty of our local farms. Call 540.213.8777 for dinner reservations (encouraged). Co-sponsored with The Community Network.

Other questions call Lindsay Curren: 540.849.9061.

It pits the ambitions of large, multinational wine producers, in particular Robert Mondavi, against the small, single estate wineries who have traditionally boasted wines with individual character driven by their terroir.

Mondovino earned a rare competition slot in the Official Selection of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, one of only four documentaries ever nominated for the Palme d’Or in the history of the festival.

The showing is the latest in the Local Motion Film Series, put on by Transition Staunton Augusta, in partnership with Staunton Green 2020 and Mary Baldwin College.

Tuesday, August 16 / 7:00pm
The Mockingbird Restaurant and Roots Music Hall
123 W. Beverley Street, Staunton
Pay what you will ($5 suggested donation)

Q&A with Gabriele Rausse, who runs a French-style winery near Charlottesville.

Come early and enjoy a dinner in the Roots Music Hall, featuring menus highlighting the bounty of our local farms. Call 540.213.8777 for dinner reservations.

Stauntonians have come together to fix the Sears Hill Bridge. Now, can we build a bridge to the future? Photo: taberandrew via Flickr.

Join us for our next conversation in this three part series, “Beyond Green: Why Local Food is Just the Beginning,” Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00pm.

As the economy stagnates, many local families continue to face rising costs, unemployment, and home foreclosures. Now, with energy prices rising again, drivers also have to pay more and more to fill up their tanks. The media tells us things are getting better. Are you convinced?

People are starting to wonder how bad things have to get before they start to get better. They’re tired of wishful thinking, half-solutions, and distractions coming out of Washington. In the Shenandoah Valley, many of us have started taking matters into our own hands with local solutions for land conservation and watershed protection, historic preservation, and promoting local food and local businesses.

These efforts have been effective on their own. But they’ve failed to come together to address the magnitude of challenges to the global and national economy that affect us locally, particularly the high energy costs that started the Recession in 2008 and that continue to threaten families into the foreseeable future.

More than ever, we need a unified response to today’s challenges and a plan for a sustainable future. That’s why Transition Staunton Augusta has scheduled three community conversations this fall on our energy and economic situation, how they’re linked, and what we can do about it. Each talk will consider the big questions while also giving you simple, concrete steps you can take on your own to learn more and prepare yourself and your family for a world beyond peak oil.

On Tuesday, July 19 we’re showing The Greenhorns, a documentary film that explores the lives of America’s young farming community – its spirit, practices, and needs. It is the filmmaker’s hope that by broadcasting the stories and voices of these young farmers, we can build the case for those considering a career in agriculture – to embolden them, to entice them, and to recruit them into farming. The showing is the latest in the Local Motion Film Series, put on by Transition Staunton Augusta, in partnership with Staunton Green 2020 and Mary Baldwin College.

Tuesday, July 19 / 7:00pm
The Mockingbird Restaurant and Roots Music Hall
123 W. Beverley Street, Staunton
Pay what you will ($5 suggested donation)

Q&A with experts after the film — Michelle Rehme and Mockingbird owner Wade Luhn

Come early and enjoy a dinner in the Roots Music Hall, featuring menus highlighting the bounty of our local farms. Call 540.213.8777 for dinner reservations.

The Greenhorns is a grassroots non-profit organization made up of young farmers and many collaborators. Its mission is to recruit, promote and support the new generation of young farmers in this ample and able 21st century America.

“As both a film and an organization, ‘The Greenhorns’ is documenting a shift in agriculture that goes deeper than demographics.” — Edible Brookyln

About the evening’s speakers:

• Michelle Rehme was one of the co-founders and student manager of the UVA Community garden. She pursued her interest in sustainable agriculture education in the summer of 2009, when she began working with Severine von Tscharner Fleming and the Greenhorns at Smithereen Farm in the Hudson Valley, NY. Michelle continues to help coordinate Greenhorns events held up and down the east coast, and also manages the popular Greenhorns blog. Michelle currently lives and works on a 3,000 acre property owned by UVA, Morven Farm, where she has reclaimed a 1-acre educational garden + CSA program for the students of UVA and greater Charlottesville community.
• In addition to being a farm-to-table restaurateur, Wade Luhn, co-owner of Mockingbird, has extensive experience in sustainable agriculture. His six years of farming experience include working on several organic farms and managing a 225 member CSA Farm in the Berkshire Mountains of New England.  He has been involved, both as a farmer and trainee, in several programs designed to encourage and train young farmers. Luhn’s personal experience in agriculture has helped to shape and inspire his vision of Mockingbird.  Although he enjoys his current vocation, Luhn hopes someday to return to a more hands-on involvement with sustainable agriculture.