According to a press release from Angie at the Atlanta Food Bank, Leon’s Full Service will host the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s monthly Supper Club on Tuesday, April 14th.

From the release… “Supper Club is a monthly event that allows diners the convenience of enjoying a meal at some of Atlanta’s hottest restaurants while supporting their community. Each month, a different restaurant serves as host, and 20 percent of the evening’s proceeds benefit Atlanta’s Table, the prepared food rescue project of the Food Bank.”

Apparently, when its city coffers were flush with loot, the city of Atlanta had no problem with DeKalb County’s odd distribution practices of HOST funds to its cities.

But now that times are tough, they want their freakin’ money.

This morning’s AJC reports that Atlanta has also now jumped on the HOST “give-me”bandwagon, asking DeKalb for the millions of dollars its owed (since 33,000 city of Atlanta residents live in DeKalb.)  Atlanta believes its owed around $10 million a year (under the current formula I assume) and attributes the non-payment to not filling out some paperwork in the late 1990s.

Yeah Atlanta, I bet you wish it was that simple.  Just an oversight by the Atlanta and the county.  Now that things are out in the open, I’m sure the County will be happy to pay up.  Its not like they’ve been playing dumb about distribution of HOST funds in court for the past 8 years or anything.

The city’s Amanda Thompson forwards this note about a really interesting sounding Saturday class near Avondale on April 18th from 9a-10:30a.

The Georgia Urban Forest Council is sponsoring a program on restoring your backyard ecosystem at the Georgia Extension office near Avondale. A friend of mine is teaching it and it will be excellent and inspiring. More info below. It will cost $25 and includes a complimentary membership to GUFC. It will be Saturday, April 18th. Hope to see you there, register HERE.

Class Description

Learn how to transition your backyard to a natural landscape. A natural home landscape offers advantages over a traditional high maintenance yard in several ways: 1) Natural plantings of trees can reduce energy consumption in summer by better shading the home; 2) natural plantings require less time and energy to maintain; and 3) natural landscapes provide a virtual outdoor classroom. The challenge in moving from a high maintenance landscape to a more natural and sustainable one is to understand how your yard functions as its own ecosystem and then work with nature to restore the natural processes.

Eric King, ASLA has been designing gardens in Georgia for decades and has appeared on numerous TV/radio programs and in garden magazines throughout the country, and he will demystify the process of natural succession and offer a better path to creating a more natural home landscape.