Farming, Friends, and Community

For the last few weeks, I’ve been volunteering at one of several sites owned and operated by City Slickers Urban Farm in Oakland, CA. It’s an amazing place – a farm abounding with tomatoes, greens, lettuce, plums, peppers, lemon verbena, apples, and more. This profusion of organic goodness is nestled in an unassuming lot in a residential section of Oakland and could easily go unnoticed by passersby.

My time there has included making green compost, checking for aphids, and pulling weeds. It has been very rewarding for a couple of reasons. At the end of the day, I know that I’ve contributed something worthwhile to the community – something real and tangible. And it’s an opportunity to contribute to the growing food justice movement – and the idea that we should promote local, organic produce. Not only is this practice beneficial to our physical health, it also helps us to become more attuned to our communities, the climate in which we live, and the change of seasons. It brings the richness back to the experience of eating.

Yesterday, my friend Carol came with me to volunteer. It was truly a beautiful way to bond with an old friend. We know that meals can bring people together, but so to can helping to promote the growth of the food we consume in those meals. I’ve been friends with Carol since I was 14, but life gets busy and it is often difficult for us to find time to meet up. She and I spent more time together yesterday than we have on any single day in the last several years. And I think some of that had to do with the fact that we were sharing an experience that was meaningful and constructive, not merely entertaining. Contributing to the health of a community is a profound way to reinforce bonds between people. What’s more, sharing experiences like this with friends and family can have a ripple effect. If you spark a friend’s interest in a cause or movement, and they bring another friend into the movement and so forth, the movement grows organically. In fact, Carol left a message on my Facebook page yesterday saying that the experience had inspired her to finally start a vegetable garden – something she had been wanting to do for years. And a friend of hers commented in turn, saying she might just do the same thing. One good act, even a small one, can have an important impact.

Read more: Food, Nature, community garden, volunteering

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Katherine S.

8:34PM PST on Feb 12, 2012

that sounds great!
makes me want to volunteer now.....but I have school all day tomorrow - _ -;

send a green star

Jean Francois F.

8:04AM PST on Feb 12, 2012

Great ! Times of change ! Relocalisons nos consommations ; redécouvrons le temps des saisons...

Danuta W.

12:56AM PST on Feb 11, 2012

Thanks for the article.

Gary C.

7:03AM PST on Feb 10, 2012

Good reading , Thankyou....

Michele W.

10:45AM PST on Dec 20, 2011

Lovely!

Darla G.

8:15AM PDT on Oct 12, 2011

HOw awesome!
A community garden can be a tricky thing. Our community has had a space for one for years, offreing free space.... noone wanted it, so this year we tried something different and sold plots for the growing seasin for extremely cheap ( like 15 bucks or something like that) and if it was cleaned up and weeded throughout the season and left in good shape they got $10 back...well it was a hit... and has never been looked after so well.
It is always worth a try to get soemthing great started and yahoo when you find a way to make the dream a reality,

Susan W.

3:14PM PDT on Sep 5, 2011

nice

Nancy P.

6:41AM PDT on Sep 1, 2011

Imagine if all neighborhoods had community gardens...what a wonderful world it would be and then we could push big food corporations out of business..

Nicole G.

3:27PM PDT on Aug 31, 2011

Deepti P.

12:15AM PDT on Aug 31, 2011

thanx..