Week 7 ILC
This week I had the opportunity to put in a garden for a disabled/low-income family. R- is the mom of three children. Two of her kids have autism. Her youngest, the only girl, has a disorder that makes her not retain nutrients and she is much smaller than the children in her class. R’s husband was disabled on the job and is not able to stand for long periods of time. R-has a back injury herself and has gained over 100lbs. The majority of this family are morbidly obese-except for Ch-she is tiny. I met this family last summer as they frequented the free produce stand and they would come to the train station on Sunday/Wednesday nights for Free Hot Soup.
It was hot the day I went to R’s house and slightly awkward as her husband came out to watch me put in the garden. Luckily for me he was not able to stand up for too long and retreated inside letting me work in peace. I brought around 50 starts: tomatoes, kale, spinach, broccoli, lettuce, sweat peas, and onions. I was able to remove the top soil from a section in the yard and till the soil. This family has dogs so I enclosed the area with chicken wire. The family was very excited for their garden. I spoke for some time with R. R is a Girl Scout leader and their troop will need a service activity for their bronze award. We spoke of the possibility of their manning the free produce stand this year-or at least coordinating the volunteers. We also spoke about the possibility of doing a gleaning and canning event for the local scouts. We would pick feral fruit and can it-then donate the food to groups like Free Hot Soup and The Belly Brigade to be served to people who lack food abundance.
This week I also networked with the local library to give out starts during their “Pollinator Series” with the Centralia Master Gardeners. This was a fun way to reach out and connect with like minded individuals. I was really excited to get to know some of the local Librarians. I have to thank my friend Meghan for the connection. She works at the library and volunteered with Free Hot Soup last summer. It is sometimes really nice to live in a small town. You begin to get to know people through actions and events and then meet them again in different contexts in the community.
