Today I felt we needed to start off with inspiration, to envision the food system we know is possible. At the meeting this morning, Ryan read a story about Will Allen and the ways he impacted Milwaukee and Chicago urban farming. There are so many ways to connect to the community with gardening - through the prison system, the medical system, schools and entrepreneurship training for teens, by cleaning up pollution and lead-poisoned soil with your garden, saving native species like butterflies and birds, welcoming immigrants to grow cultural foods, creating artistic and living masterpieces, cleaning city water...and the best part: one garden (with proper management) can do ALL of these things!
Today it seems to me that growing things is the root of all good, in the way that money may be the root of all evil. This isn't just a job for me, it's a way of life.
What I've been up to:
*convincing OMNI that youth are good, even good leaders, and will not dig up holes in their yard (anymore)! and that saying "we need leaders for the culture of peace" is not the best way to get people engaged
*e-mails to partners, reminders to restaurants that may give giftcards, phone calls to guest speakers, and meaningful assistance to SoS participants throughout the day
*crafting an agenda for Friday's "remember your training" goal-revamping meeting for SoS
*killing flies in OMNI's kitchen and sweeping the floor (which reminded me that we need weekly chores and a basket to draw them from - so I created one)
*compiling and e-mailing the results of Training Week evaluation, and filling out and SoS National Training Evaluation for program leaders
*working in, and despising, various Google Docs for SoS
My next step is inching quickly towards more capacity-building tasks, and less SoS-maintenance tasks. Making a timeline will help with that.
On a more personal level, today is my Dad's birthday, which somewhat surprised me because he's going thru chemo just like Farmer Jesse and I didn't really expect him to have another birthday. I'm not close to my Wisconsin parents, and in a way, helping Farmer Jesse is like helping my dad.
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