“The way my coworkers lift me up”
This photo was taken after a long day of harvesting. I was hot and messy but everyone around me has smiles on their faces. It captured the moods my coworkers were in which impacts my life, because this job has connected me with people who see the bright side in things. We’ve grown together as people through YCAP. Even when I’m down my coworkers find a way to cheer me up.
“Twister Family”
This was taken on a YCAP second Saturday. Not many people showed up, but we persevered and enjoyed ourselves as a big farm family. This shows how YCAP impacted my life, because it gave me new friends who are there for me and people to grow with which is what YCAP is all about.
“Food Creates Community”
In this photo the kids are in a circle playing a farm name game. The kids are all friends, even if they didn’t know each other before Field to Fork Club! I remember kids sharing seeds and planting together. It was truly beautiful. Kids start the program in 3rd grade and most return until 9th grade. One kid that talked to me told me he was going to miss it.
“Feeding the Community”
When harvesting vegetables on the farm we typically harvest a lot. As a small crew even if we each take some of the vegetables we harvested, there is a lot left over. With the extra vegetables, we give it to different places that help food insecure people. This box of cucumbers, for example, went to Feed the West a program that delivers food to people who live in the west end that don’t have access to a sustainable food source.
“The Joys of Work”
Even though it was cold, I was still happy. I was singing, and it was just a really happy day at work. It connects to the Food Literacy Project, because it shows how the Food Literacy Project is a big family. We don’t have conflicts that much, and we enjoy what we do. At the end of the day, no matter how hard it was or how much we smell like garlic, we still enjoy it.
“A season ends”
It was the last day, and people were… I was sad, I’m not going to lie. I was sad, because I wouldn’t have work anymore. That’s the only thing that keeps me occupied and I have fun doing it, so I was sad that it had to end for the fall.
I think it goes back on the we’re a big family aspect. It’s not just a job to me. It’s somewhere where I can be happy and hang out with my friends. I really felt the Food Literacy Project actually cares about us, because they paid for that bill. I hadn’t paid for nothing. They paid for that and they care about us, because they were really saying how they were going to miss us.
“Finally Famous”
It made me think about how gratifying farm work is, because on the table behind us, there’s all the stuff that we had picked, and there was a market set up at the community meal. And at the community meal, everyone was like, “Let’s take a picture!” It showed how gratifying being a farmer is. Well, it shows that farming in itself is a community, because in the picture, not all of us had known each other at the beginning of the summer, and this was the last day, and all of us are friends. We’re young, and people like to see young people changing, so it helps other people see how we can change things too. This particular job was only seven weeks, but it made the cover of a magazine, and people were proud of what we did. People we didn’t even know were proud of what we did, so I wanted people to see it. I feel like policy makers need to hear about it, because not everyone knows about stuff that we do, and I feel like there should be more non-profits, like the Food Literacy Project. And obviously, we get our money through grants and things, and policy makers are what can shine a light on the things that we do, which can help us, but also help other non-profits that work towards youth.
“Community and the farm”
This was one of our first days back at the spring job, and we were working with members of our community. I couldn’t have any of them in the picture because there’s no way I could get their consent, but I wanted to show that we actually do work with the community. We were clipping trees. That’s why we had the big cutter thingies; the snips in our hand. We had volunteers sign up, and they helped us. They mostly signed up to gain information, and some of them asked questions and stuff like that, so it felt good to talk to other people from the community that liked to garden and plant too. The Food Literacy Project gives us opportunities to work with other people. Even our school doesn’t do stuff like that, so I feel like we get more opportunities through the Food Literacy Project. That shows through this picture. We are fighting really hard to keep the farm, and we need to find a permanent home.
“Life Skills”
This is a dish we made with Maggie “Mushroom” when we were doing a cooking demo. These cooking demos make me appreciate the Food Literacy Project so much more, because we get to learn cooking skills while learning to cook new things. It demonstrates how this job is better than fast food and retail, because is teaches us life skills while also making sure we are happy and comfortable in our job. Other jobs do not care like our bosses do.
“Everyday work (A purpose)”
This squash is something you will see about everyday on the farm. I really do love what this farm gives to my community! We really give our best effort to our work because we know how important a human’s health is. I’m really glad YCAP is here.
