FareStart Gleaning at Ayeko Farm

#SweatySelfie

FareStart provides food security and economic mobility for people experiencing barriers to employment.

Ayeko Farm creates space for communities - especially displaced communities - to reconnect with the land and to their cultures through food and farming.

I’m proud to support both. Today I gleaned blackberries and raspberries that will go to FareStart’s Mobile Community Markets.

Blackberries and raspberries

Stream through Ayeko Farm

The other volunteers had traveled nearly an hour to be there. It’s a meaningful summer activity for the kids. They also volunteer at FareStart’s Guest Chef Nights, which looks really cool!

We started gleaning raspberries, but they were already picked pretty clean. We switched to blackberries, and I relearned a lesson from living on the family apple orchard in North Carolina: Move Slow. Tragically, I scratched up my hand and arm before I remembered!

We saw a lot of bees just sleeping on the raspberry leaves. We thought it might be from pesticides, but Victor, one of the Co-Directors at Ayeko Farm, told me that they don’t use any pesticides. The day was cool and the sky was full of grey clouds that completely hid the sun, so maybe the bees were just sleepy and unable to navigate.

Afterwards, I spoke with the FareStart folks to ask how they’re going to handle the impending loss of federal funding; they’re working on it, and they promised to let me know. I’m certain the state, county, and cities will have to pick up some of the slack, and we’re going to need new revenue sources to do that.

I also talked with Victor, asking nerdy farm boy questions. He explained that they’re slowly building permaculture on the 9 acre upper farm, and restoring native forests and pollinator plants on the lower 11 acres. I’m so glad Ayeko Farm is working towards these goals!

By buffering the stream with native plants, Ayeko Farm hopes to cool it and encourage salmon to return

I felt so peaceful looking over the grass towards the stream.

Elk Run Farm Summer Harvest

Carrots laid out ready for volunteers to wash and bundle

Volunteering at Elk Run Farm demonstrates one of my core values: food access is a right. I helped harvest over 250 pounds of fresh produce over the course of 2 hours, all of which was donated to those in need through the South King County Food Coalition.

I met lots of kind, tolerant people while harvesting collard greens, carrots, and mustard greens. Other volunteers picked zucchini, cucumbers, jalapenos, tomatoes, arugula, and other veggies.

Cucumbers, tomatoes, jalapenos, zucchini, and other veggies collected by the volunteers

Incomplete accounting of the harvest

Some of the carrots were too small to donate, so they let me bring a couple home for my daughter’s rats! (I understand some folks are squeamish about rodents, so I’ve hidden the pictures of Fizz and Lune eating their treats.)

It’s a lot of effort, but very rewarding. And not just in pet treats!

CovTown Pride Hydration Station

On June 27, for the first time, the City of Covington had its first public Pride event!

The event was cosponsored and organized by several residents, the Washington Community Action Network, the 47th District Democrats, and private donations from local companies and individual members of the local government.

Jude volunteered to run a hydration station, slinging water bottles and passing out carry bags to anyone who needed them.

Over the 4-hour event, Jude handed out around 80 water bottles and 15 carry bags. He heard concerns from about 10 residents of Covington and the surrounding area, and shared his platform with about 15 more.

South King Tool Library Yard Waste and Plastic Recycling Event

South King Tool Library (SKTL) is a local organization focused on providing access to tools and trainings for residents of King County and beyond. SKTL (pronounced Skittle) aims to create a greener world and reduce waste from discarded items that could be repaired, by giving everyone access to the skills and tools needed to fix, maintain, and upgrade their possessions and environment.

On May 24, SKTL hosted a Yard Waste and Plastic Recycling event. Jude volunteered for this event, and spent almost 5 hours on Saturday hauling tree branches and shrub scrap that community members brought to the event.

SKTL collected an estimated 12 cubic yards of yard waste which would otherwise have been burned. Collecting and shredding it prevented the release of 0.85 tons of CO2!

They also collected and sorted through potentially recyclable plastics, ultimately saving 256 gallons of #2 and #5 plastics from the landfill.

You can find out more about the South King Tool Library’s upcoming recycling and repair events, and their maintenance and DIY classes at their website.

Hot Mess Express Fetch Quest

The Hot Mess Express is a nationwide nonprofit for women-led mutual aid, helping neighbors with cleaning, organizing, and decluttering. Local Hot Mess Express affiliate groups do frequent volunteer missions to offer these fresh starts for people who have found themselves overwhelmed by illness, mental health difficulties, financial troubles, or just a lack of time.

In late May, the Hot Mess Express Seattle affiliate group put out a call for help - they needed a dresser for an upcoming mission, but the organizers didn’t have an available car for the pickup.

On May 31, Jude trekked out to Seattle, picked up the dresser, and dropped it off with the organizer.

After dropping the dresser off, Jude was more than happy to chat with the affiliate group organizer, and hear more about the Mutual Aid work that she’s doing on the ground in King County and beyond,