Last week I had a lot of trouble getting in contact with the people I need to be interviewing. I went back down to Earthworks Farm to talk to Marilyn because there was an issue with her office phone. We set up an interview, and on Friday I went down and hung out with the crew there before sitting down to talk to her for a couple hours. It went really well, and it’s really amazing to hear about the kinds of things Earthworks does; it’s an amazing place and all these people from the community are really involved in the work there and there are interesting and inspiring things going on every day of the week; the day I came they had all finished learning about making vegetable and fruit juice smoothies, all with produce from their own farm. It seems like the main roadblock I’d associate with Earthworks is that there aren’t more programs like it, and it can’t service more communities. The organization is run using money from grants from the Capuchin church and a Kellogg grant; if a similar organization was started somewhere else, it would be difficult to get similar funding, because the org. itself does not generate any income.
Along with costs to run the farm and programs, Earthworks pays the community members that are involved in the EAT program: Earthworks Agriculture Training. These folks earn a certificate in urban farming, while being paid for the work that they’re doing. It’s an awesome program that teaches utilizable skills and makes participants more valuable in the work market.
My phone stopped working a few weeks ago after I dropped it in a pool, but after a couple days sitting in rice it rebooted itself. Now, though, whenever I’m in my dorm room for a long period of time, it reverts back to its water damage because of the humidity! It’s a huge hassle, and right now it’s preventing me from listening to and transcribing the recording of my interview. I get nervous every time that it might never turn back on; it’s sitting in rice at my desk as I’m typing. I’m especially nervous right now, because if it doesn’t restart then I lose my interview! That would be a huge bummer, so I’m crossing my fingers that the rice does its work quickly and soaks up whatever moisture is stuck inside; probably a difficult job because it’s so humid and weird out today!
