Plenty! Farms
During the SERVE retreat, I volunteered at Plenty! Farms, a food bank in Floyd County. Fun fact! They are located on Elephant Curve road. How fun is that? Plenty Farms serves the community by giving families in Floyd County meals and fresh produce for the week. They have portable services too, where food is delivered using vans full of packaged produce.
During my few, short hours at Plenty! I learned a little bit about produce and harvesting. That day, we harvest hundreds of pounds of cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, green beans, and more, as well as packaging about 1,500 pounds of dog and cat food. Since then, I’ve shared my experience with friends and family to keep them in the loop of how incredible it was to work together as a whole with few people. It would’ve taken one person weeks to do what 10 of us did in a couple hours. That was powerful. I would like to volunteer there again, and am planning on spreading the word about Plenty! to anyone interested. Another way I could spread awareness for this social issue is informing newspapers and local media outlets about the hungry population in Floyd County. I can help my friends understand a little bit about what Plenty! does and why it matters for the small town that receives its harvest and other benefits.
These benefits matter. I believe they are vital. It is one thing to notice an issue – it’s the first step. But to take action, and volunteer your time, or to go as far as opening your own food bank, is the next level. In this case, the benefits for Floyd County include distributing food to starving families (even cats and dogs receive food), learning experience for its volunteers, harvest knowledge, and families can learn how to grow their own food at home to help with their hunger.
As briefly mentioned before, vans are important to Plenty! They increase the number of people they help, and their radius of impact. By having the ability to transport food they can access people who may be immobilized or far away from the farm’s location (on Elephant Curve!). Plenty! also established another food bank in 2014, which allows more food to be harvested due to the increase of land. This affects the people in the community because each person can receive more food, and more people can receive food.
I felt the most effective thing I did was set up the assembly line for packaging cat and dog food. We unloaded an entire van of food, repackaged it into portable Ziplock gallon bags, and reloaded the van. We packaged 1,500 pounds in about an hour and a half. The least effective thing I did was not being efficient when I harvested produce. I did not have the proper attire (no hat and I wore shorts), so weeding through tall grass and plants was difficult because some of the bushes were prickly. While the green beans and squash that I harvested did contribute to the overall number of plants harvested, I did not affect the community as much as I did when I organized the cat/dog food assembly line.
During my time at Plenty! I noticed I became very tired halfway through. During service, the most difficult part for me is physical stamina. I suffer from a variety of health issues, so sometimes my body can work against me, even if the job is something I am excited to do. I overcome this by thinking of all the people I am helping as I volunteer. I am a numbers person, so hearing the pounds of produce harvested and seeing the van full of pet food was very rewarding. My favorite part of that day was witnessing how much a group of people can do, especially when it is something that would’ve been very difficult for one person to accomplish.
When I work with others, I respect everyone around me. I treat them with kindness and pay attention to what their needs are. While working with the group mentioned above, I noticed people were hot, so I got them water. I also tried to just be a friend to new people at the site (new to me, that is – which was almost everyone). This reflects my values because I want to be someone people come to for help. If I could be this person for a community of people, I think I would be happy for a lifetime.
Because of my service learning I am beginning to become more aware of my community, and that in turn will allow me to serve my community with passion and knowledge about the social issues I am trying to resolve.
