Juanita Falice is a senior at Saul High School. She is very active in the farm, whether it is during the school day with one of her classes, after school at farm club, or helping to staff the CSA pick-up and farm stand. She is also attending the World Food Prize to present on Somalia and agriculture and drought next month.
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and when I spend my afternoons over at Henry Got Crops, I can really feel the support from our shareholders. More often than not I’m actually out in the field side by side with a member weeding a bed or transplanting seedlings. My education may be academic based, but my passion is locally and sustainably grown food, and physically seeing my support system picking up their vegetables on Tuesdays and Fridays means the world to me. Like anybody else, I get a sense of accomplishment from my hard work when I can see where it is going and I have a feeling my classmates may feel the same way.
Although many of the students at Saul don’t know the exact details of what goes on at the CSA, they are all benefit from it. Sometimes the mixed salad greens (from our very own Henry Got Crops) makes it’s way into our lunch rooms via the hands of one of the many students who have picked it. On those days, I don't know anybody who doesn’t want to try the salad. They may not realize it, but by eating that salad they are part of a community. A community larger than our school grounds that stretches to our local members.
Before I was exposed to urban farming I could care less where my tomatoes were being grown or why they were so unnaturally large. I didn’t care that my produce was drenched in pesticides and I surely didn’t see a value in locally grown food. Because of Henry Got Crops, I see that locally grown food ties the community together. Now, I hope to study sustainable farming in college. I want to take the sustainable farming skills I’ve learned at the CSA , further them in college and then serve a term in Peace Corps with that skill. Now I encourage my friends and family to buy locally grown food.
The orchard is a big step for Henry Got Crops and I am very excited to see how it furthers the student/member relationship and how it furthers education at Saul. Being that most of the trees won’t be producing fruit for a few years and I am graduating, I’ll have to return to see it’s progress. With the involvement of the students and members (along with Nina’s green thumb) I’m sure the orchard will be a wonderful addition to Henry Got Crops. I’ve already learned a lot at the orchard just from weeding the young samplings.
I am very glad that I have had the opportunity of working at the CSA all four years of my highschool career. I have learned so much and I’m grateful to our members for giving me the opportunity and direction that has greatly influenced my goals and aspirations.
Although many of the students at Saul don’t know the exact details of what goes on at the CSA, they are all benefit from it. Sometimes the mixed salad greens (from our very own Henry Got Crops) makes it’s way into our lunch rooms via the hands of one of the many students who have picked it. On those days, I don't know anybody who doesn’t want to try the salad. They may not realize it, but by eating that salad they are part of a community. A community larger than our school grounds that stretches to our local members.
Before I was exposed to urban farming I could care less where my tomatoes were being grown or why they were so unnaturally large. I didn’t care that my produce was drenched in pesticides and I surely didn’t see a value in locally grown food. Because of Henry Got Crops, I see that locally grown food ties the community together. Now, I hope to study sustainable farming in college. I want to take the sustainable farming skills I’ve learned at the CSA , further them in college and then serve a term in Peace Corps with that skill. Now I encourage my friends and family to buy locally grown food.
The orchard is a big step for Henry Got Crops and I am very excited to see how it furthers the student/member relationship and how it furthers education at Saul. Being that most of the trees won’t be producing fruit for a few years and I am graduating, I’ll have to return to see it’s progress. With the involvement of the students and members (along with Nina’s green thumb) I’m sure the orchard will be a wonderful addition to Henry Got Crops. I’ve already learned a lot at the orchard just from weeding the young samplings.
I am very glad that I have had the opportunity of working at the CSA all four years of my highschool career. I have learned so much and I’m grateful to our members for giving me the opportunity and direction that has greatly influenced my goals and aspirations.
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