Dog'gone Do-gooders

Once upon a time, blessed with the resource of time, if not money, a crew of friends decided to form a volunteer collective. A superforce that could organize and be available to volunteer at a moments notice.

It was a diverse group of folks, circles within circles of friends. And though it was a bucolic city in which they dwelled, there were a lot of places where their time and attention could make a difference. So they all looked deep into their hearts and thought about the values that were most important to them. The issues that both gave their lives force and made their hearts ache. For one girl it was protecting, loving and caring for animals. For another it was cleaning and maintaining the beautiful wild areas around the city. There was one who had the gift of art and wanted to use it as a vehicle for connecting with others.

And lets not forget the girl who had a big bug in her butt about food security and food justice. This girl loved to eat, and loved to eat local and nourishing and most of all loved to eat yummy. She wanted everyone to share in the access to the bounty that was possible. She wanted to help people grow food and help people afford food. And so she chose the Oregon Food Bank learning garden as an opportunity to gather up the volunteer collective and send them out into the world to create a ripple. Eight grouped together that day and showed up on a sleepy Saturday morning. There were other people from the community who were volunteering that day...and teenagers at that!

And so these 8 scattered amongst the vegetables and weeds to water, harvest, clear ground and generally have a good chat while getting some stuff done. The girl's father came along that day too, and though he had never worked in a garden before he had a good time and had to be dragged away from the incredibly gratifying job of weeding.

The group went on a tour of the Oregon Food Bank facility. The girl was absolutely floored by the perfectly executed and well organized warehouse. Everything was in its place and perfectly dialed in. The food bank was reaching sooooo many people which was amazing...but sooooo many people were in need which sucks. It was an inspiring and humbling experience and the girl was committed to figuring out a way to become a superhero of the urban food movement.