The Generosity – Hurricane Help: Summer Week #20 – 10/16/24
The Generosity – Hurricane Help
Upon returning from wholesale delivery and site sweeps for CSA bins last Thursday, Seth Jake pronounced to Matt (our pack shed manager), “You are unloading this truck!” Matt looked at me quizzically. I smiled and said, “North Caroline donations from the CSA members.”
When Matt and I looked into the truck, it was hard not to get choked up. Mixed in with empty egg coolers and black veggie bins were boxes and boxes of critical supplies our members (YOU!) donated at the sites. Baby wipes, box fans, tarps, bungee cords, water, bleach, rags, and so much more. SO MUCH! Right there, in front of our eyes, was a whole lot of love and trust in the form of material goods.
What strikes me as super special about this is two-fold:
1) The trust you have in your farmers. You don’t know Matt. You don’t know his people. But you do know us (either virtually or irl), and you trust us. Through me and Michael you are just one step removed from your food in the soil. You know about our farm, our life, our dogs, our kids. You trust us to nourish you. Over the years you have learned to trust us to take monetary donations to nourish those who can’t afford to otherwise. And now, when we tell you that one of the people that helps feed you needs help, you step up. Because of our direct connection – Cross Plains soil, food, our hands, our trucks, your table – this trust exists. Our farm and community of eaters is a human one. There’s no call centers or levels of bureaucracy. There’s no corporate spread and dissolution of responsibility. There’s the weather and the work of farmers you know, raising food that gets directly to you. It’s a simple, direct system where accountability stays in tact. And in a system like this, trust is much easier to build.
2) The generosity of our community. I know the word community can get thrown around a lot and have lots of different meanings. And while many of you may consider your experience with our farm as a purely financial connection, many more of you experience it as being a part of community. And when you learned that someone who is a part of this community wanted to help another community that needed assistance, you all stepped up in a big way. That kind of people to people, or community to community generosity is powerful. It’s beautiful. It’s the kind of thing that puts tears in your eyes.
Not all donations that were left at dropsites have been picked up yet; they will be tomorrow when we deliver week #20 of veggies. A similar lag time will occur with any donations left this week. By next week the 23rd we will have everything picked up and Matt will fill the U-Haul and go down to meet Norma (who last I heard was helping haul buckets of water into to people’s home to help them get their toilets flushed). It’s gonna take a long time for Matt and Norma’s people to rebuild. Your donations are so incredibly helpful!
And to that, I want sign off for the season. My heart is warm. I feel so incredibly grateful to be supported by all of you! And I continue to be amazed at the generosity you show. I really think our community is powerful, and I’m proud to be a part of it.
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Thank you for coming along on this seasonal adventure with us! We hope you have cooked many delicious meals, appreciated nourishing yourselves with healthy veggies, learned a little something about the farm life that produces the vegetables you receive, and enjoyed the experience of being a member! Thank you for supporting small-scale, local organic agriculture.
