Growing Home

Growing Home by Michele Poindexter

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  During my most recent reflect-in with CAPS, Katie asked us what we have grown into this summer. It took me a while to think of an answer. There are many ways in which I have grown this summer, but thinking of something about myself or capabilities that I have grown into proved more difficult. However, after reflecting about my past internships and how they have ultimately led me to Growing Home, I realized my answer. In these past several years, and especially this summer, I have increased my knowledge, passion, and skills for working in food access and community engagement. I still have plenty to learn, but I have grown into my confidence that I am capable of doing this work and doing it well. As I look forward to my future – I have graduated and will be starting a new chapter of my life soon – this […]

Growing Markets by Michele Poindexter

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Let me first briefly explain what Growing Home does. Growing Home is a USDA certified organic urban farm located in Englewood. They have a paid job training program each growing season for people with employment barriers. Production Assistants, participants in the program, learn transferable skills in agriculture, project management, and effective communication. In addition to the job training program, Growing Home sells its produce through several outlets. In this blog, I want to talk about just one of the ways the produce is sold – farmer’s markets. Farmer’s markets are one of my favorite places to be and work at, so I thought I would tell you a bit about why they are so great and how they could be even better. To get the inside scoop, I asked Growing Home’s Food Access and Distribution Manager some questions about markets. So why are farmers’ markets so great? For starters, a […]

Finding New Growth in the Garden

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This week is my last week at Growing Home, so naturally, I have been taking more time to pause and reflect on my CAPS journey. Last week, I spent time in our Learning Garden which serves as a hands-on experience for kids to touch and taste the produce we grow. The garden is the responsibility of my department to maintain, so I’ve spent a lot of time in that space over the summer pulling weeds, pruning beets, and harvesting all kinds of vegetables: tomatoes, radishes, green garlic, kale, swiss chard, and a few strawberries, (getting to sample a few along the way, of course). While working in the garden, I was surprised to see how tall our pea plants had grown from when we planted them a few weeks after I started my internship. These plants, which were once pea-sized seeds, had climbed to nearly 3 feet in just a […]

Finding Community in a New Place

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Living in a new place can be an exhausting process of navigating the unfamiliar. The first few days are usually filled with trying to get comfortable in a new space. For me this included finding where to buy groceries every week, the route I would take to my internship every day, and a good, nearby coffee shop. These small forms of comfort and routine help create the space for an unfamiliar place to become a community. On the morning of the first full day at my internship, the crowded processing room was full of applause, as everyone celebrated accomplishments and got motivated for the day. During the morning meeting we discuss the theme of week, which for my first week was “community”. As a result, I spent time that week reflecting on community and what it meant to me in the context of my recent, unfamiliar surroundings. In new places, […]