I must first start by thanking everyone for the outpouring of support and well-wishes since announcing last week that I will be pursuing my passion and purpose full time. I want to take this opportunity to describe Farming 4 Hunger, the organization that is making this shift possible.
First... what Farming 4 Hunger is all about. F4H has blown me away. From concept to implementation, what this organization has accomplished in two years is nothing short of amazing. The visionary of this project Bernie Fowler went to the Maryland and Capitol Area food banks to develop a partnership where he could help local farmers produce whole foods for distribution to the most vulnerable people in our region. He also built a relationship with the local Department of Corrections to create a reintegration program for inmates that are within 18 months of release. They help produce food for hungry people and in turn they get an education and support during their transition when they are released. Fast forward 2 years, we are starting the third year of production and F4H has already grown and distributed 2.2 million pounds of food... and this week begins construction of a large-scale hydroponics system which can produce food year around to financially support F4H's vital work.
How CYL and F4H fit together
I mentioned last week that in starting what became CYL, I was looking for ‘the great unifier’ of humanity… What can we all rally behind? Beyond our perceived differences, fundamentally we have far more in common than not. I mentioned that we cannot survive approximately 4 min without oxygen, 4 days without water, and 4 weeks without food. I found that the place where all three of these things converge is agriculture. So I set out to use agriculture as a means to bring people together… sustainable, hyper-local and as healthy and nutrient dense as possible.
This is far from a unique idea… today community-centric farms and gardens across the globe are bringing together people from every walk of life… breaking though divides like tribe and race, age and gender, even class and political affiliation.
With Can YA Love (CYL) I aimed to help CBOs or community based organizations around the world that are vested in the places they serve, working to unify deep-divides. So CYL set out to support organizations like orphanages, schools, women’s groups and youth groups using some unique patent-pending agricultural methods that I designed specifically to help grow food in this increasingly urban planet. I set out to break the barriers that keep people from growing food, like physical limitations, limitations in space, and fear of the time commitment necessary to learn about, and tend to a garden.
Meeting Bernie
I met Bernie while searching for a project domestically that understood the big picture of what agriculture can do. It took me little time to see that F4H had embodied the cornerstone of what a community needs.
By growing food locally for the most vulnerable people in our region… it is easy to understand the benefit of F4H. But when I saw how they grow the food... the thousands of volunteers, from every walk of life, that are helping to make this project work, and the pure joy and tears that so many share. When you get to see kids learn, for the first time in some cases, that food comes from the ground and that we are dependent on it.
My role in Farming 4 Hunger
I’m joining F4H to help bring the next level of support to this family. Growing food in bulk for people that need it will be essential for the foreseeable future… But I think we can all agree that the ideal purpose of community is resilience… our ability to adapt and support each other. The best way I can describe what we are trying to do: We want people to see food as nourishment of course, but also as a metaphor for what Dr. King called the “interrelated nature of humanity…” that in order for me to be my fullest self, I need you to be your fullest self and vice-versa. We want every student, teacher, volunteer, and inmate to leave knowing that that they can grow this food… That it doesn't need to be arduous, backbreaking and time-intensive work… and that it’s a soul-quenching, proven therapeutic, money-saving and potentially life-saving practice… that this is something worth working together for.
My Goals with F4H
I will be focusing on three primary goals:
1. Building an educational curriculum to help people learn to grow food for themselves. I am working on a 'meet them where they are' approach. I will be focusing on ways to save money and improve the health of local families. This includes an urban demonstration garden with the growing systems that I designed for Can YA Love and a few incredible designs from all over the world. The College of Southern Maryland is hiring me to teach a number of classes on the farm starting in September. (the registration link will be active when the classes go live) We are creating an experience for students from regional schools to get a deeper understanding of how nature and food work and to have a chance to help people with a little effort.
2. Building a robust R&D center for CYL to hone some new systems I have been working on, to make growing food accessible to places people struggle to do so.
3. Creating a CO-OP to support the members of the F4H Community that put in so much time and effort to make the project grow. This program will also assist the inmates who are helping to generate the capital for F4H's reintegration program.
4. Building an inter-generational growing space where local seniors and physically challenged individuals can grow with children that visit the farm, without the backbreaking intensive work, but with all the benefits that agriculture can have on the soul. The entire area will be wheel-chair or scooter accessible.
5. Team building: I am currently looking for people that would like to assist in any of these ventures either on the farm, remotely or both. Please contact me at b.friton@canyalove.org if you are interested in learning more.
Thank you so much for reading. I have been getting lots of questions from people and thought my next blog be a video answering some of those. If you have a question please send it to b.friton@canyalove.org.
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