On Saturday, August 20th, we’ll spend a fun day volunteering at a farm in Rancho Cordova, learning hands-on about sustainable agriculture. This is an intergenerational event! It was instigated by the youth group’s demand to volunteer on a Real Big Farm… but the invitation is extended to the whole MPC family. Some young families have already signed up. Yes, there’s room for YOU to join us too!
Talitha was announcing the event as a Crop Mob until recently when she was informed that “Crop Mob” is an Easterners’ term – hence the puzzled looks on everyone’s faces. Well, whether you know it as a Crop Mob or a Farm Day, the point is this: we descend as a group on an organic, sustainable farm, and donate our labor to help bring in the harvest. Small-scale farming has always been an intergenerational activity, working well with community “mobs,” because you need all hands on deck to bring in a harvest. We divide the work up so that the strongest folks get a workout and can skip the gym that day, the older folks use their wisdom to sort or organize, and the youngest get to learn as they follow along.
We have chosen to work with Soil Born Farm, a non-profit farm dedicated to the mission of “empowering youth and adults to discover and participate in a local food system that encourages healthy living, nurtures the environment and grows a sustainable community.”
Most of us would probably say “yes, we care about sustainable food sources.” But caring about it, in theory, and loving it, in practice, are two different things. Susan Hunn recently returned from the youth group mission trip, where they focused on food issues, and said the hands-on experience was “life changing” in a way that reading and learning about the ideas behind it could never be.
So come on out and get your hands dirty with us! RSVPs, please, to talitha – at- mpcfamily – dot – org, or call the church.