Yesterday was our semi-annual company wide volunteer day. In reality our company offers opportunities to do something almost weekly, but twice a year there's a big push to get the entire company out of the office and onto the streets of Boston.
Our department has been trying harder recently to make sure we're a part of these days, and I think it's really awesome. besides the fact that it gives us a chance to help our community, it also gets us out of the office, talking to each other, and bonding. Totally worth it.
Our assignment yesterday was to go to an urban farm in the heart of Boston. It supports two shelters next door that largely house homeless women and their children. The food from the gardens are given out in the shelters for free, and the leftovers are sold at local farmers markets and through crop shares, to help pay any remaining bills.
Our group did a lot of weeding, and garden bed preparation, but we also got to do some planting! I wasn't supposed to be doing anything except taking pictures, but shhh don't tell Tom (or the random cafeteria worker who gave me a lecture when she saw I was wearing a volunteer shirt), I actually did get to help out a bit. My job was to take the plants from their plastic trays and drop them into holes that someone had dug in the garden beds. Then someone else would come along and plant them.
In the picture on the right, you can see all the plants they've started growing (some will be planted outside, some will be sold next week during their open house). In the picture on the left, you can see some of the garden beds we worked on. And if you look closely you can see the little kohlrabi plants that I dropped in holes, waiting to be planted.