Alopez: Cultivating Hope #5

February 2, 2017 by Abby Lopez

According to the 2012 census bureau, 80% of the population of the United States live in urbanized areas and farmers are composed of 1% of the US population. With these grave statistics in mind as the population increases, there is a growing need to learn small scale agriculture in an urbanized community especially to the destitute and disenfranchised.

We were given such an opportunity to practice one of Cultivate Together’s goals for community wellness as our team took on one of these projects in cooperation with the Pathways of Hope, who’s mission is to grow as a faith-based collaborative to end to build self-sufficiency and end hunger and homelessness for families and individuals in need. Thus a collaboration began on a shared mission for food access and community wellness began.

For this project, I learned how to make garden beds framed by wooden planks. I familiarized myself with tools such as the drill bits, nails and drill and how to use them correctly. For example, I observed that I must drill a smaller sized hole using a drill bit before adding the nails, in this way it prevents resistance when inserting the nail onto the redwood planks. Also, the garden frame planks were design in a spiral pattern to fit all the pieces together as we set the planks on a leveled pavement.

Team Cultivate Together 2017 (Pioneer batch TRAILBLAZERS)

Jeremy, JD, Enrique, Natalie, Jess, Nathaniel, Ramon, Herman, Abby