Each month (or maybe even more frequently!) we’ll be featuring a guest blog from someone in our network. They will share their story, their work, their ideas, programs, events – you name it. We’re starting off by featuring Jenna Wills, our fabulous intern. Jenna is a Clark University Graduate Student who has interned not only with us, but with Nuestro Huerto Urban Farm, the Worcester Division of Public Health and with the Worcester Department of Planning. Read on to learn what got Jenna interested in food work…
My interest in food started early. I would be driving with my mom to the grocery store as a child, and we would pass by the industrial sized water sprinklers drenching the fields of corn and other summertime fruits—hoping that at the moment we drove by, the sprinklers would be a tad off their course of circular motion sprinkling the car with drops of water. The car windows would be fully open and we would allow the water to sprinkle our skin; it was a short reprieve from the harsh summer sun. It was easy to tell the seasons by what smells sifted through the air any given time of the year. In the summer, the sweet smell of tomatoes and strawberries flooded your senses. Towards the end of summer and beginning of fall, the rotting fields of cabbage alerted you that cold times were ahead. It was easy to live in Tabernacle, New Jersey. The land and those who tended it provided your nourishment and well-being—the only thing you had to do was allow it to take care of you. I was fortunate that living in Tabernacle offered bountiful local, in-season fruits and vegetables. Local orchards supplied my cafeteria and a summertime afternoon snack consisted of the blueberries my father and I had picked on the nearby blueberry bogs. I could bike freely without feeling claustrophobic and in danger. My lifestyle was healthy and full of the outdoors.
Although I had been around agriculture my entire life, allowing it to infiltrate all of my senses, I never truly understood the complexities behind the system. Not everyone can grow up in a place like Tabernacle. The unfortunate truth of geography is that places are not equal, and the people who inhabit different cities and towns have extremely different lifestyles. In terms of food, this often means that many communities do not have the access to fresh, healthy, and local food in the way that farming communities like Tabernacle are fortunate enough to have. What has inspired me to work in improving these food systems is the fact that I would like all children, regardless of where they live, to have the opportunity to understand the multifaceted system of agriculture and truly know where their food was grown and who has spent time seeding, planting, pruning, and harvesting the food they will eventually eat.This education will hopefully allow a sustainable lifestyle—both in terms of the environment and time—to support the future generations of our Earth.
Spending time working on both rural and urban farms, as well as different organizations such as the Worcester Food and Active Living Policy Council, has ignited my passion to one-day start an urban farm of my own. It would specifically cater to youth, allowing them to participate in all parts of the growing process. Sharing in the production of food—from starting seedlings to cooking a meal made entirely of produce you have grown yourself, is one of the greatest pleasures of life. The relationships that I have built and sustained through being a part of the Worcester food movement will forever be cherished as those who have supported me and shaped me into the food advocate (and farmer!) that I am today and will be in the future.
