Phase II: The Winter Waiting Game
After working for over a month and a half, I am finally able to blog about my job as a Phase II Fellow as the Food Access Coordinator for Allegheny Mountain Institute's Farm at Augusta Health. Since it takes me 16 words just to write my job description, let me try and unpack it for you.
But first, watch this video from Channel 3 about what it is for some reference.
I started on January 2 after our two month break. On my first day of work, I was tasked with coming up with our Food Safety Plan and that task kept me busy until around last week. While I was working on this, I learned a great deal about start-ups and the process of working with larger organizations like Augusta Health. Though Augusta Health is an amazingly supportive partner, I have had to learn so much patience in terms of dealing with the process of working on a farm that does not yet exist.
Key Lessons Learned:
1. Trudging Through the Winter Blues: After exponentially increasing my connection to nature by working outside all day for the past 8 months, winter seems just that much worse. In my windowless office, I sit almost all day on my computer dreaming about when the space beyond me will be transformed into a beautiful oasis providing preventive healthcare to the community. But for now, all I have is hope, meetings, and food safety plans to sustain me.
2. Patience and Persistence: As I alluded to, when you work at a farm, a lot of the winter is waiting and planning. And when the farm has never existed before, a lot of the planning seems unreal and premature. I liked the following quote: "Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence," (Hal Borland) because I feel like I am constantly playing a balancing game of wanting to push my agenda forward and faster, while still knowing and waiting for all the behind the scenes work to get done before these parts of my agenda get used.
3. Working on a Team: I recently realized that I do not have that much experience collaborating with the same people day in and day out. I also realized that I am very quick to judge people and that I find working with others on a regular basis challenging. I don't like it when people have different learning and working styles than I have, and I have trouble understanding why people do things in different ways than I do. However, I know this is a very important skill and to be good at any job means knowing how to work with a diverse set of people who function under various different power dynamics. So, I am working on this. One quote I liked on this topic is: "Patience is not simply the ability to wait--it's how we behave while we're waiting." (Joyce Meyer)
4. Regulations are Bunk: I think I already knew this, but after going head first into Food Safety and Composting, I am realizing just how regulations build obnoxious barriers to entry. Almost all the food we consume raw--organic or conventionally grown--has most likely been either bleached or washed with a different antimicrobial agent before we eat it. And guess what? Microbes are almost always good for us! It's just that one icky salmonella from a conventional farm that ruins it for the little guys. Anyways, there has been a host of regulations one after another that have caused us to spend lots of money and create so many barriers to entry for small farmers and especially for getting local foods into mainstream markets. One day, I hope to work on these regulations at a city or state level.
Ok I think 4 rants is enough for today. Anyways, overall am excited to be working on AMI's Farm at Augusta Health, though sometimes I get nervous the project is moving so slowly that there will never be an actual farm.
I am continually working on keeping then negative thoughts to a minimum and keep positivity radiating my day and my coworkers days. I think it helps that I am currently loving living with Josh and he provides so much love, support, and advice, that it keeps me sane through the hard days.
But first, watch this video from Channel 3 about what it is for some reference.
I started on January 2 after our two month break. On my first day of work, I was tasked with coming up with our Food Safety Plan and that task kept me busy until around last week. While I was working on this, I learned a great deal about start-ups and the process of working with larger organizations like Augusta Health. Though Augusta Health is an amazingly supportive partner, I have had to learn so much patience in terms of dealing with the process of working on a farm that does not yet exist.
Key Lessons Learned:
1. Trudging Through the Winter Blues: After exponentially increasing my connection to nature by working outside all day for the past 8 months, winter seems just that much worse. In my windowless office, I sit almost all day on my computer dreaming about when the space beyond me will be transformed into a beautiful oasis providing preventive healthcare to the community. But for now, all I have is hope, meetings, and food safety plans to sustain me.
2. Patience and Persistence: As I alluded to, when you work at a farm, a lot of the winter is waiting and planning. And when the farm has never existed before, a lot of the planning seems unreal and premature. I liked the following quote: "Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence," (Hal Borland) because I feel like I am constantly playing a balancing game of wanting to push my agenda forward and faster, while still knowing and waiting for all the behind the scenes work to get done before these parts of my agenda get used.
3. Working on a Team: I recently realized that I do not have that much experience collaborating with the same people day in and day out. I also realized that I am very quick to judge people and that I find working with others on a regular basis challenging. I don't like it when people have different learning and working styles than I have, and I have trouble understanding why people do things in different ways than I do. However, I know this is a very important skill and to be good at any job means knowing how to work with a diverse set of people who function under various different power dynamics. So, I am working on this. One quote I liked on this topic is: "Patience is not simply the ability to wait--it's how we behave while we're waiting." (Joyce Meyer)
4. Regulations are Bunk: I think I already knew this, but after going head first into Food Safety and Composting, I am realizing just how regulations build obnoxious barriers to entry. Almost all the food we consume raw--organic or conventionally grown--has most likely been either bleached or washed with a different antimicrobial agent before we eat it. And guess what? Microbes are almost always good for us! It's just that one icky salmonella from a conventional farm that ruins it for the little guys. Anyways, there has been a host of regulations one after another that have caused us to spend lots of money and create so many barriers to entry for small farmers and especially for getting local foods into mainstream markets. One day, I hope to work on these regulations at a city or state level.
Ok I think 4 rants is enough for today. Anyways, overall am excited to be working on AMI's Farm at Augusta Health, though sometimes I get nervous the project is moving so slowly that there will never be an actual farm.
I am continually working on keeping then negative thoughts to a minimum and keep positivity radiating my day and my coworkers days. I think it helps that I am currently loving living with Josh and he provides so much love, support, and advice, that it keeps me sane through the hard days.
Cheers to the new job, new lifestyle, and good cider!
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