Farming for Hunger

This Saturday was our Stake's annual Day to Serve and, like last year, all the volunteers met at nearby Serenity Farm to harvest food that would be donated to local families. There were a ton of people there to help -  approximately 840 men, women, and children.  We harvested potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes, weeded cabbage, painted fences, stained a barn, and planted flowers. After all was said and done 150 local families in need were given fresh produce.

When we arrived early in the morning it was foggy and cool but by mid-morning the sun was shining and the skies were a perfect blue. We got ourselves signed in, donned our Mormon Helping Hands vests, and were given some instructions. Madison headed off to complete her assignment of assembling the 900+ lunches for the volunteers while Samantha, her friend Anna, and I climbed into a wagon for a hay ride out to the potato fields.

Our job in the potato field was the gather the potatoes in small bags and then dump them into large crates that were waiting for us.

Our field full of potatoes when we arrived

Dumping our first bag full of potatoes

Thirty minutes later this entire trailer was filled. Many hands do make light work!

There was still work to do in the potato fields but the hay ride tractor had just dropped another batch of workers at the field so we jumped back on and headed out to find another place to work. We ended up in a barn sorting corn and I think we stayed there for all of ten minutes before realizing that sorting corn was not the job for us. We were supposed to snap the corn from the stalk at the base of the cob and check for bugs or rotten spots. Good corn went in one pile and bad in another. Snapping that corn off the stalk took some muscles that Samantha and Anna just didn't have - usually they'd try and then I'd have to take over and finish it up for them.

So we went back out to the main area where we registered to see where we might be needed. We were directed to a field of sweet potatoes and given a quick lesson on harvesting before we set to work. While the potatoes were just lying on top of the ground waiting to be picked up, the sweet potatoes were still underground.   We had to first find them by tracing back the long tendrils growing above ground to where they connected with the ground and then dig them out.

Madison spent the majority of her day making lunches because, come on, more than 900 lunches! Luckily she did have some time to get out in the sun and harvest some tomatoes before the day was over.  Her time in the fields was short lived because it was almost time to eat and she had to get back and finish up the preparations for lunch. 

The day wasn't all work and no play. There were games for the kids and a bluegrass band for entertainment during lunch.

Samantha's team won the relay race every time! Here she is running her leg of the race and pulling a firehose behind her.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't initially plan on participating in the Day to Serve. I was looking forward to a Saturday with nothing on the calendar after too many busy weekends in a row.  Madison really wanted to be there so I was going to just drop her off in the morning and pick her up at the end of the work day. However, as plans often do mine ended up changing and I'm happy I was there to contribute in whatever way I could. We're already looking forward to next year!