By Sue daCosta, Finance & Administrative Manager
My family has been volunteering at America’s Grow-a-Row for over 14 years. In the early years of America’s Grow-a-Row, a friend invited us to pick string beans in her backyard. We saw how empowered and proud our children felt at just 5 and 3 years old. They understood they had the power to impact others’ lives in a positive way, and it was one of the biggest teaching moments of our parenting. Through the years, our family continued to harvest and volunteer in other capacities like Kids Farm Days, education sessions in Jersey City, and gleaning.
Our daughter was 12 at an education session in Jersey City where she had to show a child how to open and slice a banana, showing her that children only 30 minutes from us had never had a fresh banana. After the lesson, we walked to the corner bodega where she saw that there was only one small bin of not-so-fresh produce, seeing firsthand what it meant to live in a food desert. These experiences impacted her beyond a discussion in school or reading it in an article.
As teen volunteer for Kids Farm Days, my son was in the fields picking string beans with the children, where they didn’t believe that they could eat a string bean directly from a plant. Most had never seen a bean that didn’t come from a can. That day, he ate about 50 string beans to show them it was safe and how good they tasted fresh from the farm.
AGAR’s gleaning program was another eye-opening experience for our children. In the summers when they were off from school, we volunteered to pick up produce from a local grocery store and deliver to the food pantry. In one trip, we had 14 cases tightly packed into our car. At first, they were reluctant to wake up early and go, but after realizing the impact of what we had done, they willingly assisted the remainder of the summer without hesitation or complaint.
It’s been amazing to watch them take on more responsibilities each year volunteering for Kids Farm Days. In their first year, they followed the directions from AGAR staff. In their second year, they began helping the other teen volunteers in addition to working more closely with the children. In their year, they’ve stepped up taking leadership roles to help the AGAR staff deliver the program.
We are fortunate enough to live in beautiful Hunterdon County. Most of our children are isolated from food insecurity right outside our area. Volunteering at America’s Grow-a-Row has given our children the opportunity to see outside their world and become empowered to make a difference. I truly believe these experiences have built compassion, empathy, respect, and responsibility for themselves and the world around them.
Fourteen years later, we still volunteer as a family, we get hot, dirty, and exhausted…. but on the drive home, we also laugh together and feel good about what we have done to help neighbors in need. Thank you, America’s Grow-a-Row, for giving us the opportunity to instill values in our children that can only be learned by experience.
