Happy July to all of our new subscribers and
welcome to our quarterly newsletter: Bridges + Blooms!
hard at work this season and there is a
bundle of news to come!
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR PROGRAM MANAGER, DEBBIE BROWNING |
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What a year it’s been! This time last year, I had been on staff at ASD for about three months and was hunkered down in my house, wondering: how in the heck do we launch a workforce development program in the middle of a pandemic? The only answer I could find was this: just do it. There will never be a perfect time. We will never be 100% ready. And every second we wait, someone out there needs a job…and maybe some food…a sense of community…some hope.
Since then, we’ve grown in so many beautiful ways. Most of the growth was thanks to a grant we received from the Department of Labor that let us hire Sarah Collie in December 2020 to manage our greenhouse and garden pathway. Sarah is setting the bar high for how to create a healing, hope-filled community in a community garden. The grant also let us partner with Bristol’s Promise, and that’s how we have Brandi Peters, our Resource Navigator, who helps our trainees navigate life’s curveballs. We’ve also added two AmeriCorps VISTAs, Alyssa Maring and Hannah Gibbs, who hit the ground running in May and are proving really hard for me to keep up with, and I love it! And most recently, Jake Hibarger came on board as our Groundwork summer intern, and in just a few short weeks he’s given us so much direction on how to structure our social enterprises and make them really work.
So – we have a great leadership team! But the heart of our program – hands down – are our Groundwork associates in Duffield and Bristol. What gorgeous people, with so much heart and talent and personality... and did I say heart? I love that I get to wake up every day and help these beautiful souls reach their goals in even the smallest way.
If we can accomplish that much team growth – and personal growth – during a pandemic, just imagine what we can do when the world is normal again! Our program isn’t perfect, but we’re going in the right direction and doing great things for great people.
Somebody tell me…how’d I get this lucky?
Debbie
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Our Community Garden Cultivators |
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Buzz . . . Buzz . . .
What's that sound?
Friendly pollinators are visiting flourishing flowers in the Faith in Action community garden in Abingdon, VA. Our Community Garden Cultivator trainees and Greenhouse supervisor Sarah Collie have been growing a wide array of flowers for the summer season to sell as cut flowers, including cosmos, marigolds, zinnias, cornflower/bachelor’s button, nasturtiums, calendula, fruit punch, flat bubble grass, bunny tails, and statice.
The budding floral social enterprise, Late Bloomers, plans to begin selling these flowers as flower crowns, table arrangements, and bouquets in late July and has already made a few sales. They've partnered up with Wild Appalachia, a local farm in Claypool Hill, who grow flowers as well, to increase supply and support local. So far, the Late Bloomers have sold their products to Blue Hills market, the Abingdon General market, Wolf Hills Coffee, and Appalachian Tea and Botanicals -- keep an eye open in a market near you!
Sarah Collie, the greenhouse supervisor and Groundwork mentor, looks forward to watching the Late Bloomers blossom into a sustainable business that brings beauty into folks' lives while putting money in the pockets of hardworking locals.
For Sarah, "Late Bloomers is so much more than a small business. It's a family. It's a safe space for discovery, learning, and growth. It's an opportunity to make introductions between new stewards and the land – to a way of life that serves Appalachian communities as well as the world at large."
Stay in the loop by following Groundwork's posts on ASD's Instagram and Facebook pages or contact Sarah Collie at scollie@asdevelop.org with "Late Bloomers" in the subject line.
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Appalachian Harvest is going Zero Waste! |
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Our sustainable agriculture team lead, Dylan Johnson, and our sustainability VISTA, Hannah Gibbs, have been working diligently on the waste audit at Appalachian Harvest in Scott County. Since June 9th, more than 300 pounds of solid waste have been measured and reported, with approximately 82% identified as potentially recyclable! Our next step is to assess how we can best reduce, reuse, and recycle this waste, and to then start our direct work as an organization and with our many partners on waste reduction!
"So, what is a waste audit?"
A Waste Audit is a tool for identifying and tracking the sources, amounts, and types of waste that are being produced. All the folks at Appalachian Harvest have been carefully tracking the amount of paper, cardboard, cans, recyclable plastic, food waste, and potential biochar materials in marked bins throughout the month. With these amounts and their sources carefully recorded, we will be able to get an idea of exactly what kinds of waste are being produced and where we can potentially intervene as we move towards a zero-waste future.
Any organization, of any size, can do a waste audit to see how much waste is being generated and how much can be potentially reused or recycled. For Groundwork, this Waste Audit will lay the foundation for a waste-free, sustainable future—knowing what kinds of waste we are producing allows us to identify other ways for materials to be used!
Groundwork will be publishing (free!) materials on our website that will allow any interested business, individual, or organization to conduct a Waste Audit of their own. These guides will provide steps for everything from planning to communicating messages to employees to data analysis.
There is no recycling service offered in Scott County or any of the surrounding areas. However, with waste audits like this one, we can help show the demand for materials recycling! Waste reduction is key to our community's happy, healthy future; Groundwork is proud to be leading the charge through ASD to create that opportunity for all Appalachians! Recycling directly benefits our communities by keeping the land and water free of waste and creating good-paying jobs that emphasize Appalachia’s bright future.
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Sarah Collie is a native of Damascus, VA. After hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2017, Sarah took to exploring small-scale organic farming on the west coast of Washington state. Her background in cut flowers and seed production has prepared her to join the ASD staff as the greenhouse supervisor and Groundwork mentor for the Faith In Action community garden crew. This season, she is most looking forward to the blossoming blooms of the Late Bloomers floral social enterprise.
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Jake Hibarger joins Groundwork as the Summer 2021 intern. Jake is a rising 3rd year at the University of Virginia and is thrilled to be joining ASD's Groundwork team. This summer, he will be working closely with the Groundwork team to help develop business models for our social enterprises with the ultimate goal of expanding Groundwork's presence to increase our capacity to serve more communities in the Appalachian region.
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Meghan Tignor is a part of our Groundwork Community Garden Cultivator program in Bristol, VA; she is also a part of the Late Bloomers social enterprise. Meghan grew up in southwest Virginia, in Brumley Gap where her grandfather was a farmer and grew mostly tobacco which is where her background of wanting to farm and garden came from. Being a part of 4-H and FFA when she was younger also helped ignite that passion. This season, she is looking forward to growing vegetables in the garden and growing cut flowers that the Late Bloomers are looking to sell as vases, bouquets, and flower crowns. She is also writing monthly blog posts, our Bridges + Blooms blog, where she will talk about her experience in the garden and the bonds that she and her coworkers have fostered together. |
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Jessica Harless is currently working as a Groundwork Warehouse Associate at our Appalachian Harvest location in Duffield, VA. Additionally, she is working in the Operations Department, learning accounting basics, and assisting with data entry and administrative tasks. Jessica is originally from Dayton, Ohio and moved to Duffield, VA in 2000. She has 6 years of office management experience under her belt. When she’s not at work or running her kids to practices she loves spending time with her family and the good outdoors: fishing, hiking, and camping. She would love to travel out west and go backpacking. Jessica has been married 19 years and has 3 beautiful girls and 1 handsome boy.
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New Cohort: Digital Media Associates |
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On June 7, Groundwork launched its first cohort in the Video Production pathway. These Digital Media Associates, led by Debbie Browning and Matthew Graves, will create videos, photos, and graphic art content for ASD and some of our local farms and businesses. They have been learning Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop and, for a few of them, this is their first time holding a DSLR camera. These folks are building new transferrable skills while doing important work for our community. Some of their photos are portrayed throughout this newsletter – aren't they lovely?
L to R: Chase Russell, Freddy Velasquez, Selena Barr
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A message from one of our partner, Bristol's Promise
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Appalachian Sustainable Development’s mission is to build a thriving regional food and agriculture system that creates healthy communities, respects the planet, and cultivates profitable
opportunities for Appalachians.
ASD is committed to ensuring an equitable, inclusive, and respectful culture and environment for ASD staff, board, program participants, and stakeholders.
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