Volunteering at Urban Roots Farm

Urban Roots uses food and farming to transform the lives of young people and inspire, engage, and nourish the community. Founded in 2007 as a program of YouthLaunch, Urban Roots has transitioned to become an independent non-profit agency in the fall of 2011.

Although you can volunteer twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays 8:30-11:30AM at 7651 Delwau Lane) the farm will be closed throughout the month of August for their late summer planting. I took our publicist Uncle Ray to the farm to show him who we plan on supporting through donations once our business is 100% financially self-sustaining.

They put us to work in the Okra field. I never realized how prickly these plants were, not to mention the fire ants that felt the need to bite my hands!

I've always loved okra flowers. When we were brainstorming ideas for Gather and Forge's logo, we were thinking of squeezing this beauty in there.

As we were harvesting okra, one of the volunteer coordinators mentioned that she had been having trouble with her tractor overheating and with Ray's years of mechanical expertise, he offered to help diagnose the problem. The tractor will definitely need some work and we plan to help as much as we can to resolve the issue.

The volunteers and paid interns distribute the harvested produce into the CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) bags to give to the direct supporters of sustainable agriculture.

A group cheer to end the morning's work. Looking forward to volunteering again and again. Come out and support a good cause!