Volunteering at GRuB by Rebecca

Volunteering at GRuB by Rebecca - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

In the Autumn of 2016, I enrolled in my fifth quarter of classes at South Puget Sound Community College as an incoming high school senior. With the goal of an Associates of Arts degree by graduation in June, I chose to take an environmental science class to fulfill one of my natural science credits at the college. I did not feel particularly excited for this class as it was online and I have never been extremely engaged in the natural science. Within my first week, I discovered that it was a requirement for me to volunteer for twenty hours at an organization that would help reduce my carbon footprint. I knew immediately where to go: GRuB.
GRuB Farm is a not for profit community garden where community members from all around can come and volunteer their time to maintain and become further educated about gardening. At GRuB, they strive to provide everyone with the ability to eat and prepare fresh and healthy fruits and vegetables. One way that they distribute the produce is through CSA boxes, which they fill with any harvested veggies of the day, and then anyone in need may take some home with them.
Now the reason that I chose GRuB is because I have lived on the same street, only a three-minute walk away, for fourteen years. My boyfriend and I both chose to volunteer our time here, and we both considered it very beneficial. I thought, at first, that it would be too difficult and therefore not worthwhile, however, I found the experience to be refreshing and exciting. On the first day, I offered to mulch, which involved shoveling the bark and leaves and sticks into a wheelbarrow, rolling it to the new, desired location, and then returning and repeating; This activity made me feel surprisingly confident in myself, as I didn’t expect to be able to haul such a large and heavy load.
Since my time at GRuB, I have been much more aware of the effect that my family members and I have upon our environment. Reducing waste by recycling and composting has become much more important and I have reduced my shower time considerably to reduce the wasting of water in our household. When it begins to warm up in Spring and Summer, I hope to help build and plant a garden bed in my family’s yard so we can cook with fresh foods. Healthy eating is especially important to me because I have two younger brothers who are preparing to enter their teenage years, and I want them to be happy and healthy, which can be especially hard to do if they are surrounded by negative eating habits.
I also hope that either this Spring or the following Spring I will set aside time to work with GRuB once again and help build garden beds for family’s that cannot necessarily afford the fresh foods or who lack the transportation necessary to buy produce from the grocery store.
Overall, GRuB was a wonderful decision for me as a sister, community member, and individual. If I could go back, I would do it all again.
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.