Support A Farm in Your Community through Community Supported Agriculture
CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) are partnerships between community members and local farms. Consumers support the farm by contributing a lump sum of money for the harvest an entire season in advance. This means that, no matter what the farm yields, the farmer will have received the funding to support his farm. Community members, or shareholders, are repaid by getting to share in the farm's yields. If you purchase what's known as a ?full share,? you'll likely be eligible for a twice weekly pickup from your CSA, while a ?half share? typically means a once weekly pick up. For smaller households or an individual, sometimes half-shares are also available.
The box from a CSA will include whatever the farmer harvested that week. Common contents are fruits and vegetables, but sometimes there are also flowers, herbs, eggs, meat, honey, etc. Sometimes local farms involved in CSAs exchange harvests with other local farmers to increase the diversity their shareholders will receive. Each CSA is unique, with farmers tailoring their plan to the needs of their community. This plan often includes the type and varieties that will be grown, the projected yield, and the amount of time each crop will be available. Informal meetings with consumers and questionnaires are often conducted to provide input to the farmer.
CSAs are a proactive solution to what many members of the community view as a problem, the fact that more than one million acres of farmland each year are sold for urban development due to failing farms. The environment benefits from this type of food production and distribution, especially considering the average item purchased at a grocery store has traveled 1,500-1,800 miles from source to consumer. CSAs are as much of a risk for shareholders as for farmers; shareholders pay before the season's crops are even planted, so if an unexpected freeze destroys a crop, the harvest will be lean for a while. But CSAs generally benefit shareholders and farmers; farmers are ensured a stable, consistent income that defrays the inherent risks of farming, and consumers get fresh produce at a reasonable price.
Why to Encourage Your Child to Participate in Community Service
Volunteering is a way to get involved in the community, helping others and strengthening your family at the same time. Volunteering cultivates a variety of valuable characteristics in children and can instill a lifelong love of service to the community and its members. Here are some of the many benefits:
Children will learn the value of helping others. Volunteering often exposes children to the alternatives to consumerism. They'll learn about those that are less fortunate and how fulfilling helping others in the community can be.
Volunteering teaches productivity and offers ideas for children who are not involved in typical extracurricular activities (sports, arts, creative hobbies, etc). Learning that there are alternatives to coming home after school and playing video games and watching TV will encourage children to pursue activities that are worthwhile.
Volunteering builds job skills, such as learning to work as part of a team, leadership, responsibility, and setting and reaching project goals. Volunteering can also lead children to discover where their vocational interests may lie. They may enjoy working at a hospital more than a soup kitchen, for example, or may discover they love animals so much they'd like to explore careers related to working with animals. Volunteering looks great on college applications, too, showing college admissions that your child is well-rounded, responsible, and makes a contribution to their community.
Volunteering teaches that every person matters. The lesson of this is twofold: children will see that there should be no members of society outside the scope of community assistance, and they'll see that most organizations can use people of all ages and skill levels to volunteer.
Intentional Communities Provide Unique Living Opportunity
If you've never heard of an intentional community, you're certainly not alone. However, intentional communities have existed for thousands of years, with people choosing to build a community who share common interests, goals, and ideals. Types of intentional communities are as vast as the people who live in them. Common interests among residents of intentional communities include political or religious affiliation, ecological concerns, and views on society. Residents may live in a cluster of dwellings, in a suburban home, in an urban neighborhood, or on a piece of rural land. As the name implies, the goal of an intentional community is to create a place where all the members play a role and have a heightened sense of belonging. Intentional community members live together, play together, sometimes work together, and share similar beliefs, interests, and/or values. A weekly/monthly community service requirement is usually required by all community members to encourage involvement and participation.
Residents of intentional communities are bound by the community's agreements or contracts. These were written by the founders of the community and typically change over time as the community evolves. These agreements typically include a vision/mission statement, a removal/expulsion policy, work requirement policy, pet policy, etc. Before one may join an intentional community, they must undergo a process before they're approved by the community's members. This generally includes interviews and discussions about that particular intentional community and what is expected of members, etc. After that, a voting process occurs to determine whether the person will be offered residency.
Those interested in the lifestyle of an intentional community often seek the sense of belonging and mutual support many intentional communities seek to offer. As many intentional communities appreciate the interest of those curious about this type of lifestyle, many communities offer tours to visitors on specific dates and times of the week. Proceeds from these tours are often used to fund shared events in the intentional community, such as holiday parties and other special events. For more information, many intentional communities now have a website with FAQs, photos of the community and its events, and the community's contracts and agreements.