Volunteers Our Community
Hey there SOW Community! It’s Nick, Program Manager for Shift Our Ways Collective. I am kicking off June with a well deserved spotlight on our volunteers, the folks that keep our farms thriving and lively.
As an organization founded and built by volunteers, we could never do everything we do without all of your helping hands, legs, and brains. Since my first day at SOW in November 2024 our volunteers have dramatically transformed our farms by building a chicken coop, multiple sheds, planting dozens of native plants, shoveling mulch, raking gravel, and that was just what the large volunteer days got accomplished. During our weekly open hours in 2025 we had folks volunteer with us over 400 times! And now in 2026, folks have already volunteered with us over 375 times donating over 1000 hours of their time! Our open hour volunteers have provided us with hundreds of pounds of processed compost; bundled up herbs; harvested & washed produce; pruned, watered, and loved our crops.
However, our volunteers are more than just their hard work. Our volunteers are our community. Through each shift I have had the pleasure of chatting with many of you about your families, interests, and struggles; we have debated, laughed, and given advice to each other. We see people of different age groups and backgrounds come together for different reasons: completing service hours, reconnecting with nature, fulfilling a class requirement, or giving back to the community. While many of you come in ready to tackle all of the tasks I often have to remind you to take it slow, be intentional, and encourage you to talk to others because our space is more than the work we do, it's a place to learn, heal, and grow your being.
I am lucky enough to witness all of these experiences from adults giving college decision advice to high schoolers, grandparents telling me about the birth of their newest grandchild, folks setting plans for going hiking, teenagers getting their driving license, multi-generational families sharing gardening tips, and so so much more. There is nothing more impactful than the conversations you all have while turning the compost, up-potting seedlings, and harvesting produce – welllll the compost and the produce harvested might have a larger impact I guess.
Through our volunteers we have built something beautiful and irreplaceable. Proving that our communities thrive when we have access to an outdoor community space that is focused on regenerating our soil and community. There’s always more work to be done, more conversations to have and more relationships to build. Thank you for everything you have given to us (and me)!