I met the blonde woman on the right, working cider press with my LifeCycles coworker, Jessie, yesterday at the park, while I was setting up for Esquimalt Lantern Festival. I told her & her husband about the festival & what paths are most accessible (for her elderly Mom). Then I invited them to come to Welland Orchard for LifeCycles Project Community Sharing Day & informed them on what our local food security nonprofit does. They showed up with their Mom!
A few other people I met yesterday also accepted my public invitations to come to the orchard today & they all found me while I was working the event 😁💗 About 25 people I met yesterday, showed up at the orchard today.

My LifeCycles executive director was really impressed by how I can casually recruit/inform/get more folks excited about our nonprofit food security work & why they should support us, when I'm physically out & about in the community 🥰

Alex & her little one 💗 Alex is back after maternity leave & it's been wonderful, slowly getting to know them better. Alex is our executive director at #LifecyclesProjectSociety.

Her background:

Alex (she/her) is the owner and primary farmer at Bird & Bean Farm, while also taking on her role here at LifeCycles as the General Manager. She has settler heritage, her family origin is mainly from Scotland and Ireland, and grew up on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabeg traditional territory, in Ottawa. Alex identifies as queer and is lucky enough to share the property she farms on with other awesome members of the queer community. Alex’s love of the outdoors began at a young age. She was a camp kid who then became a canoe tripping guide in the summers. After high school, she spent a few years travelling around the world by volunteering as a WWOOFer (world wide opportunities on organic farms) and her love of the natural world began to include growing. At the same time, however, Alex grew more and more concerned about our changing climate and wanted to affect change more directly through law and policy. She decided to go back to school to pursue first an undergrad degree in Sustainability and Sociology, and then a law degree focusing on environmental and Indigenous law. After law school, however, she quickly discovered that colonial law felt far too reactive in a time when proactivity is so needed, and she found herself being more and more drawn to Indigenous law revitalization. She began searching for jobs outside of colonial law and feels incredibly grateful to have been able to work for the Indigenous Law Research Unit, affiliated with UVic, for over 2 years. However, the longer she worked fulltime in an office, the more she dreamed to be able to be outside and grow again. Thus, her search for opportunities in the agricultural field began. Even though Alex deeply has loved farming these past years, she missed engaging her brain in big-picture discussions, which is a big part of why she is so excited to be working with the LifeCycles Project! This year she looks forward to being a contributing member on her farm as well as working at LifeCycles to bring her love of food and her hate for food waste together!"

@PhoenixSerenity

Is Lisa on the Fedi?

Jessie, on the right, with 2 of our rad #volunteers - working the #ApplePress machine.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YOKbFTBXHkg

#WellandCommunityOrchard
#FoodSecurity #FreeEvent #FreeSamples #Nonprofit #CultivatingCommunities #CommunityBuilding #CommunityEvent #FreeTastings #VictoriaBC #VancouverIsland #FreeFruit #FreeFood #CommunitySharing #HelpingHands #LifecyclesProjectSociety #nonprofit #ViewRoyal #Saanich #VanIsle