As you may remember, my one word for the year is “Provide”.
I’ve continued to PROVIDE a warm body in attendance at Pierce County Hunger Advocates. I’m in charge of sending out alerts to folks who want to know when significant hunger-related bills are moving through Congress. We’ve been working this month on beating back an amendment on the Coast Guard reauthorization bill which would require 70% of all US international food aid to be shipped on US flag carriers, no matter its place of origin. This would severely limit the funds available for actual food to be provided to the world’s poor. Even locally purchased food, which was just recently authorized, would be affected. If you have any sway with congress this is still a hot button issue.
I continue to participate in our fledgling Toastmasters group here at Tobey Jones.
For most of April and the first half of May, I was able to attend a one-hour a week Conversational French class. I was the only person who came, other than the two college students who were hired to facilitate the hour. They were lovely girls who were very understanding of my fumbling lack of memory of vocabulary. They had both spent a year in France, one in high school and one in college, so they were very fluent. I loved visiting with them every week, and I hope Tobey Jones will offer the course again in the fall. One of them has graduated, but the other could be back next year.
The Hospitality and Outreach Team at church PROVIDED an opportunity for folks to get together and have a meal at a local restaurant. We went on a Saturday evening, and had a really good time. It’s nice to meet socially. This was also an opportunity for an intergenerational gathering, so we got to know some of the youth, as well as the other old fogies our age.
I suppose the biggest this thing I’ve PROVIDED is a customer for those local farmers who grow and sell organic vegetables, fruits, and plants. It’s become a regular thing for me to go to the farmer’s market every Saturday morning.
So far there have only been mustard greens, green onions, and asparagus,
but the local strawberries are just starting.
They also sell organic plants to put in your own garden, that you won’t have to worry about killing all the bees and birds with the pesticides the big, corporate concerns like Lowes, Home Depot and McClendons put on their plants before they sell them.
These are all small, family farms and I especially like shopping at L’Arche, which is a farm for adults with developmental difficulties.
I guess it’s been being on this diet and having the dietician rave about organically grown produce, but I’ve become much more picky about what I buy. Also locally grown fruits and vegetables go a long way to helping minimize hunger here locally – if the farmers can sell their produce for a decent rate, we will have less worry about genetically modified foods and pesticides in what we eat.
rant/ I suppose the last thing I’ve PROVIDED (although not willingly) was fresh greens for the deer.
There you have it – chewed to the stalks – poor lupine – and the deer don’t even LIKE lupine! And all the bloom gone from the astilbe. (Snarl, growl) /end rant
An Aging Liberal Hippy from the Left Coast 
