Springtime is here, we need volunteers!
What a sigh of relief! All of this sunshine after weeks of bitter cold, and plummeting COVID numbers after a year of chaos and uncertainty. While there is no guarantee that this winter’s cold weather or the pandemic’s havoc is ending now, I’m still happy to stop and take a breath.
I’m taking my breath outside though. I walked to work today for the first time in a long time. My lingering COVID exhaustion and the cold weather had me driving the short half mile trip from my house to the Agriculture Park. However now, I am no longer tired all the time and the sunshine on my face feels great! As I walked into the Agriculture Park today, the first thing I noticed is that much of the snow has already melted and you can once again see little bits of our park-in-progress.
Parks and Recreation staff have been hard at work finishing our barn, greenhouse, classroom, and teaching/picnic pavilions. CCUA’s staff has been hustling this winter, organizing our new barn, learning how to use the new greenhouse during these record low temperatures, building demonstration gardens, and getting interpretive signs ready for installation in the spring. This spring, summer, and fall the Agriculture Park will be growing, in all senses of the word. We will be growing food in more space, building more demonstrations, harvesting more produce for the food bank, adding fencing, we’ll see the addition of a chicken coop, the “to do” list for this year goes on.
Needless to say we’ve got a lot of work lined up this year, and we will need a lot of help! Our volunteer labor in 2020 was about half of what we had in 2019. Despite that, we grew a record amount of food, but it was hard. In 2021, with the exciting new additions we have at the Agriculture Park and our plans to grow a new record amount of food, we need more volunteers.
If you have that same itch to get out of the house and be outside, this could be an opportunity for you. Volunteering with CCUA is a fun and safe way to soak up the sun, socialize, and give back to your community. All of our volunteer opportunities are outdoors. Masking and socially distancing are enforced. At CCUA you can sign up to volunteer with us for a recurring weekly shift, or you can sign up your group (workplace, church, club) for a one-time volunteering event.
Another reason to volunteer is that there is still a tremendous need for food assistance for many who have lost their jobs or been forced to quit to stay home and take care of family. That being said, our partner, The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri, has also seen a decline in volunteers and needs more help packing, repackaging, and distributing food to families in need.
When you’re ready to soak up the sun and dig in the dirt, we’ll be here for you. Signup yourself or your group to volunteer with CCUA at ColumbiaUrbanAg.org/volunteer.
Sign up to volunteer with The Food Bank at ShareFoodBringHope.org/volunteer.
Originally published in Columbia Daily Tribune 2/24/21