Please Help Us Out!
A view out the back door during a June rainstorm
Dear Friends of the Many Hands Sustainability Center,
We write to you today asking for an end of the year donation to support our work with former prisoners on our farm.
On April 20, 2007 our lives were changed forever when the guys from Dismas House's Almost Home program showed up to volunteer on our farm. Since that date we have met and worked with over 100 people who are attempting to make lifesaving choices. What a blessing to be part of this.
Last year we commissioned Rebecca Place Miller to compile the available research on addiction and nutrition, and this year we published the resulting study, "Nutrition in Addiction Recovery". This study presents compelling evidence that addictive responses are often associated with nutritional deficiencies. We hope it is widely read and discussed.
Dismas House, which after their experience with us became convinced of the value of the farming model in addiction recovery, bought a farm in Oakham and is actively working with guys there. This year we welcomed a couple of these folks to our farm each Wednesday.
Thanks to the Churchill family in Hubbardston for their donation of a van this year. It has been very useful in helping us bring to the farm guys from Hope House, a recovery program in Leicester for young men. Jason and Brian stopped by and picked up 1-4 guys, sometimes 4 days per week, to come and volunteer and learn on the farm.
This year we also accepted the help of a high school neighbor who came to us to pay off his community service debt. He is a great kid and seems to have really enjoyed the farm experience.
Tyson ecstatic over his basil
Over the next couple of years we hope to gather our experience into a model that can be replicated by other organic farms. The mutual benefit for former prisoners to get a chance at lasting recovery from addiction and its ramifications, and for farms to employ capable workers, is too good to pass up!
Below are some thoughts from Jason and Brian on their experiences here. We will remember 2010 as the summer where as many as 18 of us had convivial lunches out at the picnic table after working and laughing in the fields all morning long. We appreciate your donation to support our work. Please send your tax deductible contribution to:
Many Hands Sustainability Center
411 Sheldon Road
Barre, MA 01005
If you would prefer to donate online, please use the form at the top right of this page.
Here on our website you can read some personal stories about this work we are doing.
Julie and Jack
From Jason
Jason preparing spinach for the CSA
My name is Jason Cucchiara and this will be my second season here at the farm. I was introduced here through a program known as Almost Home, a four month program for alcoholics and addicts/convicted felons to help re-integrate us into society. I was sent there on parole. Fridays we would go to the farm to volunteer our time, help do the C.S.A, split wood, fix whatever needed fixing on the farm -- always a good time you know. Of course let's not forget the occasional weeding! We went there to get out of the house for a few hours and see what a little hard work would do to build morale. I enjoyed it, others could really give a s**t. This is how I was introduced to the farm.
January 2010 some cold winter week, outside splitting wood, down to about an average of maybe 18 hours a week. I'm sure as you all know, most farmers are not the most well off people -- especially in the winter months. But Jack and Julie do what they can to keep us employed year round. Between splitting wood and taking warm breaks inside and drinking hot cider we talk about the up coming months of the farm. Things come up like crop fertility, the long awaited summer conference, ideas to generally help improve the farm. And of course the usual laugh. We set out plans and dates of how we will accomplish these thoughts.
For instance, on crop fertility Julie put me in charge of a drip tape irrigation system, to water and fertilize the hoop houses. A huge success, next step in the 2011 season to run it through other parts of the farm. Can't wait!! We tried something else new as well like black plastic on the melons and peppers which was another ingenious thought. Hence, kick ass melons and peppers! Plus my fave -- a little less weeding on the farm.
Julie put Brian in charge of an outreach project to get in contact with other programs like Almost Home. Because since the closing of Almost Home in June of 2009 due to budget cuts no more guys would be there to participate and help out. He contacted places like Jeremiah's Inn, Hope House, and of course The Linda Fay Griffin house "all women". I tried to help conjure that to work but, no luck.......
The Hope House program director was very interested. He took the guys up I think four or five times before the ride thing was an issue again. Luckily we managed to get a van donated to the farm through a church. Which is the big guy upstairs looking out, because he knows a lot of good will come from this. Jack had it registered through the Sustainability Center to make it all work out and bam!!!! Lives are being changed.
When I say lives are being changed I mean it. A slow and steady process. Look at me for instance, believe it or not at one time years ago I used to do bad things. Things that caused me to get in some serious trouble. Now though, because of my experiences with Almost Home and Dismas House where I currently reside, and of course all the positive help and reinforcement Jack and Julie have showed me over the last two years or so, I'm doing really well. Better yet, being able to give back. For example, I pick up the Hope House guys and bring them down for what I call fun and excitement at the farm because that's what it is you know. This is what was given to me so I want to do my part to pay it forward. They remind me of a younger version of myself at that age and it's nice to be able to tell them my experiences so they do not need to go through the hopelessness and misery like I did. There is more to life than drugs and alcohol. You can actually enjoy life.
Sincerely, Jason Cucchiara
From Brian
Brian pruning fruit trees
As an employee at Many Hands it is a pleasure to write in support of the Sustainability Center. Now in my third season at the farm, the work I do has come to represent more than just a paycheck at the end of the week. It represents an adoption of ideals and virtues that, for most of my life, have escaped me: Generosity, patience, tact, dedication, and gratitude to name only a few of these virtues. And ideals such as community, the love of my labor, the love of nature, and the love of food. Three years ago I would never have been caught eating a carrot just pulled from the ground without first washing off all the dirt. Now it's common practice for me to just pull them, brush them off a bit, and start munching away right there in the field.
In my first few months on the farm I always wore sneakers or boots in the field while most others walked around bare foot. I couldn't understand why they chose to get their feet all dirty and risk an injury. Soon enough, though, I would try it and it turned out that I liked it. First of all my feet would get dirty regardless, but more importantly, it felt good to not have that buffer between myself and the earth beneath me.
I like the feeling of newly tilled soil giving way under my weight. Or the coolness of morning dew in the grass. I've come to appreciate things that in the past I've taken for granted. Seeing rays of sun beginning to penetrate a fog that had been hanging over the garden and capturing a photo of it. Listening to the plethora of different birds that sing throughout the day. And the food. Many Hands has a taste. Many tastes, actually. All of them delicious. And by far more nutritious and infinitely safer to eat than most of what one can buy at the local super market. Ultimately, what I am getting is an education as a result of my employment at Many Hands. Not only in how to manage a farm or eat more wholesome, nutritious foods. As valuable as that education has been, of at least equal, or possibly even greater importance are the life lessons I've learned.
The Sustainability Center's aim is to make a difference in the lives of anyone who is eager to learn. And the people within it reach out to many who, along the way have lost themselves and might not yet know what it is they are eager for. That was once an accurate description of myself. Until, by chance, or perhaps by Providence, I found myself at Many Hands. Now, having found new direction in my own life, I am eager to help facilitate such an occurrence in the life of someone who is still searching. And with the continued dedication and generosity of the Centers' founders, Jack and Julie, and all the people who make the Many Hands experience what it is, and possibly even a few charitable readers (hint, hint), the Center will continue to leave it's imprint on the lives of many.
Brian Fecteau