Clare Caldwell
Letter in support of the Many Hands Sustainability Center
July 14th, 2008
I have been working at Many Hands Organic Farm since April of this year, and it has been a surprising and wonderful experience. I have worked on several organic vegetable farms over the past few years, but Many Hands is truly a unique situation. The most significant difference that I can feel between Many Hands and all of the other farms that I have worked on is our community. I have always worked to better understand how to care for the land, to increase production, and to provide people with organic, healthy food; but there has always been a separation between the farm and the community. I love where I work now because the working farm and community we serve are really the same thing. At Many Hands, I am working for the caring community that surrounds the farm, for the many people who depend on it for good food, friendship, and a safe, supportive place in the world. I feel a strong desire to advance the mission of the farm, to sell more and to find more CSA members, not so that Jack and Julie can put more money in the bank or pay me more, but because I believe strongly in the humanitarian mission of Many Hands, and I care deeply about its success and family. This larger motivation makes coming to work in the morning a pleasure, it makes working hard all day easy, and it makes me happy to think of all that I have done throughout the day as I head home in the evening.
At Many Hands Organic Farm we grow 3-4 acres of vegetables and fruit, raise chickens for eggs and meat, turkeys, geese, and pigs for slaughter. We have eighty CSA members, and sell at the Barre Farmers Market every Saturday morning, the Insight Meditation Society and the Living Earth in Worcester. All of the work that goes into the farm is done by a wide cast of full and part-time workers, working CSA members, and the guys from Almost Home in Worchester. Almost Home comes to Many Hands every Friday for a full morning of work on the farm, a delicious home-cooked lunch, and a safe and welcoming environment in which to re-enter the working world. Whether or not they have any interest in farming, at Many Hands they find a caring community of open minded people who are happy to have them, happy to talk to them and get to know them, and happy to encourage and teach them the basics of working hard. They are encouraged to gain leadership skills and confidence in themselves as they work on our farm before they have to go out to find jobs on their own. It is clear that this relationship between Many Hands Organic Farm and the Many Hands Sustainability Center and Almost Home has really become an inspiration to Julie and Jack, and has become very central to everything that we do on the farm. From hiring Edwin, Brian, Danny, Nate, and Eric once they could begin working full time, driving them to other job interviews, providing shares of food each week (and some cooking lessons), and building strong connections through hard work, Julie and Jack are generously making a whole-hearted commitment to the men of Almost Home, and the larger community. I am happy to be helping with the important work that is being done at Many Hands Organic Farm and the Sustainability Center, and sharing in a meaningful endeavor. I look forward to going to the farm everyday not to see ex-convicts but to see the people who have become my friends.
Sincerely,
Clare Caldwell