Dear Friend, 

Autumn is my favorite season. At least this year it is. Having lived on and off in New England for decades, my seasonal preference has been as changing as, well, the seasons change. As a young girl, summer was the easy winner with its endless carefree days of play and freedom from schoolwork. In later years, I relished the reawakening of the natural world in spring and the promise of more hours of light. And though I often appreciated the cool crisp air and then-colorful, crunchy leaves of autumn, its beauty was subdued by the ominous foreboding of the cold and dark of winter. But now, I embrace this season of beauty and bounty with temperatures that allow us to bask in it. 

Yet, the winter still looms. And this year, like last, there is an almost tangible anxiety that the darkness could be more than just a lack of light. So why is autumn still my favorite season? It has to do with my belief in the strength of community. The term may be overused but it should not be undervalued. The pandemic underscored the necessity of community and in some cases, created it. Last fall and winter, I helped deliver farm produce with Grow Food Northampton’s Community Food Distribution Project with a dedicated group of people previously unknown to me. In the spring, I began my position as GFN’s Tuesday Market Manager. For the last 26 weeks, I’ve had the privilege to be part of a community of farmers, food and craft vendors, and musicians and patrons, all of whom form a robust web of mutual support. The vendors barter with one another and donate goods to the musicians, the patrons support the vendors and tip the musicians who then become customers of the vendors. I’ve also been fortunate to have a plot at GFN’s Community Garden this year. Talk about a support network! - these gardeners will help out with anything from swapping plants to watering while you’re away to helping rid your plot of insidious jumping worms. 

So, yeah, winter is around the corner and, yeah, the trepidation about lingering effects of the pandemic is unsettling. But I’ve witnessed the strength and caring of this community. So I will revel in the magnificence of this season because I know that when the cold comes creeping in, you’ve got my back.

Cheers,

Helen Kahn
Farmers Market Manager

Volunteer With Us!

Giving Garden Volunteer Hours - As the season is winding down, we have a few more opportunities to help put the gardens to bed. Join us for one of our volunteer sessions coming up in the next few weeks, culminating with garlic planting on the morning of Tuesday November 2nd. Sign up here!

Farmers Market News!

Welcome Northampton High School Interns, Lydia and Kamini! 

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month

September 15 – October 15 marks the federally-designated National Hispanic Heritage Month to honor and celebrate the myriad rich contributions to the United States by Latinx/Latino/Latine Americans -- whose ancestry is from Spain, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. (For more on the different identity terms used for Latinx peoples, we like this article from the Luz Collective.) 

What we know here at Grow Food Northampton is that our food and agricultural systems in the U.S. are dependent on the Latinx workforce that comprises 83% of agricultural workers in this country. While we celebrate, honor, and are unceasingly grateful for their work, we must be sure that we don’t sugarcoat the reality of what this means. Agricultural workers in the U.S. are among the most socially and economically disadvantaged people in the country. In fact, 33% of agricultural worker families have income levels below the national poverty guidelines, and most contend with language and cultural barriers, and a lack of access to education, healthcare, adequate housing, and social services. (National Center for Farmworker Health)

What’s more, Latinx families are on the frontlines of food insecurity. Generally across the U.S., Latinx households experience food insecurity rates at double those of white households. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 58% of Latinx adults in Massachusetts have been experiencing food insecurity as compared to 24% of white adults. 

We recommend watching a just-released documentary, Fruits of Labor, from director Emily Cohen Ibañez, that illustrates these statistics in an intimate and moving way. By following the day-to-day life of Ashley, a 17-year old Latina agricultural worker in Central California who is also attending school, longing to apply to college, and advocating for farmworkers’ rights, we develop a critical analysis of the food system in this country. Once you watch the one-hour film and fall in love with its real-life protagonist, this insightful interview with the director in Civil Eats can provide you with more information and analysis, as does this earlier short film she made on Ashley in 2019.