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Hey there! Glad you could stop by to learn more about Green Bridge Growers, the innovative social venture with the mission of  growing good food and good jobs for young adults on the autism spectrum.

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Regenerative Agriculture — Part 2

11/18/2019

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How can those of us concerned about sustainability, climate change, and agriculture work toward the goal of becoming carbon-neutral? The start-up company Indigo Agriculture has developed a new project to use sustainable farming techniques to remove 1 trillion metric tons of carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere. The project, called the Terraton Initiative, advocates for regenerative agriculture, in which plants store carbon in the ground, instead of releasing it back into the atmosphere. This is a process called carbon sequestration, in which plants capture and store carbon in their body, and use the carbon to grow leaves, stems, and roots. Plants also release some of the carbon into the soil in the form of simple sugars. According to David Perry, CEO and director of Indigo Agriculture, carbon sequestration is the “single most actionable, immediate, and affordable thing we can do to impact climate change.”

Perry says that farming on average sequesters one percent of carbon, as opposed to untouched land, which captures between three and seven percent of carbon. But regenerative agriculture can bring farmers closer to the three to seven percent, says Perry.

The Terraton Initiative tries to bring together farmers, scientific researchers, businesses, investors, and nonprofits to achieve higher profitability, the most sustainable practices, and better consumer health.

To put together useful data, the Terraton Initiative analyzes tens of thousands of farms to correct data on carbon sequestration. It will release the data it finds to researchers and the general public in order to enable innovation.

Regenerative agriculture looks like a great way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to reduce climate change while at the same time growing food for people. On its own, this may not be enough to stop climate change, but put together with other methods for reducing CO2 emissions and removing CO2 from the atmosphere, regenerative agriculture could have a big impact on reducing carbon dioxide levels back to a point where they're manageable once again.
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Regenerative Agriculture — Part 1

11/12/2019

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There are some very promising ways that sustainable farming can help combat climate change. We've researched these new developments and blog what we've learned in this post and the next. ​

Maybe you've seen the term "regenerative agriculture" around and you're wondering what it means.

According to Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Chief Science Advisor for FoodPrint, regenerative agriculture is "organic plus". Sustainable farming aims to only use the resources that are available; whereas regenerative agriculture focuses on "building health into the ecosystem," starting with increasing soil fertility, according to Rangan. Regenerative agriculture is a holistic approach that focuses first on the soil, and then after the soil, it takes into consideration the health of the animals, workers, farmers, and community.

Chemical-heavy farming techniques—as well as erosion from deforestation, and climate change—are causing a loss of topsoil around the world, which is making land less fertile. The United Nations estimates that if current rates of soil degradation continue, then all the world's topsoil will be gone in 60 years, which will be catastrophic for farmers' ability to grow food for people. With that in mind, we need to stop farming in ways that deplete the soil, and instead farm in ways that renew it. Healthy soil can act as a carbon sink by pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If implemented worldwide, regenerative agriculture practices have the ability to sequester 50 parts per million of carbon dioxide over the course of a century.

Regenerative agriculture also helps make soil more resilient against weather extremes, such as flood and drought. This is especially important as weather extremes become more likely due to climate change. Regenerative agriculture also helps promote higher nutrient density in plants, which is important considering that climate change is expected to cause plants to suffer nutrient losses.

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Seafood and Eating to Help the Planet

10/8/2019

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PicturePhoto: Frits Hoogesteger on Wikimedia Commons, shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Thinking our own consumption habits is important for thinking about how we contribute to climate change. Maybe you already use reusable grocery bags, stopped using plastic straws, and switched to plant-based milks, and like me, you’re thinking “what else can I possibly do to help the environment?” Did you know that our diets have an impact on the planet?

Right now, producing the world’s food is responsible for about ¼ of human generated greenhouse gases each year. However, not all foods contribute to these greenhouse gases equally. The meat and dairy industry are among the biggest culprits. According to the New York Times, the meat and dairy industry contribute over 14% of the world’s greenhouse gases every year, which is almost the same as all of the emissions from every automobile, airplane, and ship in the world.

How does food production contribute to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions? Food production contributes to climate change when forests and natural landscapes are cleared to make room for new farms and more livestock, when cows and other livestock digest food they release methane, and when fossil fuels are used to operate a greater amount food production related machinery. 

Seafood and fish provide us with an interesting look into how food can help or harm the planet. Fish and other seafood potentially contribute the lowest amount of greenhouse gases as they feed naturally in the ocean and can be harvested in ways that are low fuel. Like other food, not all fish are equal contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. For example, a recent study found that wild fish like tuna, sardines, cod, and herring on average have a smaller carbon footprint than pork or chicken.

It is also useful to know the different ways farmed and wild fish and seafood contribute to climate change. Wild fish and seafood potentially have a small carbon footprint, however, currently, wild fish and being caught at their maximum level. For some types of fish, fish farms—called aquaculture—can be more environmentally friendly. For other fish and seafood, like shrimp, aquaculture can have a large carbon footprint. So, it depends on geography, farming practices, and type of fish or seafood being produced.

Organizations like Aquaculture Stewardship Council and Friend of the Sea are working to certify fish farms that practice environmentally friendly standards. While these certification standards aren’t perfect they are steps in the right direction for ensuring planet safe seafood and fish production.

Finally, perhaps one of the most important ways to use diet as a way to help the planet is to look at how other cultures eat. Taking a look at countries like Vietnam, India, and Lebanon, traditional foods offer a mixture of meats and vegetables. In Vietnamese Pho meat is used to enhance vegetables and grains in the soup. In India meat is present, but the star of the show are legumes. Lentils and beans are high in protein and fiber, can easily adapt to changing weather patterns, and can improve soil quality. Lebanese diets are similar to those of India and Vietnam as they emphasize variety. These are not a meatless diets, but rather includes meat along with a variety of vegetables, herbs, nuts, and grains.

These diets can be useful referents for thinking about how our diets could help the planet. Introducing more variety, eating less meat, and knowing more about where our food comes from are important steps to using foodways and eating habits to improve our planet’s health! 

For more resources check out: 
Healthy Hyna: https://www.healthyhyna.com/about-me
Quiz: How Does Your Diet Contribute to Climate Change? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/30/climate/your-diet-quiz-global-warming.html
Decolonize your diet: http://decolonizeyourdiet.org/about

-Anna Ortega

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We ♡ Our AmeriCorps Team!

9/10/2019

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We're very grateful to have been part of the United Way of St. Joseph County's AmeriCorps program this spring and summer. Our three AmeriCorps members have done amazing work here at Green Bridge Growers. Each of them recently shared in their own words some of the highlights from their time with us. We're thankful for all they've contributed and the many ways they've enriched our work!
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Melissa Tomas:
At my service site, Green Bridge Growers, we grow vegetables in two different mediums. One is a traditional in ground planting method and the other is aquaponics in large grow towers. One of the goals of Green Bridge Growers is to train and employ adults with Autism to use their many skills and talents to produce locally grown vegetables. During my service time with Green Bridge Growers I had the opportunity to serve side by side with a number of adults with Autism and help them understand how plants grow, how to treat pest problems and how to harvest many different types of vegetables. One plant that we were able to grow from seed was Kale. We planted the kale seeds and took care of them over several months treating pest problems as they arose and watching for nutritional deficiency, finally we were able to harvest the beautiful kale. We then took the Kale and made a farm to table meal. We did this because many of the adults with Autism have goals they are to work on and learning to eat healthfully, cook and trying new foods are a few of their goals. It was an incredible experience to help them increase their plant knowledge, and increase their understanding of the process of growing their own food from a seed and the hard work and dedication it takes to take a plant from a seed up through harvest. They also increased their life skills by following a task through from beginning to end: walking through the process of harvesting a vegetable and preparing it for a meal with a vegetable they had been unfamiliar with prior to our time together. None of them had ever had the experience of growing something, preparing it and then eating it. It was an amazing experience to watch our core workforce of youth and young adults with autism be so proud of what they had accomplished and see them continue to build on what they’d learned by growing other vegetables and trying new recipes with their harvest.







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Anna Ortega:
At my service site, Green Bridge Growers, we grow produce in two ways. The first is the traditional plant in ground method, and the second is growing food in an aquaponics system. With aquaponics, fish and plants grow together. At Green Bridge, we use koi fish as the nutrient source for our plants and we have 7 large tanks of 3600 gallons nutrifying our kale and lettuce. However, in June we began to notice that a few of the koi fish were getting sick. Nate, one of the core staff members at Green Bridge, diagnosed the fish with an issue known as swim bladder disease, which inhibits the fish from swimming correctly. Over the next few weeks we set up a “fish hospital” to treat the sick fish. This required putting the fish in Epsom salt baths for a period of time. After a few weeks the Epsom salt treatments were successful, and we were able to save our fish. At this time Nate was still fairly new to the farm, so it was great to watch him feel more confident in his abilities as he came up with the successful Epsom salt treatments for the fish. I think this was a big turning point in the summer, as it allowed all of us to come together as a team to problem-solve a potentially damaging issue and demonstrated for me the many abilities individuals with autism can contribute in a community setting. 



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Tricia Serpe:
A year ago, I sold my business in the pursuit of turning my passion for horticulture into a career. I had been an avid volunteer at Garfield Park Conservatory for several years, slowly gaining knowledge about plants and beekeeping, and I wanted the opportunity to expand on what I was learning. I moved outside the city to South Bend, Indiana to be closer to the farming communities and learn how to grow my own food. 

Several months ago, I was given an opportunity through AmeriCorps to be of service to Green Bridge Growers, a social enterprise dedicated to training and employing young adults on the Autism spectrum using sustainable farming practices. I had originally accepted the role to learn how to farm both traditionally and hydroponically, but what I found after just a few short weeks was that my real sense of joy came from connecting with our core work force members and empowering them to grow along with the plants. I have seen our core workforce members gain confidence, take initiative, improve social skills and take ownership when they may not have done so in the past. 

As a result of my service term I have decided to pursue a certificate in Horticulture Therapy and recently applied to a program through the Chicago Botanical Gardens. I hope in the future to be able to continue to support growing both plants and people.

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Food Insecurity and Food Deserts

8/15/2019

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Here at Green Bridge Growers, our mission to provide sustainably grown food is driven by an ideology of social justice. We not only believe in the power of organic and green growing, but we also believe that our food should benefit our community. About 1 million people in the state of Indiana currently face food insecurity.  This means that there are people in our community that are at risk of facing or are currently facing some type of food insecurity. But what does that mean to be “food insecure”? Who is most at risk of being food insecure? How does our venture at Green Bridge hope to contribute to addressing this issue here in the Michiana area?

Food insecurity is defined as a lack of sustained access to healthy high quality food. It affects every community in the United States, but those most at risk of becoming food insecure are low income communities, people with disabilities, seniors and children, rural communities, and Black and Latino populations. Food insecurity is often related to the issue of food deserts. The USDA defines food deserts by their proximity to food providers and not by a communities access  or continued to healthy or culturally appropriate food choices.  

It is important to recognize that any community of people regardless of age, race, and ability are susceptible to food insecurity, however, it is impossible to look at the issue of food deserts without talking about racism and poverty, as food deserts are often found in communities of color and low-income communities. While about 23.5 million people live in food deserts, nearly half are considered low-income. While food insecurity can also be tied to economic and race issues, food deserts in particular highlight how necessary food justice is for at risk communities. Both food insecurity and food deserts are intersectional issues that require intersectional understandings for them to be properly solved.

Although these might seem like big issues to tackle, the first step is to become educated about food access inequality and the vocabulary used in relation to these topics. At Green Bridge Growers, we address food injustice in our work through supporting other small business in the area that provide locally and sustainably grown food to the wider community. We believe that by providing healthy affordable food to our community we are taking a big step towards addressing food insecurity and unequal food access by providing our community with the option to decide from where and from whom they purchase food.

For more resources on Food Justice, Food Insecurity, and/or Food deserts check out these websites:

https://hungerandhealth.feedingamerica.org/
https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-food-deserts
https://foodispower.org/

-Anna Ortega

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Salsas!

7/18/2019

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At Green Bridge Growers, we enjoy making recipes with fresh ingredients. One of our favorite recipes to make is homemade salsa. In my opinion, opening up a jar of salsa from the store is nothing compared to making salsa with fresh ingredients.

Whenever I make homemade salsa, this is the recipe I use. It calls for 3 cups of chopped tomatoes, 1 cup onion, ¼ cup minced cilantro, 4 teaspoons jalapeño peppers, and ½ teaspoon salt. I usually skip the bell pepper, lime juice, cumin, and black pepper (although you can add these if you choose to), and I add a few cloves of garlic even though the recipe doesn’t call for it (because I really like garlic a lot, and I think garlic tastes really good in salsa). This recipe will give you chunky salsa, but if you want to reduce chunkiness, then you can put half of the chunky ingredients in a blender. In my opinion, there isn’t any other salsa in the world that can compare to this one, not even the salsas from authentic Mexican restaurants that I’ve had (although those are really good too).

I might add that when I use fresh tomatoes (i.e. locally grown and recently picked tomatoes from our own garden or the farmer’s market), the salsa tastes better than when I use tomatoes from the supermarket (which were probably shipped long distances and are probably technically not even fresh). So I encourage you to use fresh, locally grown tomatoes when possible. If tomatoes are out of season, though, then you can get some from the supermarket.

I hope you enjoy this salsa recipe as much as I do!

-Chris

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Eating Local!

6/13/2019

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One of the ways that you can participate in building a more sustainable food system is by eating local. Eating local is not only important for local economies, but can be a way to consume healthier, more flavorful foods. Local foods often have more nutritional value than imported or shipped foods, as they are harvested when they are at their most ripe, have a shorter travel time from farm to table, and, generally come in varieties not found in a big box grocery store. Buying local foods is not only good for you and your local economy but also the environment.

Eating locally grown agricultural products has a positive impact on the environment. Local farms that sell directly to their community can have higher soil quality because local consumption patterns can encourage a diversification of agricultural practices. Supporting local farms preserves open spaces in the community and stops the overdevelopment of rich agricultural areas. This protects soil fertility, water sources, and keeps carbon outputs low.

Unlike bigger farms, local farmers produce in-season harvests, which
preserves the genetic diversity of crops. Eating out of season foods usually means that the produce was harvested before it reached peak flavor and nutritional value. One of the biggest ways eating locally produces food combats climate change is that is keeps carbon emissions low, as food travels less time to go from producer to consumer, which uses less fuel and generates less greenhouse gases. More than half of all the fruit, and about 1/3 of the vegetables purchased in the United States are imported from other countries. Along with generating fewer greenhouse emissions, locally grown food’s shorter travel time ensures that no spoilage and loses fewer nutrients during the time it takes to go from farm to table.

There are a variety of ways that local farms sell to the community. One of the main places to buy locally produced food is at a farmers’ market. Farmers’ markets are spaces where farmers sell directly to the consumer and allow for consumers to meet and build relationships with local farmers. In the Michiana area, there are multiple farmers’ markets that are daily (the South Bend Farmers’ Market) and weekly (the Mishawaka Farmers’ Market and the Urban Garden Farmers’ Market). Farmers’ Markets can be enjoyed by every member of the community, as those enrolled in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program can use their benefits to purchase locally grown food at farmers’ markets in all 50 states.

Other places to buy local food is at a Cooperative, a business where a group of farmers (or other food producers) share a market space to sell their products. In South Bend, the Purple Porch Cooperative sells Green Bridge Growers lettuce and kale, as well as other locally grown produce and meats. These options are great ways to develop and maintain local economic health, and to build community.



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Koi Care

5/21/2019

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So you’ve added koi (or another kind of fish) to your aquaponics system, and now your system is operational. At this point, you might want to consider adding aquatic plants to the tank where you keep the fish.

Aquatic plants provide oxygen for fish such as koi, so that the fish aren’t as dependent on air pumps to provide oxygen to the tank. They also help fight algae growth by limiting algae’s photosynthesis via their own photosynthesis. Pond plants also create shade for koi, which helps keep them cool when it’s sunny. And pond plants help to filter pond water, removing any nitrites or any other chemicals that might be poisonous for the fish.

Some examples of pond plants that are great at oxygenation include water lettuce, parrot’s feather, and cabomba.

Another kind of aquatic plant for koi is marginal pond plants. Marginal pond plants are plants that are potted and submerged a few inches in the water. These plants add greenery and beauty to the aquaponics system. They too help filter the water in the tanks, but they need a shelf to be placed on.

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Floating plants are ones that float on the surface of the water. An example is the water lily. The pad floats on the surface of the water, and the stem and roots extend down into the water. Water hyacinth and azolla are other examples of floating plants.

To prevent the koi from eating all your pond plants, you have a few different options. One is to build a shelf into the edge of the pond or fish tank. Put a potted plant on the submerge board to create the appearance of a natural pond plant, and then put stones over the soil to protect from rooting koi. But you will still need a barrier between the koi and the plant. You may need to stack stones or rust-proof wire around the pot.

Smaller plants you can float in the water simply by putting a flotation ring around their pot. But for plants like water lilies that have long, extended roots, consider putting wire mesh around the stems to protect against hungry koi.

In our experience, happy koi also need to receive immune boosters to help their overall health. We provide our fish with vitamin C and garlic to keep them healthy and prevent disease. Another step we take to ensure the health of our fish is to get to know their habits and behaviors and to treat any problems from the start. We enjoy our koi and hope that if you venture into aquaponics, you will too!

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Autism Awareness: Don't Define Me by My Deficits

4/4/2019

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For Autism Acceptance Month, we share an essay originally published in Olliebean by Judy Endow, an autistic adult who is well-known a leading advocate for those on the spectrum. Our team thought her insights are especially important because they focus on the assets of autistic individuals and what they contribute to the community. With this piece, you'll see why Judy is one of our favorite bloggers writing about the need for widespread acceptance and awareness of those with disabilities. 

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One thing that happens when a person is diagnosed with autism is that people start evaluating how that person doesn’t measure up. In fact, this needs to happen in order to receive an autism diagnosis. A diagnosis is important in terms of securing needed supports and services.

The measuring doesn’t stop after the diagnosis is received. As autistic children grow up they are assessed and measured many times over and for good reasons. Every needed support and service means the autistic must “qualify” to receive it. If an autistic child needs help in school they must meet the criteria to receive an Individualized Educational Plan – basically a plan with goals and outcome measures to put the student on the path towards the free and appropriate education that he cannot be denied according to law in the United States.

All of this is good and makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is when we take these measures of shortcomings and use only these shortcomings to think about autistics. When this happens autistics are thought of only in terms of their deficits and difficulties. While being found lacking and having deficits and difficulties as measured against typically developing peers is of utmost importance in the diagnostic realm and in terms of getting educational, medical and support services, this is not the sum total of an autistic person.

This is very important because what we need to have a diagnosis along with the medical, educational and support services that follow are very different from what we need to have a meaningful and productive life. I will make this personal now, using my own life for you to see an example.

You see, I get my diagnosis and supports based on what’s wrong with me, what I can’t do, and what my difficulties are in daily life. These things are easily measured against the neurotypical norm. So, that is how most of my life I have only known who I wasn’t and what I couldn’t do.

“Because there is not a good way to measure the things that make me be me those things go unmeasured. Instead I am measured by the yardstick of what makes you be you and am found to be lacking” (Endow, 2013. pg. 44).

But then, just like you, I live out my daily life according to what I CAN do, what I am good at and what I enjoy in my day.

In my everyday life as an adult it matters a whole lot what I CAN do because my capabilities have allowed me to earn a living. It matters more in my life today that I can write books, do public speaking and run my own consulting business than it does that my speech was delayed, I was institutionalized as a child or have a classic autism diagnosis.

It matters today what I am good at and what I enjoy because this has led not only to me running my own business, but in addition is the basis of my friendships with others and the hobbies and interests I pursue. Together, my work and my friends intersect with my hobbies and interests, bringing me a full life with a depth of meaning.

Autism is my diagnosis and indeed is so pervasive that it cannot be separated out and thus, I not only have autism as a diagnosis, but I am autistic in my identity. My diagnosis is about who I am NOT and what I cannot do – a measure of my limitations, deficits and difficulties.  Being an autistic woman is about who I am – a human being who IS, who CAN and who DOES – measured by living a full life in her own way in this world.

I had to learn how to outsmart the hard of my autism to live a full life as an autistic. It took several decades. Today my life is about who I am and what I CAN do. It is about the real relationships with colleagues, friends and family. Today I still have limitations, difficulties and deficits, but they do not define me. Instead they inform me. I can plan my life accordingly, ensuring supports, down time and accommodations so I can be the human being I want to be in this world. Today I have a full and meaningful life. I am content and happy and I am still just as autistic as I have always been.

My advice for younger autistics and for those who love and support them would be to look at who you ARE as a human being. Ultimately, this will become more important than your autism. Most of the time people around autistic children focus in on what they cannot do so as to make those areas of life better. In doing so autistic children grow up knowing who they are not. This is not a good basis for living a meaningful adult life because as adults, our work, our friends and our pastimes are based on who we are, what we can do and what makes us happy.

Therefore, I think it is of utmost importance our children learn this along the way. It took me most of my life to learn this. I hope by writing about it people supporting today’s autistic children will be sure to teach them who they ARE in this big wide world because one day that will become more important than their diagnosis of autism."

REFERENCES
Endow, J. (2013). Painted Words: Aspects of Autism Translated. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2009). Paper Words: Discovering and Living With My Autism. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Originally published in Olliebean August 14, 2014. 
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Building Community, Building Hope

3/27/2019

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Chris had the pleasure of sitting down for a conversation with one of our team members, Melissa Tomas, to hear more about her hopes for Green Bridge Growers and the many ways she's participated in our mission and supported our growth and development as a venture. Thanks, Melissa, for all the ways you build community and hope through your involvement with GBG!

Chris:
Thanks for talking to us today about Green Bridge. It’s always great for our supporters to know more about those who contribute their time and talents with us. Could you share some of your background in farming and gardening and how you got interested in it?

Melissa: I started gardening—or being interested in gardening—when I was finishing my bachelor’s degree. I decided then that I would do an agriculture extension program, and I did a minor in horticulture, so that was the area that I decided that I wanted to go into, and I fell in love with it. And then I continued my education, and went on to get a master’s degree in agriculture education, and I knew then that I really enjoyed teaching people about gardening, teaching people about plants, and at the time I thought that I was going to be a high school teacher - but I wanted something different, so while my kids were young I started volunteering, and started a school garden at their school, and it just kept going from there.

I ended up getting a job and started a community garden, and I just fell in love with teaching people how to garden, explaining the process of growing your own food, and sharing the importance of knowing where our food comes from and how to grow our own food, educating people about farming-small-scale and large-scale farming. That’s how it all started for me!

Chris: How did you hear about Green Bridge Growers and what attracted you to Green Bridge?

Melissa: Originally, I found out about Green Bridge when I moved here about 4 ½ years ago. My sister let me know that she saw something on Facebook about Green Bridge Growers, and I was looking for a place to start volunteering. Since I was new to the area, I hadn’t really had a chance to really know what was going on in this area with gardening and farming. So when my sister told me about that, I was interested, and I looked on Facebook, and I was able to get Jan’s information and contact her and ask her if she needed a volunteer, how I could help, how I could start volunteering. And that’s kind of how we got our start I have been volunteering now for 4 ½ years.

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Chris: What made you interested to want to work with people with disabilities, either autism in particular or disabilities in general?

Melissa: I was living in New Jersey and I’d just finished my Master Gardener program there, and my instructor, was very into horticulture therapy, which I had never heard of until I was in that class. And so I started looking into becoming a horticulture therapist, but then we decided to move here, and I couldn’t find any programs here. So I was given a book called Gardening with Children with Disabilities. And I read that book, and I just knew that was what I wanted to do in some way, shape, or form. I wanted to basically do horticulture therapy without the title of horticulture therapy. My nephew has autism, and that kind of also sparked me. I wanted to help in any way that I could—create some sort of a foundation for him to be able to do something in that field if he chose to. So then when I found Jan, it was just the perfect fit. I knew I wanted to do horticulture or gardening, and then she was already doing that type of work with people with disabilities, so I knew that that was the fit for me, and being at Green Bridge Growers was going to be where I wanted to be.

Chris: What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your involvement with Green Bridge Growers?

Melissa: Probably the two things that stick out to me the most are being able to just work with the group of people that I have been able to work with. I thoroughly enjoy working with the Day Program at Hannah & Friends, and I really enjoy being able to work with you and Matt and Aja. The relationships that we’re able to form—they mean a lot to me, and that’s one of the big reasons that I’m involved - the satisfaction that I have is to see the joy in everybody that I get to work with and how much they enjoy gardening. The other aspect is, I see Green Bridge Growers as such a wonderful space, and I wanted to be involved from the ground level of a business that will create such wonderful opportunities for people in the future, and be able to educate not only people with disabilities, but people without disabilities about food production and farming and where our food comes from. So that’s truly where I draw my satisfaction, is just being around the people that I get to work with, and being able to spread the education about farming.

Chris: What are your hopes for our work in the future?

Melissa: Well, I see Green Bridge Growers really as a farm model, hopefully for others to look at, and it has a twofold purpose: we want to help create jobs to address one problem, which is unemployment in adults with autism, plus we also want to create an opportunity for local foods to be grown here in the area and then used locally. So my hopes are that other people can look at Green Bridge Growers as a model and be able to implement that type of scenario in other cities across the country, and by doing so, we can impact that unemployment rate for autistic adults, and we can also help impact the fact that—you don’t have to travel as far—you don’t have to have your food necessarily come in from as far, you can have locally grown food in any area. So being a part of this model of farming and creating jobs, I hope that it can be spread across the country, and people will be able to look at it and model their own business after Green Bridge Growers.

Chris: What’s your favorite crop to grow and eat? And do you have any special recipes that you enjoy that use this vegetable?

Melissa: My favorite thing to grow is seedless cucumbers. I love a fresh cucumber, so that is my favorite thing to grow in the summer. And it’s my favorite thing to eat. It’s not really a specific recipe, but one of my favorite things to do is just chop up a cucumber, some tomatoes, and some feta cheese in the summertime and just eat a little salad like that. It makes me think of summer when I eat it, and it makes me think of warm weather. So it’s definitely my favorite vegetable to grow!
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    About Us

    Green Bridge Growers is a social enterprise created to put to work the many gifts and skills of young adults with autism.  Our founders, Chris and Jan, are building an exciting venture that grows fresh local food and grows great jobs for autistic adults. We invite you to learn about us and follow our work! 

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Green Bridge Growers
61591 Bremen Highway
Mishiwaka IN 46544


574-310-8190
info@greenbridgegrowers.org

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