Service Learning
I chose to do my service learning volunteer work with an organization called Everyone's Harvest. Everyone's Harvest operates five farmer's markets in the Salinas/Seaside/Monterey area, as well as a community garden here in Seaside, close to the CSUMB campus. I did my volunteering at the Alisal Certified Farmer's Market, located on East Alisal Street in Salinas. I started off working at the food demonstration booth, where I would make salads out of fresh, raw produce (following a recipe). I would hand out free samples to whoever was interested in trying it, and give them the recipe if they were interested. I also worked at the information booth, answering questions and helping people pay with their EBT cards. The majority of the time, I communicated with people in Spanish, as the vast majority of the customers were Mexican. On a few occasions I greeted a Hispanic person in Spanish and they responded in English, seemingly not wanting to converse in Spanish. I found this interesting. It was also great to see the comaraderie among the vendors at the farmers market. They were very friendly towards one another, and if a customer didn't have quite enough money to buy the produce that they wanted, the vendors would usually give it to them anyway. It was nice to be around such a friendly environment, and the customers clearly enjoyed being there. I also conducted several surveys for Everyone's Harvest, which gave me the chance to learn how much people value the farmer's market. It was clear that the Mexican people appreciated the opportunity to buy fresh, organic produce. For some reason, I imagined that organic vs. conventional produce would not matter much to them, as it doesn't to me. I learned that it absolutely is, and they really value it.
Service Learning: Everyone's Harvest