It’s 6am, and I’m wide awake, my body refusing to forget the farm harvest schedule. I’m sitting in my brother’s high rise apartment, looking down at the bustling street of people beginning their daily grind. Coasting down highway 70 away from a blazing sun, my heart felt full as I headed into Denver this weekend. Being in the city is like night and day from life at Groundwork. The values we practice day to day at the farm have seeped their way into my mind […]
I applied for this fellowship because… I recognize that change must happen sooner rather than later. A movement to localize our food systems has taken root throughout our local communities and the world. I want to play a larger role in ensuring its success by focusing on the food systems that provide sustenance to communities all the while engaging in a healthy relationship with the land, people, and earth as a whole. While learning is vital, making connections is equally important. Understanding other cultures as […]
I applied for this fellowship because… I want to create meaningful change toward a socially and environmentally just future. There are many, many ways to do this and I’m still trying to find my place in the movement, but over the last year I’ve grown especially curious in how local and organic farming can embody that future. I learned about Groundwork through its ties to Pun Pun, an organic farm and seed saving center I was volunteering at in Thailand, and applied because of the […]
I applied for this fellowship because… I applied for this fellowship because I have been seeking to understand and work towards a vision of the world that inspires me. I have ever-changing ideas of what this future could look like: It always includes community, a close relationship to the food we’re growing, vulnerability, and personal responsibility. I often ask myself if some version of this future is possible in our polarized and disconnected culture where these values hold such little importance. How do we get […]
I applied to this fellowship because… I was desperate for a change. Prior to this experience I was living in ways that didn’t align with my vision of the future. It was unsustainable, so finding a program that explored ways of living firmly based on the land seemed like the opportunity I was waiting for. I have wanted to learn ways of being that are based on harmony and reverence for the place we call home. To get a chance to do exactly that while […]
I applied for this fellowship because I am interested in approaching sustainable food systems from a different perspective. I have previously worked on organic farms and researched the social and environmental aspects of sustainable and organic agriculture. This fellowship posed an exciting opportunity to learn about the issues facing our food system, and world, from a community perspective. I have always loved food and cooking, and growing up with an awareness of climate change led me to focus on the environmental impacts of our food […]
I applied for this fellowship because… I applied to this fellowship because I was drawn to the core values and mission of the organization, mainly those around divestment from capitalistic systems and returning to a land based lifestyle. I am interested in being a part of an intentional community space focused on exploring this lifestyle and learning together/from each other. I am also interested in learning more about food systems/production/sovereignty. Some life experiences that brought me to the point where I am are… Oh gosh! […]
This post was written by Cora, a student on a Traveling School semester program that visited the educational farm in fall 2022. Driving up to the Groundwork farm in Paonia, Colorado, I had no idea what I was getting into. Our van sputtered down the Colorado roads, past tall coniferous trees growing in pinkish-orange soil, surely sending rocks skittering as we descended into a stunning valley of yellow aspen and wide green farmland. The van rocked with music (usually Caamp or Taylor Swift) and shook […]
I spent almost three months interning on the Groundwork farm. My time on the farm showed me the variety of paths that exist through life, and I met people with experiences wildly different from anyone I had known. I learned the basics of many arts and practices, from basketry to seed saving, and it made me want to further develop my knowledge in the years to come. The farm was a place of learning and growth, and I look back on the laughter and experiences […]