Shout-Out to the Summer Youth Program!

I wanted to give a shout out to United Way’s Summer Youth Program because this week does not only mark the end of the program but the end of Alex’s internship (the other Holy Cross intern).  Her job this summer was very similar to mine but focused on teens. Throughout the summer she organized projects and recruited teen volunteers to help make a difference in the Worcester community. Pretty cool summer job if you ask me!  On Monday my boss let me go support Alex in one of her last projects for the summer. Let me tell you it wasn’t a typical workday! We went to a nonprofit agency called the Community Harvest Project which a farm in North Grafton. They came up with this great idea to plant all types of fruits and vegetables and then donate everything they harvest to local food banks. Last year they were able to distribute over 170,000 lbs. of fresh fruits and vegetables to hunger relief organizations. How crazy is that?!The most surprising part is that everything is harvested by volunteers! There’s always staff there to guide the volunteers and keep track of what needs to be done but volunteers are the ones that do the majority of the farming. There’s always something that needs to be done so they even have drop in hours for volunteers. When we went we picked squash and eggplant. The staff showed us how we were supposed to cut the vegetables correctly and then we got straight to work. Never thought I would be the farming type but I really got into it! The Community Harvest Project has a Day of Caring project so I might have to just sign myself up for that….

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