Choosing to Participate:
A Social Justice Service Project on Sustainability

I personally think that today was a great day.  I think that we have set the expectation level for the years to come.  It’s a good feeling when you are the first ones to do a very long and stressful project that many other grades will have to do.  There were a few problems with the kids’ reactions, but hey kids are kids and no doubt we were probably the same way.  If I were to change one thing in the whole project it would probably be the amount of homework we had while we were doing this with all of the other projects.  It just brings our grades down and forces us to get about no sleep.  I also think that the highschoolers should be involved so we can see what the people we have taught came up with as their project idea. All in all I think that we handled the whole project very well, and I am very excited to see what next years class comes up with.

I arrived at the greenmarket with Sophie and was ready to work.  I was assigned to a woman named Ellie.  Ellie ran a goat cheese stand and business was crazy as soon as I arrived.  I could not find work to do while she was helping all of the customers.  So finally when it quieted down, she told me what I could do.  The first thing I was assigned to do was to walk her dog, which ended quite quickly, then I ran some errands for her.  After I completed these simple tasks, I was requested to replace the cheese that was to taken every time that it was taken, which was not that often.  She told me how she was different from other stands, and I learned more about goats.  I learned that goats should not be fed as cows are, they should be fed dandelions, and weeds.  They are raised in an calm environment, and they are treated with great care.

I met with Sophie and Hannah at 10:am in the Farmers market.  As soon as we got there we were set off with certain farmers.  I got hooked up with a man named Andy.  Andy ran a syrup stand and was very well known with the people.  He taught me about syrups and the way they were made and stuff like that.  He served wide variety’s of maple items, from candy’s to sugar to butter.  He had me work on the cash register, and I ran the shop whenever he left, which was quite often.

Hannah and I met at the Green market at 10:am.  From there we met Davy, and he set us up with different farmers at the market.  I met this man who owned a jam and honey stand.  He taught me the ropes on the whole jam experience and I soon became an expert in the jam business.  He had me organize the jam storage, and then I worked the cash register.  I learned very much about the whole honey system as well, his wife and daughter made their own Jam.  His work was very inspiring to me.

            We took the train to the Greenmarket office and went upstairs.  From their we met a woman who explained the basics of the office and what help we could be.  First she gave us a brief explanation on the Farmers Market behind the scenes.  We learned how everything worked, how every one came up with recipes, what went on, and the whole advertising plan.  We then split up into different jobs.  I started moving boxes with greenmarket magazines within.  After I finished that I started to look through magazines and mark out recipes that would work in the Greenmarket with the rest of my group.  This took about 30 minutes and as well as that I helped Laminate several posters/

We arrived at the Greenmarket at ten thirty. We stepped out of our cab then entered a large building and went down a series of steps. As soon as we turned the next corner there were a number of nametags with our name on it. I immediately felt like I was a part of the business community. We sat and listened to several speeches of candidates who thought they should be head of a smaller Greenmarket organization. Each had many brilliant points and I realized how important the Greenmarket really is. We took a small break then divided into groups. I was involved in the cloned animal group. I learned many things and was able to involve myself in a well-educated discussion.