Pilot Phase Welcome Letter
March, 2001
Dear CSA Participants:
I was having a difficult time getting in touch with a farmer to set up an interview, so I followed his wife's advice to catch him before the sun came up. I set my alarm to make the morning call and with my groggy voice, I asked him when would be the best time for the interview. "The first day it rains," he responded.
As I boarded the metro for my office at the Rural Coalition, my mind kept coming back to his comment. I realized that in my daily food consumption, I rarely think about the work that produces the food I easily access and eat. As I interviewed farmers from each of the co-ops that are participating in the virtual CSA, I became more and more aware of my disconnection between the food I eat and the farmers who grew it. My hope is that the stories you will receive in your box each month will help us bridge that gap.
As I listened to the farmers' stories throughout the interview process, different emotions surfaced within me. Sometimes I was overcome with anger at the stories I heard about farmers working incredibly hard for little money and little respect, often facing racist and sexist power structures. Sometimes, I was overcome with sadness by stories of how small farmers were treated by corporate powers.
But most of all, I walked away from this story project with hope because each of the farmers I interviewed has hope. And if you are like me, prone to become depressed when you think about the current agricultural situation, through these stories I believe you will find hope, too. You will be meeting individuals who recognize what it means to be part of a community and have sacrificed much for the welfare of others. Their sacrifices have not been made unwillingly, but with the joy they find in working the land. I have hope because there are still faces and stories behind the food that we eat. Your involvement in the Virtual CSA brings you one step closer to those faces and stories. I hope you will enjoy meeting them in your monthly food boxes. In the words of Louis Sanders, a sweet potato farmer in Mississippi: "Hope springs eternal. Each season, when you see things springing out of the ground, you recognize each year is new and its gonna be different."
Welcome to the first season of the virtual CSA.
With hope,
Liz Clasen
Mickey Leland-Bill Emerson Hunger Fellow*
*The Mickey Leland-Bill Emerson Hunger Fellow Program is a year-long fellowship supported by the Congressional Hunger Center in accordance with their mission to fight hunger by developing leaders. Hunger fellows spend six months working in grassroots anti-hunger, then six months in Washington, DC working on public policy surrounding hunger issues. Liz spent her first six months at the South Plains Food Bank in Lubbock, Texas and will be at the Rural Coalition until August.