Hidden Harvest Ottawa wouldn’t exist without our amazing and dedicated volunteers. So, we have created a new Featured Volunteer segment to showcase these fantastic folks! Learn about who volunteers with Hidden Harvest and what they get up to outside of rescuing fruit.
Meet Maya.
“I first got involved with Hidden Harvest at a crabapple harvesting event in the summer of 2013. On that sunny summer’s day, I met kind and generous folk, and I did work that felt meaningful and fulfilling. I returned home smiling and snacking on fantastically fresh crabapples, feeling that something in me had changed. The connection and inspiration I found with my community and the natural environment altered my trajectory and sent me on a new journey. My desire to work with nature and to help address food insecurity led me to volunteering and eventually working for the Ottawa Food Bank at the Black Family Growing Project farm. I also began studying sustainable agriculture and have had the good fortune of learning from highly passionate, motivated teachers.
Consequently, my yearning to one day have a small, holistic farm transformed from being merely an idyllic, fantastical dream to a concrete, ongoing hunt for the ‘right’ parcel of land to nurture. I’ve had the pleasure of continuing to volunteer with Hidden Harvest, and each time have found the same energy and amazing people that helped change my life. In addition to fruitful harvest events, it’s been a blast manning midway games at Beau’s Oktoberfest. I would encourage everyone to come out and see how harvesting mulberries, black walnuts, and all the other wonderfully wild foods can help reduce food waste, increase food security, and change a heart.
One of my current favourite fruits are mulberries, not only because they’re really delicious, but also because their beautiful, colourful juices tend to stick around on hands long after the last one has been savoured, prolonging the glory of the harvest!”
Want to become a volunteer? Click here!
Know someone who you think deserves a Feature Segment of their very own? Want to see your
story here? Send Featured Volunteer Nominations to: info@hiddenharvest.ca
