On Sunday May 18, I had the privilege of gathering with this year’s young adult Eco-Stewards in Gainesville, FL to explore issues of food, land, water, and faith journeys in the Gainesville area. We had a marvelous time learning about one another and about the local ecosystem as well as discussing how faith connects to the environment.
Eco-Steward Colleen Earp recently published a great reflection on the experience on the Eco-Stewards’ blog, and I want to invite you to continue reading it on their blog, and to learn more about this fabulous community:
To begin, Colleen writes, “We toured a beautiful organic farm, an incubator kitchen, talked with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers about fair labor conditions for farm workers, went to some really great coffee shops, and visited a ton of incredible places: Payne’s Prairie, a community garden where you pick and you pay what you can, a farm to school program, a farmer’s market, the Gainesville Catholic Worker, a microfarm, and a church yard community garden, biked 20 miles to the Alachua Conservation Trust to tour Forage Farm and talk about water issues with the Florida Springs Institute. We ate amazing local foods and learned about the connections between all of these places. There is some beautiful work going on in Gainesville, feeding the hungry and loving the earth. To top it all off, we hiked the Devil’s Millhopper and tubed the Ichetucknee. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few stops but it was a week of constantly amazing things.”
To keep reading (and to see her pictures of manatees!), go to the Eco-stewards blog, here.