Ari Rosenberg, co-manager of Guild House Farm and Lacretia Jefferson, our 2nd year intern and youth leader, attended the Rooted in Community Leadership Summit in July. They traveled to Olympia, Washington — thanks to a generous grant from the Spruce Foundation — and convened with other young people and adults committed to fostering healthy communities and food justice through urban and rural agriculture, community gardening, food security, and related environmental justice work.
Below are their daily highlights and photographs.
lacretia’s tuesday highlight: rolling down the hill at Capitol Hill Park. it reminded me of being younger. i felt relieved that i was enjoying myself and the hills in Capital Hill are really big! i also want to shout out the awesome King Salmon Sandwich from Lowell’s in Pike Place Market.
ari’s tuesday highlight: i loved the Beacon Food Forest. They have a really nice outdoor classroom that is a simple wood structure that includes benches and shade. they also have a nice looking (thought probably not practical) compost bin system. we were able to snack on blackberries as we walked. Echinacea, bee balm, calendula, cosmos, sunflowers, artichokes and poppies were all in bloom and attracting a large number of bees. We both tried an Aronia Berry – which neither of us had tasted previously. It’s related to chokeberries.
lacretia’s wednesday highlight: the dorms and the deer! getting to experience what it’s like to be in a real college dorm is exciting and will help prepare me for college life. missari and i walked up on a deer when we were looking at the Longhouse Garden (on Evergreen’s campus). it wasn’t afraid of us and didn’t start walking away until miss ari pulled out her camera.
ari’s wednesday highlight: going for a run with Lacretia through the woods at Evergreen and down to the beach. On the beach we saw two jelly fish and in the water we saw two types of crabs and some very tiny fish. there was water squirting out of the sand which seemed very bizarre until someone told me that the geoduck live in the sand. the woods are so green and lush.
lacretia’s thursday highlight: The March Point Film. The story was inspiring and showed that by working together and focusing your energy towards a cause you can stay out of trouble and work to build community.
ari’s thursday highlight: IRC’s youth from Oakland led a traditional cooking workshop where we made tamelitos (small tamales) and Laphet Thoke (Burmese Tea Leaf Salad). The Laphet Thoke was incredibly spicy and delicious. it’s also been great to connect with folks from other organizations.
lacretia’s friday highlight: Making beaded necklaces at Nisqually and visiting the Squaxin Island Museum. Making the necklaces (and bracelets) was fun and gave me an opportunity to share with new friends. The museum was really interesting and hearing about the struggles the tribe has been through and how they have had success is inspiring and made me think of Strawberry Mansion. I hope we are able to succeed like the Squaxin did.
ari’s friday highlight: Walking through the McLane Creek Nature Trail and eating delicious berries including sallowberries, red huckleberries, thimble berries and blackberries… and seeing spirea (a beautiful pink/purple flower that is related to the rose). I was also inspired by the story of Billy Frank Jr, a Nisqaully tribe member who was arrested over 50 times for exercising his right to fish, as outlined in their treaty, during his lifetime.
lacretia’s saturday highlight: playing in the river.
ari’s saturday highlight: watching lacretia lead the debrief after the day of action. i also really enjoyed watching her have so much fun in the river and being a dancing queen during the open mic.
Lacretia and blackberries 
Beacon food forest 
Touring Nisqually garden 
RIC squad at Nisqually 
On the river 
Ari and Lacretia at the shore