Alternative Fall Break 2024

Cristina Campos '28 sorts food at the Ardmore Food Pantry on the first day of Alt Fall Break 2024
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In October 2024, six students participated in our annual Alternative Fall Break program, spending their week off volunteering at local nonprofit organizations and learning about sustainability, food justice, and environmentalism. Student Isabelle Smith, class of 2028, reflects on her experience here!
10/14/24 - Ardmore Food Pantry
We went to the Ardmore Food Pantry early this morning to assist the group of volunteers there with their free food pantry. Some remarkable traits of this organization are that they don't require that the users of the pantry prove that they are from Ardmore or that they meet some kind of threshold to make the pantry available to them. I had a lot of fun doing this activity. I was paired with a woman named Sarah who had been there for a while and obviously had her routine and role down. She had relationships with the people who came to our table (the Salty & Sweet table) that were more than transactional. She tried to alleviate the power dynamic as much as possible, putting people at ease by chatting with them, and remembering their names and what they usually liked. She was also very generous in helping me get involved. She introduced me as "Izzy from Haverford" to everyone that came by. It was very impactful to see how important it was to the volunteers and the attendants alike that us Haverford students were lending our time and getting involved. I will definitely be going back! It's obvious how this organization provides not only critical needs for the community, but also brings people together who might not otherwise be in the same space due to structural inequalities.
10/15/24 - Arboretum
We began our day on Tuesday by helping out in the Arboretum. Our job was to trim down the overgrown grasses and bushes that might make walking difficult if it were to snow later this year. After we finished with this, we moved on to the area near the Kim and Tritton dorms and cut the overgrown plants there. This was a much more individual activity—there wasn't much chatting between people in the group. We warmed up a little more over the course of our second activity, but still, this kind of service doesn't excite me as much as the food pantry did. I prefer more person-to-person contact than physical work. Although, it was satisfying to see how much work we could get done as a group over a relatively short amount of time. It was also cool to learn that these areas by Kim and Tritton weren't actively cultivated by the arboretum. Other than trimming, everything there naturally grew and wasn't infringed upon by human activity.
10/15/24 - Haverfarm
Our time at the Haverfarm was really enjoyable! Our task was to maintain the lanes in between the garden beds by first laying down some gardening fabric and then covering that fabric with wood chips. This was meant to prevent weeds from growing and spreading and also gave it a nice visual update. This process wasn't entirely straightforward, however, as we at first laid down the wrong kind of material atop the fabric. Instead of the wood chips, we accidentally laid down mulch, which is more decomposed and would actually make the growth of weeds easier. We had to take multiple extra wheelbarrow trips back to the mulch piles to remove it, and only then could we return to shuttling wood chips back and forth to completely fill it with the correct wood chips. It was definitely tiring, but we were able to complete the task as a group and I slept really well that night.
10/16/24 - The Nest & CPGC
On this day, we heard from two speakers. The first was Julian Jackson from The Nest Food Pantry, and the second was Eric Hartman from the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship. I enjoyed very much hearing from Julian because it was uplifting to hear about the positive impact a resource like the Nest is making on our campus. It's heartwarming to hear about how the pantry has expanded over time, and how frequently it is utilized by students who need it. It was also really intriguing to hear about the various challenges in running a food pantry. It seems like there's always difficulty in striking a balance between two goals, the first being making sure everyone has what they need, and the second being making sure there is enough to go around so that the pantry is sustainable. These can sometimes be at odds with each other, and Julian, as well as the student co-managers, are always seeking out new ways to strike that balance.
10/17 - MANNA
I was most excited for our trip to MANNA, and it lived up to my expectations! We went with Carousel Connections on the Regional Rail to Philly and walked to MANNA from the station. There was so much activity happening within their commercial kitchen. It was overwhelming, but also gratifying to see so many people working for this cause. We all worked together in an assembly line to pack fruit. We had to keep in mind that there were different needs being met by the fruit packs--there were certain fruits you did or didn't include depending on if it was a normal order, or if it was kidney-friendly, or if it had some other restriction. This kind of work was some of the most overstimulating we did all week, but it was clear from the sheer amount of food that was being produced just over the course of the 3 hours we were there that there were a lot of people benefitting from this work.
10/18 - Pollinator Garden
At the pollinator garden, we got a very in-depth introduction about the history of the garden and the different kinds of plants from Joe and then we set in to work. We pulled a lot of English Ivy out from underneath the hedges, and then we worked as a group on setting up the new location of the plot, measuring out a 6.5" wide walkway for people to use. My favorite part was using spray paint to mark out where the boundary of the plot was. Again, physical work isn't my favorite kind, but I was impacted by the dedication Joe had to this work even though it wasn't his primary job. He was obviously very passionate and very involved, and cared a lot about the outcome of this garden for the environment and for the residents of the neighborhood. He mentioned that he would "love to make a focus group with the landscapers in the area." This stood out in my mind because it illustrated well the kind of informed approach he took while keeping in mind person-to-person contact. He was super knowledgeable and had clearly dedicated a lot of time, effort, and resources to helping the garden turn out as lovely as it is!
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If you are interested in learning more about Alternative Breaks, or other opportunities for community engagement, please email us at hc-service [at] haverford.edu!