Fall Business Management Positions

The program activities in the fall represent the third arc in the ethnographic narrative – this is when the harvest is in full motion, the produce is distributed and new roles for the youth are emerging, the one of being co-managers.

The fall job business management positions can only be applied by youth that have gone through the earlier phases of involvement in the program. The general goal of the program in this phase is to provide interested youth a range of different opportunities to use the skills and training they have gained through the previous phases, now with increased responsibilities to co-manage farm based business and community service projects. There is only a one week lapse between the summer and fall program and the application and recruitment process takes place at the end of the summer job training program and usually all the interested youth will be hired in on or more of the available positions. At this time, the largest part of the summer job crew is back in the high school, mainly as seniors and a few as juniors, and also a few youth that have graduated and have continued their educational journey as students in the local community college. The staff seeks to meet the different wishes and schedules of the youth in order to set crews on the different jobs. For some youth it involves having one position and for others it involves having 2 or even 3 positions during the week.

Though the job-training dimension is strongly weighted, and there are no longer workshops, the social and food justice issues in different ways continue to play a central role in the jobs. Parallel to following the activities in 4 of the different jobs a series of ethnographic interviews were conducted with the 9 youth from the summer. Here the topics were partly asking about reflecting on the learning during the summer and the present status and experiences related to the current positions that the youth inhabited. Now the different job or business management positions will be introduced accompanied by tales where the content is situationally described and interpreted.

Overview of the fall jobs and business management positions:

The blasts introduced to the youth in the summer job training program is also one of the job options in the fall. Here the form and content continues with weekly visits to different local school and community gardens, where the crew is engaged in different practical tasks that the garden teacher may need help to do.

The flower business is a new activity and the primary resource for this job are the several beds on the farm that throughout the summer were planted with different kinds of flowers. The flower business crew is managed by 2-3 youth in collaboration with one of the staff. The tasks consist of

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cutting and arranging bouquets and deliver the bouquets on bikes to a number of local businesses that subscribe to having a weekly bouquet delivered.

The harvest crew is also a well-known activity for the youth. The difference is that now the produce is not primarily harvested for preparation of meals for the youth on the farm but for the weekly farm stand, that also isone of the fall jobs, as well as for other events that may occur at the farm premises.

Also here the crew is supported by a staff person.

The farm stand played a minor role in the summer where a small group of youth were engaged in selling produce at the entrance of a local hospital. Now in the fall the farm stand is one the jobs offered in the program where 3 youth run the stand at a local public school in a low-income neighborhood. Here the produce is sold at for approximately half a the price compared to the price level at the local organic farmer’s market – a measure in line with the general goal of the program to make healthy and fresh organic food available for this specific group.

The event planning crew consists of 2 youth and the task here is more in direction of project management – organizing a yearly harvest festival event on the farm premises where a wide range of local food justice and environmental organizations are giving workshops and presenting their agenda for 3-400 middle and high school students and their teachers.

The cooking and catering crew is working in a more flexible schedule than the most of the other jobs in the fall season – related to the shifting forms of meetings etc.

Here three tales will present the fieldwork in this phase – the blast, the flower business and the farm stand.

Tale: Blast, October 22

After 9 weeks in Denmark I’m back in California. Yesterday I met with Astrid and Rita and got a short update about how the fall program which now is in its last two weeks has been running since I left at the end of the summer program in mid-August. They told me about how Eliseo has marked himself as an activist and launched a campaign to change the school food in his hometown in the South County. Eliseo has two little brothers (5 and 8 years) that he looks after very often and it is their situation with the present and very bad food that is provided in the schools that has spurred him.

They also tell that he has been active in a recent - and lost - campaign to prevent a Mc Donald’s from being opened just across the road from one of the city’s schools.

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Today I am joining the Blast crew but first I’m driving with Byron to Beta-ville to pick up Eliseo at his high school where he now is a senior and then drive to Alfonso and Eduardo's high school and take them all to the school in the north county where we are going to do the blast. Along the way, Byron hands over the present day’s newspaper to Eliseo, where Eliseo is interviewed on yesterday's Harvest Festival. Byron tells Eliseo that he can write it on his resume and that it is a great thing that he now is able to include a quotation from the article. Arriving at the school we are being welcomed by [Caprice], who is the garden teacher. [Alora] also arrives, but [Lucas] and [Cesar] are sick today.

Byron tells me that more of the youth may be a bit worn after the last few days, that has been intense with different program activities. One was the Bioneers conference that I didn’t have the opportunity to join and then there was yesterday's Harvest Festival at the farm where a lot of students and teachers from local schools were invited and were offered a range of different activities and workshops – all co-organized by the youth in the fall event-crew.

Then a small group of students – I forgot to ask but probably from 5^th grade – are welcoming us with some salsa they have made for us and together with taco chips. They are going to work with us and the teacher is introducing the tasks where the most important thing is to hatch in a small wetland area, Here some bindweed that is a porous plant is the most important to remove. We work very intensely and the two hours pass quickly. The last task is to weed in what used to be a pumpkin bed and this is where we finish the day. We all gather in the in the street in front of the school and Byron asks the youth to give themselves a round of 'Positives and Improvables'. Everyone says they think they've worked hard and can work harder – Alice has an additional improvable to herself that she will remember to drink more water. This is the first time I observe a straight talk session after the summer and it I think about how different is to do it in this physical and temporal context. It takes place in the street, everyone is standing up, and the group is about to split in a few minutes and say goodbye – could this be the reason why everybody sticks to the 'working harder'-improvable? Or is it just because the youth are tired, not only from today’s but from the past few days of intense activities and just want to finish and get home? I have to remember to ask Byron more about how he the straight talk has been practiced and if there has been any developments in what youth choose to share – and if they have continued to give the youth written positives and improvables too.

Tale: The flower business, October 27

I’m joining the last day of the flower business crew with Arun and Maya. Had a brief talk with Astrid before that there would probably not be much time to interview Arun today, and I decide to ask him if we shall do the interview before the last dinner on Thursday. Apart from the main task of picking flowers and making bouquets, the plan today is to do an evaluation and write thank you cards to the

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customers who have been subscribing to the weekly bouquets and finally to write the bills.

I walk with Arun and M to the tool shed where we grab three buckets and clean them. Then Arun shows how he makes a solution of water and sugar so that the plants can stay fresh longer and add also bleach as a disinfectant.

Then we walk to the field most far away from the shed where long rows of marigold and other flowers are in their last phase of blooming. Arun is instructing me in which to look for and which to avoid - we have to look carefully to find suitable ones, one can tell that the season is almost over.

After more than an hour of picking and much walking we have enough flowers in the buckets to walk back to the working table and make the bouquets.

We sit at the table and drink water and Astrid asks Arun and Maya to write positives & improvables for themselves on a piece of paper. Astrid starts by reading what goals she had set for the crew at the start of the season, 9 weeks ago: time management, making quality bouquets, getting good contacts with the customers. Then Arun and Maya talk about their notes. Arun says that he feel that the job has helped him to 'grow up' and refers to his high school teacher who recently asked him what had happened to him. He also talks about how he no longer is afraid of bees (which earlier in the spring and summer were a recurring topic and challenge for him) and he mentions how he has learned to remember to drink water frequently and doesn’t have many headaches anymore. Arun then has a dialogue with Astrid, about the days where he had called her and expressed doubt whether he was ok to come to work, but nevertheless came and managed the tasks. Astrid praises him for this. Astrid also gives both Arun and Maya great praise because they have worked so well and been so self-employed and says that it has been the best flower crew so far – and that she now knows what to expect of next year’s crew.

Finally, Arun and Maya write thank you cards for the restaurants and shops they have been delivering to – they write what this job has meant to them personally and thank the customers for the fact that they have been clients and helped create this job. Just before I went, Arun asks me if I think he had been a good teacher for me today. I answered that he very much had and referred to his precise instructions and in all the actions of selecting the right flowers and how to make a bouquet with the right mixture of colors and flower varieties.

Tale: The Farm Crew and Farm Stand, October 28 and 29

It’s the last week of the fall program and I’m following the harvest crew and farm stand crew.

Tuesday I’m following Pablo, Isaiah, Laurio and Manuel, who all work in the harvest crew. We’re harvesting for tomorrow's farm stand at the Elementary School. At the same time, Rita is doing an

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evaluation meeting with Eliseo and Marisol about the Harvest Festival, which they were co-organizing on Thursday the week before. I agree with Astrid that it would be ok to do interviews with Marisol, Manuel and Pablo during the day when it fits with the tasks. I start with interviewing Manuel and then Marisol after she has finished her evaluation meeting and finally Pablo. After the two interviews I’m walking to the cleaning and packing station to ask Pablo if he is ready for the interview. He is very engaged in the last part of making bundles of carrots and small leaks and, as always, is very careful with the process of selecting and composing the bundles to look good.

After the interview, I help Astrid cutting down faded dahlia plants and after that the whole crew who has finished the harvesting and stored the vegetables in the cooling shed turns to re-arrange the paths between the beds with shovels. Then Astrid is leading a final evaluation meeting. She starts asking the youth one by one how they would evaluate their own efforts. Isaiah says that he has never worked more efficiently and fast and generally has become more focused and Manuel says that he has ‘stayed in tune'. Pablo mentions two things. The first is that he feels that he has not been so bossy to his working partners as he had previously been to Laurio and that he has tried not to let his sense of detail slow him too much down. He also mentions a challenging situation that often arises during the farm stand where it stresses him when it becomes too busy when all the kids are in line during the break and want to be served and his reaction this this pressure was to retreat to check the box and change money and therefore let Isaiah alone to serve the impatient customers and thus made the line move slower. Astrid suggested Pablo to focus on the kid in front of the line and at the same time ask the next kid to wait and say that it will only last a moment before it is his turn to be served. Astrid then give the crew a big praise and say that they surpassed her expectations to a very high degree! In 8 weeks they had sold an average of 200 pounds of produce on each stand day and made an income of more than 2000 $!

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Photo: Training customer service at the farm stand

Wednesday I’m biking direct to the Elementary School where Astrid, Isaiah and Pablo have just arrived. It's 11 AM and we have to be ready before the bell rings for break at 11.30 and the big lunch break and the first group of customers - the students from the school arrives. The school has been selected as a location for the farm stand because It has the city’s largest proportion of students entitled to free school lunch - the same indicator that Byron is looking for when asking youth to fill out the applications for spring internship. The vegetables on sale are at almost half of the price of what they would cost on the local Farmer's Market - and is deliberately low priced in order to make the organic products available to the poorest groups as well. I especially note how Pablo is engaged in arranging the produce in an aesthetical way making special patterns with the different colors of the vegetables. Isaiah is more oriented towards getting all the crates emptied quickly so that all the produce is placed on the two tables. Astrid notes Pablo's care with the arranging and asks him if it's

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not time to get the cardboard boxes packed and stored behind the car. The bell rings and a swarm of young students whose hands cling to dollar bills gather close to the corner of the stand table where the box of pineapple guava is located - a clear first winner. Astrid tells me that earlier in the fall it was carrots that were a big hit for the students to buy. One of the teachers is also in the line and orders a bag of 30 guava to his class – Pablo starts weighing the fruits and says that he will bring it to the class right after the break. After the first students have converted their dollar bills into guavas the box is almost empty and the bell rings again. Then Pablo, Isaiah and Astrid reorganize the remaining produce so that it looks good for the next rush which is actually after the last class. The costumer group has changed and now it is mostly teachers and parents who come to buy. Several people express their annoyance that this is the last day of the stand and that they are going to miss it. As the number of customers is decreasing and there are only a few products left, Astrid says that it's time to close. Isaiah and Pablo pick up the remaining produce, and write their number or weight on the list and then pack them down into 2 boxes. Then the tables are together with the tent pavilion is packed and we gather at a table to do the accounts. The primary check is to see if what is listed as sold corresponds to the amount in the money box. It turns out to look sensible and afterwards there is a short evaluation – both Pablo and Isaiah are very satisfied with the way it turned out today and Astrid praises both of them to be very professional and accommodating to the customers and notes the way that especially Pablo managed to be at the forefront of the pressed situation – as he also had been worried about how would turn out.

Tale: Final dinner and shout-outs, October 30

Today it’s the final dinner and everybody in the fall crew has arrived on the farm. We gather in a circle under the big walnut tree as so many times before during the spring and summer. Astrid says welcome and Byron adds that it has now been 9 months since we started in the winter - and asks:

‘What it is that also takes 9 months to do? He replies - to make a baby! So now we have all made a baby!’ Everybody laughs and Byron asks everyone to present a triumph. Alfonso starts with saying that his triumph was to be on time today. Others are more elaborate, including Eliseo, who tells about his involvement as organizer of the harvest festival. Mine was to be back and have been given a chance to follow the last two weeks of the fall program. Then it’s time for a game and we play ‘My biggest fan’ – which practically is a version of ‘stone, scissors and paper’ where the loosing part each time gets behind the winner resulting in two growing human snakes moving around. Then we all move into the meeting house where two big tables have been set with table cloths. The food is brought in by Manuel and Martha, who both have been working in the event cooking crew and also have made the food today. Manuel and Martha present the food and that there’s going to be a