*In this new age of AI, I feel it is important to note that this post was written by a living, breathing human being. As well, all photos in this post are real and were taken by living, breathing human beings. This is increasingly NOT the case for what we are reading online and I think this matters!*

Dear Friend of Half-Acre Homestead,

I’m back! I have been silent for a while, dealing with some of the inevitable stuff that life throws at a person. Since I last wrote, I have been getting more and more concerned about the growing homelessness crisis that is affecting many members of our community. Yes, even in a relatively unpopulated rural township of less than 10,000 people, we are seeing folks facing unprecedented difficulties. All of this has had an impact on how I spend my time and what I think about and want to share with the Half-Acre Homestead Community.

Helping with Food

What I decided to do was take action: I got involved in a local grassroots group of volunteers who wanted to start a community garden and grow healthy, organic food to distribute to anyone in need at no charge. The photo at the top of this post is from one of our garden beds. We were able to get some funding from our local township, as well a number of local businesses and organizations. We bought a small fridge, which we placed in the local post office. We call it “The Sharing Fridge.” Here’s a photo of it, fully loaded:

And here are a couple of photos of our harvest:

Now I haven’t done any final calculations yet, but a conservative estimate of what was grown and distributed would be over 300 pounds of organic produce. This does not include the additional produce donated and brought to the fridge by other gardeners.

You might imagine that this took a huge team of volunteers. No, there were only four of us, and everyone felt that the time commitment was quite reasonable. Aside from planting “parties,” three of the volunteers took turns harvesting and putting produce in the Sharing Fridge every three weeks (around an hour or a bit more), and one of the volunteers did weekly food deliveries to people without cars (a similar amount of time).

I hope that this encourages you in some way that people can do quite a bit to help their neighbours even in their spare time!

Hidden Rural Homelessness

Homelessness in rural areas is quite different from urban homelessness. The urban homelessness I had been familiar with saw people out in the streets of the city, perhaps sleeping over a ventilation grate that might provide them with some warmth in winter. Here in our rural areas, people may be living on the back 40 of a local farm in a shed or a tent. Many people in difficult circumstances try to make it through the winter in 3 season accommodation, like a travel trailer.

Our upper level municipal government recently called for public input into their 10 year homelessness and housing plan. Another thing I did was to attend one of the consultation meetings. The outreach we did for the community garden put me in touch with many folks who were either homeless or at risk. After conversations with these local people, I learned that they wanted to stay in their rural environment and not be forced to relocate to a larger city to get assistance with housing. I did my best to provide a voice for what I learned from them.

I talk with people in our local village when I go our for my walks. We are all doing what we can. One neighbour responded to a call on social media where a family with young children had run out of food before payday. He and his wife just put a package of food together and ran it down the road about 10 minutes from the village. I have heard from people working at the front line with people in need that the fastest growing demographic of food bank users in our area is double income families with children.

When a friend’s cousin recently became homeless, I went to our local thrift shop and was able to pick up some basic items for him for only a few dollars. The thrift shop is run by a church that gave up its church building to do this community-based outreach. Each year, they give back most of what the thrift shop raises to people in need, whether through a sudden financial or health emergency etc.

All of the needs we are seeing have caused me to rethink my main focus on self-sufficiency for my writings on the website. I am thinking these days about community and connectivity. How can we support each other through these difficult times? How best can I use my energies and talents to make a difference when so many people are facing challenges with basic needs? And it is not that I have a lot of financial resources myself, but I do know how to plant a seed and help it grow.

So, this winter, as I raid my outdoor mini root cellar for veggies to make my favourite “Everything Soup,” I will also be reflecting on what I can share in the coming days, both with this online community that you are a part of, and my own local community.

One idea I have is that I’d like to get some of my creative writings about my connection to the land out there, too. Perhaps I’ll include some poems in future posts, or create a section on the website for them. I’m even thinking about starting a small press to publish works that focus on our connection to each other and our precious planet.

Especially in the past several years, I have come to love the quiet of winter for reflecting and writing. Here’s a photo of the eco-cabin bathed in my holiday kaleidoscope lights.

As Spring approaches, I wish you a Happy Solstice and good health and peace for the remainder of this year.

As always, I welcome your feedback and suggestions either via email or the feedback form on my Contact page. What are you doing to help others in your area? What would you like to read more about from me? I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for reading!

Kind regards,

Colette