Employee Kara was the first one to initiate a volunteer project with SFC 5 years ago after she learned about an SFC-sponsored community garden in her neighborhood. Schwab looks for volunteer partners that meet their financial wellness criteria, such as organizations like SFC that don’t just build community gardens, but also engage the community through cooking and gardening education, helping people to feed and support themselves.

Schwab employees also enjoy getting outside and doing physical activity – during their volunteer day they harvested and washed produce to donate to local non-profit Casa Marianella, built benches for SFC field trips, weeded and planted, and put up a shade structure for SFC’s new chicken coop. Schwab gets great employee feedback after SFC volunteer days because there are a variety of tasks to engage every volunteer, regardless of their experience or ability.

Barbara said that gardening work makes her feel like she is a part of something. She is passionate about helping kids understand where their food comes from, so when they are at the grocery store they can identify fruits and vegetables and know which plant it grew on.

Renee, the executive sponsor of the project grew up gardening and now gardens with her kids. Gardening helps her and her family to take a break from technology and be together amidst busy day-to day life, and at SFC she particularly enjoys supporting efforts to build healthy, sustainable food opportunities.