Launching Climate Corps 2022

We are the 2022 Eastie Farm Climate Corps team! 

We not only believe, but see firsthand how community-centric climate solutions are foundational to community and planetary wellness. We are here to get our hands in the soil and grow something beautiful together. What began as an overgrown, abandoned lot in our home of East Boston has flourished into a community organization with seven urban farm sites that connect people with food, the earth, and each other. There’s lots to do for us Climate Corps youth this summer. For example, we’ll be growing and distributing produce, teaching kiddos from East Boston public schools about food justice and sustainability, giving community tours in our new geothermal greenhouse, planting and tending seedlings, taking care of newly planted TreeEastie trees in the neighborhood, removing invasive plants like Japanese Knotweed (which is almost as resilient as us!), and community organizing so folks know about and sign up for Community Choice Electricity (green electricity that anyone can sign up for and is actually cheaper, believe it or not!). We are excited for the summer and it’s just beginning! Here’s a little bit about us! 

Nicole

Hi my name is Nicole. I am from Colombia. I came to the United States 7 years ago when I was 8 years old. I am part of the Eastie Farm Climate Corps. I got involved through a friend who was already involved with Eastie Farm– she started inviting me to go water plants with her last year and I started liking it. She told me that there was a summer program so I joined it. As a child I always liked helping my grandparents with the plants and I was surrounded by nature. I was always told nature was like medicine, a medicine to humans. I had a strong connection with nature. I’m excited to be able to share all my experience and my knowledge with people who haven’t been really connected with nature. 

Marco

My name is Marco and I got my start at Eastie Farm when my mom started volunteering left and right. My mom called my sister and I to help her and even though at first we were hesitant, when we saw the demand of people who needed the help first hand we started to go more consistently with my mom. Eventually we started meeting a lot more members of the community and seeing the impact we had on them. That made us enjoy the volunteering work we were doing with our mom. We started meeting awesome, kind, welcoming people like Roberto, Max, Hector, Kannan, and Alex and so we stayed here volunteering for over a year. Eventually we were given the opportunity to join the Climate Corps program and so this is the start of the program. I’m excited to see where this takes me. 

Juan

My name is Juan. My aunt’s friend gave connections with Folks at Eastie Farm. I have always been passionate about being around nature so being able to plant Farms right here in East Boston is something that I never thought of being able to have. I always knew that I would get involved with Community work but now I’m able to plant trees, plants, seeds of plants, and take care of and water these plants in a garden right next to my house. I am going to be a freshman next year. I’ve been taught a lot of things on how you can be able to make a change even though it’s very small. Even the smallest thing can have the biggest impact. Working with Eastie Farm shows me that no matter the impact I make, I will always have a big effect doing this work. I have met many interesting people that taught me about their different perspectives about this work and climate change. This is showing me how many people want to help out because they care for East Boston, just like me.

Richard

My name is Richard. My mom is an arborist and had connected with the folks at Eastie Farm through her work planting trees in the area. So that’s how I got involved. She recommended I work with them for a community service project at my school during the last month of senior year, so, with two classmates, I volunteered to work on the geothermal-powered greenhouse and with the CSA and Gaining Ground produce distribution programs. Through that, I got offered a job working with the Climate Corps. I’m interested in plants and biology, so doing work over the summer that I feel concretely helps the environment and the local community has been very fulfilling. I’m excited to start working on the political outreach work we’ll do because I want to do political work as I get older, which would be a lot of connecting with people, doing outreach, and organizing events and stuff; I think this job will be great for giving me the real world experience I need to start. So far my favorite activities have been doing the CSA program and working with the kids in the summer program because I like kids and seeing them appreciate the locations and harvesting is really gratifying. 

Katherin

Hi My name is Katherin. I’m from Peru. I got involved in Eastie Farm about two years ago with my mom and brother by firstly helping to distribute food. As time went on we saw that Eastie Farm was an amazing organization and we wanted to be more involved. Then I was introduced to an upcoming summer program, the Youth Climate Corps, that would allow us to help our community even more. As time goes by we get to do very different things, meeting amazing people, and we get to know our community so much better, understanding and acting on what we can do to improve things. 

Maria Camila

Hi my name is Maria Camila. I’m from Colombia and I came to the United States when I was 10 years old. I heard about Eastie Farm through a friend who had been volunteering for almost 2 years and invited me to join her. I got really interested in the Climate Corps program because of its purpose and determination to help the community through service. The thought of also being able to make a long lasting positive effect in climate change made it be the perfect job for summer. Not only that but also being able to do my favorite activities like watering the plants and harvesting them with caring coworkers makes it feel like I’m doing a hobby instead of working.

And our Climate Corps Leader! 

Jenny

Hi, my name is Jenny.  I’m an arts educator who believes that creativity and community engagement is the pathway to planetary wellness. The Climate Corps program, to me, is a way for young people, full of fire and aliveness, to come together and say, okay, this is where we are. Climate change is real, it’s here, not in the distant future, and it is impacting our community deeply. How can we change course? How can we shift gears from despair to hope? Well, we have to dream up a dream. And then we have to literally make it our reality, with sweat and hard work (and most importantly, a lot of joy). The Climate Corps program is a dream educational program to me. I don’t believe the real learning happens in books. It happens in our hands, in community, grappling with the world as we try to make it more beautiful. Eastie Farm, to me, is an organization that walks the walk. Eastie Farm is restoring breath and health to community, building green spaces, getting fresh food to people, and educating folks about how important our habits are, and how far-reaching are the implications of our actions. Eastie Farm is the real deal – doing Earth Justice work. I feel lucky to be a part of it. Lucky to be standing alongside these folks, and especially among the Climate Corps youth who are showing up in this way. We are going to be learning through our actions together – and hopefully growing something even more beautiful than we could have imagined.