Last Friday was United Way’s Day of Caring, and 130 volunteers came together to support families and individuals living on low incomes by volunteering with Solid Ground!

We had five separate projects:

• Painting, yard work and gardening at our Sand Point Housing campus (with Car Toys, Wireless Advocates and Mercy Housing). Volunteers spread 10 yards of compost and 15 yards of arborist chips, trimmed bushes and shrubbery, and painted! We used every last shovel of compost and chips!
• Farm cleanup at our Giving Garden at Marra Farm (including prepping the cider press for the next day’s Fall Fest), and harvesting produce for Fall Fest at Seattle Community Farm with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
• Spice-packing with Impinj to prepare for cooking classes. The packaged spices are sent home to Cooking Matters participants along with the rest of ingredients of the meal prepared each class. The spices and groceries are sent home so that the participants can continue practicing the cooking and nutrition lessons at home. Impinj packaged almost 2,000 baggies of spices!
• Seed packing with the Gates Foundation to help people grow their own food. We distribute the seed packets and gardening information at “Grow Your Own” outreach events to over 2,500 food bank guests each spring (at food banks across Seattle).

“I spent the day at Sand Point and was really impressed by how smoothly the projects went,” commented Maya Hemachandra, Solid Ground’s Development Director. “Participants were excited, projects well organized, and they got a tremendous amount accomplished! As a veteran of 10+ years of Day of Caring projects, what I saw on Friday was one of the best!”

Thanks again to everyone from Car Toys, Wireless Advocates, the Gates Foundation, Mercy Housing and Impinj for joining us!