This morning I met with Kim Metez. She runs the one-woman operation known as the Abundance Project, which started this past summer. The program is essentially very simple: she decided that she wanted to get extra garden produce to refugees in Boise. Through her efforts and her efforts alone, she talked to local gardeners and farmers. She picked up and delivered the donated produce by herself, on her own time. This was based on a first-come/first serve system. She hopes that as the program becomes more established, more people will know about it, and she can set up a system for people who would like to volunteer. This is yet another sign that if you want to do something, you just have to do it. It will be hard and frustrating, but it's not out of your reach.

She also offered to help me host an upcoming Garden Committee meeting. The date is yet to be determined, but the idea is that growers in and around Boise can get together, meet each other, and we can brainstorm. Because who would know better where this program should go than the growers themselves? I don't claim to be an expert. I want to do what I can for them, and I need their input.

I look forward to working with the Abundance Project, because Kim clearly has what it takes to get things done. We're currently mailing people all over Boise to update the Master Contact list. I've written up an agenda for the meeting and I finally have a clear idea of what I would like to accomplish, and I think I know how to run it so it isn't tedious (I hate tedious meetings... why would I want to put someone through that?). I have never really run a meeting in my life, and I suspect that a meeting of volunteers versus a meeting of the Garden Committee may be different... different set of folks with a different set of knowledge. Though really, we're all people, aren't we? So they may not be very different after all :)