This week, our Pathfinder Produce market is closed, but we’re all set to open on Thursday, January 2, 2014, to bring our friends and neighbors the freshest fruits and veggies around. Don’t forget to vote in the MVP Health Care Contest at this link, http://www.mvpprojectgo.com/detail.cfm?id=147, to help Pathfinder Village win $2,500 in support of our new produce initiative. Here’s to a healthy and prosperous New Year for everyone!
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Last week’s blog gave the “back story” on how our Pathfinder
Produce market started and how it serves a great need in our home
community. I thought I’d continue along
that vein this week.
Pathfinder Produce is
staffed by resident volunteers and Village employees, chiefly from our Ancillary,
Finance and Program departments. Before
last Thursday’s market, I stopped by the Village Commons to talk with our
volunteers, who do the lion’s share of set up each week. Chris, Chris, and Chelsea were just
finishing up with their tasks, and each team member was busy and focused. They were looking forward to an impromptu
holiday party their mentor, Steph Jones, was hosting for them in celebration of
their hard work.
Each week, the young adults are responsible for inspecting
incoming produce, placing it on display in the new Vocational Center, and
posting prices for each item offered. Miss
Jones is a stickler when it comes to workplace rules; and the volunteers repeat
the “market mantra” of safety, cleanliness and orderliness. During market hours, they assist with keeping
the displays neat and well-stocked, weighing customers’ purchases, and bagging
items.
As they work, you can see the volunteers are passionate
about what they are doing. They take
pride in the quality of the produce and they want the market to be attractive
to customers. They support each other, offering
tips about how certain items should be displayed. The market also offers a new opportunity for
the volunteers to engage with friends and neighbors who are from outside our
immediate Village community.
So in many ways, Pathfinder Produce is a positive
development, as it provides people living with intellectual disabilities
opportunities for engagement and activities that benefit others. This is important: In my view it changes the volunteers’ status
from “consumers,” a term I feel is lacking in today’s vernacular, to “contributors,”
which is more to-the-point in recognizing the many talents and great potential of
those living with disabilities.
From all of us at Pathfinder Village and Pathfinder Produce,
we wish you a week filled with the comforts of home and hearth, and the warm
embrace of family. Thank you once more
for supporting “the little market that could,” and we’ll see you in 2014!
Lori
