Healthy Archuleta seeks community volunteers

Posted

Did you know that Pagosa Springs has multiple opportunities to volunteer and give back to our community? We read about it in the paper or online or even at our churches. But, one of the areas for volunteering opportunities that really hits home for many of us is the issue of food security and nutrition.

There are many areas volunteers can support in our community.

Food drives

One upcoming opportunity is Healthy Archuleta’s quarterly food drives. These food drives are usually held at City Market and you may have seen the Healthy Archuleta table outside on a Saturday morning. These food drives are very important because they provide nutritious nonperishable staples that will be distributed to the food pantries. This is an opportunity to collect as much food as possible at one time, and although it seems like a lot of food is donated at these events, it goes very quickly. The need is great.

Those who volunteer at the food drives are not just standing around and handing out a food donation shopping list. The food has to be collected, bagged, loaded and transported to a central food distribution center where it will be separated by category and stocked, ready for pick up by pantry coordinators.

Community gardens

If growing food and gardening is more your line of interest and you would be available to volunteer some of your time, there are two community gardens in Pagosa Springs.

The Vista Lake Community Garden beds are located near Vista Lake and the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (PLPOA) administrative office. One garden is dedicated to growing food specifically for the charitable food system. The new garden next to Vista Lake has a few beds that also grow food for donation. The new bed also has a handful of fruit trees that require care.

The Vista Lake Community Garden committee, as a part of the PLPOA, regularly seeks volunteers to work in both garden spaces. It also holds activities that are free to the community, such as outdoor garden activities for children, it co-hosts an outdoor barbecue for PLPOA residents, and hosts fun harvesting activities in early fall.

Another community garden is located downtown along the San Juan Riverwalk. The Pagosa Springs Community Garden is a small but peaceful space where local gardeners can access a raised garden bed to plant vegetables, herbs, flowers and even garlic. The beds are free to use in season. The garden coordinator works with the gardeners and organizes watering and weeding schedules, planting and harvesting schedules, and events that are open to the community to attend, usually at no charge.

Hydroponic growing

Hydroponic growing is quickly becoming a source for year-round produce, and Healthy Archuleta currently maintains and operates several vertical growing towers. These towers are dedicated to growing fresh vegetables such as lettuce, other greens and herbs to be distributed to the local charitable food system.

Healthy Archuleta’s growing consultant oversees and manages the towers, but is always looking for volunteers to help maintain the towers and to participate in growing, harvesting and cleaning activities.

This is a year-round growing operation and requires the help of one volunteer per day to carry out these tasks.

Farmers market

And, finally, we wanted to share volunteer opportunities with the Pagosa Springs Farmers Market, which is currently being held in the St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church parking lot.

How to volunteer

So while you’re out, enjoying the great outdoors of Pagosa Springs, please consider spending some of that time at one or both of our local community gardens, the farmers market, learning about hydroponic growing or donating a few hours to support our local food drives.

To learn more about these volunteer opportunities and to support your community, please email Healthy Archuleta at fsfearchuleta@gmail.com or visit our website, www.foodcoalition4archuleta.org, to complete our volunteer interest form.